Seeing people on social media these days is giving the wrong message to the kids. They think that the future is social media marketing and Chat GPT. So tunnelled and wrong this whole thinking is that we fail to realise that our kids actually don’t know the meaning of future skills nor are they prepared for them!
Putting here a few skills needed for surviving the future:
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Active Learning
– By active learning we don’t mean just academic learning. It could also be related to professional learning in later life. However, active learning tether through books or through practical skills is a necessity. It helps kids make a very conscious decision to put their minds to learning.
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Flexibility
– Kids are growing up with very limited knowledge of the world with overwhelming information about the world. This can lead to inflexibility in seeing all viewpoints and perspectives. Kids must learn to be open to various aspects of a single thing. This will help them navigate their world better.
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Adaptability
– As with flexibility, kids also need to be adaptable to changes in situations and circumstances. Too often we are hearing about the children who give up on life due to marks or board exams. If this is the only option then we all haven’t understood life. Life means happiness, joy, struggles and pain – all these and more in various measures. Giving up on life due to marks or a teacher scolding or a parent’s strict ways doesn’t bode well for a great adaptability level.
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Emotional Quotient
– Children have to learn to be stronger. In fact, they have to be stronger than their parents and grandparents. The influx of the digital world has also revealed dark and harsh truths that were not so openly known before. The kind of emotional damage a child can get due to these dark situations can be very traumatic and painful. We as parents need to prepare our children for a world that is more untrue, untrustworthy and evil than ours.
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Digital Life and AI
– AI is the future and children need to still learn to compartmentalize these two. While digital life can impact real life with the Internet of Things and smarter ways of living with gadgets and controls, our children have to understand that real life can be lived beyond these. Digital life is a way of living but not a necessity. So while gaining digital skills for jobs and better prospects is good, the real and digital need to be separated in mind.
- Cognition and Affection – Children need more attempts to display affection since the rise of digital means and gaming have taken centerstage, children have forgotten to express their feelings and emote. They are no longer people persons. We need to pull our children back to realising that cognition and mental capabilities is good but also affection has to be there to live life well.
If these 6 points can take up to 6 months for you to relate to and make the child understand, then do it. Our digital age has led to a lot of transformations and our children lack communication skills, emotional connectedness and social behavior. We need our children to be away from harm before they are sucked into the vortex of reel life.
