AIM TO TEACH ALL KIDS TO BECOME PRODUCTIVE

According to studies, humans are born with inborn personality traits including empathy, compassion, and care. To nurture people into ethical, compassionate, and responsible adults, on the other hand, there is a need to offer educational support to assist in the development from the early childhood stage. Positive, healthy, and beneficial interactions with others are necessary for the development of these skills. Therefore, it is the responsibility of adults, in particular parents and teachers, to promote interpersonal connection, inform others about how to engage, and keep an eye on social skills. Being productive in the society involves adopting respectful interaction behaviors, learning to work responsibly with others, and responding appropriately to conflicts which can only be achieved in a favorable learning and social environments. It is, therefore, the role of adults to create favorable environments that can promote the ideology productivity.

In her article, Productivity and Kids: What Do Parents Need to Know?, Joanne Foster explored various strategies through which parents can bring up their children to become responsible and productive adults. One such strategy is helping the children develop a growth mindset. According to Foster (2015, n.p), parents and educators should teach children about the imperativeness of effort; they should value small accomplishment which they consider as stepping stone towards success. Parents are also expected to encourage accountability among the children; in order to be productive, every individual must be able to take control over situations and the consequences. Foster (2015, n.p) further stated that it is important to develop skills of productivity; all children can be taught professional skills that can guide them towards developing a career. This should be accompanied with clarification of expectations, goal-setting, and monitoring of progress through different levels of education. As such, it is evident that parents and educators must engage children in nurturing them to become productive.

It has also been argued that all children can be taught how to be productive through the management of their behavior. Novella Ruffin noted in her article, Developing Responsibility and Self-management in Young Children: Goals of Positive Behavior Management, that it is important to understand the social development stages of children in order to instill productivity skills in every stage (Ruffin 2000, p. 3). In the first stage (newborn to 18 months), the child always learns to trust; second stage (1 to mid-two years) the child learns about independence; in the third and fourth stages (mid-threes to sixes) the child learns identity; and at the later stage (Mid-five to eight), a child gets to learn how to become successful and productive (Ruffin 2000, p. 4). Ruffin explained that to enhance productivity throughout the stages, care givers must be able to adopt flexibility, have respect and pay undivided attention to the children. In the last stage, they should be assigned duties and encouraged to join organized activities.

An Expert Group Report by the European Commission had further explored the different ways through which children can be encouraged to become innovative and creative individuals towards employability. The report suggests that children should be nurtured in a manner in which they develop entrepreneurial skills through sophisticate and multi-faceted approach (Bamber 2014, p. 5). A key proposal made, therefore, is to recognize non-formal learning in schools in order to encourage creativity training through simulations, games, role-plays and workshop. Youths should also be taught on how to practice behaviors such as communication styles that are important in job-interviews and competences.

References

Bamber, J., (2014). Developing the creative and innovative potential of young people through non-formal learning in ways that are relevant to employability. European Commision Youth: Expert Group Report.

Foster, J., (2015). Productivity and Kids: What Do Parents Need to Know? Thecreativetypost.com. Retrieved from http://www.creativitypost.com/education/productivity_and_kids_what_do_parents_need_to_know

Ruffin, N. J,. (2000). Developing responsibility and self-management in young children: goals of positive behavior management.