I have heard many people say that it is the strong that will survive but I would like to introduce an alternative view. I believe it is the one who adapts to change the quickest and the best that will indeed survive.
We live in a rapidly changing world. One that I believe is changing so quickly that we seldom have enough time to settle into something new before that new thing evolves again.
Technology and the easy access of information through the media and the Internet have significantly influenced us as a people. I can remember as a child asking my mum for the definition or spelling of a word and her immediate and consistent response was, “go look in the dictionary or encyclopaedia”. Today, parents have replaced that with, “Google it” or “check it on Wikipedia”.
We all have been influenced and are being influenced by the good and bad of this changing world through technology and the Internet. My greatest concern is how it is influencing our children.
If we were to sit for a week and spend time watching the shows and music videos our children watch, listening to the music they listen to and visit the websites they visit, we would recognize that much of their behaviour, attitudes, dress and vocabulary is being encouraged and learnt from these sources.
What this tells me is that as the world changes and evolves so do our children. Which would mean that our response and strategies in dealing with them must also change if we are to adequately guide them and prepare them for a changing and challenging world.
Two days ago, some colleagues and I were having a discussion about parenting and the challenges many parents are facing with their children. One colleague shared an incident with us that she had with her 15-year-old son and her response to it. After we heard the story, the rest of us erupted with laughter at her response, which we agreed was innovative, well thought out, relevant and highly effective.
She said: “One day, I asked my oldest son to assist his brother to complete his work. When I returned home, I discovered that the work was not done. I asked him why he did not assist his brother? He contended that it is/was my responsibility to help his brother with his work not his. I felt like slapping him but withheld from doing it. My husband and I discussed his response and came up with a solution. I went to my son and told him that is my responsibility to pay the electricity bill, therefore he will not be able to watch television or play some of his favourite games.”
Boom, bup bup bup, brax brax were some of my immediate responses.
Back in the days, (as if I am that old, lol lol) I am almost certain her son would have received either a slap in the face or a ‘box in the mouth’ for that comment. She chose to restrain herself and changed her method of discipline, which I thought was very effective.
Parents today need to recognize that their children are living in a world that is completely different to the one they grew up in. Most if not all of our children know more at their age than we did at that age. Our strategies, methods of discipline, relations, modes of communication and responses to our children need to change if we are to be effective in our parenting.
One thing I would encourage all parents who have children under the age of 16 or 18, depending on the maturity level of the child to do is to ask their children to add them as a friend to their Facebook. This networking site has many advantages but it can also be abused and used to corrupt the minds of our children, which will be displayed through their behaviour, vocabulary and attitudes.
Teachers, I know many of us are extremely frustrated and fed up with the children in our schools. One of the reasons could be that we are using strategies, techniques and methods that are outdated, ineffective and irrelevant to the type of students we now have in our classrooms.
If we are to be influential within the lives of our young people, we must be willing and able to adapt to this changing world while still maintaining the foundational values and moral principles of our society.• Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth youth ambassador.