A childhood full of love, attention, fantasy, fun and color is what most of us have had or that is what most of us have desired. And now at the helm of decision making for a family, we surely wish to give our children the best. The best in terms of what?? More toys, more exposure, more stress, and greater fears of being a loser….. And worse, instead of more time we give them no time, because time gets converted to money…..and we are as confused as could be…. And that is the generation we create, that is competitive, yet not prepared….rich, yet not secure…working for something, yet not successful, and if winners, yet not devoid of stress……in the middle of it stand the standardized tests and we are bewildered, whether it is a trap for progress or just lurking perils…let us try to resolve it and understand where we are headed and if it is worth it.
Are Standardized Tests here to Stay & the Path to Definite Progress? Yes! These tests are here to stay and are globally recognized by institutes, universities, schools, Corporate Houses and even Government organizations for admissions and jobs. As the world is shrinking, it’s becoming more demanding for high quality human resources which are just a few mouse clicks away. Standardized tests identify pools of talent, which can be filtered and dug into by any talent search and employment organization. So, to make it to the top, parents want to make sure that their children are equipped to take the world head on to survive the pruning at any level.
Standardized Tests – Progress Verses Peril? Standardized Tests may be the way to progress but with associated perils. And as we weigh them, we realize that every peril can be correctly dealt with, to now become a well defined means of progressing.
Peril One: Inability To Beat The Stress. Parents often fret putting their children through various academic tests that just create stress in them. Stress, these assessments surely do create, but only if mishandled. The perfect way to avoid exam anxiety is to develop your kid early on in life, in a play way method. This will superbly equip your students to see these tests as a challenge that gaming levels provide with an additional thrill of winning. The stress is re-read here as a thrilling and a winning experience!
Peril Two: As A Parent Can I Tackle Peril One? As parents, we may have demands from various fronts like a job, home and even from personal commitments that we handle. The time available may clash with children’s leisure hours. Our own talents and skill-sets may be obsolete or even insufficient in today’s age to handle issues that our children face. We therefore need to outsource some of the training resources for our children. Thankfully, there are learning organizations like eTutorWorld and KhanAcademy that have evolved and developed syllabi and curriculum to fill in the desired missing links and gaps. They have very well developed modules customized to every child’s individual current performance level. These modules are then tailored by expert trainers to bring the child to the desired standards of performance which are gauged by Standardized Tests, paving the way for training and continuous development. With willing and determined parents, the trainers can help in forming a bridge between the available skills at home and the ones desired for goal achievement.
Peril Three: Can My Child Handle It? We as parents either under estimate our children or are very demanding of our children. Whether we are believers of science or of God or both, we know that the human brain has untapped potentials. We must provide the children the best of training environment that nurtures, prepares and adequately hones their skill set – be it verbal or non-verbal, technical or non-technical, managerial, poetic, artistic, memory or knowledge based. The talents children are born with need to be enriched and the missing talents need to be developed….all of it is possible for every child with correct training and mentoring.
Peril Four: Parents Protect Their Children From These Tests And Delay The First Exposure. Often the best music performers are the ones who started as early as toddlers and then pursued it till teenage, when they gave their first performance. The maiden voyage to stardom! The same applies to all other skills. The brain needs fodder in terms of knowledge and information. At a tender age the learning curve is very high. When kids are adequately trained early in life with an early exposure to standardized tests, learning becomes a way of life. As the world rapidly evolves, the one who is fittest to continuously evolve, learn and adapt shall be the one to survive. When we begin early with children, what they learn, as well as their ability to learn the new, enhances manifold. And this would last them a lifetime.
Peril Five: Are These Tests And Training Worth The Money & Efforts? The money put only into worldly things like toys, gadgets and accessories will crumble with time. The best of stock markets have either a history of crashing or are vulnerable to it in the future! What we invest in our children in terms of training and preparedness is an asset which would reap results in years to come. And there is no greater joy to see our children pave their own successful paths in years to come. So let the money give rewards defined in terms of children’s success and progress.
Think wise, think right and take a step now!