child?
I have been asked this question very often. My answer
to this question has always been, YES and NO. Let me
explain.
I am of the personal conviction that you need to be
very clear as to why you want your child to appear for
the Olympiad exams.
Is it for the gold medal? Cash prize /Recognition? Or
the pride associated with it?
According to me, reasons like the above ones are not
correct and might actually add to the burden of the
child. Parents should be extremely careful in not
trying to fulfil their aspirations through their
children.
In response to this, few parents retort "are you
saying, my child should not be ambitious?"
I say "It is okay for your child to be ambitious but
please do not impose your ambitions on your child."
Appearing for the Olympiad exams should be a means to
inculcate correct learning in your child rather than
the results. If the child gets the Gold medal as a
result of this, great.
In other words, focus on the correct learning method
which should be "comprehension and application of
concepts." Unfortunately, most school curriculum's do
not encourage this. The knowledge imparted is dry and
without meaning.
So, if you set your child's learning in the right
direction, i.e. "concept centric", you would need to
know two things.
First: is the direction correct?
Second: is the pace of the progress satisfactory?
How do you do that? This is where, I strongly believe
that various Olympiad exams play an important role.
These exams focus on testing the concepts of your child
on relevant topics and also their application. Also,
the mental ability section forces your child to think
beyond the "lines set by schools".
I further reason out that "Olympiad exam preparation"
should be natural. Firstly, encourage your child to do
various "reasoning exercises" for about 15 minutes
every day. Secondly, create an environment where your
child is encouraged to go deep into concepts of a
particular topic.
Net: The importance of your personal face time and also
putting a proper structured learning process in place
cannot be overemphasized. Focus on the correct process
rather than putting pressure on your child for doing
well at the Olympiad exams.
The results of taking approach have been highly
encouraging. Children grow up with confidence. Cracking
the Olympiad exams is just one milestone for them
Most parents understand what I am trying to convey
while few do not.
Feel free to reach me at shanks@olympiadtester.com.
Sanghamitra Potharaju is the founder and CEO of
http://www.olympiadtester.com. She and her team have
deep experience in "mentoring" students so that they
can crack the Olympiad exams with confidence and ease.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?
expert=Sanghamitra_P
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8379492
No comments:
Post a Comment