Is there a standard definition of success? Who sets these standards? Is there a cutoff like board exams? Are parameters of success same for everyone? Does everyone have the same purpose? Should someone else define the aim of my life? Is it necessary that my purpose should remain stoic irrespective of my circumstances? Tough questions that we need to answer…
In March of 2018 NCERT invited suggestions for reducing the burden of school curriculum. I was thrilled by the initiative and proceeded to give my inputs. My enthusiasm soon deflated as I found out it was asking for specific information on chapters to cut down on quantity. I wondered isn’t the burden because of pressures and expectations around it. Will…
With the announcement of Board results, mothers celebrating the success of their kids on facebook and a post by a mother celebrating the 60% of her son going viral, suddenly everybody is discussing marks and education system. Newspaper are carrying articles about how are education is flawed and social media has erupted with similar posts. It’s time to make sure…
Attention is a very powerful positive reinforcer. “What you pay attention to grows“. It’s operant conditioning. So if you are paying more attention to your child’s annoying behaviours while not praising the good ones, more such behaviours are going to manifest. Let’s understand this concept with the help of a simple example. Case Scenario: Picture this. A child playing by…
Albert Einstein said “Everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The above statement is the heart of the short story in the video. “Life is a race, agar tez nahin bhagoge to ……” famous dialogue from a very famous…
Recently I attended an online summit on Mindful Parenting hosted by Dr. Stacy Thomas. Those who are following my page parenting mantra will know as I shared the information there. Had the fortune of listening to an array of speakers. Each speaker had valuable advice to offer. I am summarizing the key insights here for my readers. We not only…
William James, American psychologist and philosopher made a very apt observation “The deepest principle of human nature is a craving to be appreciated.” Appreciation makes our heart sing, it signals we have been noticed and our efforts recognized. Shouldn’t we use more of it instead of guiding our kids with fear based consequences? Now that we have learnt about setting…
Leaders and Organizations are taking classes for Goal Setting but it really begins at home. Gift your family this important Life Skill this New Year. Though this article has been written from a standpoint of problem behaviour the principles equally apply to positive behaviours with reward as a consequence. Setting and implementing the rules is a hard task but its…
Punishment is the dreaded word dropped like a bomb on the child by teachers, elders alike. But wait what are we punishing the child for. Are our punishments working? Are they helping the child to evolve or making them pretentious? Replace punishment with consequences: For starters try using the word consequences. Punishment puts the onus on the one meting it…
Early this year National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) invited suggestions to reduce the academic burden of the students. Students’ distress around academics and career is increasing at an alarming rate. With students’ suicide making news parents are more cautious than ever. Though we might not be directly pressurizing our children to study, we might still be building academic burden…