Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur
We present this article as a series of belief statements. You may either agree or disagree with them. Either way, each one of them is still a belief statement. They are not the truth. In fact, if you look into your experiences, you may find examples both supporting and contradicting these statements.
If you firmly believe in these statements, we ask you to see if changing your beliefs brings any positive results in your life. To help you do that we have asked certain questions for each belief statement. Answer them with an open mind. Here we go:
1. We as parents assume that one of our key responsibilities is to ensure that our children do not pick up bad or inappropriate habits.
What kind of controls does this belief lead to? Can we really ensure that children do not pick up habits? Don’t they pick up certain habits in spite of our controlling them? Is setting examples enough for a child to not pick up habits? Who is responsible for acquiring a habit? And who is responsible for shedding it?
2. We believe and operate from a fear that if we do not correct children they will not know what is right or wrong.
What is really right and what is wrong? Who needs to learn how to differentiate between right and wrong? How? In what ways can we develop the children’s wisdom, intellect and sense of responsibility? Instead of imposing right and wrong, can we lead them by example and through discussion? Will telling them what is right and wrong help them learn and imbibe right and wrong?
The authors run Geniekids, a learning centre in Bengaluru that works with children. To know more about their work visit www.geniekids.com.