0It is summer vacation time for school going students, though not for the ones in Standard 10 (SSC, ICSE, CBSE, IG) students. Their parents are already beginning to worry about their child’s success at the exams.
The buzzword has not lost its sheen over so many years. Generation X tends to demonstrate similar pressure and criticality as their parents did! I wonder if there will be any change once Millennial makes it as a parent. Students of standard X are merely getting Sundays off, and the rest of the days, they are busy shuttling between Maths to English classes. I am told that some of the schools have portions of 10th std from 9th std onwards.
I wonder where this will end. I just finished doing a session with a bunch of 10th Std students where I was invited. At the beginning of the session, I asked them what they expected to take away. Most of them said I would motivate them and help them manage stress. I was pretty taken aback that these young kids were using such words. I could feel the anxiety in them, and this was not in them but seemed it was put in them, and the levels were building up.
I wanted to make this session interactive, so I asked them what their challenges are and all of them said – Pressure, stress, peer pressure, competition. First, I thought I was speaking to leaders from the corporate office as I was surprised to hear words like this from students transitioning from 9th std to 10th std. Incorporate, we talk a lot about transitioning from an individual contributor to people leader, and I could feel the same amount of ambiguity, stress and tension in the eyes of these students. I didn’t stop there; I went further to inquire what message they wanted to give to their parents. It was surprising to hear what they told me. It seemed that they were yearning for their voice to be heard.
They said - Don’t compare, do not taunt at me, have some hope in me, give me some space, understand my world, stop pressurizing me. The sound of their voice bothered me and made me think about how to secure this young kid. People who have crossed this milestone know it is not The Milestone. How do we ensure that this year is given enough emphasis but not to the extent that it paralyzes the students?
Parents and the school play a significant role in setting the right momentum for the students. School and home should act as a foundation for building intellect and emotion, respectively. The focus should be given to developing intellectual capability and making students feel emotionally healthy, which will help in living a healthy balanced lifestyle. 10th std is a transition from school to college, and the focus should be given on how a child will transition from dependence to independence and how s/he should not misuse the freedom. Educate them on the distractions that may give them the false and temporary notion of excitement rather than just focusing on studies.
