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Timed right
We live in a world dictated by competition, goals and deadlines and as a result, are constantly working under pressure. This scenario is neatly mirrored in Indian schools today. "Children have a lot to manage these days," says Pramila Agarwal, a remedial teacher, adding, "Besides school and tuitions, they have homework, tests to prepare for and a lot of extra research for projects. To add to this chaos, they are forced to do extra-curricular activities and, to top it all, we expect our children to excel in all these activities!" Indeed, the education system does put immense pressure on children, and so do their parents. For starters, as parents meet the ever-increasing demands of their own lives, by way of skilful time management, they must also pass this knowledge on to their children.
Perhaps it is stating the obvious that there are certain academic expectations all students should aim to meet. After all, education and activities that contribute to the overall development of the child ought be given priority. Thus, parents need to teach their children to manage their time successfully to meet these expectations. However, they should not make the situation worse by adding to the pressure. "It is important for parents not to expect too much from the child," says Saloni Shah, mother of a six-year-old.
Moreover, while parents must ensure that the child meets his or her academic goals, as far as extra-curricular activities are concerned, the children do have a choice. By the time children are five, they are clear about what they like and dislike. Parents must allow their child to pursue what he or she is interested in rather than go by what other children are doing and force their own child to do several things at a time.
Pramila explains that in order to teach children how to manage their time well, parents must supervise children and see to it that they follow a timetable. "They can act as helping hands when the pressure becomes too much in terms of giving practical help in finishing assignments or projects. However, know that the aim is to help their children and not to do the entire task for them!" she concludes.
Of course, schools can also play their part to ensure that children are not unfairly pressurised, but are still competent to meet demands placed on them. Teachers must model time discipline. "The school diary can play a very important role" says Saloni. This good old system of the school diary acts as a communication between the teacher and the parents. Children can be trained to use this as their daily diary and record all important dates and tasks that they need to do.
Get kids to manage time
It is important to cultivate basic time management habits which will stick throughout a child's life. Many parents don't inculcate these from an early age. As a result, when the child becomes older he suddenly finds things tough to handle. In order to make time management techniques work, they have to become habits! The information below can serve as a guideline for parents, teachers and students themselves. It is important to form a "basic sketch" of how you spend your day. You should roughly mark out school, class and tuition timings, personal study time and leisure hours. A separate plan for weekends and school holidays must be made. This will act as a guide to how you will plan each individual day.
Plan each day the night before. Every night write down the "goals" for the next day rather than what you want to do in a particular time slot. For example, "I will complete studying chapter four in history" is better than "I will study history from 4 pm to 6 pm". Most traditional time-tables fail because we focus on the time-frame rather than the goal to be accomplished.
Use a dated diary or planner to mark out tests and submission dates (you will know about these in advance) and the daily list of things to do (you will plan these every night for the next day). One glance at these pages should give you an overview of all tasks that you have to complete on a particular day. It will also serve as a reminder for upcoming tests and submissions.
Tick off items in the diary as you complete them. Go through the next week's schedule every Friday night so you can use the weekend to complete assignments and prepare for tests to avoid last minute hassles. n Parents must mirror the time management strategy that they want their child to follow.
Sarnath |
Latest page update: made by Sarnath
, Sep 18 2007, 7:55 AM EDT
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- Sarnath
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