Learning Independence In Japan

Japanese kids are taught to things by themselves at a young age. The 7 year old in the video goes to school by herself and her school is far away from home. It is about letting children experience challenges in real life and most importantly, solving the problems on their own. More often then not, we parents tend to jump in to help them too early, depriving them of good learning opportunities. I know, can't help it, can't bear to see them experience failure, they are so cute? Try imagining how they are going to fend for themselves when you are not around.

Similar values are being taught in schools. Children clean their own classrooms and prepare meals for other schoolmates. A great way to learn responsibility and teamwork!

Parenting Need Not Be So Difficult?

Times have changed. And we this generation of parents live in this awkward era. We are more affluent. Internet is prevalent. Literacy level of parent is higher. And average number of children per family is dwindling at an alarming rate. So children are treated like gems.

Saw this from a sample life purpose statement when I was researching for my life purpose:

Provide limitless love to my children and my other family members. Allow them to grow and develop unhindered of what I think is best; but allow them to painfully discover what is best for themselves. Set wide boundaries within which they may develop, wide enough where they can make decisions they will anguish over but close enough that they will know how much I love them and that I will always morally support them. Say yes, unless there is a very good and explainable answer for no. Allow them to color in their own future, not striving for any perceived expectations of my own or other people in their lives.

I sort of agree with the para. It is not just about providing them with everything and the best. It is about teaching them the necessary survival skills. The right values and beliefs and attitudes. How many of our children can be CEOs of listed companies? By the way, the traditional parenting techniques merely teaches our child to be great employees. Not so much of a entrepreneur. Following Pareto, I believe 20% of our children can be at the top.

The children at Blue Sky Healing Home are striving to just live normally. Came across some large Singaporean families with many kids and also learnt about Larry Shine on Oprah. Well, I don't think those families are thinking about sending their children to piano classes or Shichida. But Larry Shine's children tell us that they are having a wonderful childhood!

I always tell my wife that I wish our children to grow up self-confident, independent and street smart. I work a lot on my children's internals, teaching them how to see the world but at the same time not to contain them in their growth. Teaching them that the sky is the limit while not all clouds are pretty. Haha.

Kids Can Teach Themselves

Sugata Mitra showed with his "Hole in the Wall" experiments conducted in slumps in India that children can teach themselves.

Basically, he put up computers with Internet connectivity on the streets in slumps in India. Without any manuals or guide on using the computers, the children on the streets got all curious with the computers and began exploring and learning themselves. He brought his experiment to different countries and found that it was regardless of nationality, language and whether the children came from rich or poor families.

Subsequently, Sugata Mitra brought his experiment to the classroom where he assigned children into groups, provided them with access to the Internet and gave them a topic to research into. He even tried this with Italian children who don't even know what he was talking about. The result was astonishing. Children who were interviewed picked up knowledge that were way beyond their age. They could articulate profound knowledge with great confidence.

Sugata Mitra went on to prove that the knowledge that was obtained was retained. Tests were given to a group of students after his experiment and they could score as well as they did during the experiment itself. Some students got even better scores as they continued to google and find out more on their own after the experiment.

Lesson learnt: Children can learn very well autonomously in groups, with access to the Internet.