Parents can help children to succeed in life

In the wake of the recent college admissions scandal, in which rich parents paid thousands or even millions of dollars to bribe coaches or have someone else take standardized tests for their children so that they could get into elite colleges, there has been a lot of discussion about admission to elite colleges and about what it takes to succeed. Going to an elite college can help, mostly in terms of networking and resume-building, but it is not the ticket to success.True success and happiness in life comes from being able to create, persevere, roll with life’s punches, and work with others. Parents and caregivers can teach children these skills from infancy onwards. 

Here are five ways parents can set up their children for success.

1. Reinforce executive function skills
   Executive function skills are our ability to pay attention, plan, troubleshoot, multitask, control our emotions, negotiate, and delay gratification. These are skills that children learn as they grow and can be taught and reinforced. There are activities and games that parents can do with their children that help build these skills, many of which involve using their imagination and interacting with others — which works best when devices are turned off, and when time is not filled up with scheduled activities.
2. Let children be independent — and let them fail
   Many parents limit their children’s independence for good reason of safety. But children cannot grow into independent adults if they never get to explore the world around them and make choices for themselves, which inevitably means that they will make at least the occasional bad choice. Learning from mistakes is some of the best learning we do. Control temptation to jump in and save them, but limit that to the real emergencies. They will do better, if parents are supportive and help them think it through. They will also learn to survive the mistakes.
3. Foster resilience
   Resilience is the ability to manage adversity, to deal with setbacks and failure and get back up again. Letting children be independent and fail helps build this. Having the consistent support of loving adults is key.
4. Build social skills and empathy
   Children need to learn how to make and keep friends, how to listen to others and care about their thoughts and feelings. From teaching “please” and “thank you” and taking turns, to getting them involved in activities involving social interactions, to getting involved in community and volunteer activities, there are many ways that parents can build these skills.
5. Encourage curiosity and creativity
   Go places like parks or museums or historical sites. Explore together. Go to the library and get books. Have lots of paper and paint around. Make things together. Watch documentaries; read the news and talk about it. Make up stories. Build things. Help your child see the world as full of fascination and possibility. Help them understand how much ability they have to create.

These are the skills that make a difference, not where someone goes to college. These are the skills that help people find their way, succeed at what they do — and have fun doing it.

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Education: What is its purpose?

What is the purpose of education? If you were to ask a small group of teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc to address this question, how difficult it would be to reach a consensus?

• No matter what ever global problem you are dreading, the solutions always include education, never is it without an education component and sometimes cannot be done without education.
• Education is to teach creative and analytical thinking. To spark curiosity, imagination, and love of lifetime learning. Education is a lifetime journey, not a destination or a transaction.
• The purpose of education is prepare our children for higher education, teach them to navigate social interactions with peers from different backgrounds, and to help them become tax paying members of society. 
• Should young people become educated to get prepared to enter the workforce, or should the purpose of education be focused more on social, academic, cultural and intellectual development so that students can grow up to be engaged citizens? Education should prepare young people for life, work and citizenship.
• No matter what progress is made to shift the practices and content of daily classroom instruction, inequity will continue to be a substantial limiting factor. Real sustainable improvement depends on addressing inequity in areas such as well-paid employment, health care, food, and housing security. You can’t have one without the others.
• In the US, historically, the purpose of education has evolved according to the needs of society. Education's primary purpose has ranged from instructing youth in religious doctrine, to preparing them to live in a democracy, to assimilating immigrants into mainstream society, to preparing workers for the workplace.
• And now, as educators prepare young people for their futures in a world that is rapidly changing, to create adults who can compete in a global economy? To create lifelong learners? To create emotionally healthy adults who can engage in meaningful relationships?
• Most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of them think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. 
• Some others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
• Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.
• School education should prepare students for life - for college, for work, for living within a family and within a community, and for participating effectively in the democratic process.
• Schools have always been about developing students for life and work. And life is much more than earning a living; it is also living a life.
• A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.
• The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
• Intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education. 
• If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts.

Education is really aimed at helping students get to the point 

where they can learn on their own ... Noam Chomsky.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know ... Albert Einstein

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people ... Newton

My View:
Education does not have a single purpose; it serves multiple objectives, and the relative importance of each of these objectives can be very personal. Education is to support children in developing the skills, the knowledge, and the dispositions that will allow them to be responsible, contributing members of their community. To be a good friend, to be a good mate, to be able to work, and to contribute to the well-being of the community. Children should learn civic knowledge and master civic skills, respecting others, working collaboratively, acting in a way that is fair and just, and being an active participant in the life of the community. Greed of money and power, if not desisted, destroys an educated person to a great extent. Today, the world is suffering due to the greed of educated and superiority complex of unworthy.