I remember when I was in 10th grade half way through the academic year we had a session for around half an hour on Time Management. I was so intrude to know about it then, however weren’t they a little too late? 10th grade being a very important part of a student’s life especially here in India. The art of understanding and setting your goals, managing time and the most important part for a teenager would be managing stress is required.
I was very fortunate to get exposed to all these skills at the age of 16. Trust me the way it has changed my outlook in life, I have started understanding and managing things better. Not just that it surely has been a helping hand for making me release what are my strengths and areas of improvement. However all these things made me wonder why don’t our academic module incorporate more of such skills in the curriculum? When I learned about leadership; I always knew I was a good leader but to know what kind of leader I was? It gave me so much of clarity on my personality.
The myth that only the pupil who aspire to work in the corporate need the soft skills is very wrong. It is just basic life skills which everyone needs it at some point or the other in their lives. Everyone needs to have negotiation and sales skills in them. No matter what you do in your life you are negotiating or selling THAT IS A GIVEN! A student is selling their grades to their parents and negotiating their end of the bargain. A mother is selling that broccoli to the toddler and negotiating on the next meal. The fresh out of the college young adult is selling his skills and academic achievement to get his very first job.
So it doesn’t matter if you like the words sales or negotiation you have to deal with it on every step of your life.
Why can’t we just teach kids when they are raw such life or soft skills? There are a lot of things more important than just academia. If you wish to have budding and young entrepreneurs in your nation why not teach them how to live in the real world while they are raw? Why not open their minds enough that they can try out every small idea they have? Believe that very idea can be a dream. Why can’t it be encouraged right from that very tender age so that once they are out of the college they aren’t really worried or lost on how to deal with life?
Teach them what they need, give it the priority! Make them life smart not just book smart!
Love,
D