The economy is changing. The world of business is changing.
For the last couple of centuries, having a hard-working and eager workforce was all you needed for your country to thrive.
As of lately, however, things are a bit different.
The need for a smarter working population is growing with each year that passes and as automation becomes more and more important in the future, we will have much more need for super smart and innovative people.
The good news is that, as a parent, there is a ton you can do about this, and from the earliest days.
Article Chapters
Be Realistic
Not all children are particularly gifted.
It feels almost cruel to say this, but it is the reality.
There are not that many gifted adults and the logical reason behind this is that the number of children that are truly gifted is also limited.
The chances are your child does not have the capacity to be the next Mozart or Steve Jobs or Milton Friedman.
And that is perfectly fine.
That being said, children are almost always smarter and more capable than most people see them.
There are a million reasons as to why children do not tap into their full potential and it is your job to discover what these reasons are.
That, however, does not mean you should push your child until he or she breaks.
No good has ever come out of this.
Nurture Learning
If you were to ask a hundred parents whether they think they are nurturing learning and a hundred of them will tell you that they do.
It is one of those things all parents tell themselves – we give our child every opportunity to learn and we encourage learning in every shape or form.
In reality, however, this does not happen always.
Parents often have a certain way of deciding what their child should learn and what they should not.
We are not talking about age-appropriateness here.
We are talking parents who decide that certain ideas and certain avenues of knowledge should be gated.
If put in the right context, there is no knowledge that should be kept away from a child.
Another reason why parents are often not as nurturing as possible when it comes to raising Generation Smart is that they do not have the time.
The modern life is brutal and it often prevents parents from spending quality educational time with their children.
Find the time. It will pay off dividends for the rest of your child’s life.
Use Technology
The modern tech is a sensitive issue for any parent raising their children today.
How much of it is too much?
How do I keep my child safe online?
Are they spending too much time alone?
Where are their friends?
Will all those screens fry my child’s brain?
Really, finding the balance for the use of technology has become one of the most complex tasks for every parent out there.
And while other uses for technology can be debated till the cows come home, there is one area where technology has been nothing but a positive influence – education and learning.
The sheer amount of information that is available to a child these days trumps anything today’s parents could dream of when they were children.
Using something as imperfect as Wikipedia still beats trying to get any comparable information the old-fashioned way.
The way children learn today has changed completely, and for the better.
Students can now exchange or sell notes with students from all over the place, getting insights that were simply out of their reach.
Learning remotely and even attending a college thousands of miles away has never been easier than it is today.
Even once they become graduates, the technology keeps on helping thanks to services like Premium Graduate which can help them get the internships that will further help them learn and improve themselves and, hopefully, get permanent employment.
Above everything else, be supportive.
The best way to help create Generation Smart is to encourage your child and make sure they have everything they need to become as intelligent and as inventive as humanly possible.