“Children usually do not understand the importance of education”

“School is just a waste of time” – that was the answer of my five year old cousin enjoying his blue cotton candy when I asked him the date his classes would resume. His response totally shocked me given his little experience in life and sincerity. This was really a surprise to someone like me because since the first day I ever went to school I have always loved and enjoyed learning and studying, and as I grew older I came to believe and understand that education plays a major role in our lives. However, I recently noticed a troubling trend with teenagers and younger kids nowadays: they tend to easily dismiss the importance of school and education itself. Initially I thought that this was not a serious feeling and was probably caused by the pleasures of summer vacation, until I had some discussions with the concerned parties. I had the opportunity to travel to Europe and Africa this summer and had the chance to talk with many cousins, nephews, nieces, and some of their friends just to make sure that it was not a case of my family becoming too lazy. The conclusions of my talks with all these kids were very similar: they had the same concepts to become successful in life and education was not considered in these notions.

I understand why children do not want to study, because I remember my childhood, when there were so many entertainments and temptations around. It gave me much more pleasure to play with my friends than doing my homework. But I quickly have learned how to manage my life rationally and effectively: school was in the foreground and entertainments in the background. I think that children evolve in the same way – they understand the importance of education in the course of time, but sometimes too late. The earlier they will understand it, the more effective their education will be. There appears the role of our society – to help children understand their mission in life and the ways to attain it as quick as it possible. Parents should motivate their children both materially (I mean the trivial situation when children get high grades parents buy them something expensive or send them on vacations) and morally (e.g. explain the importance of education, give examples of its utility from their own experience and experience of famous people). Older brothers and sisters should show a good example of themselves because children often imitate the behavior of elder people. Teachers with the help of psychologists have to find out which sciences are more relative to a child and then interest and direct the child towards a proper direction.

Finally, I want to figure out a conclusion: as time goes by most children understand the importance of education, but sometimes it’s too late and this is important problem of the world community. Because in order to develop and evolve the world needs good specialists, which are the result of good social efforts and proper education. So we should help younger generations to understand the significance of  education in their future life before it’s not too late.