From blackboards to iPads, an opinion on how education’s tech shift challenges parents to adapt alongside their children today globally.
Are parents of my generation ready for modern education?
There’s a revolution on the horizon, and it seems to be unavoidable – the face of education is changing, and there’s no room for one to be left behind, more especially parents with school-going children.
True to my high-strung organisational skills, I’ve been on a hunt for a primary school for my two-year-old son.
On websites, I see children with beaming faces, iPad in hand and classrooms on a tech level I just cannot relate to – gone are the days of blackboards and the very basic overhead projector – this is the next level education.
The days of learning are now filled with monkeynastix, robotics and coding. I was never ready.
That being said, I am anxious as a parent. While the primary work he would do is school-based, as a parent, I must render him some support. But here is my glitch: I am remedial when it comes to any technology.
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So, coding and robotics are the equivalent of quantum physics for me. As I start my search for tutor prices, this is not for me to engage my son on.
But this then begs the question: how many parents are actually prepared for this new kind of technology in education.
Honestly speaking, I do not actually know what coding and robotics are for, but I want my son at the forefront of it all.
How many parents share my anxiety? How many will think this as not a necessity? Perhaps, parents need to be educated, as well.
The government of our time is progressive in changing the face of education, While the low level of the pass mark leaves very little to be desired, the strides in the incorporation of technology into education is commendable.
As parents, we must continue to ask ourselves, are we ready, are we prepared for this huge adjustment?
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Has there been a mind shift in parents that we are no longer in an age of feint and margin, but a click generation?
Going into the future of education, I can only wonder if it is at possible for the education department to make a concerted effort to take parents along with them and the pupils, those who are willing to go on the journey.
I am excited about the future, and I want my child to be excited, too. It can only be a request that my incapability with technology will hinder my child. And that the hangover of my archaic education does not serve to derail him from flourishing in the prospects of the future that lies ahead.
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