Is Academic Excellence Enough? See What The Research Says Here … 

 

I am one of those people who suffers from thinking way too much.  It’s pretty exhausting most of the time but I am just wired that way and find it really hard to switch my mind off.  Since becoming a mother the thinking has nearly tipped me over the edge because now it is not only me I have to think about but my kids too.

I feel like there has been a big shift since I was at school when it comes to academic excellence and kids.  I think this can depend on which school your kids attend but as a parent I have felt pressure about how well my children are doing in ways that I don’t think my parents ever did.

In fact, if I was to be completely honest I don’t remember my parents putting much pressure on me or my siblings about our schooling at all.  I would have considered myself an average student who did what I had to do to and did ok overall but it wasn’t all study, study, study in my house growing up. We did go to a private school for high school so we knew our parents thought education was important but there was never any pressure on us to do anymore than our best in a balanced kind of way.

What I have come to realise is I am not alone in feeling this way. There is research saying other Australian parents are feeling exactly the same way.  The ASG Parents Report Card is a study that was conducted recently by the ASG which is the only report of its kind to look into the state of education in Australia from the perspective of the parents.

It surveyed almost 3,000 Australian parents, grandparents and guardians asking them to give their opinions of the capacity of the current education environment and whether they felt it was meeting their children’s educational needs.

The key finding from this report showed that parents were confident that today’s current schooling environment was capable of providing a beneficial educational experience however they felt like it was lacking in personal development.  This suggested they felt as though the focus was too heavily weighted towards academic excellence at the expense of the social and emotional development of their children.

I will be the first to say that I don’t believe it is the school system’s responsibility to academically educate our kids plus be responsible for our kid’s personal growth and general life skills.

There were no OP (Overall Position) 1s and 2s in our household but 17 years after I finished school and looking around at my brother, my sister and myself I have to say we have all been quite successful in our fields of choice despite not getting top grades at school.  When I reflect on that I can see that my parents were teaching us a whole lot of really important things that our education never did which is key to all of our success.

These things included showing up on time, volunteering and contributing even when we were not being paid, doing what we say we are going to do when we say we are going to do it, how marriage and loving your partner wasn’t always about how you feel, taking responsibility for yourself (cooking, cleaning, gardening, washing), how to manage money well and save up for something you want and the list goes on.

We as parents are a major player in our children’s upbringing and there are some key things we need to teach our children in order for them to be successful adults that cannot be outsourced or replaced by getting top grades.

This is something we all need to think about when it comes to our kids and luckily there is time and it is never too late.  The key is balance and knowing that as great as academic excellence is it is only one piece of the equation.

If you’re thinking about your child’s education and are looking for someone to talk through the best options for your family, then I highly recommend ASG.  ASG is the largest provider of education scholarship plans in Australia. Since their inception over 40 years ago they have supported the education journey of more than 530,000 children and more than $2.5 billion has been returned to members.  You can find out more about them here …

Competition

ASG is giving one lucky family the chance to score $300 to go towards supporting you and your kids to participate in some life skills classes in your local area.  Whether that be cooking, sewing, self-defence, swimming or whatever you have available locally they are keen to support you to help develop well rounded kids.

All you need to do is comment on the blog post below in 25 words or less and tell us why you would love to win $300 to support your child in building their life skills?

Terms and Conditions: Entering the Giveaway: To enter you must answer our question as part of the Giveaway entrance. You are able to only enter once via this entry option for the Giveaway. Do not submit duplicate entries or addresses as this will not improve your chances of winning. Use of Entrant Information: Any information you fill out for this Giveaway will not be used for any other purpose except to notify you if you are the winner. Drawings: The winners will selected based on the answers to the competition question. Prizes: One individual person will receive $300 towards life skills classes in their local area for their child. The Giveaway is open only to legal Australian residents 18 years of age or older. School Mum is not responsible for (1) typographical errors, misdirected or incomplete entries; or (2) computer or telecommunication system failures or similar disruptions to email services and/or the Internet. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.  The competition ends at 11.59pm on the 2nd of March 2017.

 

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