Building Aspirations: Build Confidence And Give Children A Purpose

Building Aspirations

More than a decade and a half back , we had the legendary cartoonist and the creator of ‘The Common Man’ Late Shri RK Laxman in our school for the inauguration of our Book Fair . he talked to our students on his journey as a cartoonist . 300 students sat keenly listening to him . There was Shreyas who not just listened to the talk but also walked up to him , almost chasing him with his questions . Thereafter , I observed Shreyas was always immersed in trying out cartoons , some being his own creations.years later , he came out with his own book, published by Harper Collins ,which was released by me ,his teacher in our school. A very proud day for me indeed . The seed was sown in a simple school event. The journey of our aspiration too begins like this and is realised with years of hard work., grit and determination.It needs support and understanding from students, teachers and parents.

Is aspiration just a whimsical dream ?What does it require to have a dream become an aspiration and then a reality? All children live in their world of dreams . They are naturally aspirational . They wish to live in fantasy , while we adults work on making things happen. No aspiration is big or small. Neither can they be classified as real and imaginary. Aspirations build confidence and give children a purpose . How can we help child build their aspirations?

Let’s give our children opportunities that are diverse and new . Broader the spectrum ,the better it is for children to visualise. With this , children identify their interests . We must encourage children to deep-dive into their own interests by reading more about . Meeting and interacting with people of all ages helps children gather learning from experiences . There’s a lot of work that children may do on their own , even sacrificing play time. Children love to build on experiences of others too as one’s own ,at times. Use these stories real and imaginary, for inspiration. Parents and teachers must have lots of patience to be dealing with these fantasies . Instead of brushing them as some fantasy , we can help them build skill-sets and competencies.

Five years back ,we adopted a small Adivasi school in the hillock of Yeour , a small Adivasi village. We support them in sports , academics and English speaking .The 60 odd kids in the school are so keen to earn , that their enthusiasm drives out to try newer pedagogy day after day . A month after we started to work on the school development plans ,I wanted to understand what aspirations they have.I asked them “What do you want to be when you grow up ?” “I want to the pump room operator ‘”I want to be the havaldar in a chowki (a sub-station)” ‘I want to be a peon in the Collector’s office” . A year later , I asked the same kids ,where do you see yourself with your new skills and knowledge . pat came the replies” I will a civil engineer”,”The Collector of Thane ” “The Police Inspector in the large police station”.

Education broadens horizons , it makes children aspirational .It makes them believe that it is possible to do ‘big things” .I realised that the earlier aspiration was based on the problems they faced everyday like lack of drinking water , security issues etc. Things happen when we drive aspirations to be high enough to reach.If children fail to see success , it is not because they had no or low aspirations but because their knowledge , skills and attitudes did not match their aspirational value .

Education gives every child the power to think , dream ,pursue and drive their aspirations to achieve success.It helps them realise their potential.We must give children them opportunities to realise the potential in them. No dream , no vision ,no aspiration is small or big …..they are that to work on.