Students, take advantage of your educated parents and elder siblings and learn

STUDENTS, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR EDUCATED PARENTS/ELDER SIBLINGS



Keywords: students, education, educated parents, siblings, advantage

This article was inspired by what transpired between my friend and I, read on and learn.

There is this friend of mine who gave me her phone to go through her file manager, while I was going through the folders in the file manager, I came across two different folders, one was saved with GMAT and the other was saved with KPMG. As a fresh graduate which my friend also is, I quickly asked my friend if she can send me some of her GMAT past questions. Guess what her reply was? She asked me what GMAT is all about and what is its usefulness.

This question stunned me because this was supposed to be her memory card content so how come she does not know what GMAT is being used for. When I enquired further, she told me that the memory card belongs to her elder brother who works with KPMG so that’s how the GMAT and KPMG folder came about in her memory card. The only thing that crossed to my mind is “only if I had this privilege”. Her brother works with KPMG,  uses GMAT yet the sister who is a graduate does not know what GMAT is used for.

Have you observed that children of school teachers and university lecturers are not the best performers in school? In an ideal situation, their children are supposed to take advantage of the privilege (vast experience, wider knowledge, availability of reading materials, good guidance and role modeling) of being a son/daughter of an educated parents or elder siblings. But lo and behold, the reverse is the case. I still repeat “only if I was privileged to have such people close to me”

On a general note, I wish to implore students who have the privilege of having educated mothers, fathers, elder siblings, uncles and aunties to please take advantage of that to explore their knowledge and wisdom. When a students whose parents are not educated fails an examination, both the student and the teacher bears the blame, but what will happen to a student whose parents are also teachers? The blame should be on three sides I guess.

As a fresh graduate who will soon be in the labour market, I had expected my friend should have started asking his elder brother who has passed through the same system that she is passing, the way forward instead of waiting to be hit by the arrow of prolonged unemployment.

Parents should try as much as they can to ensure that they start their knowledge impartation with their children. Charity they say begins at home. If as a younger one, you cannot use the vast experience of people who are close to you to achieve your own goals, I wonder where the knowledge you seek for will come from.

The saying that those who are living close to church always go late to church activities is not good for this kind of situation as it is more like having a tap water at home and going to the stream to fetch water. Delay they say is dangerous, read your loved ones reading materials, ask them question where you are confused and be guided into the right path.

Here are advantages of learning from your loved ones in an informal setting:

- You learn for absolutely free, no cost attached!

- You may have an esoteric knowledge, that which no other person has/will have

- You can ask question without the fear of being shouted down or embarrassed

- You become some steps ahead of your mates/peers

- You will also

learn how to pass knowledge down to other people just as you were taught.