FOR THE SAKE OF THE NEXT GENERATION

A TEACHER is an educator, trained to instruct and construct
his/her learners, through conscious and structured instructions,
as well as constant quality assessment. Teachers are to be
models to their students in their personal behaviour and work.
On the other hand, a PARENT is, primarily, a male of a female
person biologically responsible for the birth of a child. Also, a
parent is defined as any person recognized as the caretaker of
a child. While each of TEACHING and PARENTING is a huge
responsibility on its own, blending these roles is extremely
herculean. However, 21st-century teachers and parents have to learn to blend the roles, for the sake of the children, our next generation.

Transcript

1. FOR THE SAKE OF THE NEXT GENERATION by ADEBESIN IBRAHEEM
2. INTRODUCTION: WHO ARE THE NEXT GENERATION? According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a generation is: “a period of about 23 to 30 years, in which most human babies become adults and have their own children.” Within this current context and for the purpose of this seminar, ‘THE NEXT GENERATION’ will be used to refer to all your school age children, and from our own point of view as teachers, we will use the term to refer to all the students currently under our tutelage, i.e. all the learners that we are currently grooming and empowering, to enable them to take charge of the directions of their lives later in the future. These are the people we call THE FUTURE
3. If you all observe very critically, you will agree that the next generation is on the brink of ruins, and one of the reasons for that is because the ancient culture of communal or collective parenting, whereby parenting was made everybody’s business, has now been abandoned. The stakeholders in the parenting business include: the parents and the families, the school and the teachers, the churches and the mosques, and then, the government and the society. Now, the dereliction of the parenting duties by any of these stakeholders is capable of messing up the lives of the children. How do we parent these children while teaching them and how do we teach them while parenting them?
4. TEACHING AND PARENTING: A BLEND OF COMPLEX ROLES A TEACHER is an educator, trained to instruct and construct his/her learners, through conscious and structured instructions, as well as constant quality assessment. Teachers are to be models to their students in their personal behaviour and work. On the other hand, a PARENT is, primarily, a male of a female person biologically responsible for the birth of a child. Also, a parent is defined as any person recognized as the caretaker of a child. While each of TEACHING and PARENTING is a huge responsibility on its own, blending these roles is extremely herculean.
5. To start with, we as teachers and trained educators devote our lives to training, instructing and constructing our learners. We relentlessly seek ways to inspire them, helping them aspire for greater future. One of the ways we achieve these is that we constantly sing into their ears the important VALUES needed, as human beings, to succeed, anywhere and everywhere, anytime and every time. And then you, the esteemed parents of our students, also bear very many responsibilities towards these children. Aside your primary duties of feeding, sheltering and clothing them, another core responsibility you have is to constantly teach them enduring VALUES. But before teaching the children these values, you and we need to better understand the children, by finding out the factors that motivate their patterns of thinking and behaviour: why they are the way they are, why they think the way they do, and why they behave the way they do.
6. TEACHING THE NEXT GENERATION As teachers, our duties towards our students are boundless, and these are just a very few of them: Core Instructions: Guided by government approved curriculum, carefully planned and well structured, we give the children core instructions in the forms of diverse subjects, efficiently delivered by trained and tested tutors, with the primary aim of developing the children’s cognitive abilities. Through the aggregate knowledge embodied in the cumulative instructions, we empower this next generation to fulfill their individual destinies and for their various future roles. Language Teaching: As a powerful tool and an exclusive possession of human beings, language plays very vital roles, helping us construct and construe the experiences around us and helping us understand the complex human existence.
7. Language is the instrument used to coordinate every human activity. This is why in this school, we lay so much emphasis on language teaching. Our language teachers (teaching English, French, and Yoruba) are sufficiently equipped with the requisite knowledge of the dynamics of these languages, and they teach professionally, to help build the next generation, the future leaders. Social Relationship: Collectively, our teachers help all our students to develop their affective abilities and social relationship skills. These skills are embedded in different school activities (classroom relationship, club activities, group projects, cultural activities, sporting activities, group seminars, excursion programmes, etc.), and we always carry along all the students: the shy and reluctant ones, the sociophobic and introverted ones, the academically challenged ones, etc. Through all these, we help build the next generation, the future leaders.
8. Motor Skills: They say, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” The school has sporting platforms for the students in the school. They have weekly exercise programme, and they are free to be part of the school’s basketball, the football and the tennis teams. Our teams are not merely groomed within the school, they also regularly get external exposure. Through all these, we are building the next generation, the future leaders. In the course of teaching these children, we are equally parenting them.
9. PARENTING THE NEXT GENERATION Both duties of teaching and parenting are very herculean, especially because of the complexity of modern day realities. As teachers, we face the complex task of trying to reshape children who had already been variously pre-programmed and conditioned by their parents and their families, as well as the society they had always lived in. No doubt, all our esteemed parents (those present here and those not here) are well knowledgeable about the business of parenting, but we need to better understand our wonderful children. We need to seek to know why they are the way they are; why they think and act the way they do. At this juncture, I would borrow a particular speaker’s theory of generational classification. According to that speaker, there are wide discrepancies between the peoples making up the older generation and those constituting the contemporary generation.
10. For the purpose of today’s seminar, however, I would collapse the man’s classification and roughly classify the OLDER GENERATION as the people born between 1950 and 1990. That’s where most of us here belong. Then, I’ll classify the MODERN GENERATION as the people born between the early 90’s and the present time. This is where all the students we currently teach and you currently parent belong. There are some unique characteristics that this modern generation has that we, as teachers, and you as parents, need to understand, to be able to parent them well and teach them, especially morals and values.  They were born into the digital age (i.e. born into the age of internet, facebook, twitter, social media etc.); hence they are called ‘digital natives’.  While we started with only a few TV stations (NTA, BCOS, LTV, OGTV, etc), they started with 250 or more T.V stations, transmitted through DSTV, HITV and other satellite media;
11. hence, the kind of information these kids are getting is different from what the older generation got  These children were born into the age of online marketing. Most of them like to order things online (on Jumia, Konga, etc.) through virtual market, unlike the older generation that were/are used to physical contact marketing.  They are very culturally diverse. Most of them don’t believe in Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba. They are not even looking at Nigeria as a reliable place to call a country or a home. They are citizens of the world. Their minds are tuned towards travelling out of the country. They show less or no patriotism towards Nigeria.
12.  They are resident in the social media space. They walk with multiple screens (the phone, the tablets, the desktop, and the T.V), doing many different things at the same time. This is why they are easily distracted and have short attention span. Whatever does not come to them in any of these screens will hardly appeal to them.  The older generation appreciated the value of dignity in labour, and would work very hard to achieve success. Besides, most of the older generation children did trek to school or, for the few averagely rich ones, would take buses to school. However, the digital children strongly believe they don’t have to suffer simply because their parents suffered. They want to have everything made for them while they just go for the finished product. They believe the parents have done all the work for them, and they only need to enjoy all the parents’ sweat. Many of them commonly go to school in parents’ vehicles, and are exposed to less stress.
13.  These digital children are a restless generation. And it is sad that it is this restless population that’s going to take over from all of us in every aspect of life, in school, in church, in mosque, in business, in politics, etc. So, how do we ensure that these restless children will do better than we are doing? WHY ARE THESE CHILDREN LIKE THESE? Let’s see what factors predispose these children to being what and who they are:  Globalization: Through globalization, the western culture travelled far and wide extending its influence on countries through the television, the radio, etc. All these foreign ideas and cultures greatly influence the digital youth.  Turbulence: This generation of people is growing in the midst of turbulence, prevalent violence, war, conflict, Boko haram onslaughts, the ISIS, the ISIL, the agatus crisis, the isreal and the palestines, etc. All these things they see make them who they grow to become.
14.  The Advent of GSM in Nigeria: since the launch of GSM in Nigeria in August 7, 2001, the lives of the digital children have been irreversibly changed. Today, many of them are not only addicted to the phone, they perform amazing things on the phone.  A Total Collapse of Value: The value system in Nigeria has totally collapsed, and as the children watch all the atrocious things that their parents, their teachers, their political leaders and their religious leaders do, they become terribly confused about the hypocrisy of these elders.  The Span of Innocence Has Shortened: Kids now understand sex and many other life realities much earlier in their lives than it took the older generation to understand, and the kids are desperate to explore these realities, especially sexual adventures.
15.  Materialism: The digital natives are more materialistic because of the kinds of role models they follow (T.V personalities, football icons, musical idols, etc) all through satellite television, and the powerful social network, etc.  Proliferation of drugs: Today’s world is replete with very many kinds of drugs, legally and illegally produced and distributed across the world. There are illicit drugs and there are prescription drugs. Examples of Illicit Drug are:  Hemp/ Cannabis/ Marijuana [Street names - Igbo, Eja, Ganja, Efo, Weed, Tafe.]  Skunk [Mixture of weed, dried leaves and some element of cocaine] [Street names ‘Askari’]  Heroin [Street names - Thailand, Brown, Gbana, Oja]  Cocaine [Street names - Charlie, Coke, Crack, Coco, White]  Alcohol [e.g. beers, spirits e.t.c] [Street names - Sepe, Paraga, Gin, Beers, Bitters (e.g. Alomo), Sapele Water, Ogogoro, Opa ehin, apeteshi etc]
16. HOW DO WE PARENT THEM? In spite of the overwhelming distractions around the children, we, teachers and parents, have a lot of work to do to help them grow well. As teachers, for example, apart from our primary duties of giving core academic instructions, we also variously act as SURROGATE PARENTS and we use every avenue available to us to teach them values that can make them grow well. Such avenues include:  General and Class Assembly devotions  Surrogate meetings  One-on-one chats  Concise talks factored into our normal classes  Purpose-built, special programmes, etc.
17. WHAT SHOULD THE PARENTS TEACH THE CHILDREN?  Accountability: Teach the children to admit their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions.  Care: Teach them about caring for others as much as they care for themselves. You yourselves should openly and genuinely care for others too, especially the helpless and the poor. Teach them the value of giving without expecting anything in return. Teach them to help those in need if they are capable of doing so.  Contentment: Teach them to be content with whatever they have. Let them understand the need for them to make sacrifices, for the sake of their tomorrow. Teach them to never take whatever does not belong to them or whatever is not willingly given to them.
18.  Respect: Teach them to value the elders’ words and respect other people’s opinions and differences. They shouldn’t expect everybody to be, think and act like them. God himself loves diversity. Let them know this.  Gratitude: Teach them gratitude. Teach them how much power lies in the expression “thank you”. Teach them to thank God first in all things, and appreciate people’s favours, kindness, and gifts, however little.  Integrity: Teach them to value their name and honour, and their family’s name, more than money and other material things.  Loyalty: Teach them to support others, because no one can be an island. Let them know they’ll need others at different times of their lives. Yet, let them know they shouldn’t rely too much on human beings
19.  Be Good Examples: As parents, you must strive to live by what you preach. Children of today are children of “whys”. As much as possible, always let them know why things have to be done or not to be done in certain ways. Don’t do in their presence what you scold them for, or else, you will lose the moral right to correct them.  Aspirations: Teach them to aspire for greater heights. Let them know that to achieve greatness, they must subject themselves to some measure of suffering. Greatness never comes easily. Stop building the PATH for them. Rather, build them for the PATH.  Deceptive Media: Teach them not to be consumed by all what they see on the screen. Let them know the deception behind the media. Teach them not to aspire to model their lives after just anybody they see on the television screen. Teach them not to get carried away by the flamboyance of celebrities, because behind such lavishness displayed by our celebrities, there is a lot of untruth and deception.
20.  God’s Place: Teach them about the essence of God in human existence. Pray with them and for them. Do not allow them grow into atheists who will be too blind to appreciate the greatness of God and God’s creations. Let them know they will need God in this increasingly wicked world, and in the hereafter. Instill in them the fear of the unseen, yet powerful God. THANK YOU!
21. ABOUT THE WRITER I am Adebesin Ibraheem, a Nigerian graduate of English. I am a teacher and writer. I have been in the teaching profession since 2004 and I have learnt so much about the multi-faceted roles of a teacher. The experience I have garnered over the years, in the teaching profession, has helped me to become one of the brightest teachers a school can always boast of. My successes in the job have, largely, been due to my immense knowledge of the job, my unwavering commitment towards advancing the standard of wherever I work and my constantly being an astute leader, leading very effectively, within and outside the classroom, and constantly motivating my students and my colleagues. Besides, my style of teaching has been eclectic, a blend of an array of methodologies. To contribute meaningfully to achieving a saner world, and driven by the strong conviction that the future of the world is in my classroom, I always structure my lessons in ways that challenge my students to think critically, communicate effectively, write creatively, investigate thoroughly, work I am Adebesin Ibraheem, a Nigerian graduate of English. I am a teacher and writer. I have been in the teaching profession since 2004 and I have learnt so much about the multi-faceted roles of a teacher. The experience I have garnered over the years, in the teaching profession, has helped me to become one of the brightest teachers a school can always boast of. My successes in the job have, largely, been due to my immense knowledge of the job, my unwavering commitment towards advancing the standard of wherever I work and my constantly being an astute leader, leading very effectively, within and outside the classroom, and constantly motivating my students and my colleagues. Besides, my style of teaching has been eclectic, a blend of an array of methodologies. To contribute meaningfully to achieving a saner world, and driven by the strong conviction that the future of the world is in my classroom, I always structure my lessons in ways that challenge my students to think critically, communicate effectively, write creatively, investigate thoroughly, work
22. I’m an English specialist, a FREELANCE educator and writer. - For your in-home (individualized) tutorial (English & Literature- in-English); - For all matters related to English or Use of English in your WASSCE, NECO exam, UTME, SAT, TOEFL & IELTS; - For your proofreading and editing works; - For your educational content writing on Literacy/English & Literature; - For professional advice on curriculum review and classroom delivery (of English & Literature lessons); - For provision of voice-overs for adverts; - And for a host of other educational services… Contact ME on the following: +2348039091939 (calls & WhatsApp messages) +2349053565541 (calls & SMS) adbestenglasu@yahoomail.com I’m an English specialist, a FREELANCE educator and writer. - For your in-home (individualized) tutorial (English & Literature- in-English); - For all matters related to English or Use of English in your WASSCE, NECO exam, UTME, SAT, TOEFL & IELTS; - For your proofreading and editing works; - For your educational content writing on Literacy/English & Literature; - For professional advice on curriculum review and classroom delivery (of English & Literature lessons); - For provision of voice-overs for adverts; - And for a host of other educational services… Contact ME on the following: +2348039091939 (calls & WhatsApp messages) +2349053565541 (calls & SMS) adbestenglasu@yahoomail.com