THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOME ON THE ACADEMIC AND CAREER ACHIEVEMENT OF TEENAGERS AND YOUNG ADULTS
Theodora Egbo
The home is the basic unit of the family. It is the first agent of socialisation for anyone. The following factors have influence on the academic and career achievement of our children.
GODLY STATUS OF PARENTS
It is highly needed so as to give our children Godly parenting. Parents should teach them how to have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit by giving their lives to Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of our Faith. Study the Bible, be prayerful and attend fellowship or church services. They should also use their talents, skills, gifts of the Holy Spirit and financial resources to serve God early in life. Therefore, parents are expected to be committed Christians so that they will emulate them.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF PARENTS
This has to do with how wealthy or influential and poor the parents are in the society. The child who has everything he needs both in the home and school is bound to perform better than the one that lacks it. In comparing lower-class and upper-class parents, lower-class parents cannot meet the educational needs of their children because they will be struggling to meet up with the primary needs of life such as food, shelter and clothing. Hence, a child from this home will become frustrated due to inability of the parents to meet up with his/her physical, emotional, financial, educational and social needs with health issues inclusive. Such a child will end up being a school dropout. But Upper-class parents will be able to meet up with the educational demand of the child, and even send the child to a good and expensive school. Hence such will attain high educational and career status.
PROFESSION OF PARENTS
This acts as a guide as well as a form of motivation to the children academically. For example, a child with educated parents seldom finds schooling difficult unlike his mates with illiterate but wealthy parents. With respect to this, children of such parents will still not do well academically even though their parents are wealthy. Profession of a parent also lays a foundation on which the future of these children is built on. Parents who spend most of their time outside their home in order to make both ends meet do that at the expense of their children’s academic lives. This is because there is no time available for adequate supervision and encouragement of their children’s educational and career pursuit. Conversely, parents who access the talent and aptitude of their children can easily channel the children’s academic and career pursuit accordingly thereby securing a good academic and career achievement.
MARITAL STATUS OF PARENTS
Lack of warmth, love and security in the home brought about by broken marriages cause problems to both academic and career achievement due to the fact that children in such homes develop emotional imbalance. Broken homes and marriages tend to nurture or inculcate truancy and criminal tendencies in children present in the home due to lack of adequate parental care and supervision. They also transfer home aggression to other children and teachers at school as a result of their frustrated souls and mind. Conversely, children from happy and peaceful homes who are receiving all the attention, care and affection that is needed from their loving parents, also transfer parental love from home to school. They tend to have a stable and good socio-psychological wellbeing which can enhance learning for a good academic and career achievement.
QUALIFICATION OF PARENTS
Some parents want their children to read courses that will enable them to take over their businesses when they are not available. In order to retain their dignity, honour and position in the society, some parents see that their children attain their own standard of education. Hence, they tend to perform better at school. Conversely, some illiterate parents with little or no education may not see the need to educate their children, thereby denying them the necessary incentive and encouragement needed for an excellent academic and career achievement.
PARENTS-CHILD RELATIONSHIP
There is a close relationship between a child’s emotional life and his ability to learn. The acquisition of new skills, the ability to walk, talk or read, work and write flourishes best when there is a happy relationship between parents and children. Children can have a settled, peaceful, loving and happy home if couples love and understand each other so as to be able to transmit this needed atmosphere of peace, love, happiness and serenity to the children. The children are inquisitive and exuberant at early stage of development in life and so they need advice and guidance from the parent depending on the relationship existing between both parents. Parents with over-populated and congested homes pay less attention to their children than those with small and comfortable homes due to the large number of children. These can lead to child-abuse or some of the children are sent to do house-helps for people. Parents who are dictators also unknowingly discourage the children’s normal development of initiatives, interest, self-determination and discipline which will enable them attain a good academic and career achievement.
Therefore, to achieve greater academic and career goals, parents should do the following:
- Train your children to walk and work in Godly counsel and ways whether in the secret or in the open.
- Have fewer children in the home.
- Have a high socio-economic status
- Have a close and cordial relationship with your children whether teenagers and youths.
- Have a positive attitude towards the education of your children and encourage them from inception and sustain it.
- Have good Christian homes which will breed the conducive atmosphere for the upbringing of the children academically and morally.
- Do not attempt divorce in marriage and it should be highly discouraged.
- Parents should provide all the needs of children at school
- Parents should not impose their choice of career on their children and they should allow them do what they have aptitude for but under their guidance and supervision.
- They should create time to be with their children so as to supervise and help them with their studies where possible or get a private teacher who will be coming to the house or send them for extra private lessons.
- They should allow tranquillity in their homes and are advised to be of good character so as to impart it to their children.
- There should be family planning so that parents can give birth to the number of children they can adequately cater for.
- Government should try to subsidise the cost of school materials such as textbooks, exercise books and school fees so that parents and students can afford them.
- Parents should have a godly lifestyle and pray for their children.
With all these, I believe that our children will have greater achievement with respect to their academic and career lives as they progress in every aspect of their lives by God’s grace and mercy. Let us be committed to being correct and Godly mentor for them, pray for them, rebuke them in love and teach them how to love, serve, trust and obey God.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 is the summary of the whole instructions that should be acted upon. God will help us to achieve our aim of bringing up our children in the nurture and fear of God in the name of Jesus Christ. We as parents should not be striving to make Heaven while our children are experiencing failure which will frustrate their Divine vision accomplishment because of laxity on our part. By God’s Grace, we shall receive wisdom from God in order to train these children so as to fulfil their divine destinies in life and also make Heaven at last.
Theodora Egbo (Mrs.) is a medical social worker who reaches out to families through writing, teaching, and preaching via organised outreach programmes. She is a Resident Pastor for Delta State location of Eminent Ladies Club/Fellowship, Destiny Youths Fellowship, and Robe of Righteousness Ministries Int’l (RORMI). Theodora is also the CEO of Alpha & Omega Enterprise and Consult – an educational and marketing consultancy, which offers entrepreneurship and vocational training.
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