Courses on Positive Parenting Should be Included in All Educational Programs

Parenting is a chosen life long responsibility in which there is no retirement. Professor Matthew Sanders, from the University of Queensland, mentioned in an introductory seminar on Positive Parenting Program that it is easy to be a chairman/director of an international company than a parent.

Many definitions are available for parenting. For some parenting is to facilitate a child’s optimal development within a safe environment [Reder, P., Duncan, S. & Lucey, C. Studies in the Assessment of Parenting. London: Routledge. 2003] and for others parenting is teaching your child the difference between right and wrong, how to survive in the world and giving your child undivided love and support. For some parenting tasks includes sensitivity to a child’s needs, social communication, emotional expressiveness and disciplinary control [Rutter, M. Resilience in the face of adversity. British Journal of Psychiatry. 147: 598-611. 1985] and for others parenting is adaptability to the changing requirements and circumstances of the child. [Azar, S.T. & Cote, L.R. Sociocultural issues in the evaluation of the needs of children in custody decisionmaking: What do our current frameworks for evaluating parenting practices have to offer? International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. 25: 193-217. 2002].

Parenting required quality time, patient, perceptiveness, active involvement, responsiveness, flexibility and many more characteristics. Parents are responsible to provide a healthy environment in which children grow happily, freely and become a better citizen. Parents’ roles change according to growth of their kids. But a thorough training is needed to deal with very dynamic, demanding, diversified and nondeterministic parenting roles as parenting is more complicated than a profession.

As far as parenting is concern, we still rely on ancient system of education that is learning by seeing or asking but without a systematic education. Most of the parents learn parenting by seeing what other parents are doing and recalling what their parents were doing or they do parenting intuitively. When parents encounter serious problems with their children, they ask other parents (in their opinion good parents) what to do; read books/articles or seek help from an expert. However, formal education on positive parenting for all will produce good to best parents and better generations by them.

Academic Integrity

Few months back in the beginning of economic recession, I read following discussion title at a social web site of professionals. “Are businesses and economies collapsing today because we’ve overstepped our moral ethics and practices as model citizens economically and socially?”

The recent economics offences, that affected worldwide as a recession, have been done by well educated professionals, so called “model” citizens. In addition to learning their profession they have learned the practices of offences or they have missed learning of integrity during their education. The Centre for Academic Integrity (CAI) defines “academic integrity as a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. From these values flow principles of behaviour that enable academic communities to translate ideals into action.” The CAI also mentioned “research shows that student cheating is on the rise and that the pressures and opportunities for dishonest behaviour are increasing in many academic and professional contexts.” My last few years' experience in academic supports the same. In addition to plagiarism, cheating, lying, fraud and shoddy work in every activities of assessment (written assignments, software development including computer programs, exams, daily activities journal or diary, schedule tracking, reviews of their time spending, peer evaluations etc.) I have also experienced a dishonest behaviour during a simple fun activity which has no assessment connected to it. May be it becomes their habit due to their every day practice of dishonest behaviours!

Last semester I was teaching a topic software project management to a third year undergraduate class by applying learning while playing technique. The students had to do a simple exercise from a childhood play of origami, preparation of three types of paper aeroplanes in a team. The aim of this class exercise was to teach them, initially set quality and quantity target of a product, do planning and scheduling, carry out team work with harmony to achieve the target, check quality of the product and review the process to find out lessons learned. The class size was 211 students which were divided into 43 teams and each team had 4 or 5 students.

They have been informed the sequence of processes expected from them in the class exercise. In the first 20 minutes each team has to: read the instructions for making each type of paper aeroplane; prepare each types of plane to determine the time to prepare each type of plane; check quality of planes by flying them; plan team work for real production; and then set target statement, such that they will produce 20 planes of each type and all of them will be able to fly more than 3 meters high from one end to another end of the class hall. The next 15 minutes was for production of aeroplanes, next 15 minutes to check quality of the planes and the last 15 minutes was to discuss lessons learned in this exercise.

At the end of discussion on the expectations, all the teams have had shown their comfort with origami and were keen to enjoy the fun. When “Time starts” announced for the first 20 minutes of the exercise, all of them have had happily started to work according to the given instructions. As usual these are one of the moments provide me motivation to do as much as possible for my students when I see them learning with fun. But after 15 minutes, a student complained that a few teams have had started to work on the production of aeroplanes. Similar practice was followed by few more teams after knowing the complaint. They were not only missing the lessons from the exercise but also an innocent fun!

Follow Your Dream but Need a Support

The Alchemist is a positive novel by a well known Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, first published in 1988. It is a well written and simple to read fable except little verbose at places but one would like to finish it in one sitting. The hero of the tale, Santiago, thinks he would introduce one character at a time in a story to make reading easier. The same approach has been implemented in the story. Only three named characters are there, Santiago, Fatima, a love of the hero, and Melchizedek, an old man, the king of Salem. Other characters are the daughter of a dry goods shop merchant, the dry goods shop merchant, the Gypsy woman, the thief, the crystal glassware merchant, the Englishman, the alchemist and few more.

Without mentioning details, the hero as a shepherd, brings up the dream in the beginning of the tale when he spends a night in the small abandoned church. Then he talks some thing else how his father has encouraged his wish to travel with a hope “someday you will learn that our countryside is the best, and our women the most beautiful” [Page 9-10]. He also shows his excitement that he will reach to the girl, the daughter of a dry goods shop merchant, in about four days that she is the one who could make him forget the joys of carefree wandering. But before reaching to the girl he takes help of a Gypsy old woman to interpret his dream. Melchizedek appears voluntarily and shows him a path to a hidden treasure near the Pyramids in Egypt.

A philosophy, reiterated few times, is, “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it” [Page 23]. “When you play cards first time, you are almost sure to win. It’s beginner’s luck. It whets your appetite with a taste of success.” [Page 30]. The author believes in youth’s courage. The help from universe is possible in young age only because young people know their destiny. Everything is possible because they dare to dream and do everything to accomplish the dream. But when they become older, a negative force influences them that they have no control and their lives are controlled by fate. It is mentioned as the world’s greatest lie. A statement is also available that people are capable of doing what they dream at any time in their lives.

An example of an old person is given as the crystal merchant who believes in “Maktub”, fate, it is written. He has been in the same place for thirty years and thinking it is too late for him to change anything. His dream of going to Mecca is differed by putting a head earning. He knows his dream and also knows the people who are less fortunate than him have realised the same dream but he does not want to fulfil it by saying its dream.

Another example of the young baker is given, he chooses to buy bakery first and decided to follow his dream of travel after sufficient savings.

A small story of giving up early that resulted in broken stone-emerald has been mentioned to demonstrate importance of perseverance in achieving a dream. Another small story is given in support of secret of happiness; enjoy surrounding while enjoying work, “see all the marvels of the world and never forget the drops of oil on the spoon” [Page 34].

Some events show frustrations are also a part of the journey. The hero’s soul fallen silent when the merchant inform him even working for an entire year may not enough to get to Egypt. He wishes he had died because no hope and no treasure. In this frustration he has decided to work to buy some sheep instead of finding the treasure.

The hero wins heart and trust of the crystal merchant by proactive acts. He cleans the crystal glasses and builds a display to attract customers. The sales of glasses also increase by his innovative idea of serving tea in the glasses. It shows importance of proactive acts by which one can change the circumstances/outcomes in favour.

Some events are also available to show there are always hurdles in achieving your dreams as one is being constantly subjected to tests his/her persistence and courage. The hero becomes victim of a thief in the first step towards the treasure. In the morning he was a shepherd, owner of a flock of sheep and optimistic to meet the daughter of the merchant. But in the evening he was crying in a strange land because he lost his money (he has received by selling the sheep) and lost hope to discover the treasure. It seems the beginner’s luck is no more working. Another hurdle was delay in search of the treasure due to tribal wars in the desert. But it turns into a blessing because he falls in love with Fatima during this time. Fatima becomes more important than his dream of treasure.

He wants to stay at the oasis because of his own fear that he may never come back to Fatima. Fatima and the alchemist convinced him that true love makes you strong not weak. Fatima told him she wants him to pursue his dream of treasure. The alchemist takes him on a scenario if he stays back and does not follow the dream: he will initially enjoy with Fatima by ignoring omens about the treasure; then after few years Fatima will be unhappy as she will feel she interrupted his pursue, although, she never asked him to stay; he will be a rich merchant but will spend rest of the life thinking it’s too late to achieve the treasure. “You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursue, it’s because it wasn’t true love” [page 126].

Everything in life has its price. He agreed to pay a part of the treasure to the Gypsy woman to interpret the dream and paid a flock of sheep to the king for showing a path to the treasure. The treasure was there in the sycamore in the sacristy of the small abandoned church, Andalusia countryside, Spain from where the hero has started the journey for the treasure to Egypt. He lost the money in the beginning at Tangier port of Africa. He worked about a year in the crystal merchant’s shop. He joined a caravan to Al-Fayoum, Egypt, travelled the unpredictable desert taking detours. He suffered three days under the threat of death. Even while digging for treasure he had been threaten by refugees. After facing many problems, learning and discovering many things, he came back at the starting point in the church and acquired the treasure.

A philosophy “when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too” [page 158] described using hero’s example who turns out to be a good disciple of the alchemist. Alchemists discover the Soul of the World, the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life. The principal that governs all things is called the Soul of the World. A small silver of the Philosopher’s Stone can transform large quantities of metal into gold. The Elixir of Life cures all illnesses and keeps the alchemist young. The hero gathers information about alchemists from the Englishman and his book. He learns from the alchemist how to listen his heart. He understands forces of nature and discovers the Soul of the World under the fear of death.

A strength provider force like love, motivation, moral support, encouragement, good omen and fear was always there to help him in following the dream. First encouragement he received from his father to fulfil his travel wish. Affection for the daughter of the merchant brought a little excitement and uneasiness in his carefree life. Interpretation of the dream by the Gypsy woman and the path showing help from the king encouraged him to follow the dream. A moral support of the king and good omen he felt through the stones when he lost his money. Again he felt presence of the king through the stones when he earned enough money to buy sheep and considered to go back Spain. It inspired him to think that he can always go back to being a shepherd, could always become a crystal salesman again but will never have another chance to get to the Pyramids. Fatima and her love motivated him to follow the dream. The guidance, support and accompany towards the way to the Pyramids from the alchemist provided strength to him. The fear of death helped him to discover the Soul of the World. Does it mean not only courage but support in a form of love, motivational words etc. are also required to fulfil a dream? Are these strength provider forces help from entire universe?

Looking forward for the author’s new novel “The Winner Stands Alone”; the author’s comments on it are available at here.

Government Should Work in a Professional Way as a Corporate; Corporate India

A need of the hour is to manage our country in a professional way as a corporate with aims to provide a best life style to every Indian and to improve India in each sphere. For consistency in the professional management, let us consider central government as head office, states are branch offices and municipal councils and Gram Panchayats are sub-branch offices.

To achieve the aims efficiently, this article presents a model with various processes . The model presents: (1) a process in preparing the election agenda which considers viewpoints of the Indian people; (2) a format for minimum information required in the agenda to show commitment towards implementation of the agenda and to show responsibilities; (3) a mechanism for tracking progress; and (4) an appraisal system for the employees of the corporate. The model is useful for the head office, branch offices and sub-branch offices.

Each political party needs to find out peoples’ demands using services of an independent professional research organisation. These demands together with the party’s vision become the election agenda. Each agenda item considered as a goal. Each goal is announced with the current status and the target to be achieved during the next five years of governance. The current status is determined with the help of a third-party professional research organisation. The agenda also contains a method to achieve the target with a plan, schedule and resources. The plan consists of work breakdown structure with activities, tasks, sub-tasks and milestones including feedbacks from the people of India. The schedule shows the timeline with starting and ending dates. The resources include finances to human resources. In the human resources, names for the minister position are incorporated with a group of MPs and party workers as a core team with their profiles. At least three potential candidates for the minister’s job should be included with a hope that one of them will be elected. Other candidates for the minister’s job, other than the elected minister, from the elected and other parties will work as shadow ministers to help the minister in the implementation of the agenda. The human resources also include a team consisting of workers of other political parties, representatives of NGOs, corporate and people for progress tracking and monitoring of the work on the agenda item with their profiles. The profile includes member’s personal information, assets and financial information, educational qualifications and experience. The profile does not request criminal records as criminals are not allowed to work for corporate India. The members of the teams must adhere to minimum qualifications and experience in the field of agenda item. Each party member has to draw his/her agenda in addition to the party’s agenda. Thus, each political party, potential minister, shadow minister and each party worker depict their own responsibilities and work plan to convey how they will contribute in the benefit of corporate India. As a volunteer or an employee of the corporate each of them will contribute whether elected or not.

In this way, the chosen progress path for future India is available in the set of agenda comprises agendas of political parties, candidates for ministers’ job, MPs and party workers. This set should be published widely well in advance so that the citizens of India will have enough time to take the voting decision.

After the election results, all political parties should have consent for the common goals using peoples’ demands. The core team for each goal will periodically announce the status of the work and improve the work by inviting and incorporating valuable feedbacks from the citizens. The progress tracking and monitoring team for each goal will publish evaluation of the work every year.

In addition to the continuous evaluations of the goals, corporate India implements an appraisal system for all the employees who are getting remuneration, allowances, pension or any kind of tangible and intangible benefits from the corporate. This yearly appraisal should be carried out by an independent committee consisting renowned personnel of each sphere. The committee may consist of Indians, PIOs, NRIs and foreign nationals who have no direct or indirect relation with any political party. Each employee provides his/her contributions to the committee. The committee then evaluates the claim of contributions made by the employee using the evaluation reports of progress tracking and monitoring teams and using their independent evaluation criteria. The committee informs outcome of the appraisal directly to the employee in detail and to the people in brief. The outcome may contain appreciation of good performances/contributions, warning/probation for improvement in the next year and dismissal of the employee. Even allowances, pension and other benefits of the employees are also depending on the appraisal based recommendations.

Corporate India can adopt a quality standard for working processes and get certified by an independent quality certification organisation.

A model is presented in this article which could lead corporate India offices to practice a professional working style but a framework is required for effective communication procedures between the offices.