Hard working children are rewarded sooner than they think     017

Children constantly hear parents tell them that if they work hard they will have a better future—but that future seems a long way off, and it is never exactly clear how the future will be better. It is certainly a vague promise. What then can a child realistically receive for working now?

Well one important reward is having more choice about whom they will sit with and whom their friends might be.  Choice is actually a very grown-up reward. Consider Marius Kloppers, the chief executive of BHP Billiton, the global Australian mining company. In an article by Damon Frith (The man who rules the world, BRW, 11-17 Mar 2010, p. 21) Marius says, “We are the guys in the lucky position where we get to pick the other guys we work with.” Yes, exactly—and it’s the same for children.

So how does this happen?  Children who work hard simply get ‘lucky’, and get themselves into the better classes and the better schools, and this is true whether the better situation involves a private school, some type of scholarship, a successful transfer to another school, a better class within a school, or a selective stream. There are many possibilities.

So if your child doesn’t like some of the children in his or her class, or the whole class, or even the whole school, start doing something about it. Start the journey up and out. This is what happens in real life and the sooner your child starts learning this the better. Something then to talk about at the dinner table—tonight? Choose to make it happen.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services