Why Fast-Tracking Your Child Doesn’t Work
“Fast-tracking” is the latest buzzword in sports and education. These days you can fast-track your child to improved confidence, better soccer skills, even enrichment for kindergarten.
However, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation studies in 1999 and 2009, private tuition rarely translated into higher achievement.
The research revealed that not only had spending on private tuition doubled since 1996, but that 71% of students felt extreme pressure. In addition, 66% did not enjoy the extra tuition and ultimately would stop if given a choice.
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In trying to do the very best for their child and their development, today’s parents will enthusiastically enrol their child (or children) in private tuition programmes, hoping to fast-track to effective results. Yet the latest results and statistics open up a disappointing yet urgent question:
Is fast-tracking really producing powerful positive results or is it doing exactly the opposite?
Don’t be deluded with the potential short-term results your child may demonstrate in those sessions. Just like plants that grow fast in a hothouse then quickly withers when removed, so will your child.
The only way to ensure your child’s continuous progress and success is to allow them to see their own flaws and find methods to overcome them on their own. Fast-tracking actually hinders their brains’ natural cognitive development!
The flame and the passion must be ignited from within the child to produce the success they desire. Your effort to fast-track your child in an activity they are not passionate about can end disastrously for a child, potentially building a defence mechanism and withdrawing from the activity.
Fast-tracking doesn’t create self-discipline or help develop the perseverance needed to succeed.
So what can you do to really help your child succeed?
Success comes from consistency
In reality, there are no shortcuts. No fast tracks. Only consistency and hard work.
Children learn in different ways, and at different speeds
Allow them to learn in a way and at a rate they feel is best for them. Many fast-track methods focus on linearity – it implies that children learn “first this, then that.”
In reality, we all learn in a variety of different ways, and for that you need great flexibility to achieve the best results.
Praise their efforts
Praise the qualities of their effort. This is what they have control of. Praise will also create a growth mindset, which has proven to lead to greater success.
Parents who foster the growth mindset worry less about their children’s success. They focus on making sure their children are being challenged and putting in the effort needed to flourish in life.
Cherish failures
Every single failure is another brick in the future castle of your child’s success and resourcefulness. Let them cherish failures and learn from them, instead of avoiding them.
Don’t fast-track your child, join the “slow movement.”
Watch your child benefit from the attention and nurturing that will really open the door to discovering their true potential and future success.
Joanne is a speaker, author, mentor, and coach. In all that she does, she helps her clients live by the words “lead by example.”
Reposted with permission on Leaderonomics.com
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