Coding Classes: Should Kids Have To Worry About Upskilling And Success At Such A Young Age?

For the past few months, a company that boasts of equipping little kids with such knowledge of coding that companies will have bloodbaths to hire them has been making a lot of noise. Many parents see the knowledge of coding as a key to a sureshot successful future for their children. However, coding isn’t the only skill that parents are encouraging kids to develop, especially since they are at home all the time, and have a limited number of classes every day. Music, dancing, a new language, painting, there was a time when kids were encouraged to pursue these hobbies. Today, however, these hobbies have become essential skills that could make or break your future. But should we burden our six- or eight-year-olds with the pressure to start building a stable future for themselves? Are parents who are not pushing their children to make the most of this unique year doing something wrong?

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One can only imagine the pressure that parents today are facing at work front, amidst cut-throat competition and merciless job cuts brought on by the economic slump? This generation of parents is a byproduct of the coaching class boom in India, where you found validation from society and family only when you made it into an engineering or medical college. Most of us started prepping for competitive exams after our tenth board exams, with our eager parents promising to pool in every resource possible, if we could deliver that coveted degree to them. But it never stopped with the degree, did it? You had to then either crack competitive exams for higher studies, or secured a placement worth boasting about. The race to have a fruitful career has been relentless ever since and has left us restless and worried.

Most of us who took this path now know that things never get easy in your career, and job security is a myth. Perhaps it is this insecurity, along with tough competition we face to make it big, that prompts many parents to start prepping their kids for the future from an early age. The more skilled you are, in any possible way, the more you stand out. But in our zeal to help our kids attain perfection that we couldn’t, is it possible that we have forgotten to count our blessings? Do our kids need an occupation twenty-four-seven? Is free-time such a bad thing, especially for children? Should we only encourage them to pursue a hobby if we see it giving them any sort of gains?

How many parents today encourage their kids to do nothing? To chase butterflies in the garden to their heart’s content? Or to sing or play the synthesizer out of tune, just for fun?

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This year has been difficult for parents and children alike. While we struggle to strike a balance between household chores and work, online extracurricular classes seem like a good idea to keep kids occupied. However, we have to understand that our kids are not having it easy as well. It is unusual to not be at school, interact with their classmates face to face, play in the garden with other kids in the evening, or to not eat out at restaurants on the weekends. COVID-19’s impact on the young ones may be something that we may learn decades down the line. But just because we can’t see it now, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Keeping all this in mind, does pressurising or encouraging them to upskill at such a young age seem like a good idea? The parameters for success that we are holding on to, such upskilling may or may not be relevant 20 years from now. But our children will never get back this which could be used to play and enjoy their childhood. Certainly, no skill can match the security that a happy childhood brings, can it?

Picture By: Baby Center.com

The views expressed are the author's own.