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As parents, we’re constantly fretting over which after school programs are best for our children, and what the right activities are for their interests.

Should they engage in academic or social enrichment? Do we have them complete math worksheets or spend time focusing on interactive play? What will look good on a college resume?

In reality, children with real world experience in adult jobs fare best in the eyes of colleges. Real life experience gives children an understanding of the consequences of their actions, be it a kind act at a soup kitchen or a hateful rant, and that understanding is what colleges desire.

Here’s what we wish more parents told their teens! A potential employer might be impressed by your stellar GPA record and your elite university stamp. But if you have a terrible attitude, you won’t even make it through the first screening of that job interview.

And what’s more, a complete set of unrealistic GPA record will make your employer wonder how skilled you really are at calculated risk taking, navigating real life and facing unpredictable chaos.

Since the onset of social media and the widespread use of the internet, our lives and the lives of our children has never been the same.

This is why the intentional education of life skills in the real and online worlds is all the more relevant now. The power of social, emotional and character education is that it helps children enhance and balance their real and online lives.

The latest crop of our children, known as the Generation Z and now our Alpha Generation – those that are born after 2009, know everything about combat and death with reference to their online world of gaming. Online they are whatever they want to be, they die and spawn themselves back wherever they left their world earlier.

But, are they ready for the conflict, confusion and chaos that real life brings? Not being exposed to real life people skills while growing up can leave children anxious to enter college and even the work force because basic human interaction can become pretty debilitating.

Together we must cultivate their environment, enrich it with all the right quantities of cognitive, social and emotional skills in addition to academics, so our global children are guaranteed the success they deserve. Let’s get them young.

Start with putting them front and center at the checkout line to talk to the cashier, ask them to call grandma for a recipe, and stop scheduling their play dates for them, let them make their own reasonable plans!

Because everyone knows that if you’re a Straight-A student, you’re busy beyond reason, But academics don’t have to come in the way of missing out on exploring new social clubs on campus, volunteering, and trying your hand at a free pottery lesson for fun.

Parents, here’s a thought exercise:
Are we ready to leave our children’s education of 21st Century skills to chance, environment and self-motivation?

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“I have never understood the importance of having children memorize battle dates. It seems like such a waste of mental energy. Instead, we could teach them important subjects such as How the Mind Works, How to Handle Finances, How to Invest Money for Financial Security, How to be a Parent, How to Create Good Relationships, and How to Create and Maintain Self-Esteem and Self-Worth. Can you imagine what a whole generation of adults would be like if they had been taught these subjects in school along with their regular curriculum?”
~ Louise L. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life

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