Parenthood: Raising Society’s Knowledge Base from the Root

Parenthood: Raising Society’s Knowledge Base from the Root is the second factor of the series, 6 Factors to Improve Innovation in the GCC Region.

A family is the simplest representative of society, and a person is the smallest member of the family. All societies around the world have typically started with the simplistic form of a family, and with more individuals moving and living together sharing a common geographical place, economic environment, wealth, and culture, the term civilized society may be applied to them.

As Marianne E. Neifert mentioned in her book Dr. Mom’s Parenting Guide,

“The family is both the fundamental unit of society as well as the root of culture. It is a perpetual source of encouragement, advocacy, assurance, and emotional refueling that empowers a child to venture with confidence into the greater world and to become all that he can be.”

Marianne E. Neifert

As a result, a family is a key element of any society and any issue within a specific society needs to be solved from its very roots.

Parents/guardians rearing methodologies plays the most critical role in people’s behavior, attitudes, decisions, and life objectives. Educated parents should provide their children with the right atmosphere to pursue inspiration and scalp their abilities. It also provides physical and mental support for children needed to carry on a successful healthy life. It’s very easy to demotivate children to seek knowledge or to carry out useful activities.

Guardians should be well educated and insightful enough to scalp their children’s future and feed them with excellent insights and pathways so that children can reach a stage that will allow them to make good decisions for their lives.

As stated by Jennifer Lee and Min Zhōu in their book The Asian American Achievement Paradox, Japanese parents expect their children to contribute more effort to their educational activities. They devote most of their family resources such as household space, funds, and parental time to develop their kids for a proper academic environment.

According to businessinsider.com, and based on a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Western Asian countries dominate the top 5 smartest countries in the world, with Singapore at the top of the list, followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.

The study was based on student scores in the fields of mathematics and science, taking into account the nation’s educational systems.

Not one of the GCC countries ranked among the top 40 in this list, where the UAE remained the highest-ranked GCC country at 45, followed by Bahrain 57, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman ranked 66, 68, and 72, respectively, at the bottom 10. Unfortunately, Kuwait didn’t make it on the official list.

Obviously, parenthood has a significant impact on children’s academic and mental abilities. To observe that more, let’s take a look at parenting styles theory by Psychologist Diana Baumrind released back in 1960. It categorized parenthood into three distinct styles entitled Authoritarian Parenting, Authoritative Parenting, and Permissive Parenting.

In Authoritarian Parenting, the child follows strict rules as defined by the parents. This style leads to children who are loyal and capable, however low in bliss, social fitness and trust.

Authoritative Parenting, on the other hand, gives children a set of rules and regulations, but parents are responsive and listen to their children’s needs and act accordingly.

This kind of parenthood leads to children who are happy, capable, and successful. The third type based on the study by Diana is Permissive Parenting. Parents who rarely discipline their children are more responsive than demanding. These children are bound to encounter power issues and will generally perform ineffectively at school.

There are children who attend the first grade of the school who can speak 3-5 languages, do mathematical calculations, and decent reasoning, while others can barely spell their names correctly.

When we see kids who are in the 7^th grade creating their own robot systems or managing complex AI projects we should realize that they are the same age as other 7^th grade children around them.

These differences in abilities are by no means a coincidence, we can raise our children to hate math and sports, or we can guide them and prepare the right environment to let them be the next Einstein or Belle.

We need a proper system in the current dynamic societies that educates parents before children so that they can raise their children to the standard that society expects.

As studies have shown us, the first 5 years of our children’s lifespan are the years that they can obtain the maximum amount of knowledge, skills, health, and mental stability. Therefore, let’s equip our children with the necessary tools required to be successful in their upcoming life journey.

In the next factor, we will discuss the importance of a dynamic educational ecosystem and how to prepare our students and human capital to be an integral part of this framework.