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- What responsibilities do children have towards their parents?
Hmm, the children also have some sort of responsibilities to their parents. The most important issue is that they should abide by all the orders and suggestions without questioning. They have to keep in mind that the parents never want their kids to be harmed in any way. Their love and affection towards the kids are priceless and unique. So, they should also respect parents properly. In the current days, the kids are tending to disobey their parents which are entirely unwanted and the events should be changed. If the kids follow the orders of their parents, they should be able to shine in future. The blessings they will receive from the parents will help them moving ahead easily in the coming days. - What are the differences between adults and children in terms of making friends?
Well, this is a great question for me. Friendship is a divine thing and it should be understood and appreciated. Mere giving and receiving benefits is not friendship. The meaning is entirely different from the usual conceptions we pose over it. Friends are not always made and in fact, it begins in the childhood and lasts long and even till death in some cases. But if we consider the aspect in terms of making friends, we will find there are some basic difference between the adults and the children who want to make new friends. When children are in the situations to make new friends, they usually think of certain issues. Firstly they think of benefits (it should not be considered as negative aspect rather it’s natural). Being immature, they cannot think of the realities of life and the value of relationships and thus prefer getting the current benefits. But on the other side, when an adult makes a friend, s/ he thinks about different issues and aspects and also cares less about the benefits. When the children make friends, they try to build the relationship with the other children like their classmates or the kids whom they play with. As a result, their circle of friends becomes limited. But the adults do not make such limited friendships and the range of friends includes people of all classes in the society. The relations are formed with mutual respects and understandings among them and tend to be continued for longer. Interestingly, the kids’ friendships do not last for such long periods. When they do not find any interest and cannot agree on any issues, they quarrel and split up, and if the quarrels happen between girl children, they stop even showing the least respect to each other. However, such issues are not found in the case of adult friendship.
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Can adults make friends with children?
Umm! Yes. Sometimes the adults can make friends with children in some specific cases. But this is a difficult task indeed. Generally, the mental faculty of kid and an adult is not similar. They are habituated to think different. The meaning of life is also diversified to them. A kid may be happy with a piece of candy while an adult will not be happy even if the entire world is on his or her hand. Satisfaction levels are different between them. So, making friends is not easier with the kids as it is thought so. The children usually do not understand or need to understand the realities as their mental faculty is not matured to think over the issues. So, it is a bit difficult to adjust to them during the friendship. Besides, they are unstable in nature and hardly can concentrate on any specific issues. So, the adults need to make the first moves to build a friendship with the children. Though it’s difficult, it’s possible. When the adults will take first move to befriend with the kids, they in return will get some reactions from the kids which will determine if the kids will agree in the relationship or not. If the reaction is positive, then the adults have to move forward with a friendly approach. The most important thing about the kids is that they need someone to listen to their needs and allegations. Usually, adults ignore them and do not want to pay heed to their demands which create a gap between the adults and kids.
So, the first attempt should be made from the adults and they also need to be careful about the approaches. Once the adults are adjusted with the way of thinking and attitudes of the kids, they will never mind to count them as friends. Sometimes such friendships are stronger than making friendships with adults.
- What do you think are the most important factors when making friends?
Ummm! It is a critical issue to ponder. There are a great number of factors to consider any individual as a friend. But the first and most important factor to me appears that the counterpart should be sincere in the friendship. In my private life, I have found many friends who were not friends actually. They did not have respect for the relationship and tried always to gain. But sometimes you are to sacrifice over some facts to continue the relationship. When you are to provide services to your friends all of the times whenever you meet and do not even get a – Thank You’ in return, it is truly disappointing. It demoralises the inspiration to continue with the friendship. Thereby, I think both the parties should be careful and sacrificing to the relation.
Besides, humane qualities are the other things that should be possessed by the individual you are going to make friends. It is imperative to learn about the private habits and attitudes to people, to animals, reaction to the surrounding events etc. All the facts should be checked before (if possible) when you are going to make friendship with a stranger. It is important for you to be aware of both the sides of the coin before you start dealing with it. I have also seen some people regret as they could not select good friends and finally, they get deceived by the people. So, if the people you are meeting regularly and gossiping with do not come to be any of the help in your needs, you need to carefully avoid them. There is a saying that good people bring good lucks and accordingly if you are not with a good company, of course, you are to experience bad lucks in your life. Besides, honesty is another issue that needs to be considered in this aspect. Thereby, make sure your company is clean of all the negative virtues.
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What are the possible factors that cause the break-up of friendship?
Well, there are several factors to break-up a friendship. The first thing is mistrust. Someone trusts you with something valuable (it might be information or any valuable stuff) and you are violating the trust. You are deceiving the friend and taking benefits of his or her kindness or generosity. This is a primary cause of breaking-up a friendship. Besides, you have more expectations from your friends but you are not getting the desired feedback from them. It also causes the break-up. At times, there are some misunderstandings between or among the friends which result in the break-up. Mostly the break-ups take place when one of the friends does not want to leave his or her benefits. As a result, misunderstandings happen which take them to the break-up. Besides, when the detrimental aspects of a friend are revealed, the surrounding friends break-up the friendship with the person lest they become affected by the negative issues. Thereby, I think these are the key causes of the breaking-up. But another issue is that all of us should be careful about maintaining the relationships and sacrifice at the possible cases so that the friendship sustains for a long time.
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Why is it difficult for adults to make friends?
Oh! Yes, it is sometimes difficult for the adults to make friends. But in most of the cases, they are seen maintaining the old relations that have been being carried out since their childhood. As a result, in their adulthood, they cannot make more friends as they did in their childhood. Besides, when they turn adults, they become too choosy to get friends. They always try to find out the pros and cons of the friends and consequently discard the people who were on the list. Besides, they, in fact, cannot adjust mentally to the other people who want to be friends if they are from different class or group. Unless the people on the ‘to be friends’ list are formerly familiar, they cannot accept the people from the heart. It happens as they have more experiences in their life. They have undergone the detrimental impacts of taking the wrong decisions while choosing friends. Sometimes they have been cheated with the dear friends or mates. Often they have been refused to get help in their needs though they have helped greatly and similar many other stories. So, they actually do not want to make friends with the unknown people rather nurture the old relationships. Usually, the adults’ state of mind is always sharper and they can identify the wrongs immediately when they meet someone new. So, they want to keep themselves away from the troubles and hassles by starting the friendship with strangers.
- What will the friendship become like when getting old?
Well, with the advancement of time, people will turn old. At the same time, the friendships will become stronger and better than ever. Trust is the key thing that helps make the relations stronger and it comes with the advancement of time. When people will turn old, they will prefer to be nostalgic and this is quite natural. When people become old and particularly in their post-retirement age, they will have nothing important to do like attending office in time or to do anything urgently. They will have plenty of time to spend without doing anything at all. When people will grow older and mature than the current days, they will try to recollect the past days in different forums. Often they will discuss the past happenings and that will turn them nostalgic. To me, it appears that when people will grow old, they will try to remember the past days for several reasons and also will regret as for why they did or did not the thing. This will be the only way for them to pass their leisure hours. Besides, when people will be getting older, they will have no new friends. They will pass their moments with the old people and old schools. But one thing will be prevalent – the understanding among them. It is the base of the bonding among them.
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What skill do you think the university has provided for your job?
Thank you for the question. Well, a university is a place where we develop the major skills that cannot be developed at the other levels of education. Usually, we learn a good deal of real-life skills and develop expertise on those skills. The most important skills, I think, would be intellectual skills, communication skills, organisational skills, interpersonal skills, language skills, computer literacy, professional and practical skills and more others. When a student enters into a university, s/ he develops an extraordinary sense of consciousness and consequently their intellectual level rise. With the gradual increase of the intellect, they learn to think differently and grow their senses of consciousness. As a result, they could take the right decisions promptly than the ordinary people.
They also learn to communicate effectively from the university. You know, in universities, you are to communicate with a large number of people including your mates, university teachers and even the university staffs. If they fail to communicate effectively with the surroundings, they would not be able to get their things done. So, for their own sake, they need to learn the skill which they could apply in their future. Besides, language plays an important role in their university life as there is a wide number of student come get admitted. To communicate with all of them, a student needs to master several languages. Sometimes, the students are to complete different assignments and reports and they need to use computers for the purposes. So, their computer skills get developed in the university. Most of the times the university students need to pass their leisure hours with the other students and share their feelings, emotions and thoughts. Such activities improve their inter-personal skill and later they could apply the skill in their real-life situations. In brief, a university student learns all the skill that is necessary to make them successful in their professional life.
- What skills can you learn in school?
Well, a school is a place to learn some basic skills of life that will be useful in the coming phases. A school is considered as the key institution to form the foundation of an individual. It teaches us the basic skills like time management, forming the reading habit, problem-solving, critical thinking, adaptability, goals oriented, concentration, note taking, reviewing studies etc. With the growth of time management, the student learns to maintain time effectively. S/ he will never be late to attend the class and later the habit will allow them to attend any appointments in due time. Reading habit is one of the most adorable habits and it develops from the early childhood when the kids go to school. When they are prescribed different books, they read them carefully. Gradually they start reading extracurricular books and thus form the habit that lasts lifelong. In schools, the teachers set goals for them and the students are to reach the goals or complete them in due time. Consequently, they become goal oriented. Most of the time the students are to take short notes in class from the lectures. Short note taking is a good habit for them and could be applied in the later stages of their life. The school hours are sometimes different. You know, the school hours change considering the seasons and the students are to adapt to the odd schooling hours. When they are assigned to different assignments and home works, they need to think critically. They are to bring the solutions and they also need to present the thoughts before their class and teachers. Their critical thoughts get sharpened. Besides, before the exams, they are to review the studies they have done so far and the habit continues till their adulthood. It helps them greatly to review all of their activities.
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- What do you think of the role of family for children to learn skills?
Uhh! The family is the first institution and been serving various aspects of human life since time immemorial. Family teaches the kids about different about different roles and mostly socialising them. Socializing is a great thing to consider in human lives. If you do not know the rules and are unaware of your responsibilities while living in a society, undoubtedly you are to experience some negative consequence. When you are unaware of your responsibilities in the community you are living with, it would be difficult for you to continue the living. Interestingly, the skills are taught in families. For instance, you are walking on a road and someone was badly injured there. You need to take the injured person to the hospital and inform the family members of the injured. This is a socialising skill. Have you learnt it in schools? The answer is negative. Such issues like helping the people usually taught in families. The family also teaches to be with the people in their need and behave well. I think you are familiar with the saying that my family is my strength and my weakness. If you learn something good, your family would be attributed to that quality and if you learn something negative, similarly your family would be pointed or blamed to teach you the negative quality. Thus, a family plays important role in the life of the people. In fact, people learn the first lessons from the families and those help them decide to be good or bad humans.
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What is the most popular skill that people want to learn?
Umm! There are a great number of skills that people want to learn and master. Each of the skills is important and popular and is unnecessary for everyone. But at times it is impossible to master all the skills at a time and thus we need to hire experts on the specific matters to solve the problems arisen for our lack of skills. Usually, people want to master skills like writing ability, well-groomed conversation, critically thinking, maintaining professional and private life, dealing and saving money, adjustment with technology, abiding government rules and carrying out the civic responsibilities, repairing the damaged things like home appliances or vehicles, cooking etc. Each of the skills is popular among the people around the world.
To me, it appears that one cannot master all the skills together and hence the need for different professionals emerged. Humans, in fact, cannot master all the necessary skills together for some specific reasons and the first one is physical limitations. Each of the people has some sort of physical limitations and as a result, they cannot perform all the tasks or cannot master them. I think you also have some sort of deficiencies in your life and for that, you need to take others help who are experts on the issue. For instance, both you and I are unaware of the medicine as we are not doctors. We might have some usual ideas overtaking medicines and we may also prescribe the same medications to others if they are suffering as we did. But the suggestions for medications will not make us doctors, right? Further, the doctor might need a painting for his spacious living room and he needs to buy that from a professional painter because he cannot paint pictures. This is the fact. Skills count. I think the issue is clear why one cannot gain all the skills though they want to have them all together.
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- What kind of school would you send your children to? Why?
It’s an important question for me. I want my kids to be educated, I mean it. They should be educated. I should admit them to a school where they would be able to learn real-life skills so that they could use the skills in their practical life. Most of the schools and educational institutions nowadays inspire the students to memorise instead of teaching them the right things. They emphasise on learning than realising. I think learning does not stay for a long while if you realise something from your heart, it would last for the lifetime. I have several examples to show favouring my statement. For instance, now if I ask you to tell me what you have memorised in your seventh grade, of course, you won’t be able to tell me instantly. Or you may have also forgotten. It’s natural. But if I ask you to tell something that you can remember from your childhood, certainly you can tell me a good number of things because those events are ever reminding as you observed those not memorised.
So, I would prefer schools where the teaching method will be different from the ordinary schools. I want my kids to gain the right real-life knowledge and skills and they should also be able to implement those in the right manner. But the numbers of such schools are limited and in some cases, those schools exist on black and white only. But I am hopeful that someday I certainly will get such a school and if I could achieve the ability, I would launch such a school where the kids will get the real-life training instead of bookish knowledge. In fact, I have started dreaming of establishing such a school and I hope someday the dream will come true. If I cannot admit my kids to such a school, I will try so that the others could get the facility of the standard education in the right way.
- What kinds of skills have your parents learned?
Ahh! When my parents were younger, they had several skills. My dad is the man who could impress the others with his words. You will turn his fan after five minutes of talking. When he met someone, he always behaved nicely with him or her and as a result, everyone turned into his friends. He never made any rude remarks to anyone in his lifetime. In return, he has gained love and affection from others. Besides, he was skilled in sports. He had participated in different sports competitions in his school, college and universities. He won prizes for his performances. On the other side, my mom is the greatest woman with a lucid voice. She loves to sing. She also can cook delicious foods and most of the time she does not get the foods in her share as everyone grabs more than their own share. Besides, she also has a great ability to socialise with the surroundings. She is popular and liked by everyone in my family. In many family gatherings, she is the most awaited person for her charming personality. She can please her audience with sweet songs and sometimes she cooks delicious foods for the gatherings which are the other attraction for the members present. Now, I am happy to be their kid and highly admire them before everyone I meet.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of school education and family education?
Well, school is a formal institution while the family is a non-formal education. The school usually teaches some of the selected elements to live in the society. This is a formal way to get educated and pass different courses with or without distinctions. Generally, in schools, some preset subjects or courses are taught to the students of different levels. Accordingly, they appear on examinations, pass the courses and get their formal recognition like certificates. But the matter is a bit different in the case of a family. The issues taught in families are priceless. It is the first institution for an individual. A family teaches a man to deal with the world. When kids are born, they usually get familiar with the family members gradually and start following their activities. They try to imitate the actions and behaviours of the other family members. Consequently, they start learning about the world and life. They become socialised and start living in a decent society. Education in schools makes them literate and sensible while the education in family forms the base of the individual. Both of them have some detrimental impacts as well. Sometimes people may get derailed for their families or in some cases people may not pass the desired levels. But we have to acknowledge the facts that two of the systems are helpful to us in many aspects comparing the negative impacts. Thereby, I think both the institutional and family education is necessary for humans to live on the planet.
- What kind of person makes a good teacher?
Well, I think a person with the passion for teaching, good interpersonal skill, talent and some teaching experience could become a good teacher. From my experience, I can say that academic background of a teacher has a relationship with his teaching style but this is not always the case. In my academic life, I have found many teachers who had a comparatively less educational qualification and yet they were great teachers and that’s because they had a passion for teaching. Their communication skills with students were excellent and they were good listeners. They let students raise questions to understand their level and then tried in every way possible to satisfactorily answer our questions. That’s another important aspect of becoming a really good teacher.
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Why do people choose to become teachers?
Ahh, in most of the cases people want to become teachers from their passion for the teaching profession. In some cases, they become teachers only because they could not find a better profession than that. However, I believe those type of people should never come in the teaching profession. Apart from passion and career many others choose to become teachers to help the society and to contribute towards building an enlightened society. Research facilities, respect in society, being able to continue learning curves are three major other reasons many people come in the teaching profession in my opinion.
- Do you think education will change in the future? How?
Definitely! The education is an ever evolving and changing process. Though the core objective of education will always remain the same – to educate a person and to make a better and enlighten person for the society, the process will change.
We have already witnessed a radical change in the way education process works these days than in the past. In future the education would become more technology dependent and students will have many various sources for learning than only attending classes or reading books. Teachers will also become dependent on technological advancements to better educate students while distance learning would become very common among adult students.
The courses pupil will study will become more specific and more practical courses will be introduced in the future than we have now, I assume.
- How does technology affect education?
Technology makes the face-to-face communication between students and teachers less necessary and helps students learn from various sources. It also makes the distance learning and e-learning possible and that would help many people get involved in higher education than today.
Besides, technological advancements help teachers prepare and present their lessons in a better fashion and make it possible to digitally evaluate students’ performance.
The negative effects the technological advancements bring in education sector include a scope of plagiarism, less interaction between students and teachers and spending too much time on activities that are not educative. However, this is not the fault of the technology itself, rather how we use it.