Children's Education Initiative

Teaching the child initiative

We look forward to the renaissance of our nation. We hope that our children will be at the forefront, that they will be among those who take the initiative to do good. There are many people who love good deeds and support those who do it and are willing to carry out whatever costs are asked of them for that sake, but those who take the first steps and lay the first building block are few. We want our children not to wait for assignments, and not to turn around looking for guidance, wondering: What is required in a situation like this? What should we do? We want them to take advantage of the opportunities and passing situations to present their suggestions, present their ideas, and share their opinions, as ideas, actions, and efforts often stop at the scope of their owners’ thinking.

How does entrepreneurship arise? Is it a trait that its owners are obligated to possess, or is it a characteristic that they acquire?

Initiative may appear without intentional educational intervention, and the educator can also develop it among young people. The family atmosphere varies in the role it plays in this regard, between encouraging initiative and a typical, routine one in which the children move with the remote control, and a third that is chaotic and frustrating in which no one moves, where there are no limits or instructions, but rather negligence, excess, criticism and blame.

Daily life situations show us what individuals possess of this trait, which we must invest in and strive to strengthen if its features appear in the behavior of our children, and we work to form and train it if it is present in their behavior. I will mention two situations that we often encounter. The first: When we were in a gathering and while I was talking with my neighbor, her son came running and rushing to her lap, spilling a cup of juice on her and the floor. His sister, Laila (13 years old), quickly jumped to get the box of tissues and then carried her brother to the sink. ; Laila did this on her own initiative, without request or assignment. What moved Laila?

The second: When the older aunt entered the gathering late and turned around looking for a place to sit, she remained waiting for a while while young girls sat chatting without any of them moving to offer a place for the standing aunt. One of the mothers noticed and stood up to welcome the aunt to sit in her place. What happened to those girls? About doing what the situation requires?

There is no doubt that the presence of the element of initiative in the first situation and its disappearance in the second situation is the factor behind the difference in behavior in the two situations. So what is initiative? It means: rushing when the need arises or when the opportunity arises to do something that will benefit the person or other people, without waiting for the progress of others, and without hesitation and fear of the consequences and requirements of leadership. The initiative stems from a sense of responsibility and the desire to achieve good for oneself or for others, and the feeling of eligibility to do so.

If we want to establish a family atmosphere that allows the element of initiative to emerge, several matters must be taken into account, perhaps the most important of which are:

✓ Developing a sense of responsibility, including assigning children tasks and fixed roles to serve the family, consulting them on family issues, and assigning them to plan trips, outings, or the like.

✓ To urge the children to compete in good deeds, following the Prophet’s guidance, “Tomorrow I will give the banner to a man whom God and His Messenger love,” as if we were saying, “The one with smart ideas will prepare for our next outing,” and to tell them about the initiators, such as Ukasha, who, when he heard the description of the seventy thousand who would enter Paradise, hastened to request the Prophet’s prayer for him to He may be among them, and Al-Hubab bin Al-Mundhir, who took the initiative to present his opinion on the Muslims’ home in Badr, and among the scholars and preachers of our present time who are taking the initiative to ensure that our children see examples of initiative in our actions, such as carrying out social or cultural activities for relatives, removing harm from the way.

✓ Developing self-confidence. One of the manifestations of weak initiative is the excuse of weak abilities and inability to complete work. Useful methods for developing children's self-confidence include:

o Encouraging initiatives by granting powers, praising them, and highlighting them to encourage others to follow suit. It is useful to train children to provide hypothetical solutions to expected circumstances. What can we do if?

o Reducing the details of the tasks they want to accomplish, especially as our children get older and their experience increases, in order to give them space to work hard and make them feel confident. We may ask something like, “We would like to sit in the garden and we need to create a nice session.” Who is concerned with this matter? What are the required equipment specifications? ... The children may ignore the matter and may look at each other if this method is not usual in the family. The son may hesitate and fear not accepting the preparations he deems appropriate, but encouragement in such situations and avoiding criticism and blame develops the children’s self-confidence and encourages them. On the initiative.

o Alleviating anxiety for our children and protecting them from the consequences of diligence and the criticism and trouble it may bring upon them. Our children must go through experiences and learn from situations.

Therefore, the element of initiative is represented by people who take the initiative themselves, not waiting for others to follow in their footsteps, who are ready to bear the results of their initiatives. People who take advantage of opportunities and rush to do good. These are the people through whom nations rise, and from whom we must make every effort to provide our nation with examples.

Dr.. Sahar bint Abdul Latif Kurdi

Family and child counselor