Children need to learn how to reflect

TODAY I am going to engage on the issue of effective design of transfer payment policies and share my thoughts on how we are faring as a country. I wrote this article in reference to the proposed transfer payment to 4 000 unemployed graduates, which made headlines a couple of moons ago. A transfer payment is a payment of money, usually from the government, for which there are no goods or services exchanged. These include, among others, the elderly grants, disability grants, OVC fund etc.

Positive impact of transfer payment on economy

Basic reasoning in economics deems transfer payments as a tool to bolster growth in the economy. This is through increased spending and something called the multiplier effect. Imagine this; the initial injection of money goes to the elderly who then spend the money at another business. In turn, this stimulates employment and those employees get paid, who then spend at another business. This cycle continues to go on in a ‘multiplying’ fashion. In a nutshell, the E1 invested by government in the transfer payments yields more growth than the amount injected through the spending pathway.

Negative effects of transfer payments on economy

Transfer payments have a negative effect on the

I Tis almost the end of the year and I have prioritised the importance of reflections in order to push and reinforce the true narrative that it is necessary to reflect in order to grow. When you reflect you acknowledge the fact that you have been through the bad and the good, and account for the bad to self by understanding where you went wrong and what you did wrong, which is the fundamental basis of growing as an individual.

While my previous article highlighted reflecting in the spirit of ending the year, it is important to mention that reflections should be a daily part of your life as an individual. This means that it should be something done at the end of every day, or the end of every week and even the end of every year because there is no real timeline or real measure for success or for acceptable growth. In that length it means that life is not a race because everyone grows at their own pace and in their own time. Therefore, one’s reflections should not be measured by the time or accolades of the next person, but rather by the need and desire to improve as a person from who you were yesterday and not try to meet the standards of someone else. However, we become so focused on growth for the individual by looking at the adult because every day is a battle with society and the barriers that society has in place for many groups, makes it hard for one to be where they want to be. This means that we only see the need for growth and reinforce it in adults and because of this there is little to no attention on teaching children the same principles and habits.

Growth

In this regard, it is equally important to note that children also need growth. In fact they need it more than adults do as they are at the developmental stages of life and, because of this, it is important to understand that children also need to be taught how to reflect. A problem is as big as a person’s understanding. So even in the life of a child there are many overwhelming emotions and problems which can be understood as big as the problems faced in adulthood for the level of maturity that a child has and because of this they should not be invalidated. When we do not invalidate a child’s feelings, we also accept that they face challenges that are needed for them to grow and can easily be overcome by equipping them with the skills to both process and deal with these problems.

There is a saying that denotes that the best time

to teach a child is when they are young so that the habits and ideologies they are being taught become imbedded in their lives and their culture. This means from as early as possible, one must teach their kids how to reflect, so that they are able to identify their own mistakes and learn how to take accountability – which is a critical life and survival skill for a responsible human being. It is important that one becomes accountable for their actions and is able to identify where they need to work harder to rectify their mistakes. If children are not taught this then, inactively they are being taught that they do not make mistakes or do wrong, which is false.

Apart from accountability, making your children understand the habit of reflections also teaches them to be able to identify their wins in the same way that it makes them aware of their shortcomings. This is important because if a child can only identify their shortcomings they only learn that they are not good enough, which is wrong and so balance is needed. This is the balance of also equipping the child to understand their strengths, to see when they have achieved something so they grow up to be goal oriented and to be able to do what they set their minds to. Reflections can start small; simply asking a child to think and share what they did well at school in their day and what they are not happy about and how they think they can fix what they are not happy about. Help them identify their feelings and guide them to realise their own mistakes and their own successes so that they make it a habit. In so doing, you are helping the child to grow, to understand themselves and to understand how their actions make them better and how their actions affect those around them.