Future belongs to the Curious – Valuez Bulletin of the week

The future belongs to the curious! Young kids need opportunities to practice feeling wonder to develop curious minds.

Let us glance at the following points which outline the possible opportunities that our kids are currently exposed to. Moments of feeling Wonder, amazement, surprise, a trigger for the little buzzing brains, and then look at the consequences.

Some of the things kids are exposed to on Mobiles and streaming platforms

• Content with surprisingly violent themes, disguised as kid’s stories.
• Movies or serials that show plotting with a purpose of causing harm to someone.
• Violence in video/online games.
• Body and physical attributes shown more important than mental or behavioural qualities.
• Content which skews a kid’s definition of what success means.
• Commercial content designed for titillation and hooking the adult viewer.

You would say, “Yes! We know this, but they would get exposed to all of this anyways as they grow up, so what’s the harm if they see all this a little earlier?”

The points below are a partial executive summary of the “harm” proven through peer reviewed research by top childhood psychology professionals. This also underscores what we know intuitively as parents and teachers.

• Exposure to repeated violence through either movies, cartoons or games, leads to a reduced willingness to help someone in actual pain.
• It also leads to viewing violent acts as less serious and increases agreement to idea that violence is an acceptable means to solve problems.
• Reduced empathy, increased objectification, desensitization and erosion of morality.
• Decreased self-esteem, negative body image.
• Sex perceived as a substitute for healthier emotions – Love, care etc. Unrealistic image of sex, perceived only for pleasure than an expression of intimacy.

Where is that wonderment? That excitement which makes the mind fly? Those questions which demand answers, lead to exploring, even more questions and gets converted to interest, passion, purpose?

Now imagine if we could substitute the above with content, discussion or triggers which lead to following questions from our kids.

• Can we 3D print our food also? Can we 3D print furniture?
• When can we travel in a Hyperloop?
• Really? Was India the first country to reach Mars orbit in its first attempt?
• How can a day on the Moon be ~30 Earth days?
• How can there be life a kilometre below Ice in Antarctica and inside a volcano?
• Can we grow food on Mars?
• Can I wear a VR headset and reach by classroom or the school playground from our home?

It is a World full of distractions, choices, options, race to the next enrichment activity, turn kids to “whizkids”!

With EdPrime, we want to cut the clutter, and share a common vision to make our kids future ready as that very future depends on them. EdPrime has tied up with the new-age content brand “Valuez – Gurucool of knowledge and values” to present a weekly bulletin designed exclusively for our children.

The weekly bulletin has following key features:

• Topics to make our kids future ready. Cutting edge technology, new tech trends, prototypes or pilot research with big vision!
• Presented in a kid-friendly format with child anchors, friendly animation
• Followed up with quizzes for engagement
• Further reading material to satiate curiosity.
• Age appropriate and simple language, relatable examples, steer clear of any negative content.

Just log on to the student or teacher dashboard and find the bulletin link on the home page. We encourage teachers to share the video in their classroom lessons, pause the video wherever needed and engage kids. The content is designed to not only make kids aware of topics that matter but also awaken the explorer in every child and set out on their own quests!

Our favourite President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, in his book relates an incident from his childhood. He recalls a visit to the beach with his teacher Siva Iyer where he showed a young Kalam, how the birds fly, sharing the mechanism of flight. That one visit triggered the passion in his young brain to eventually achieve what he did!

Every journey begins with the first, small step. So, log-on to the dashboard, and watch the first bulletin today and share your comments and feedback!