The Standard Business Beat
Date: 10.01.2017
Page 9
Article size: 541 cm2
ColumnCM: 120.22
AVE: 0.0
days, pupils were more likely to be
truant, miss school and sneak out if
they came from affluent families.
Not anymore. The new phenome­
non taxes psychologists, education­
ists and keen observers.
We have argued in the past it
might be about the parenting. With
the househelp doing all the work,
children learn their job is to enjoy
life, watch TV, play computer games
and eat. How do we expect kids to
be self­driven if we never give them
a chance to? In the rural areas, the
small pieces of land mean there
isn't much work to do. Rural folks
ne of the most
revolutions in
%J>' been the end of
tive. Lots of parents
has
be pushed like
From school to the
parents and managers
become wheelbarrow
to
do their homework,
signing off on the
The 'wheelbarrow
learning to the teacher, including
during the holidays. 'Wheelbarrow­
ing' has created new industries, like
motivational speaking, tuition and
private schools, where pushing is
transferred to teachers who might
need pushing of their own.
High­end schools charge you
their
handsomely to push your children.
By the time they leave school,
pushing. Employees
beyond the call of
down the economic
any nation.
How did we get here?
AVOID WORK
In school, we transfer all the
must
Teachers are
children have learnt to avoid work
slows
of
can
and must be pushed. Yet, if they are
pushed early in life, they learn to
push themselves later on.
Pushing children till they learn
we reverse it?
The competitive
growing potatoes or milking cows.
so we can stop
Government which has sanctions,
Most movies and comedies are
about emotions.
wheelbarrows?
like approved schools or the threat
of jail if parental pushing does not
I once offered Shi,000 to
[PHOTO: XN IRAKI!
undergraduate and graduate
work. That is has mellowed, thanks
children have their rights.
The church has also mellowed;
the scares of yesteryears are not
there anymore ­ thanks to moder­
nity. When did you last hear your
preacher talking about fire and
brimstone? Taboos and threats of
parental curses were great pushers
in the past.
LEISURE BALANCE
We still think work is evil and
should be avoided. Why push
yourself towards it? Our children
learn about the American constitu­
tion and its electoral process. But
what about Protestant Work Ethics
(PWE)? I will ask this question a
would
parents, afraid of being thought of
as old fashioned, fail to push their
With
children early. By the time they
realise they should have, it's too late
would expect students
and they must keep pushing adults.
The paradox gets
ing; poverty is no
Today, parents apply for
graduate courses for their children,
and follow up on exam perfor­
mance after paying the fees. They
motivator in school.
in our children
on their behalf, so why bother?
The other pushers include the
million times.
such few
beyond the call of duty.
to find a movie or TV comedy on
There are no algorithms, no apps,
no precedence and it demands lots
of creativity and time. Some
have expected
full of
op self­initiative
that someone can take the initiative
With
such few good schools
courses at the
balance towards leisure. It's difficult
to push themselves is hard work.
in
school and at work
spawned more self­
life and leisure balance, tilting the
to new laws and the belief that
that
their children do not
anything
dream of the city to avoid work, rest
and not be pushed.
How do we devel­
get jobs for them, and house them
past age 30. Children learn early
Where do we go from here?
Parents complain that children
have to be pushed on the things
that matter, but on leisure, they
have lots of self­initiative. They will
sing the latest songs by the biggest
musician, but will not analyse a
poem in class. They prefer comput­
er games to science experiments.
students who identify Kanye West,
Kim Kardashian, Angus Deaton and
Jean Tirole from photographs.
I kept my money.
They all recognised the power
couple. Who are the others? Google
­ or must you be pushed? Noted
most TV comedies and movies are
about people talking not working?
We are rarely pushed on matters
of leisure. This creates fertile
ground for corruption and sub­
stance abuse to escape the reality
of work. If we rewarded self­initia­
tive, we would have fewer wheel­
barrows. We give the innovators
patents, the hardworkers bonuses,
and hardworking students get good
schools and job prospects.
Maybe the wheelbarrow effect
shows we have not aligned our
incentives to self­initiative.
Children probably realise this and
rarely see self­initiative rewarded.
The wheelbarrow has been
replaced by pickups and front
loaders, the same way bicycles are
being replaced by motorcycles. Can
we do the same mentally?
Some have argued that the
The writer is senior lecturer, Univer­
media shapes our perspective on
sity of Nairobi, [email protected]
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya
pushing them like