The purpose of Children Pay Children isn’t simply to transfer money from the donor to the receiver, but could serve a much more meaningful purpose for the donor than meets the eye.
The purpose of learning
I’m sure you already know as parents that Studying isn’t on the top of your child’s favorite to do list. Many parents blame it on the amount of games and entertainment that surrounds their child on a daily basis which distract them from excelling academically.
One of our co-founders Letitia Zhu has her own take on this matter. Although she too agrees that studying namely “reading and writing” are less fun than say playing with Lego and video games. But the main reason a child doesn’t enjoy doing them isn’t due to it being less fun, but the fact that they fail to see the purpose of doing them along with the reward that comes with it. Famous quotes parents often use to encourage their kids to study may include “You need to work hard now in order to get into a good college!”, or , “You need to study hard now if you want to become a doctor”, or, “You need to practice writing every night to see your book get published when you grow up”. All these sayings might be true, but they aren’t as powerful as you may think in a mind of a child. In their minds，all the rewards that comes from studying can’t and won’t be claimed 10-20 years down the road, while playing their video games and toys would bring them joy instantly. So, the question remains “Is there a way for us to make a child value learning, and feel a sense of accomplishment sooner than later?”. Letitia says “yes”.
Words from Letitia
The problem
Having worked as a private English teacher for the past 6 years, I have dealt with students of all shapes and forms. Although problems vary from student to student there’s a common problem most students seem to have which is the interest, or should I say “lack of interest” when it comes to English learning. They would usually complain saying they are tired from school so they don’t feel like doing too much work with me today, or what I’m asking them to do is too much etc. I then would either give them a lecture on why studying hard is important, blablabla, you get the drill, or plea and attempt them to write one last word or sentence. Then I came to the conclusion that since I’m not their mother my words didn’t go over very well. So, this had always been an issue I didn’t enjoy dealing with at work, it was a total pain in the you know where.
The solution
The tide finally turned about 4 years ago during a speaking class I had with one of my not so favorite students. The reason he wasn’t my favorite mainly came from his poor behavior. He was one of those kids who despised learning all together, and had to be dragged into all sorts of classes by his parents. I often had to repeat myself 5 times in order to finally get a lazy response from him. Long words short, he wasn’t the easiest student to give class to. I remember he was being extra sluggish that day while I was running on a very short fuse. I called him over for class several times while he sat in a lazy boy refusing to budge. I took out my phone and started recording him, to my surprise it got a huge reaction out of him. “Letitia, what are you doing?”
“I’m going upload this video to the internet and show everyone what a lazy brat you actually are” I answered. He jumped out of the lazy boy, straightened his clothes, and gave the best presentation he had ever given. Since then, he’s taken my classes a lot more seriously and made immense improvements in his English ability. His mother even told me about his improvement in other classes as well.
I have been using this method a lot in all my English classes today, some of my students are excited, some are nervous, some newer ones might even be shy, but two things are certain; one, they all want to get better, and two, they all enjoy it! They realize it’s no longer about them pleading with me whether or not they feel like giving a presentation, but about their video being seen by hundreds of kids online, so they have no choice but to be on their best behavior. It is clear that adding meaning and value to learning will automatically bring out the best in a child!
Just as the example Letitia has given, you no longer need to preach to your child about the importance of studying, nor does he need to wait until he grows up to publish his own book. Children Pay Children is offering your child a once in a life opportunity to work with a professional artist to create his or her personal published picture book today! He will feel the joy of accomplishment he didn’t think existed from writing at his age, which should add purpose and interests to all his subjects in school.
You don’t think he will gain interest in English writing seeing his own published picture book?