NAN-ELS-41
Talent
By Cecilia Odey
Mararaba (Nasarawa State), June 28, 2017 (NAN) Mrs Beatrice Okoh , a private school owner, has urged parents and guardians to encourage their children develop their gifted talents in the interest of their future.
Okoh, who is the proprietress of Great Grace Nursery and Primary School Mararaba, Nasarawa State, made this appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to her, it is wrong for parents to compel their children to study specific careers.
“Some parents are in the habit of choosing careers for their children, which may lead to failures in the future.
“It is not a matter of what a parent wants for his child but what the child can do with his potential and natural abilities.
“If a child’s choice of career is based on his natural abilities; that will bring him fulfillment and joy as well as the realisation of his purpose in life,’’ Okoh said.
Okoh, however, said that care must be taken to ensure that the child’s choice was not based on imitation or the desire to be like some “successful” people in that particular endeavour.
According to her, many kids want to be like Davido or Lionel Merci, just because of their fame and wealth, but not on the basis of their innate abilities.
Similarly, Prof. Florence Ikem, a lecturer in the in the Department of Humanities, Nasarawa State University, observed that children, who were allowed to do what they enjoyed, tend to be great achievers.
“This is because anything that you do with a passion, you put in your best but when you force a child to live your dream, that child only manages to be a shadow of your dreams.
“Leave a child to live his dream and passion, you will find that he will be a happier person and be more tolerant to others around him,’’ she said.
According to Ikem, people have peculiarities that make them unique as everyone cannot be doctor, lawyer, pharmacist or accountant.
She, therefore, urged parents to allow their children and wards to be the best they could be by giving them the liberty to choose what they love to do.
(NAN)
COO/LAB/YEMI
Edited by Lydia Beshel/Yemi Idris-Aduloju