“I am going to bed Mumma,” said Adhira and fell over her bed with a big thud. She is a girl who has just stepped into her teenage years. We know how hard the teenage stage can be. It is the time when one’s mind struggles to cope with the world. One can compare the transition of a kid from 12 to 13 with a cat on a wall. We could hardly tell whether it would jump this side or the other, just like this the kids are hard to predict whether they are still in their childhood stage or ready to move on as teenagers.
So our diva Adhira is in one such stage let alone her school. Yes, school life is portrayed very colourful in various areas but actual school life is no bed of roses. Let alone the peer pressure, academics crack open a child in many ways. One subject that gives her nightmares is Maths.
She struggles so hard in that particular area. Like every average kid, she pulls various stunts like tummy ache, toothache headache, this and that to avoid her evaluations.
She tries to avoid any subject that involves calculations. Her parents are called for meetings often by her teachers to make her learn Maths a little more. Mumma also tried a lot to convince her to grow some affinity towards the subject, but talking to a teenager is like talking to a brick wall. Some get to like a subject because of their teacher. But in Adhira’s case, her phobia affected her liking of mathematics teachers as well.
Day by day the phobia of Adhira gave sleepless nights to both the mother and the daughter. Summer holidays are around the corner and Mumma thought for a while and came up with an idea. She called her daughter and said, “Adhira I am a little bit busy nowadays and granny is quite ill, would you like to help us with granny’s business?” “What? Me?” wondered Adhira but after long persuasion, she agreed.
Granny had a flower shop. Adhira began her first day in the shop. Mumma taught her how to maintain a till, how to keep track of which is sold, which is in need and which is not selling and much more. Her helping nature grew some interest in her that made her hankering to run this business successfully. She started to learn denomination, summing up the day’s profit, calculating the need of the hour without her knowledge. Days rolled by and she wanted to develop an app for her granny’s shop.
She became a hard worker and a young entrepreneur. She was sitting alone on the shop’s pavement thinking about her app idea. She was wondering why it costs so much and so many processes to get an app. Mumma saw her sitting alone filled with thoughts and sat down with her. She asked Adhira, “ would you like to learn how to do one on your own?” “Yes Mumma, I do but won’t I need Mathematics for that? You know I hate it and I am not good at it. How come you are asking me this?” whined Adhira. With a grin on her face, she said “Adhira you have been using Mathematics for the past twenty days.”
“What? Me? Really? No, you are making me a fool here. I have hardly touched my books. How is it possible?” she wondered. Then Mumma explained how she used maths for her business and she pointed out that Adhira was too good at it. She now talked with Adhira, “Maths is very much needed in living a good life, maths is not just an abstract subject it’s rather a tool to figure out one’s personal finance.” She convinced Adhira that Maths is fun and the way we approach understanding it by interrelating real-world needs can create as well as feed our curiosity.
She also gave some instances that, Swiggy, Zomato or Foodpanda are some wonderful apps we use to order our favourite food items. If one can know how much cashback (money) or discount we get, it tells us how less we have to pay for our food. It would be known to us only if we are able to calculate the percentage into money. It would be good only if we know that conversion. This in turn would save us a lot of money. Everyone should know saving is earning. Adhira felt very awestruck and began to grow an affinity towards Mathematics. She not only got good grades but also began to learn how to make good apps for their business.
Real-life can teach a lot to children than giving them textbooks. Give them some money and let them handle the house expenses at their young age under your supervision. It is good to make children learn this concept at an early age. It would prepare them for their future. Many parents hide their hardships to give a good life to their kids. But this is very bad actually. Tell them how you manage and how hard it is to earn your daily bread.
