How children grow up to become beautiful adults is such a wonderful, awe-inspiring thing. I can imagine how parents are so happy seeing kids grow up and eventually becoming successful people in life. So what do I mean by success here?
Success can probably be defined as related to quality of life. Good quality of life means that you can live the way you want, buy what you need and want and travel to colorful, fancy places. That is at least how I would like to define quality of life. Successful people are to me people who are free.
There’s not a clear-cut process to achieving such freedom. Education is key I believe. I have been part of the working sector ever since I entered the University of the Philippines in 2006. I have been a working student. I would say it is quite hard to go up higher on the corporate ladder unless you have some great academic credentials behind you. And that is why I am endeavoring hard to obtain an academic degree from UPOU.
Education and how kids develop into adults are two interrelated aspects of quality of life in my opinion.
This is where I would be very thankful having been introduced into theories of human development. Which is a very multi-faceted subject. There are different viewpoints or schools on human development. One can be quite cognitive, the other can be very socio-cultural. A more scientific way of looking at human development would tend to be biophysical in nature. However, I have personally been drawn into one theory which to me is very holistic. That would be Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. He posits that the environments surrounding a developing person is such a quintessential factor. And he means all types of environment- the physical, the social and the psychological or even culture itself. I like how he has defined such an environment as composed of the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem and the macrosystem. The microsystem is basically the physical surroundings and the people around an individual. The mesosystem refers to how the microsystem’s components interact and affect the individual. What about the exosystem? “Bronfenbrenner believes that the exosystem is a set of specific social structures that do not directly contain the individual, but still have an impact on the person’s development. These structures ‘influence, delimit, or even determine what goes on’ in the microsystem of the developing individual. The individual does not participate in these settings, but they do have a direct impact on his or her behavior. For example, an exosystem might be the doctor’s office, the teacher’s lounge, or grandma’s house. These are all places with an indirect impact on the person’s development” (Salkind, 2006).
In a nutshell, an individual can unleash his or her potential, by doing something about it. That is considering the available resources in the surrounding environment.
Relating that to my private studies as a vocal jazz student in the Philippines, I have had to improvise on things. No one school in the Philippines offers vocal jazz as a program. So I have had to research and tap into teachers who could personally teach me the art of vocal jazz. I have also tapped into online, social media-based groups that can help further my vocal jazz studies.
I just wish that all kids could have a nurturing, friendly environment for their development.
REFERENCE
Salkind, Neil J. “Ecological Theory.” Encyclopedia of Human Development, edited by Neil J. Salkind, vol. 1, SAGE Reference, 2006, pp. 438-440. Gale Ebooks, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3466300227/GVRL?u=phupou&sid=GVRL&xid=6ad59e0c. Accessed 29 Oct. 2019.
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