Adaptability for our youth
The cliché “there is no constant thing in the world” is true in our relationships as people change. And for whatever we face, it must be for the better. But the key to coping with the complexities brought about by changes is how we can adjust to the new situation, new environment, and new relationship.
Adaptability is an essential skill we want to develop in order to cope with life’s trials. And depending on one’s maturity level, the coping level is relative. One may be quick to change while others may have difficulty overtime. One may be fixated to realize the aim and so maybe frustrated and unwilling to change, while others have initially come to terms with the possibility of failure and so quick to change as they have options or alternatives from the start.
The scenario is very true to some of our young as they struggle to adjust. They think that when they fail in one area, everything else would also fail. Failure of one is failure of all.
The inability to cope with challenges, one can be overwhelmed by the gravity and intensity of interplaying factors and would lead to breakdown. And this is not what we want as we would want to be the victors in the end.
Adaptability is a life skill that we want to develop among our young, a very important component for survival. One who would insist on pursuing things that would not work in the end would struggle to fit in in an environment. But for one who can adapt has high coping mechanisms.
Across a student’s lifetime, their world will change and change again. They’re likely to see industry reshaped, medical advancements, and huge changes to technology. In their own life too, they will begin school, transition to further education or work, move out of home, begin or end relationships, maybe have children, and retire from work.
To navigate this ever-shifting world, young people will need to be adaptable. But is this something you can teach? And what kind of difference can being more adaptable make?
And in the issue of whether students must be separated in schools based on gender to avoid peer pressure and even pregnancy, and inasmuch as we want curb the incidence of pregnancy, this is not the answer to the problem as we are all the more creating an environment that is artificial as it does not reflect the real scenario of the community, a community beyond school.
Young people who are more adaptable are more likely to participate in class, enjoy school, be more satisfied with life, have higher self-esteem, and have a more concrete sense of meaning and purpose in life. It emerged as a potent factor in academic and non-academic outcomes.
For our young, their capacity to deal with adversity and to respond to uncertainty, change, and novelty are skills that we need them to be trained of and emulate those individuals who have succeeded in life because they were able to adapt to the new environment.
Change, uncertainty, variability, transition and novelty are a reality of life. The extent to which young people effectively respond to this reality will have a significant bearing on their life course.
In life, not all things would turn out to be as we wish for as there are many factors, expected or otherwise, would come our way. Picturing out the possibilities and responding to them with great sense of positivity and responsibility is key to survival.
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