IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY EDUCATION 3 – DEVELOPMENTAL INDICES

The essence of family education is to engender development. Development on the other hand is the progress, increase or simply consequence of the social process or interaction which ensue due to the application of various inputs. To attain a well developed family status, certain indicators are key variables to consider in the developmental processes.

FAMILY CULTURE AND QUALITIES
You may also call this family standards. Individual values must consolidate to become standards that guide behavior and activities in the family. Long held values and standards becomes family culture and cascade into character qualities in each individual. The charlatan would not mind living everyday as it comes but the informed knows that culture is not only a matter of inheritance to be imbibed or jettisoned, culture can be formed and developed. So an informed family is deliberate in configuring admirable family culture from core values and standardized habitual practice.

FAMILY GOALS
Your family must have a short, medium and long term templates for achieving your collective aims. It is common to emphasize individual goals, but where is the family heading to? One of the purposes of family is synergy, but this doesn’t mean much if all there is to your family is the daily norm or worse. Family bond is strengthened when there are goals to score together. Teams win easily when the goal is common. Set smart goals and write them plainly, on where you desire your family to be in 5, 10, 15, 30, or 50 years of it’s existence.

FAMILY PLAN
It is not enough to set goals, you also have to plan how to achieve them. Plans are the daily, weekly, or monthly actions to be taking over time, till the set goals are achieved. You should have family finance plan, family size plan, family education plan, physical fitness plan, spiritual fitness plan, vacation plan, retirement plan, social responsibility plan and so on. It’s not the best, that after breakfast you would still debate what to take for lunch or dinner. A standard plan should have being in place for weekly menu and home inventory management.

FAMILY NICHE
At the mention of certain families’ names (e.g Kuti, Jefferson, Akintola Williams, Warren, Smith, and the likes), something comes to mind, a particular thing they are known for, it may be a value or a specialty but it’s a unique identity attached to the family’s name. Family niche doesn’t have to be cast in stone at the onset, it may evolve over time and it may ultimately be a function of hereditary specialty or profession that makes them influential. However, at the onset, you should have a family watchword, may be annually or perennially, but something of deep value that you would like to perpetuate. It’s like a mission statement. A well coined family niche has the capacity to drive collective and individual actions and inspire worthy achievements.

FAMILY HERITAGE
If you already belong to a family with a good heritage, endeavour to perpetuate it. But if you see yourself as the progenitor of new generations, do well to cast a heritage for the family, for which you’ll be remembered long after you’re no more. This doesn’t have to be an item left for the old age. God forbid, if you die today, what will you be remembered for? At any age or stage you are in life, you can do something for someone or the society which your family will be proud of. Establishing a social project which successive generation would be proud to carry on is a characteristic of a well developed family. Even if you don’t have the means to execute it presently, having it as a family value has the capacity to compel your children to execute it in your honour.

Foregoing are only a few indicators attributed to a developing or a well developed family. It is important to remember as well that such feat is only achievable when a family embrace family education as a necessary input for raising generations of nation builders.

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