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As a kid, I wanted to impress my parents and also do well at school. I ended up achieving the latter, but I am not sure if my parents were impressed by the little things I did to impress them. But one thing I know, though, is that my parents wanted me to have a good education, which I did.

And now, like most parents, I also want the best education for my kids, but can these kids, like I was, actually stay focused in school, especially in this modern times with so many distractions that can keep kids' attention away from school? Before we begin to talk about these distractions let's digress a bit. In all fairness, is going to school necessary for a child to develop the ability to be able to resolve situations?

Street Smart vs Book Smart Kids
I bet that the answer to the above question is a big NO. As most of us already know, the street is where the reality of the world actually happens. See, a child on the street can gain knowledge and perception of a situation from personal experience(s) on the street in what has come to be termed "being street-smart." On the other hand, others gain knowledge of the world by learning from the experiences of others, via books, in what some people would refer to as "being book smart."

Put in a different way, street smart folks are people that are better and more comfortable at dealing with situations. This because they learn of these situations from personal experience(s). The book smart folks, on the other hand, are those who learn from the experiences of street smart folks via books, and thus may not be as adept at handling situations like the street smart folks.

But does this imply that it is better to be street smart than book smart? I would say it depends. To elucidate, true that nothing compares to experience, but can one individual gain a personal experience in everything? I don't think so. And what if in the process of gaining such an experience, you endanger your life and become a statistics? This why many people would concur that it is better to learn from the experiences of others--be more book smart. In addition, book smart kids can safely learn many experiences from different people as against a street smart person who learns from an individual experience, which could, as previously stated, be risky.

In summation, learning from books, as obtained in schools, is not the only way to give a kid the right situational experience(s), but it is a safer and more advantageous way of learning. But being safe, according to some people, does not mean interesting--- it is not the same thing as a person personally experiencing an event. In other words, effectively teaching kids at school can only be partly achieved if they are willing to learn and stay focused regardless of the perceived boredom that might come with the lectures. And so, therein lies the question: how do we keep kids focused in school especially in this modern era of smartphones, games and social media?

Methods of Keeping Kids focused
1) One of my cousins, who happens to be a professor, would say to make the classes more practical. I agree with this because it is almost like experiencing the situation(s) yourself. What can be more fun than safely recreating, practically, the experiences of others?

2) Most people would suggest taking away the kid's smartphone and other mobile devices that would allow access to games and chats with friends on social media. But a kid would still need the phone for communication, especially with the parents/guardian. And who is to say that the phone won't be used while a lecture is ongoing?

In this regard, 3 students in business school in Norway, came up with a unique way to help kid voluntarily stop the frequent use of their phones, especially during lectures. These students developed an app called "HOLD," and this app does this by bribing kids with points everytime that they don't use their cellphones. And these points can then be used to get discounts and freebies when shopping on Amazon and like stores. The app seems to have gained popularity especially in Europe, and the last I heard, it seems to be having the desired effect.

Some folks would express their disappointments that this generation of kids now have to be enticed/bribed to learn something that could be beneficial to their future? But the end justifies the means, right. Anyway, are there better ways of accomplishing this? Please share your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.