00:00:07
Speaker 1: To the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald from Newstalk ZB.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Is life too cruisy for teenagers growing up in New Zealand? Is life too cruisy? Well, one person thinks so, but there is a, who I'll tell you about, but there is a phrase you might hear me say a few times this morning, let kids be kids, because it's exactly what I thought when I was reading some comments by a very successful young guy with 12 university degrees who thinks we need to be pushing Kiwi kids harder at a younger age. So Jamie Beaton is his name. He is co-founder of an outfit called Crimson Education. You might have heard of it. It's like an agency which helps Kiwi students get into the top universities around the world, all the biggies, you know, all the Ivy League universities. gives them a leg up, helps them get in there. Sir John Key is Crimson's chairman, and it's done very well as a business. It's got a capital value of a billion dollars. So I'm not poking any holes in that. But it's what this guy Jamie Beaton is saying about pushing kids harder that has certainly got me thinking. It's what I want to dig into this morning because I don't like what he's saying. And that's because it is the complete opposite of letting kids be kids. The way he puts it is that we need to, quote, crank up the intensity. And what he's getting at is kids in New Zealand, and he's talking here about kids 12 and older, he's saying today that we let them cruise through school, we make it too easy for them to get into university, And he says we should be bringing up kids the way they do in places like Singapore. This is him saying that. Not me. This is him saying it. We need to be doing what they do in Singapore, where the kids have to compete to get into university and where there are exam processes they have to go through to get in. And he says they know that from a very young age. And so they are very driven from a very young age, which I'll put it this way. It sounds like a Bloody nightmare way to grow up, if you ask me. So talking about the way kids grow up in Singapore, Jamie Beaton says, quote, kids are hustling from 12, 13, 14 to study for these exams. These are the exams to get into university. He says they build their leadership skills, they launch different projects, do community service, and the incentives actually make the child very motivated. End of quote. I mean, is that really the ideal we should be going for, aiming for? I don't think so. Because as I say, let the kids be kids. Hustling, as he puts it. That's the total opposite of that. He goes on. Quote, I would much rather Kiwis be 12, 13 and hustling, motivated, ambitious, trying things, competing and striving than just going to school, watching the clock hit 3.30 and going off using TikTok. But here's where I'm at. on this. The world kids live in is stressful enough. And what do you think would happen with things like anxiety levels if we went down the route Jamie Beaton is pushing for? You know, in an age where we're all talking about adults having work-life balance and all of that, why on earth would we want to force our kids from the age of 12 to use every hour God sends them doing this and doing that, doing everything, you know, maximize your time, Besides which, the way this guy's talking, you would think that there are no teenagers in this country out there doing amazing things already. And there are truckloads of them. You go to any major school sporting event, find out more about things like the Young Enterprise Scheme, you know, where school students get to start businesses and learn all sorts of skills. So the opportunities are there for these kids if that's what they want to do. And another key thing to remember too is that even the really motivated kids can get to a point where they find they have limits and they can't keep pushing themselves. Which is why this talk from this very bright guy about forcing kids in New Zealand from the age of 12 to hustle and to compete more to get into university and do community service and have no downtime, that is the last thing our young people need. Because the most important thing for me is to let the kids be kids.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: For more from Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald, listen live to news talks at Be Christ Church from 9 a.m. weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: To the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald from Newstalk ZB.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Is life too cruisy for teenagers growing up in New Zealand? Is life too cruisy? Well, one person thinks so, but there is a, who I'll tell you about, but there is a phrase you might hear me say a few times this morning, let kids be kids, because it's exactly what I thought when I was reading some comments by a very successful young guy with 12 university degrees who thinks we need to be pushing Kiwi kids harder at a younger age. So Jamie Beaton is his name. He is co-founder of an outfit called Crimson Education. You might have heard of it. It's like an agency which helps Kiwi students get into the top universities around the world, all the biggies, you know, all the Ivy League universities. gives them a leg up, helps them get in there. Sir John Key is Crimson's chairman, and it's done very well as a business. It's got a capital value of a billion dollars. So I'm not poking any holes in that. But it's what this guy Jamie Beaton is saying about pushing kids harder that has certainly got me thinking. It's what I want to dig into this morning because I don't like what he's saying. And that's because it is the complete opposite of letting kids be kids. The way he puts it is that we need to, quote, crank up the intensity. And what he's getting at is kids in New Zealand, and he's talking here about kids 12 and older, he's saying today that we let them cruise through school, we make it too easy for them to get into university, And he says we should be bringing up kids the way they do in places like Singapore. This is him saying that. Not me. This is him saying it. We need to be doing what they do in Singapore, where the kids have to compete to get into university and where there are exam processes they have to go through to get in. And he says they know that from a very young age. And so they are very driven from a very young age, which I'll put it this way. It sounds like a Bloody nightmare way to grow up, if you ask me. So talking about the way kids grow up in Singapore, Jamie Beaton says, quote, kids are hustling from 12, 13, 14 to study for these exams. These are the exams to get into university. He says they build their leadership skills, they launch different projects, do community service, and the incentives actually make the child very motivated. End of quote. I mean, is that really the ideal we should be going for, aiming for? I don't think so. Because as I say, let the kids be kids. Hustling, as he puts it. That's the total opposite of that. He goes on. Quote, I would much rather Kiwis be 12, 13 and hustling, motivated, ambitious, trying things, competing and striving than just going to school, watching the clock hit 3.30 and going off using TikTok. But here's where I'm at. on this. The world kids live in is stressful enough. And what do you think would happen with things like anxiety levels if we went down the route Jamie Beaton is pushing for? You know, in an age where we're all talking about adults having work-life balance and all of that, why on earth would we want to force our kids from the age of 12 to use every hour God sends them doing this and doing that, doing everything, you know, maximize your time, Besides which, the way this guy's talking, you would think that there are no teenagers in this country out there doing amazing things already. And there are truckloads of them. You go to any major school sporting event, find out more about things like the Young Enterprise Scheme, you know, where school students get to start businesses and learn all sorts of skills. So the opportunities are there for these kids if that's what they want to do. And another key thing to remember too is that even the really motivated kids can get to a point where they find they have limits and they can't keep pushing themselves. Which is why this talk from this very bright guy about forcing kids in New Zealand from the age of 12 to hustle and to compete more to get into university and do community service and have no downtime, that is the last thing our young people need. Because the most important thing for me is to let the kids be kids.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: For more from Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald, listen live to news talks at Be Christ Church from 9 a.m. weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
