HE'S believed to have lived over 20 centuries ago, yet The Art of War masterpiece attributed to Chinese scholar and strategist Sun Tzu still rings true in many spheres of life today.
His ideas were applied in areas as diverse as the military to marketing. So perhaps - given the significant challenges the 21st century brings his strategies for how to overcome odds and win battles should also be applied to modern parenting.
Here's why: An education expert yesterday told specialists gathered at the University of the South Pacific that at least 70 per cent of jobs would need post-secondary education. Essentially, what this means is that in future, the job market will be looking for a different kind of employee to the one that most parents may well be in Fiji.
Effectively, our children face an uphill battle in getting ready for the type of job market they will be forced to face in future.
This presents a tremendous challenge for parents who are currently struggling to cope with not just significant changes to the shape and form of the workplace they currently operate in, but also with changes to the world they must parent in.
Perhaps such a climate requires that parents take on a new way of thinking. Indeed, perhaps it is time for parents to take on the role of "generals" in steering their children's success.
Sun Tzu's masterpiece for how to be successful in battle was set out in 13 chronicles. Let's take the first three.
An English translation quoted Sun Tzu as saying "many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all. It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose." As parents, the lesson could be that we cannot expect success from our children's education unless we are willing to put in the time ourselves. At the very least, time to think through what we need to do to help them succeed.
The second chronicle deals with waging war for parents that would be how they deal with the education challenge itself. Part of this must surely be making the most of whatever opportunities are handed to parents and children, whether this be by way of fee-free education, free bus fares, free text books, free lunches even. Some teachers even offer free after-school study time in which students can catch up on points they may not understand. All these types of opportunities should be seized wholeheartedly.
It is the third chronicle, though, which talks about strategic plans of attack, which is most often quoted. The quote in question is "know your enemy". For parents that would be know what you are dealing with, learn about what changes are happening in the workforce, learn about what type of future your children will grow into.
But Sun Tzu takes that point further, stating that if you know the enemy as well as yourself, "you need not fear the result of a hundred battles". But if you don't know yourself or the enemy, you will lose every battle. For parents this is a sobering thought. We must not just have an eye to the future, but also an eye to our own little family units. We must ensure that the entire family unit is of the same thought. If our children are going to succeed in a climate where 70 per cent of jobs will require post-secondary education, every family member needs to believe in education as a goal. Perhaps applying the Sun Tzu ideals to modern parenting is a bit of a stretch, but if parents are not willing to fight for their own kids' future, who will?
