The Cult Of WhiteHat Jr.

So, the Whitehat Junior has been in discussion among various stakeholders for quite some time and the whole discussion coming from the parents, media, educationist could be summarised as they are being vocal about the aggressive marketing campaign being promoted by the WhiteHat Jr and the impact it could have in the natural and steady academic growth of children based on their interest, learning ability and the consequences on their mental state for idolizing the monetary rewards of being able to code.

Before understanding the criticism for Whitehat, we need to understand how and to what extent the Indian society and parents value and oversee some events related to their children. We are well aware of the emphasis made by the status-driven mentality of the Indian parents when it comes to education and marriage of their loving child.

An average middle-class family in India spends a hefty amount on the so-called professional education of their children being convinced of the fact that the outcome of the invested money will be much fancier which will put them in a good position in the status-driven society.

We can often find Indian parents to justify the expenses they do for their children’s marriage or education by saying- “Kamate Kiske liye hai ?” By using just one line they reveal the whole mentality behind their willingness to spend their lifelong savings in an event which will have nothing significant impact neither on their life nor on their children’s married life. The core motivation behind all these expenses is just to satisfy and fulfill the status quo of the society which will allow them to be proud in their cohort.

Education is nothing different when it comes to finding a balance between fulfilling the parent’s responsibility to provide their child a good education and finding themselves part of the cohort which looks for the children’s premium education status as criteria of good parenting despite the actual outcome and multiple factors associated with the end result.

India has always been a status-driven society where we tend to spend on certain things more than our Income in order to maintain the status in the society we live in. And, in my perspective — Cashing in on an emotion associated with the target market is nothing bad until or unless any harm is not being done either emotionally, physically, and financially. This is what Capitalism is all about.

So, let us discuss what facts the critics of WhiteHat Jr. have to offer:-

• The shiny outcomes and somewhat false hopes being promoted by the company have made a number of stakeholders questioning the intent of Whitehat Jr. as this certainly makes a very exclusive and often rare scenario to believe as normal and to some extent pushing the child to a tough mental stage where they will find it difficult to handle themselves being compared with someone which will result into something more disastrous to their natural and organic growth.

I am completely convinced of these arguments and certainly, we will never want any child to even think of monetary rewards and the outcome of their education and learning.

“Every child has their own learning ability, interests, and the way he or she learns. We can’t make everyone learn a similar skill and expect that they should do good on that. “

It depends on their interests, focus areas, strengths which will allow them to choose any specific skill and gain a mastery of them which will put them in a better position in their upcoming career goals. And many times it comes by the time as they grow, learn, and get to know about all the possibilities the world has to offer.

Yes, Coding could be one of the many skills for some specific group of children but not definitely for someone. Asking your child to learn to code despite considering all these factors is similar to asking anyone who has no interest in the study to learn art, dance, music, or any other skill which the parents find suitable for them.

The core idea of the movie “Taare Zameen Par” was the same. We can’t put every child in the same frame and expect the same outcome from everyone. Every child is a unique one and we need to understand it.

Second, the purpose of education is not only to earn a good living but to nurture a child to a world that has immense scope for everyone no matter what their educational background and expertise are. The education system intends to shape a child into a wholesome adult who will see the world with his own unique perspective and can contribute to some extent to make the world a better place. The value system, beliefs, ideologies, and overall efforts of a traditional educational system makes a significant role to make a child a full-grown and responsible citizen.

Associating rewards with any skill especially at such a small age is cruelty we can imagine to do with any child. Let them learn, grow, and flourish themselves, and when will learn something which they really like and want to excel at, would be more beneficial for their career.

In my opinion, we should surely question the way Whitehat Jr. has implemented the marketing campaign and messaging of it but all this is nothing but tapping the emotion of the market to let them realize the value of your product which will result in a phenomenal return on investment. And, I don’t find anything wrong with this.

So, here are some questions we also need to ask ourselves before coming to a conclusion and questioning the efforts of a brand to capitalize on our shared vulnerabilities -

• Don’t Indian Parents put the pressure of their unfulfilled dreams on their child and they are willing to sacrifice anything to achieve the purpose?
• To whom should we blame for their willingness to spend more than they can afford for their child’s education or marriage for a completely uncertain outcome just to satisfy their social status?
• And why to blame a brand to capitalize on some specific emotion to sell their product/services to the targeted market while providing the value for their money. Ultimately, that’s how marketing works. ?

We can question the marketing message being portrayed by the brand and certainly, this should be done in a more responsible and sensible way while keeping in mind that the end-users of their product will be the innocent child who is going to be the victims of their parent’s expectations.

We also can argue to the fact that the content offered by the brand could be found freely on the internet. True, If we consider this point then most of the internet-based companies will be out of business as most of them are nothing but content curators just providing the experience to the end-users by their technology-based platform and in return charging them.

So, despite coming to a conclusion, We should see things with a holistic approach and try to find a solution in a comprehensive way.