Manya, my daughter has been awarded for academic excellence by her school for her performance in grade I. We attended the award function which was held on 2nd Dec 2017. Children had prepared a lot of stuff for presentation and the award function went very well.
It was good show and Manya was on top of the world. Daksh also attended the function with us.
Children of today are many times smarter than us. Cambridge International School, Dasuya is doing a good job of grooming the children. I used the word grooming because it involves a lot of more effort than teaching.
I had specially chosen this school because it laid less stress on the studies and more on all round development of the child.
I hate the schools which force the children to just cram and vomit in the exams. Though the educational approach is changing and with more use of technology, the students are in general learning in better environment than the previous ones, some schools take the lead and CIS Dasuya is one of them.
It is better to care less about tables and more about your abilities
It helps to bring the confidence.
You can not succeed in today’s world by just being a good student. You need to add many facets your personality.
The world is canvas for the children. But I we do not let them draw or limit their imagination by one mean or other, they do not realize their own potential.
At my house, we had a dedicated room where children could scribble and color the walls . I insisted this in spite of collective objections of other family members. I am not sure what phenomenon is this but children like to draw on the empty walls. And if they are drawing it is good.
You can paint them again but once you fall in love with their doodles, you would treasure the memories.
Still, the mischievous children [as they should be] often crossed their boundaries and drew on the non-dedicated areas. My mother used to get upset and tell me to teach them rights and wrongs. [When would they learn? Aidan taan ihna bigad jaana hai].
She could not answer though when I asked her if she has ever witnessed any adult doing this activity. It just means we stop as we grow old.
In fact, due to her constant insistence I had written few lines about that
ਵਾਹੁਣ ਦੇ ਲੀਕਾਂ, ਮਾਰਨ ਦੇ ਕਾਡ਼ੇ
ਤੇਰੀਆਂ ਕੰਧਾਂ ਨੁੰ ਰੰਗ ਫੇਰ ਹੋ ਜਾਣੇ ਨੇ|
ਮੇਰੇ ਹੱਥਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਨਿੱਕੀ ਜਹੀ ਪੇਂਸਿਲ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੋਣੀ
ਨਾ ਮੇਰੇ ਦਿਨ ਬਚਪਨ ਦੇ ਮੁੜ ਕੇ ਆਣੇ ਨੇ|
I feel, our conventional approach towards the children is one that of overdirection and it is not justified. We force them to become limited. It is not done.
There were times when children could be confined because their were limited things to explore and limited number of people [parents, teachers], they could turn to ask something.
And those who could have prodded them on to the path of exploration, used their eminence, insecurities and vested societal interests to pass the knowledge selectively. Not only this, gender discrimination and inequalities were kept alive by constructing a network of lies and deceits to withhold the info.
Not today!
Children are more exposed and in fact, if we discount their age and means of getting, a lot abler.
This throws the challenge for the parents who have been brought up with older set up and older values. They want to cling to them but want their children to grow in the new milieu that promises the skies.
There are bound to be mistakes on both the sides. But it is a journey parents, teachers and students need to take collectively and if needed make yourself rise up to what journey expects.
Moreover, mistakes are part of learning. Never mind if your child does it. Never mind if you do it and have to admit in front of your child [something unheard of earlier – parents never made mistake].
Never mind if it comes from the teacher.
It is more important to create a harmonious environment so that child does not get confusing messgages.
After all we are all humans. We have certification to err.
In the award function, I could not help taking home a similar message
“It is okay to color outside the lines.”
A profound statement indeed.
