It has been few weeks since I have started to visit our village Government school to teach the children whatever little English I know. And through this, I try to share my knowledge of the world and expand their mindsets too!
In this process, while I might have not taught them too much, they have taught me tonnes of things to which my awareness had not ventured before.
This school is a true depiction of a rural Indian Government Lower Primary School - there are only 9 kids in the entire school as most of the village children go to nearby private schools (called 'convents' in the village) and the school has only one teacher for all of them, by school I mean a single room building.
The first day of my visit came as a shock to my urban-grown private-school educated self because for me a school means a big building with a huge play ground, numerous classrooms, different teachers for each class and subject and a class full of at least 35-40 children.
Putting all this aside, I started to write this blog because I have started to notice the trending attitude of parents who presume their responsibilities towards molding their children ends with them sending the kids to school. The school has to fit this never-fully fitting shoes of responsibility of molding the children to responsible, sensible and decent adults with just 6 hours everyday.
I have been observing the children of the government school and their families. The mother's schedule in the morning is to cook breakfast for the child and bathe them and send them off to school. In the evening, once the child comes back, their duty is to ensure they complete their homeworks, prepare for any upcoming examinations, prepare dinner and put them to sleep. Does this mean that the role of a mother is limited to only preparing meals and maintaining the schedule of their child? What happened to all the great stories where they emphasised that the child is molded majorly by the mother and her upbringing? Let me clarify that I am not penning this blog down to blame the parents and demean their parenting skills. I am writing this more with a questionable mindset which wants to examine the present education system and the family dynamics.
With the formal education being given such high value, the mothers in the village who majorly have not crossed middle school, have devalued their own roles in their child's life. They have labeled themselves as unworthy of grooming a child and depend irrationally on the sole teacher to carve and guide their child's future.
Out of my own experience and personal story, I say that irrespective of the mother being formally educated or not, a mother plays a godlike role in every child's life. The child's character, personality is immensely influenced by the family and more so by the mother.
While the rural mothers have devalued their roles, the fathers simply choose to be absent from their child's life in entirety. I hardly see fathers in the village be a part in their child's life except maybe to take them to cities during festivals and buy them new clothes. The only mention of fathers I have had from the kids so far is - "My father brought these new bangles for me or my father got me this new bottle". Except this I have not heard a single child say that her/his father played this game together or that the father narrated this story to them last night.
What has happened to the role of a mother and father in the rural setting is all thanks to the monstrous role of formal education stealthily becoming a larger influence than one's own family!
I have started a very tiny step in my village by trying to break this image of formal education and get back the parents role in their children's lives. I urge each one of you who reads this blog to give this topic further thought and take a step in any way possible and make a tiny difference in your child's or any child for that matter and make all the adults around a child realise that they also play a huge role in a child's life just as much as a teacher in the school does.
A child who can read ABCD or add up 2 and 3 or recite Twinkle Twinkle Star is not guaranteed to become an emphatic and sensible adult by themselves. They all need to see those qualities - especially creativity, sensibility, ability to help without expecting anything in return, in us adults who surround them outside of those 6 hours that they spend in the school.
Spend an hour narrating a story to a child, get the kids in your apartment block together and sing a song with them, put all the kids of your street together and take them for a hike to a nearby nature spot, help the kids around you to identify the local birds in your area, help them to see the beauty in life and not just read out ABCD from a book!
In this process, while I might have not taught them too much, they have taught me tonnes of things to which my awareness had not ventured before.
This school is a true depiction of a rural Indian Government Lower Primary School - there are only 9 kids in the entire school as most of the village children go to nearby private schools (called 'convents' in the village) and the school has only one teacher for all of them, by school I mean a single room building.
The first day of my visit came as a shock to my urban-grown private-school educated self because for me a school means a big building with a huge play ground, numerous classrooms, different teachers for each class and subject and a class full of at least 35-40 children.
Putting all this aside, I started to write this blog because I have started to notice the trending attitude of parents who presume their responsibilities towards molding their children ends with them sending the kids to school. The school has to fit this never-fully fitting shoes of responsibility of molding the children to responsible, sensible and decent adults with just 6 hours everyday.
I have been observing the children of the government school and their families. The mother's schedule in the morning is to cook breakfast for the child and bathe them and send them off to school. In the evening, once the child comes back, their duty is to ensure they complete their homeworks, prepare for any upcoming examinations, prepare dinner and put them to sleep. Does this mean that the role of a mother is limited to only preparing meals and maintaining the schedule of their child? What happened to all the great stories where they emphasised that the child is molded majorly by the mother and her upbringing? Let me clarify that I am not penning this blog down to blame the parents and demean their parenting skills. I am writing this more with a questionable mindset which wants to examine the present education system and the family dynamics.
With the formal education being given such high value, the mothers in the village who majorly have not crossed middle school, have devalued their own roles in their child's life. They have labeled themselves as unworthy of grooming a child and depend irrationally on the sole teacher to carve and guide their child's future.
Out of my own experience and personal story, I say that irrespective of the mother being formally educated or not, a mother plays a godlike role in every child's life. The child's character, personality is immensely influenced by the family and more so by the mother.
While the rural mothers have devalued their roles, the fathers simply choose to be absent from their child's life in entirety. I hardly see fathers in the village be a part in their child's life except maybe to take them to cities during festivals and buy them new clothes. The only mention of fathers I have had from the kids so far is - "My father brought these new bangles for me or my father got me this new bottle". Except this I have not heard a single child say that her/his father played this game together or that the father narrated this story to them last night.
What has happened to the role of a mother and father in the rural setting is all thanks to the monstrous role of formal education stealthily becoming a larger influence than one's own family!
I have started a very tiny step in my village by trying to break this image of formal education and get back the parents role in their children's lives. I urge each one of you who reads this blog to give this topic further thought and take a step in any way possible and make a tiny difference in your child's or any child for that matter and make all the adults around a child realise that they also play a huge role in a child's life just as much as a teacher in the school does.
A child who can read ABCD or add up 2 and 3 or recite Twinkle Twinkle Star is not guaranteed to become an emphatic and sensible adult by themselves. They all need to see those qualities - especially creativity, sensibility, ability to help without expecting anything in return, in us adults who surround them outside of those 6 hours that they spend in the school.
Spend an hour narrating a story to a child, get the kids in your apartment block together and sing a song with them, put all the kids of your street together and take them for a hike to a nearby nature spot, help the kids around you to identify the local birds in your area, help them to see the beauty in life and not just read out ABCD from a book!
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