I apologise at the very start for such a racy title, the idea is not to demoralise the little girls in the picture but to catch your attention to a topic which is very important. In the jet age of survival, where only ‘being the best matters’, we tend to miss on some relevant points in our education system today. The thing that is missing from the system today, missing in the kids around and will probably fade in the generations to come is ’empathy for others’, ‘patience’, ‘manners’ and ‘honesty’. It’s saddening to see that ‘moral science’ which was taught as a complete subject to us when we were in school is missing totally in the system today.
While the kids are being raised to be all-rounders excelling in all fields, are we forgetting to give them the grounding that they need? I hope the parents and school do realise what they are sowing. I see impatience in kids, I see them being outright rude and mean to their peers.
You don’t know how to play this game properly!
You are so dark!
Your parents can’t even afford a car!
And many more statements like these, make me wonder, as to what ‘generation’ of individuals are we raising?
As a kid, I was aware of what car my parents had and what my friend’s parents had but that was never a point of putting the other person down. I would be lying if I said I did not yearn for a sedan while my parents drove a hatchback for the longest time, but nowhere did it affect my friendship. Infact, one of my schoolmates used to drive a Maruti 800 and we had no idea he belonged to an affluent business family till we visited his house which was strewn with over 20 cars in his driveway. These I think are morals that we were brought up with. Today, in trying to prove themselves better than the other our kids leave no stone unturned to put the other person down.
Parents Are At fault !
Please don’t get defensive with this opening statement, but just judge yourself. How many times have you experienced parents arguing with teachers for scolding their child. Have we not grown up being scolded, being punished and made to stand outside the class? Did we grow up having issues? I remember this really cool thing that my teacher taught me, when we point a finger at someone, there are three pointing back at us. So parents, please be patient and have faith in the system as your kids are watching you closely. And everytime, you are arguing with the teacher or the Principal, they are retaining the memory in their mind. What they see they will learn and imbibe and someday it will come back to bite you.
If they don’t learn to respect their teachers, their elders, then mostly in future they will not respect you.
So Are Schools !
Yes, they partially are to be blamed too. They have stopped teaching kids, like properly teaching as a subject ‘moral science’, ‘behavioral skills’ and are only concentrating on academics or extra-curricular activities. The benefit from what I have suggested cannot be measured but long-term benefits of a solid grounding and foundation will be seen.
Why have they taken a backseat and let parents hover and dictate them terms. My kids go to two different schools and I am amazed at the different ideologies, one school is a no-nonsense school, the other tends to succumb to pressure from the parents. But the two are at two extremes. I am yet to see a school which has a perfect balance. What I am trying to debate is that if one school can follow it why can’t the other? Why can’t there be a balance without being an extreme?
What Can Be Done?
There is only one way of doing this in my opinion;
You have to ingrain it in their sub-conscience every day in school and reinforced at home or visa versa. It is not the responsibility of one but both as both parents and the school are responsible for shaping the child. It’s my humble request to not ignore this important aspect in upbringing your kids and urge the schools to include this as a part of the curriculum.
While I was researching I came across this news snippet;
Signing Off,
Yours Truly,
