Education is the movement from darkness to light… Allan Bloom
Educating a child means creating a safer world for tomorrow. This is the reason why we all want to educate our children. But the moment we think of education, we think of schools, and when we think of schools, there are several questions that erupt in our mind. At the same time, we want our kids to be happy in school, and grow smart by learning what they love to do. . As we all know, every child is not the same. They are all different and need to be dealt with differently. But do we truly understand them, or do we simply compare them to those who excel in school?
Let’s see if our schools really are meeting our expectations.
As was written by educator R. H. Reeves in his famous fable, “The Animal School,”
Once, all the animals decided to go to school and polish their skills. There was a duck who was excellent at swimming and was good at flying too, but was average at running. It was put into a remedial class so that it could practice running. They kept on training the duck till its web feet were worn out and it scored an average in swimming too. But average was accepted by the school and no one cared about it, except the duck. The first thing that is taught to an individual when he goes through teacher training is not to compare and respect the differences.
While talking about her child, one of my good friends mentioned how her class teacher called her to tell her that her child is unable to behave like the others. She said, “He is a little different, but give him time, he will learn.” But the teacher was so arrogant that she started shouting at the parents. Is this why we are giving so much money to private schools? Can’t these private schools hire good teachers who can change their attitude rather than changing the child’s behavior?
I understood her feelings, as she was feeling very insecure about sending her small kid to that school for a year because all the money was paid and the books were bought.
Nowadays, we parents don’t want our kids to study hard but to be happy and follow their passion. We want them to do what they love to do rather than force them to do what they don’t.
I’ve seen my small child receive so much writing as work. I keep working behind him so that his work is completed on time. Small kids take time to write. We all know that. So why do we give them so many questions and answers, fill in the blanks, definitions, etc. to write? That too, in each and every subject. He doesn’t have time to read and understand the concept. I don’t know in which world these schools dwell.
It’s time to change according to time, but it gives so much pain to see these schools dwelling in the same old schools and our children are the ultimate sufferers.
At the same time, we want our kids to cherish their school time rather than consider it the worst time of their lives. At the same time, each teacher should behave in such a way that the kids will remember them throughout their lives.
Schools should also include more and more extracurricular activities so that the kids feel energetic enough to learn more. And those who love to play or are creative get a chance to explore their interests. But still, our schools feel that learning letters and numbers is more important than anything else.
Schools that have changed are going to survive in the future, and the old schools are going to be out of competition very soon due to their arrogance and attitude.