The Rat Race !!!

While I was having a casual conversation with a School Principal during one of my meetings with her at her school, I couldn’t resist diverting my attention to the parents who were talking to the admission manager of the school. Besides them was a playful young boy. The parents had come there for their son’s admission to Grade 3. The question from the mother was: “Can you promise that my son will get the required cutoff marks in his 12th Grade?”….. Surprisingly the parents are Teachers in a Government High School.

As a parent, I have not bothered about my son’s marks. I was and I am still concerned about the knowledge he is gaining. I have always felt that I need to cultivate the interest for him in a topic and let him wander for the answers. The moment they ask me a question, I tickle their interest, and leave them with their Computer / tab for them to do their research. They feel more excited to come back and tell what all they know about that topic. Many a times, I gain lot of new insights and knowledge from them. I never knew that a human brain has 100 billion neurons, until my kids told me that. When we as kids were able to manage things and come up till this point, why don’t we let our children be as children and let them grow in their own way? Why do we push them always behind a number, when we all very well know that marks are never a measuring factor of one’s intelligence?

If a school admits a child only if he / she has scored or has a track record of 95% marks in their previous school, what is so great about that school? Is it a huge herculean task to make a student score 2% extra? Why are these schools branded as the best? Surprisingly I find teachers enrolling their children in other Schools as they feel that their children will get better education. So does that mean that they are not confident about themselves? Do they impart education to their class children, as they will do it for their own children?

The problem is not just with the schools. Undeniably, many a schools are looking at education as a business and indeed to a certain extent, it is. But the bigger picture is …. Education is a nation building exercise, a generation building exercise, humanitarian building exercise. There is no single stake holder who is to be blamed, but the entire stake holders and the society.

Let’s open up our minds for the sake of our own children and help them to come out of this rat race. Let us give them their childhood and allow them to be kids and learn and gain knowledge in the way they want to. Let us not burden our kids with our own dreams. Let us help them weave their own dreams and help them realize their dreams. Let’s be a good supporting buddy rather than being a guide, mentor, teacher, parent or whatever. Let us unite and build a bright future for our own kids.

After all, they are our kids; we need to take care of their life. Not burden it for numbers.