Board exams in the realm of private schools are an important threshold, which are to be cleared not just with good percentage but also with excellence (beyond expectation) for a better academic track record and future career options. Teachers, parents, students, principals, all the stakeholders conduct themselves with utmost sincerity in the period between December and March. From extra classes, tuition hours, to mothers maintaining extra stocks of fruits, dry fruits, snacks, the student is given utmost attention and priority. Parents, elder brothers and sisters keep a constant check on study plans and completion of syllabus on time. Parent-Teacher- Association manifests in the most strongest way possible as to how the child is doing, what else is needed for a better academic result. Syllabus is completed well before the stipulated deadline and multiple revisions through at least two pre-board exams is made sure. And from here on, the seeds for a dream/a career option are sown. So...
As living beings, we all want to be treated as special and be showered upon love, like loads of love. Love can sprout in the form of seeds: seeds of sensitivity, seeds of respect and finally as plants and trees of intense love and care, with branches reaching upwards towards the sky. During my first orientation for the fellowship I am currently part of, a hall filled with 200 fresh graduates and post- graduates, we were asked by a very senior person, " what do you think is the basic need of a child, and what is it that we as institutions of education and learning, not providing them with?". In response to this question, I answered that we need to make the child feel loved, to give him/her/other gender identities, the space to express feelings, thoughts, emotions and made to feel special. As a child, I constantly needed attention (to the least), care,respect (while being punished physically for my mistakes) and the feeling of love and appreciation from my teach...