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 teachers in order to learn and study more actively, more enthusiastically and also be more questioning as the space for the same was being provided.
Our public institutions standing tall on public spaces and being supplied with funds and dry resources, why is it that we are still lacking in quality education and holistic nourishment of our students/ children? Is it that the role of these tall buildings and four -wall rooms is to help students learn two plus two, to be able to read few sentences in language subjects or to be able to mug up answers with zero comprehension of the same and to be vomited out in front of the teacher, with zilch facial expressions and creativity?
In my eight months of working in this tribal belt of Udaipur, I have come across exceptionally bright students as well as greatly slow learners and first generation school comers. But one ideology which runs common among majority of government teachers is a constant, fixed bias that, "madam, ye aadivaasi bacche hain, inme dimaag kam hai". Apart from facing severe physical beatings from headmasters and teachers, chronic truancy and low motivation and energy for a good teaching, these kids are a victim of constant verbal and emotional abuse in terms of their capability, potential and achievements.
The abuse has been to such an extent that just four days ago, in one of my schools, during one of the health check-up camps put up by the government, a girl of around 14 came to me and said, "didi, main bhi jaun apna check up karwane?, over which I asked her that what is the medical problem that she is facing or experiencing. To my utter shock, she said, " sab mujhe kehte hain, mere main dimmag kam hai". For a moment, I was totally taken aback. How could a child accept that about herself?
Later another incident shook me to the core. During one of our daily meetings, my leader shared that how she was asking a child to come and sit on one of the front benches, in response to this, she got to hear something like this from the child, " madam, main hoshiyaar nahi hun na, isliye main aage nhi baithunga."
As adults, most of the time, we are lost in our own thoughts and busy judging others. Children have a fertile mind and easily pick up our smallest of acts, without us taking a note of them. The way we stand in front of them and teach them, the way we pick up chalks, the way we talk to other teachers, the way we enter in the classroom, they notice everything. No matter whether you know their language or not, they very well feel and understand your emotions towards them.
When taught with patience, with warm words and smile, they easily understand even the most difficult of concepts and questions. And no matter how much you are immersed in teaching them, you won't fail to notice the radiant and triumphant smile on their face when being able to solve a problem accurately with sound understanding of the concept.
We all need to be extremely mindful of our words towards other human beings. Words carry loads of energy and motivation. In formative years of students and kids, let our words be more warm, more encouraging and more comforting. It's okay to be a slow learner, to be a not-so-fluent a reader. It's okay to forget tables and countings. What is important is to empower them, to have confidence and say even wrong things with confidence and honesty.
Let's not take away from them what they have been gifted with. As it is, we are not giving them what we owe to them through our duties of being a teacher, a guide, a motivator and a leader. We don't go to our classes regularly, we don't stay in our classes for even full 45 minutes, we don't use activity based teaching as an approach to make learning easier and fun-filled. We sit in the class, not use blackboard but long, sleek bamboo sticks to immediately regulate any action considered to be unnecessary and a disturbance. Fearful environment is what they have been breathing, eating and exhaling.
The least we can do is to be warm and respectful in our words towards them.
The replies of those two kids, were so disturbing to hear about. Where a child who already, at such a young age, believes he cannot do it, cannot leap and touch the sky.
ReplyDeleteA pat, a clap, a smile, a hug, a star in their notebooks or a warm morning greeting and a 'see-you-tomorrow' can make a big difference!
Absorb their madness and reflect it out to them!
What an enriching read!
ReplyDeleteI believe this article is a perfect blend of the thoughts germinating out of compassion and put forth in comprehension of your experiences and observation.
Lastly, keep writing, young lady!