Peer Pressure on Indian Kids Part 3

Broad Based Education – A story

All the animals in a forest decided to start a school for themselves. The objective was to give all the animals a broad based education. Those got enrolled included a bird, a fish, a fox, an eel, a rabbit etc., as a part of the curriculum, it was decided to teach flying, tree-climbing, swimming, burrowing to all of them.

The bird was good at flying and got O grades (Outstanding) but when it came to burrowing, the bird kept on breaking its beaks and wings. Slowly it failed in flying also. Due to this it got C (average) in flying and D (poor) in other subjects.

Similarly, Fish was getting O in swimming but could not come out of water to take on other subjects. Hence it failed in all other subjects.

So is the case with rabbit that got O in burrowing but got its head damaged while tree climbing due to which it got poor grades in burrowing also?

Meanwhile Dog was whining that barking should be included in the curriculum.

Eel was the only animal that did half of all these. Based on the average grades, it was declared as the brilliant student!

Moral: Broad based education should see to that the students are prepared for their life without losing their core competence.

Under such circumstances, what is wrong with the parents who wish their kids to excel in whatever the system we follow even if it requires adapting certain unwanted measures? We, the parents are ready to change ourselves however, will our politicians allow us to do so? If they are ready, means, changing the education system, prioritizing meritocracy, implementing competent based education and not number based one etc, then India 2020 what visualized by Dr. Abdul Kalam would become a certainty!

I thank Aamir khan for raking up the most important issue with a nice illustration through this movie!

Peer Pressure on Indian Kids Part 1

Generally, I do not watch movies, but I happened to watch the movie, “Taare Zameen Par” telecast on a local cable channel. My wife compelled me to do so as she felt that it is a must for every parent to watch this movie!

I am not about to write a review of the movie but some school of thoughts which I liked to share with those who read this blog. The story is simple. A kid with specific learning disorder is being repeatedly cursed by his parents and later dumped into a residential school. The kid is ill-treated there again and he loses his self-confidence. Then, an understanding teacher arrives on the scene, who nurtures the skills of the kid and transforms him to a normal one.

There are lessons in this movie. Even if we conducted a classroom session to all the parents on this subject, this would not have made an impact. Nowadays, what we call as “peer pressure” is too enormous on the kids. With severe competition from every corner of life, kids are pressurized to the extreme level and there is no second thought about it.

It is quite natural for every parent to expect their kin to excel in whatever they do and I am no exception to this! If we happened to find a talent, we hang onto that and make all efforts to extract that from our kin. This ends exerting the peer pressure on the kids. The fear of losing makes kids less self-confident. More than the fear of losing, at times, it is the fear of facing the parents’ wrath on failures makes them lose their confidence.

Such pressures on kids do not make any good but harm them badly. At times, it costs them their life also. The increase in number of suicides during exam and results time proves this point.

Kids, nowadays, are being pressurized by the parents with the sole aim of getting numbers (not less than 90%) in all subjects. The deserted look of the playgrounds and gardens (in India, most of the cities do not have play ground or garden for common public is another irony) stands proof of this. Evenings meant for play is now meant for tuitions.

Hiring a special tutor for kid has become a status-symbol. The mushrooming coaching class centers is a proof. In my school days, tuition meant focused teaching to the student who is below-average. Nowadays, invariably, all students enroll in these coaching centers. Such centers now have become another class room with 50 to 60 students cramped in a room and the same subjects are literally vomited or spoon-fed to the kids. The teacher to student ratio in the schools are whopping 1:80 that is another pity situation

Being a parent, I am no exception to all above mentioned facts. I also wish that my kid always stood first in the school. We (more than me, my wife) grind our heads during the tests and exams just for the sake that our son scores good marks.

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