I almost choked when I heard what she said! "Mam, can you please give only the certificates where he has won some competitions; Don't give the participation certificates" said the lady sitting in the reception of this school to which I had gone along with my friend, for her children's admission. And one of the two children is in class 1.
This friend's son is now awaiting an entrance exam followed by an interview to get in to class 1! An interview? And to think that I had my first interview when I joined Cognizant!
And yesterday a friend whose daughter is 4 months old, told me she has started the research on which CBSE school they should enroll her child into!
Are we panicking? Do we feel a shudder in the spine when we think of our children's future?
Relax people! I did not study the 'states and the capitals' at least till class 6, which my friend's son is preparing for his impending interview. And most of what I studied in school has nothing to do with where and what I do now. So calm down and relax! We all are doing well in life and most of us did not set the stage ablaze in school. The children will do well in life too. Better than us, for sure!
And please, let us not get in to the mad rush to teach the children every other thing in the world. It is okay if the children do not understand Japanese; It is okay if the neighbour sends his children for music classes and yours just do not go!It is okay if your child does not talk proper grammatical english. When spoken english is how you evaluate your children, you are actually demeaning them!
This schooling is becoming a farce. Let them not be limited by the two covers of a school book. Let us not restrict them by marks and eloquent languages. Let them not be limited by the neighbourhood or the father's dream. Throw all CBSE, ICSE, and all other alphabets to dogs!
Show them the world. A world waiting to be conquered.
Let them be; Let them dream and live it too!
This friend's son is now awaiting an entrance exam followed by an interview to get in to class 1! An interview? And to think that I had my first interview when I joined Cognizant!
And yesterday a friend whose daughter is 4 months old, told me she has started the research on which CBSE school they should enroll her child into!
Are we panicking? Do we feel a shudder in the spine when we think of our children's future?
Relax people! I did not study the 'states and the capitals' at least till class 6, which my friend's son is preparing for his impending interview. And most of what I studied in school has nothing to do with where and what I do now. So calm down and relax! We all are doing well in life and most of us did not set the stage ablaze in school. The children will do well in life too. Better than us, for sure!
And please, let us not get in to the mad rush to teach the children every other thing in the world. It is okay if the children do not understand Japanese; It is okay if the neighbour sends his children for music classes and yours just do not go!It is okay if your child does not talk proper grammatical english. When spoken english is how you evaluate your children, you are actually demeaning them!
This schooling is becoming a farce. Let them not be limited by the two covers of a school book. Let us not restrict them by marks and eloquent languages. Let them not be limited by the neighbourhood or the father's dream. Throw all CBSE, ICSE, and all other alphabets to dogs!
Show them the world. A world waiting to be conquered.
Let them be; Let them dream and live it too!
1 comment:
Hi Sam, another of your lovable rants. It reminds me of a poem I read sometime ago titled "Make the ordinary come alive". It starts with "Don't ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives...". Cheers, buddy.
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