A class 10 girl, one of the toppers in the class, from a high end school in Bangalore, daughter of highly educated parents has taken her life in the fit of a moment in an agonizing way 2 days back. It was shocking to say the least. Is the school at fault or the parents or the girl herself. Or we as a society to blame?
This is not the first time, we have seen such incidents. A well known legislature's daughter killed herself few months back over a similar issue.
The school should have handled the issue in a much better way. . The Heads of Education themselves are not 'educated' nor in a position to educate the children. Its time we look at 'Education' from a totally new perspective. We should realize that the world has moved on. And it doesn't help a bit, if we stay stuck to our centuries old outlook towards emotional and social issues, specially concerning teenagers. Lifeskills are an important part of educating a child.
I want to ask these so called 'Educationalists' how different are they from 'Khap Panchayat' of Haryana. A friendly hug on campus play ground. According to reports, she has been made to stand in the corridor for 2 hrs and been suspended for day and half, and been handed over with reprimanding letters. Come on. If you indeed feel its wrong, there is a way to handle it.Why don't the schools have councellors on campus. With information overload and exposure to otherwise unimaginable faces of the world at a young age due to internet and mobiles, today's youngsters are being served with more than they can handle, although not intentionally.
Councellors on campus is the #needofthehour.
Now to the parents, along with a responsible handling of gadgets, we should also maintain a healthy and sound relationship with the child. We shouldn't forget that we are the only closest people the child really can count on. The child should be assured of this at every stage. When ever such issue crops up, it should be handled in a sensible way, how much ever enraged we are. This must be an ongoing process. Right from a young age. Teenage is something where this bond has to be stronger than ever. We need to adopt ourselves to the changing times, and accept change.
Then children, should be taught to be self confident and positive. Nothing can be end of the world. The parents, teachers and the society are equally responsible to make them feel such. Where do we begin??? Can we do it?
This is not the first time, we have seen such incidents. A well known legislature's daughter killed herself few months back over a similar issue.
The school should have handled the issue in a much better way. . The Heads of Education themselves are not 'educated' nor in a position to educate the children. Its time we look at 'Education' from a totally new perspective. We should realize that the world has moved on. And it doesn't help a bit, if we stay stuck to our centuries old outlook towards emotional and social issues, specially concerning teenagers. Lifeskills are an important part of educating a child.
I want to ask these so called 'Educationalists' how different are they from 'Khap Panchayat' of Haryana. A friendly hug on campus play ground. According to reports, she has been made to stand in the corridor for 2 hrs and been suspended for day and half, and been handed over with reprimanding letters. Come on. If you indeed feel its wrong, there is a way to handle it.Why don't the schools have councellors on campus. With information overload and exposure to otherwise unimaginable faces of the world at a young age due to internet and mobiles, today's youngsters are being served with more than they can handle, although not intentionally.
Councellors on campus is the #needofthehour.
Now to the parents, along with a responsible handling of gadgets, we should also maintain a healthy and sound relationship with the child. We shouldn't forget that we are the only closest people the child really can count on. The child should be assured of this at every stage. When ever such issue crops up, it should be handled in a sensible way, how much ever enraged we are. This must be an ongoing process. Right from a young age. Teenage is something where this bond has to be stronger than ever. We need to adopt ourselves to the changing times, and accept change.
Then children, should be taught to be self confident and positive. Nothing can be end of the world. The parents, teachers and the society are equally responsible to make them feel such. Where do we begin??? Can we do it?
6 comments:
This is conveniently passing the blame on the school. But with the incidents happening across the country, almost all education institutions are in paranoid mode. There are incidents where the institutions are blamed (meaning attacked) for not taking actions or not notifying the parents about the behavior of their kids in school.
Some questions
Let us believe it is a friendly hug and the institution did not care a lot. but later it is found that the girl registered a case against the boy saying that he touched indecently (this happens in this country where after 7 years of live in relationship breaks and file a rape charge).
Now what is the first reaction of the mob (parents and media)? so institutions are not taking any chances. I read many schools are cancelling annual excursions due to such incidents
Am not blaming only the school,if you read the entire article, u will understand. Am also wondering whether the boy was suspended. Kids today face a lot of emotional issues. They need to be handled carefully.
yes, big question...if it was indecent behavior, why weren't both of them suspended? ridiculous policies and yes, centuries old behavior on the part of a school a whole lot of parents rely on. They are hoping it will give their kids a great career!!! with this mindset? not likely. maybe great marks, but not a great life!
Looks like the mindset of people just hasn't undergone any change....this knee jerk reaction is reminiscent of the kind exhibited by teachers way back in the 80's!!Even in good, co-ed schools, being friends with a boy was reason enough for the teachers to threaten to call one's parents!! The tragedy here is that a precious life was lost for want of empathy from the school and quite possibly the parents too!
The only recourse is for schools to engage counsellors, encourage healthy interaction between boys and girls and above all teach them to respect each other. Teachers too need to open up their closed minds and accept that it is possible for healthy friendship between the sexes. I think sex ed classes and gender sensitisation should first be conducted for these narrow minded educators!!
And parents....it is imperative that one empathise with one's teenagers at this time! We HAVE to keep the communication lines open and encourage them to come to us with their fears and worries... it's the only way to help them flourish and grow into mentally and emotionally healthy adults. Let's not forget it's quite a big responsibility to ensure our kids turn out to be broad-minded, socially conscious, emancipated citizens of this country. I am trying...I wish all the other parents and teachers would do too.
e.A million dollar question indeed! But from a larger perspective is it just the school- is it not everything (people,environment, institutions)related to a child's upbringing responsible? It starts right from home, where parents instead of allowing the child to grow naturally -observing,learning,inheriting,imbibing; impose ideas as their words and actions do not match.They want them to be matured ,smart and grow up fast but also retain innocence;want to follow the westerners yet retain tradition and values. The child sees there is conflict in what they hear and what they see.Schools instead of educating ,have become production centers where each student is trained only to recite, retain,remember information and get marks without even understanding their relevance in their lives(We do not teach them to think. experience, explore and evolve-the teachers themselves generally do not learn to think;think to learn continuously and consistently-no ongoing learning/introspection).This is highly alarming and worrying as we do not have a system in place.We should have a institution to monitor the standard of teachers with respect to their knowledge, skill, attitude, interest and the teachers/schools should have examinations every two years to see if they are on track and meet the national/state criteria as education in India is a state subject.The institute also should be responsible for providing, maintaining the resource materials based on studies conducted,keeping in mind the need, purpose and benefit of education for an individual,community and the country.To do this there should be awareness about our culture, surrounding and a critical thinking ,social sense.Engaging students and using advanced technology can solve all this problems as student's do not get proper acknowledgement when they come with great -out of box ideas,as the teachers themselves do have the knowledge, time or aesthetic sense to appreciate. Students can be involved in road safety, designing bridges or roads that solve the community crisis from health,sanitation,civic amenities,water management, to anything and everything.....Most of the time from my own experience what I find is subjects like Language,History, Arts,Health Education are not given much importance in India.There lies the problem as the parents, some teachers,school management thinks only Science and Math are important and can make students successful in their life which is not true....Many great successful scientists, Mathematicians led stressful and miserable life as they lacked the fine tuning and social skills.Albert Einstein, who was himself a lover of nature and a great violinist said that art, humanistic subjects are more important in man-community making.It goes without saying the School Management, Government has a strong,indispensable role to play The better vision they have about the education, the safer the future of the students.As Nehruji rightly said the destiny of the nation is made in the classrooms.Unfortunately we find business people running education institutes and the people who govern us view making money is the purpose of their schools.A purposeful education is that which make one to learn more, do more, become more, wonder more by meeting one's individual, domestic,community needs and helps one enjoy own life and enrich other's life by retaining happiness, health, peace and innocence.
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