A Teachers perspective on today’s education system.

 Ma’am, this child is calling my pencil box bad and has taken my eraser and is not returning it.

Ma’am, this child is scribbling and drawing. Ma’am I do not feel well and I want to go home.

Ma’am, my parents are getting me a new dress today. Ma’am I want my Mamma and Papa, I do not want to come to school.

Ma’am, Ma’am and Ma’am!! Phew! I can hear that word echo even when I am asleep. It feels like I am not in a classroom but amidst a hindi soap opera that is full of drama, emotion and very little reality.

Well, to everyone who has never taught in a school feels that it is one of the best places to work at, the major perk being all the holidays one gets. I wouldn’t disagree with the holiday part; in fact that is the tiniest, happiest fish swimming in this large ocean of an education system.

It soon gets lost, just like Nemo and Dory and unfortunately no one begins a search operation to find your lost sanity and happiness.

Ah! C’mon said someone, “it can’t be that bad”. Well, it isn’t bad, its empowering and uplifting considering you are trying to teach a little growing human something. You are contributing to their thoughts, giving vocabulary to their ideas. You are teaching them the goodness of being creative and making sure everyone understands the importance of asking questions!

This role however seems to be lacking some light in today’s era. It seems challenges and seems to lack the resources it should have, despite the many technologically advanced methods of teaching that are available.

Why? Why would someone think like that? Well, there are definitely a few factors to be considered.

Discipline and Behavior – Aren’t kids today being taught discipline and being reprimanded at unacceptable behavior. They definitely are but not all the time. Do parents practice what they preach, unfortunately not at all time. Kids observe and learn and today’s kids are extremely observant. They get easily influenced with everything they see, even if its on a phone/TV or tab. As parents we are quick to judge everything that happens at a child’s school, we want are child to be treated exclusively at school, which isn’t fair to expect. Remember our times when we are 60 to 70 in a class and still turned out to be good humans. As parents and teachers, we both need to work in coordination with each other to ensure maximum benefit to our child.

Punctuality – I remember being woken up at almost every Independence Day and Republic Day, every competition and being sent to school. I feared the aftermath of questioning that followed after I missed school for more than a day or I missed school on one of the important days. I completely cherish having participated in all events in school and being recognized and appreciated for it ( you also got to miss a few classes for practice too) Today, as parents, we do understand the pressure of competition however we are as punctual for school as we are for the various other classes we enroll our kids for.

Competition and Hobbies – As kids, we joined a class for hobby or for extra practice for a certain subject. Now kids are enrolled for classes because as parents we want our child to excel at almost everything. We also lack the time we need to spend with them, our patience levels with them have reduced too, and hence we send them to multiple classes a week, without realizing how much it drains them out. Some of us feel that we are doing something wrong by not enrolling our child in class. Yes, if your child has a natural inclination to some activity or hobby, you must enhance that skill in your child.

Exposure to Gadgets – This is such a debatable point because as a parent I too have succumbed to the gadget mania just to ensure my child is sitting down in place for a while or finishing his meal. However, soon came the time, even though my child was active and played sports , still  was fidgety, restless, fell sick often and that’s when we started limiting his screen time. We took away screen time during meals completely and instead read books, said stories, fed each other, spoke about our day, asked for suggestion on doing a certain thing and voila, we have limited screen time even though little man can use the voice feature for all apps like a pro!! We try and do DIY activities from the few #instagram handles that mommy follows. I preach in all my classes that too much use of phone is very bad!

Grooming – These days, with the levy of kids adding accessory or a piece of their clothing to their uniform, there is uniformity missing in kids. I remember cutting nails on time, hair oil and braided on most school days. Uniforms that were well ironed, polished shoes, clean socks, everything was spic and span on most days. Most schools are international schools however not every school is able to match to the level that an international school should be at. Right from the grooming of the staff to the grooming of kids, everything needs to be notch higher than it is now.

There is wonderful article that has been written by a Montessori teacher who left her job as teacher and in her article/letter, she explains why. It is extremely important that as a parent we read it once. As a trainer/teacher, I agree to almost everything that she speaks about.  Article that went Viral

Each parent knows what is best for their child. Child safety is of utmost importance in today’s time. Our children our going to school for a reason and they are among the fortunate ones that are getting to receive education, let this be qualitative and memorable for them.

Please do leave in a comment with your views.