Education and Children

 

Faint shriek in a crowd

by Thota Srinivas

Education is meant to transform one’s life; brighten the spirit, enliven, make one a complete human being capable to bring light not just into his life but into the life of others as well. A child is born with an instinct to learn things all by himself. What we are expected to do is just to facilitate things which can galvanize his self-learning capability.

 His first self-sufficient learning starts with identifying people around him, getting associated with them, developing bond and trying to communicate non-verbally with them. He then broadens this sphere of learning ability to include his skill of listening, understanding, associating, memorizing and speaking. This paves way to his language learning ability. He doesn’t stop there. He then develops a connection with his awareness, language and curiosity. This enables him to become aware of the things around him, associating it with a word and then trying to explore what else he can learn from it. Thus his journey of educating himself starts with or without our intervention or guidance.

If a parent can understand this, he/she shall take up the role of mere facilitators than exerting influence in every aspect of child’s learning. If a teacher can understand this he/she shall just be a guide letting the child explore his own innate abilities there by connecting them with what fascinates him. Unfortunately, things are not the way they should be when it comes to nurturing the child in his overall development.

A parent views his child as an achiever of his unaccomplished goals and ambition. His limited intelligence lets him assume that a human performs well under influence and instructive guidance but it fails to let him know that a human functions exceptionally under self-motivation. Right motivation is always good but when it comes to achieving one’s dreams, an individual has to be stimulated by his own confidence, his own abilities, own desire to achieve them.

What could be the percentage of the people who perceive in this way? Not many but only a handful. Only those who are left to think on their own; 

• those who are guided but not influenced; 
• those who are not suppressed but supported ; 
• those who are not ignored for what they think but are cared for what they are; 
• those who are not let to learn things they are not fascinated to but are let to explore what they are interested in ;
• those who are not criticized for not being on par with the society but are valued for their uniqueness  
• those who are not brushed aside because they do not respond but are helped to respond in the manner they can ;
• those who are not intimidated by apathetic rules and regulations but are given wings to perceive things in their own way ;
• those who are not motivated to achieve the targets of the lot but are guided to get self-motivated in achieving their own targets ;
• those who are not viewed as a commodity to bring joy to others but are viewed as beings who need to care themselves first.

A child learns all the pre-requisite things at home from his parents ; things which can enable him to be a part of a small society called school; the knowledge of language and how to behave with others comes from parents. Therefore the early years of a child must be made as the early learning by the parents. A child needs to be qualified enough in terms of communicating and well-behaving to enter a school. And this can happen only when parents communicate often with their child in different contexts.

Frequent talk with the child lets him understand that a talk can make others know what he feels or thinks or needs or wants. And proper behaviour can only be taught by example at this stage but not verbally or through instruction. Therefore a child learns good behaviour from parents who behave well before them and vice versa. This can also make us understand that a child is a good observant. He tends to learn things through observation. So providing right environment can help a child in grasping good things around him. Thus the early learning though might not help the child in reaching his destination will at least set him on the path to his destination.

If the parent thinks that this has to be done by a school, then he lands the child in problems. No matter what the child learns from the school, the roots of his behaviour and language start at home. And wise parents who realize this will make sure the roots are well nurtured and are healthy.

A parent can never be of the opinion that his responsibilities are shifted to the school his child studies in. In fact, his responsibility only increases. Continual communication with the child, the school and the teachers will let him understand what the child is going through in every phase of his life. It will also let him know what role he needs to take up to help and support his child in this period of developmental learning. Interestingly, every child can feel the warmth of his parental care. An ignored child takes an inclination to deceiving his parents with lies whereas a properly cared child makes his parents a part of his learning routine.

A school cannot be a mere place where knowledge from books is imparted. If it does so it shall be a mechanical factory geared up to manufacture mechanical robots having no life and emotions. A school has to let a child understand what he is, what he can learn, what he must learn and what he is likely to learn in the future. It is a fact that a school is like any other establishment whose motive is to make money.