“One word.” She shouted. “Not even one word he uttered when teacher asked him a question.” My wife angrily gestured at me.
My 4 year old son’s online schooling was going on. My wife usually sits beside him so that he pays attention to his teacher on screen. I said, “It’s okay. He’ll speak out some other time.”
“No! You don’t take his side everytime! Can’t he speak out just one word? I know that he knows the answer. But he never opens his mouth. The teacher keeps on asking him again and again.” She snapped at me like a pro Fruit Ninja player cutting through the fruits.
I kept quiet knowing opening my mouth any further would be to unleash hell on earth. I went to the kitchen, opened a bag of crisps, put some in my mouth and started contemplating.
‘Would he have not opened his mouth if he was at school facing his teacher alone? Mostly not.’ I concluded.
Knowing my son, I don’t think he would’ve not answered even though he would’ve probably done so very softly. And this is exactly what going to school can teach a child.
I feel going to school puts a bit of essential pressure on the kids. They know they’re alone and not in home comforts where thay can probably get away with a lot of naughtiness. This type of mild pressure is important for a child’s development I believe.
While I don’t support the extremities of pressure that school life creates but then schooling also generally gives a modern day experience of the Gurukul system. That experience teaches the kids a lot of good virtues like discipline, obedience and so on. Those would otherwise be a little difficult to learn in home comforts.
It’s more about the virtues that we learn at school than the actual lessons which I believe are extremely important in the long run.
Om Shanti…..?