Childhood Snatchers!

That is what we the present day elders have turned out to be!
The famous songs, which reminds a person of one’s own sweet memories of childhood are no more relevant! (“Koi loutadey mere beetey huwhey din”, or “Yeh doulat bhi le lo, ye shohrat bhi lelo, bhaley cheen lo mujh se meri jawani, magar mujh ko de do wo bachpan ki yaadein….”)

These children of today, may not be left with any such memories at all! I can hope for some attention only when I am able to quote with some authenticity. I paste two articles by eminent people, and the more knowledgeable of them yet again seeks to quote a ‘spiritual’ poem!

Is it possible that we create at least a very nominal space for children in their routine daily life, how ever minimal our efforts turn out to be? In doing so, we send out a powerful thought process, which could snowball into a positive movement. Already there are a few institutions that have taken very powerful measures. And astoundingly enough there are courageous people to subscribe to it. There is a school, in South India, which assures that students face only one public exam (the 10th standard/Matriculation) as the earliest one. The same institution runs yet another informal school which does not fetch any recognised educational qualification at all! Yet there is a waiting list for admissions! The later one however assures that the child would grow into a ‘self-sufficient’ person irrespective of the outside situation! I am not at all canvassing for this or even such schools at present. Is it possible that we subscribe to this concept positively at least in our thought level! It is not really too much to ask when we have that collective accountability for having made those wonderful songs totally redundant!
Regards,
Psn(12th November, 2009)

(The quotes below are with due respect and acknowledgment to the sources)

1.
http://www.hindu.com/op/2009/11/08/stories/2009110851351400.htm

‘I only want to enjoy my childhood, ma’
(Dear co-parents, some of us might hear a small, fading voice making yet another attempt to reach us)
Inumella Sesikala
Amma, I don’t want to go to school.
I am just a child, Ma. I want someone to tell me stories and teach me. I want to watch tadpoles and butterflies and know what they eat, where they sleep. I want to climb a hill and catch a cloud to see what it is made of.
I want to wait with my hands in the stream and feel the fish swimming.
I want to run with the puppies, sing with the birds, and play with paper-boats in the rain.
I want to lie down on the soft green grass and hear the wind whisper.
Only then I want to learn more about them from the printed word.
Only after my imagination is fired, my thirst to know more has begun, a seed of ‘Why?’ is planted in my brain.
Amma, I feel trapped in the prison-like classroom. I feel my spirit slowly weakening with the monotonous teaching. Often, when I ask a basic question our teachers say, “No time for all that. Let us finish the syllabus.”
I get tired of studying just for marks without pausing to truly understand.
I want to go to the museum with my classmates and hear my teacher explain the stories of the artefacts.
I want plenty of nature trips where real Biology classes would be held.
I want to see colourful videos of volcanic eruptions and deep-sea dwellings.
I want our whole school to visit together the historic and cultural places in my city.
I want to learn astronomy after looking through a telescope once.
I don’t want to just read them in my textbooks; I want to see, hear, touch, smell and taste whatever I can. I want to experience.
Why can’t the school make at least one such trip every year?
And, I cannot stoop down anymore to carry my school sack. My back is ready to break. Why should I carry all the books everyday? Why can’t we have only two subjects per day? Or, why don’t we have lockers like in the Western schools? And, why should I squeeze in that over-crowded auto?
But, Amma, growing up no longer seems to be fun. I see only more of homework, winter projects, summer classes, weekly tests, monthly tests, quarterly, half-yearly and annual exams, external competitive exams, more tests, more competitions, more pressure, more stress…
When can I sing, paint, dance, swim, or cycle?
When I can just play cricket or even hide-and-seek?
What happened to that minimum sleep that you always say a child needs?
Why should I always study, study?
Amma, I am scared of increasing atrocities by untrustworthy teachers, ragging-raving seniors, acid-loving nuts, perverted adults…
Ma, right now, I don’t want to be a doctor, engineer or anything else.
I just want to feel safe and secure, play and learn without any stress before I become an adult like you.
I only want to enjoy my childhood, Ma.

2.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/12/stories/2009111254570900.htm
Need for creativity in classroom
The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, writes:
I was happy to see the article “I only want to enjoy my childhood, ma” by Inumella Sesikala (Open Page, Nov. 8). I liked the article very much, which is a dream of every child. Creativity of children has to come out from the classroom. Some of us had such opportunities. Our children should go to primary school only at the age of six. Till then, we have to promote creativity of the children with great teachers and an innovative classroom environment.
Yesterday, when I was reading the book Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, I came across the poem, “The Student’s prayer.”
“The young son of a Chilean biologist, Umberto Maturana, became unhappy at school because he felt his teachers were making it impossible for him to learn. They wanted to teach him what they knew, rather than drawing out what he needed to learn. As a result Maturana wrote “The Student’s Prayer”, of which this translation is an abridged version. It perfectly expresses the spiritually intelligent individual’s response to the conforming pressures of parents, teachers, bosses or the crowd.
The Student’s Prayer
Don’t impose on me what you know,
I want to explore the unknown
And be the source of my own discoveries.
Let the known be my liberation, not my slavery.
The world of your truth can be my limitation;
Your wisdom my negation.
Don’t instruct me; let’s walk together.
Let my richness begin where yours ends.
Show me so that I can stand
On your shoulders.
Reveal yourself so that I can be
Something different.
You believe that every human being
Can love and create.
I understand, then, your fear
When I ask you to live according to your wisdom.
You will not know who I am
By listening to yourself.
Don’t instruct me; let me be.
Your failure is that I be identical to you.” I thought, there is a connectivity among young hearts even beyond ocean — “I only want to enjoy my childhood, ma” and “The Student’s Prayer.”