Tiny tots today ……………………Learning & Having Fun or joining Teaching factories
One of
the absurd things happening due the fast pace of life is that the destinies of
a child are decided even before the step into this beautiful world. Over
ambitious parents themselves running in the rat race pre-decide the paths of
their children and try to make them fit as race horses to run the course of
life. Parents coax , push sometimes bully their children to follow their
unfinished dreams rather than let them choose the path the children desire. And
all this starts with enrolling the child in the right play school , the classes
and other activity centers .
Heard the
news sometime back that admission to play school grade of certain South Mumbai
education institution or the newest International schools starts when the
child is in the womb. The screening is done of the parents to establish whether
they have capability to run course financially and otherwise. Background checks
are done before confirm the admission to their prescious wards.With so much
expectation riding on their tiny shoulders these tiny tots are supposed to out
class and out shine every body. The competition is not just among the students
but spills on to their aggressive parents. Each trying to out do the other.
And even
a small place like Matunga is not immune to this phenomenon.
The Run
begins with flag off at the play group chains be it Poddar Jumbo Kids , Kangaroo Kids , Eurokids
, Tree House etc each advertising in leading national dailies with half page
colour advertisements every year in Summers announcing admissions to new
academic year in their Play groups , Lower KG and Upper KG ( we had junior KG
and Senior KG which were much more affable names than Lower & Upper KG when
we were small ) . If you visit the local branches of these pre-schools you will
be amazed at their professionalism. They will have education councilors to
discuss the detailed procedure for the admission , the policies , they will
take you for a round of their campus , show you their AV rooms , the play area
, impress you with the teaching techniques and mesmerize you with the quality
of the teaching aids et all. By the time you are out of the pre-school with
their colourful prospectus ( yes they are muti page brochures with multi page
forms ) in hand and dreaming of your child being the next big Engineer or a
Doctor or a NASA Scientist. You have succumbed to their magic spell.
The manic
drill starts , the tiny tots are washed , combed , dressed and packed off to
these mini coaching centres. They are not just taught the basic 3 R’s Reading WRiting & ARithmetatics
which is all that is needed at age 3 but exposed to syllabus designed to get
them into those high profile ICSE & International IB schools which the
parents so desire. Not all children are alike but who will tell their parents
trying to mold these tiny tots into perfect kids all prim & proper more
like robots than human beings.
To get
their diction in English correct they enroll these kids as small as age 3 and 4
to English speaking , Grammar and Phonics classes. This even if the parents
themselves would have studied in a regular English Medium school or sometimes
even in Vernacular schools.The expectation level grows higher the bar is set a
little higher . I see kids coming home from the pre-school hurriedly fed ,
changed and escorted to the same pre-school which turn themselves into these
afternoon classes imparting courses like i-Maths
, Grammar and Phonics. Kids are tutored on number recognition, counting and
simple arithmetic or taught the grammatically correct way of speaking . Such
stress at such early stages of their life.
Then
trying to keeping up with Jones's , the
kids are enrolled for extra curricular activities gymnastics, dancing , hobbies classes , skating and even chess. There are reading clubs where teachers read
story books to kids . They are given home work of writing or telling the class
what was the book like , the story and what they learnt from the book given.
And I thought the Dad’s and Mom’s were supposed to read to their little prince
and princesses to take them into the magical world of fairies , kings , queens
, the friendly rabbits and wicked witches . Off Princesses being rescued by
charming prince’s and talking elves spinning straw into golden thread.
A
research done in US of A states that more and more kids are loosing interest in
studying by the time they reach 2nd grade all because of the sit
down method of controlled teaching in pre-schools and kindergartens where the
kids are expected to learn to read and write before they are even ready to fully recognize letters and numbers. The much accepted way of music and play is
getting lost in the worksheets and activities that need to be completed in
class and at home.
When we
were of the same age all we did in class was sing the nursery rhymes , learn the
basics like recognition of letters A to Z , Numbers 1-100 and learning word
associations and some simple stories. There was a lot of playing , jumping and
having a lot of fun.
I some
times feel my generation was fortunate with the only expectation from our
parents was of being well educated , choosing a proper career , having a
passion in life and over everything else just being a good human being. To
think of it that's all that is needed in our journey of life. Being good human
beings……………..
What Say you ????
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