Today R & I went to O's school for Open Day.
While some of us parked the car at a distance and walked the few 100 metres to the school, the rest were jamming the entrance to the school, creating total traffic chaos.
Not satisfied with having done this, they were blasting their horns and trying to nudge their cars through impossibly narrow openings, paying no heed to the pedestrians.
O (and to a small extent me too -- but my hormones are awry and I am cranky) complained all the way to school on how she was made to walk, while others were being driven to the gates of the school.
R turned angrily at us and said the parents need to be educated first on how to behave on the roads.
We shut up and sweated our way to school and back.
The very same parents who totally disregarded traffic rules and common road sense outside, were so concerned about the education of their child. Some parents spent up to half an hour with the teacher (Grade I, mind you!) worrying about the child's grasp of subjects, potential for success, handwriting and what have you!
Grade I for goodness' sake... What do we know about the child's potential at that age?
They wore out the chairs and the teachers with their long, tiresome quizzing.
"Why so little homework? Why aren't they studying more in school? Why isn't my 6/7-year-old a genius?"
The teachers actually seemed relieved at those parents whose bums barely grazed the seats... 'so my child is decently behaved, and does decent work? thank you, very much, ma'salamah'...
Back out on the road, and the wannabe-parents of geniuses were at their best behaviour -- jumping lanes, honking pedestrians, blocking entrances.
What message are they conveying to their kids? Be obnoxious and self-centred every where, and in school make sure you get cent per cent in all your subjects.
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4 comments:
After reading your post,I'm already beginning to get panic attacks for my li'l one. She is just 2 and people have already starting asking me & ravs when we'll be putting her in school or if we have zeroed in on any school in particular.She has hardly started framing sentences and poor thing has already had her vidyarambham and now all of us,including me,are training her to identify shapes,letters,numbers,etc.etc just so she stays in the competition.
I'm feeling guilty yet falling prey to the growing pressures around me.
Where is this heading?
BTW,this post of yours is quite a light-hearted change from all the 'dhishoom-dhishoom' I witnessed in your previous post:))
chill dee... let her enjoy being a baby and a child. the school will manage to screw up all that!
and you think this was light-hearted? i was quite serious.
I second what you have written, since we too walked the extra mile to the school and spent less than five minutes with the teacher, though the whole process took us more than two hours. The parents in front of us just wouldn't leave the teaher alone with their analysis on the education system and the kids grasping power. While we were just happy that our little one was happy and learning a bit in the process!
It most certainly was,V! After witnessing some heavy religious bashing,this one was a light smack on the face(of the parents of course!!)
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