Leave those kids alone!

Aradhika  Sharma

I was invited to attend a teacher’s symposium where I learnt of a surprising impediment to the teachers’ professional lives and which impacted the teaching-learning process:

Scenario 1: Rita’s six-year-old son felt that Anu ma’am did not like him because Anu ma’am was making him do his class work when he did not want to do it. Apparently, he wanted to take it home for homework. Rita saw nothing wrong with this if the boy got his work done. When Anu ma’am tried to reason with Rita, she called her names, cussed and demanded that her son be transferred to another section because Rita was “bullying” him. Finally, the boy was transferred to another classroom by the school authorities to placate his irate mother.

Scenario 2: One afternoon, Ajay sir took his first-graders to the music room. One boy, Ranjit, started roughly pushing the other children around. When Ajay sir chided him, he threw a tantrum, said a bad word and spat. To give him time to calm down, Ajay sir sent him back to class with a female helper teacher. Just then, the boy’s father came to pay the boy’s fees and decided to peek into the classroom. When he saw that Ranjit was alone there with the helper teacher, he lost his temper, stormed into the music room and with Ranjit in tow, yelled uncontrollably at Ajay sir. A young Ranjit preened at the display of parental ‘power’.

Scenario 3: Sucheta ma’am was employed to teach the kids of grade 3 of a ‘progressive’ school. She attempted to discipline the unruly students by instructing then firmly to “quieten down and listen to her”. Not used to authority, the eight-year-olds took offence to her tone and, the next day, an army of angry parents gathered at the principal’s office to complain against Sucheta ma’am. They said they did not send their children to school to be spoken to “like that”. They intimidated the teacher and the school with threats of the press, closure and arrest. The teacher was forced to apologise and was advised by the school authorities to seek ‘counselling’.

As I sat through the symposium, I wondered if these parents realised that they were giving rise to an entire generation of entitled young people, totally unprepared for real life. Such parents are setting examples of intolerance and entitlement; they are not just doing their kids a disservice, but society and nation too. Parents should learn to trust the teachers to know their job and must treat them with respect and courtesy. Let’s release teachers from the fear of humiliation and anger of the parents and censure and punishment of the school authorities.

The ideal parent-teacher partnership should engender best practices in the synergetic upbringing of the child, wherein both parties share communication and respect. Isn’t that the best for our future generations?