CHILDREN ARE THE ‘SUN’ OF HOPE
CHILDREN
ARE THE ‘SUN’ OF HOPE ILLUMINATING THE WORLD
“Every child comes with a message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.” Rabindranath Tagore
Generally,
when I sit to write an article, the focus is always at the problems that the
kids are facing these days and what could be done in order to come up with apt
solutions and how these solutions can be implemented by the teachers and
parents. But, it gives me immense pleasure to tell you that a few incidents and
things happening around the world have brought a happy realization to me and
reconfirmed my belief that kids give us important life lessons which cannot be
learnt from complicated philosophies.
Recently
on a trip with students of age 10-11 years I felt privileged to observe the
beauty of being in the company of kids outside the structured world of the
school or home. They were well behaved, maintained the decorum and showed
heartfelt reverence to the teachers and elders. They displayed impeccable table
manners and commendable food habits. They were respectful towards the hotel
staff and helpers. The humility and grace they exhibited made me contended and
proud. This definitely reflects the values taught to them in the family. This
trip strengthened my belief that kids are humble and capable of
showcasing pious innocence and positivity. Therefore, the parents and teachers
of the present times need to understand that they have the great responsibility
to perpetuate this inherent positivity and to not let the negatives of the
world deprive these kids of their innocence.
Another
incident that touched my heart happened with two little girls on the trip. One
of them had her birthday and the teachers had already prepared to surprise her
(they had already arranged cake for her) but in order to have fun they started asking
for cake from her as a treat to celebrate the day. The other girl overheard
this conversation and could not bear that her classmate had no cake to offer on
her birthday. The little girl with a big heart offered a pack of Britannia cake
to her so that her birthday could be celebrated. Everyone was touched by this
beautiful and selfless gesture. Surprisingly, I came to know later that these
girls weren’t even good friends and rarely interacted with each other in the
past. But I would take a moment to appreciate the values inculcated in this kid
by the parents and the lesson we adults could learn from her. I could realize
that this child was exposed to an excellent and conducive environment at home
that is why she developed this empathy. We can learn from this young girl that
friendship is not that difficult to initiate and then nurture. This was not and is not an
isolated case but most of our kids are like this and if not so then we should
blame nobody else but self. All we need to have is a generous heart. “In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and
sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its
morning and is refreshed.” The beauty of little things is shown to us by these
young ones.
Here I would like to compliment and express my gratitude to all those parents( and they are in majority) for creating stress free and
joyful environment in the family and teaching the kids values of compassion and
caring and sharing.
Kids teach us to acknowledge emotions and open up about feelings
and own up to our faults. They have the innocence and courage to believe and
try new things which the adults tend to lose as time passes. They aren’t scared
to try new things, laugh their troubles away, raise their voice when required,
take risks and showcase indefatigable commitment and enthusiasm in every
challenging situation. Kids teach us to dream and work hard to make these
dreams a reality.
In a brilliant TED talk, which I would suggest my readers to
watch, a child prodigy, Adora Svitak says that we should stop using the term
“childish” when it comes to criticizing behaviour associated with irresponsibility
and irrational thinking. She emphasized that adults had been responsible for
imperialism, colonization and world wars. Kids on the other hand have done
this; “Anne Frank touched millions with her powerful account of the Holocaust,
Ruby Bridges helped end segregation of USA” and Om Prakash Gurjar became the
first child to win the International Peace Prize as he worked for liberating
child slaves in India. The children behave much better most of the times than the
adults.
Children bloom to their fullest when allowed to experiment and
grow in an unstructured manner. When we observe the classroom teaching
scenario, a certain pattern is observed in the delivery of lectures. The
traditional lecture and discussion method is often replaced by Flip Class, student’s
initiation and discussion but the overall potential of a child cannot be
brought out unless he/she is given an opportunity to express in an informal and
unstructured manner breaking the monotony of general classroom expectations.
The life skills and social skills that we as teachers and parents
often strive to inculcate in our children, cannot come only through formal
teachings until these are lived by the adults around them. You can hail moral
science as a subject but I believe that the inherent innocence and values of a
child can flourish only when they are given practical situations where they can
take lead and act according to their instincts, like in the incident discussed
above.
There are numerous examples that I observe in the school where
some students voluntarily and patiently accompany the other students who are
not physically self sufficient. The care and constant companionship shown by
these students reflect that they stand out from the others. They aren’t forced
or commanded to do so but it is their genuine humility and strong sense of
amiability that help them shine brighter than others and let them take a stand
towards something good, humble and right. “Children
are our future, and the only way for the world to evolve, as I have been shown
it should be, is for each generation to be more loving and compassionate than
the one before. This is only possible if we support the children around us, and
protect and encourage them so that they don't need to lock their love away.”
This innocence and basic instinct of doing the right thing starts
to diminish as a child grows and such practical opportunities and life skills
become secondary as the child is forced to do exceedingly well in academics. As
parents and teachers we should make sure that a children keep this innocence
intact as they grow up and for that we need to give them more opportunities to
be expressive in natural conditions. Let me elaborate with an example. When we
ask parents these days to let the child develop their skills in sports and
games, parents show the tendency to enroll the child in sports academies; when
asked to enhance their creative skills and personality, the child is sent to
personality development and creative writing classes. In these cases we tend to
forget that the great personalities, orators and writers that hailed from our
country did not take special classes. They excelled in doing so because they
worked on these skills in natural environment without being mechanically
trained.
What we need to do today is to let the children explore their
qualities naturally by speaking on various topics and discussing social and
political issues with their parents and teachers, playing outdoor games as per
their wishes letting the natural instincts tell them about their capabilities.
This is how the natural talents of a child can be explored and further
developed.
In the end I would conclude with this quote, “The goal of
education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the
possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men and women who
are capable of doing new things.”
Respected Sir
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with you on the above penned thoughts.Really we need to give our children open grounds to explore themselves and their hidden potentials.Today, I cannot stop myself from agreeing with your time and again statement,'Children are good but circumstances need to be blamed'.This article has strengthened my belief system.Thank you for the same.