Children’s Day Forever

Some years ago, I was in a class of Grade 6 children at a school in Delhi as an observer. It was an EVS session, in which the children were being introduced to “Ancient History”, the times prior to recorded history. I remembered studying this topic at school a few decades earlier, and was anticipating getting a refresher, as the facilitator – a young lady who had completed her Bachelor’s in Elementary Education – got her class to settle down and tune-in. The session on ancient history was about to begin, and I expected the teacher to ask the kids to “open their textbooks to such-and-such page number,” a familiar practice in most classrooms.

However, to my surprise, the facilitator wrote the word ‘ANCIENT HISTORY’ at the center of the large blackboard, and then asked the children what the word meant to them. There was silence, and the kids looked at each other, not familiar with this method of starting a new topic. The teacher encouraged them to speak up and say whatever came to their mind. Finally, one little girl on the first bench meekly said, “Ma’am, dinosaurs?”. “Dinosaurs… excellent!” said the teacher and wrote this word next to ancient history. “Okay, what else…?” One little arm went up, then the other, and the third. “Ma’am, pyramids!” Up went Pyramids on the board. “Ma’am, I’ve heard that humans have come from monkeys!” “Ma’am, Ice-Age!” “Ma’am, cavemen!” “Good, and what did these cave dwellers do for a living?” “Hunt!” The classroom was now reverberating with words and phrases related to the past, and soon, the blackboard was filled with them – till a beautiful mind-map was created.

The teacher had just demonstrated what Einstein had once said, “I do not teach; I just create the environment for my students to learn.” Or words to that effect. The teacher did not have to look at the textbook nor get the children to look at them, merely nudged them to think more by asking a few questions and filled in a few gaps in the children’s comprehension. The lesson on ancient history was brought alive – and this was an excellent example of how to place children at the center of a classroom.

Not just teachers but nearly all “adults” have made the mistake of underestimating children no end. This includes parents, even though children often surprise them with their little accomplishments and utterances, even before they are ready for school. The divide between “children” and “adults” in our minds is so strongly entrenched that we adults are hard-wired to believe that children are meant to be taught, disciplined, admonished, controlled, and when it’s not any of these, mollycoddled. What we often fail to realize is that the transition from being a child to being an adult does not happen overnight but gradually over several years and starts much earlier than what we usually perceive. Children become young adults when they are still looked upon as children, and deserve to be treated as adults – to be included in more conversations, to be talked to rather than talked down to, to be asked to share their opinion rather than just told what we think is right for them.

Instead of “adulting” children, there’s lots that we can learn from them. Their innate sense of curiosity, that gets dulled into conformity as we grow up. Their intrinsic motivation to achieve small victories, without any lure of money, power, or fame. Their candid innocence that morphs into cautious artfulness as we become more “learned”. And what we almost completely forget as grown-ups, the ability to find joy in the simplest of things.

This Children’s Day, let us pause a while to rediscover the child within us.