Your Children are not Your Children

When Kahlil Gibran wrote ‘your children are not your children’ I am sure he didn’t mean it the way it’s happening in our schools today. Schools in India were venerated; but today most of them are crumbling behind their huge facades. While schools claim to be looking after the unique attributes of every child, they sadly lack in taking care of the safety of the child.

I think as a parent when I looked school for my child two decades ago , I looked at the reputation of the school, the academic strength of the school, how the school encouraged participation in sports, dance and music festivals , security in a school was usually a given. The last thing a parent was worried was about the safety of the child within school premises. Mishaps or accidents were limited to children falling while playing or injuring themselves on the ground.

Things have changed in the way schools function today. They have huge infrastructure, well equipped laboratories, libraries and huge play grounds. Classrooms are air-conditioned, equipped with smart boards and animated education modules. Schools claim to have pedagogy that suits the individual personalities of each and every child. Transport systems are equipped with GPS and drivers are given mobile phones to be connected to.

The economic power of the parent too has increased over the year. The facilities offered by schools fascinate the parent. They want their children to grow in educational systems that will encourage their growth and personality. They want systems what will foster varied talents in their children.

I am sure no parent thinks that the security of the school is questionable. A school is supposed to be a safe place for a child to learn and grow. But how safe are our schools. The recent spate of news items show everyone ; from the principal of a school to a teacher to a bus driver or conductor abusing children.

Children are the weakest link in a school system. They do not have a voice. Every school has a PTA. As an educator who has been in the classroom, every class teacher reading this will agree with me that the most difficult task in an academic session is to get a PTA representative from the class. Teachers beg and plead with parents to be a part of it. Those who finally agree are usually absentee in nature. Even as the roles of schools come under scrutiny in such incidents, the role of the PTA also comes under fire. If parents found it worthwhile to participate in PTAs and kept the schools under a watchful eye, they would dare not let such lapses happen. Parents have been reduced to money spinners and they are equally responsible for this. The competitive spirit of the parent wants to look at issues that narrow down only to their child. They refuse to see the bigger picture until something like a rape or murder happens. Till then we believe that ‘such things cannot happen to my child.’

Have you noticed that while politicians rarely address such issues?

 If a cow had been killed somewhere in an obscure village we would have hundreds of people on the roads.

But here we are talking about children. They do not matter till they turn 18. Then they become vote banks. But till then we will let them be scapegoats of the system. We will let them be abused by schools, teachers, bus drivers, maids, conductors and then hope for a sensitive and sensible individual who will contribute to society at large.