Jaswant
Kapur writes in and tells us that he was greatly moved by a speech he
heard recently, apparently made by Azim Premji. Here is the gist of the
message.
If you are a parent, you have many aspirations for your child
that may include him or her becoming a doctor, an engineer, scientist
or another kinda parent, of successful professional. I believe these aspirations are driven by your thinking about your child's future, and her centrality in your life.
Since good education is often the passport to a good future, I presume it leads you to getting your child admitted to a good school. Then you encourage your child
to study hard and do well in the school exams. To bolster this, you
send him or her to tuition classes. This would have primed your child for board exam and entrance exams, thereby leading to admission into a goodprofessional course. Doing well at college increases the probability of your child landing a good job. And a good job means your child's future is ensured.
I am neither a psychologist nor an educationist, and what I will now state may seem counter-intuitive. I think that these aspirations and actions might be doing more harm than good to your child. To understand why, we need to re-examine some of our fundamental assumptions.
In the first place, I have seen time and again that living for
some distant future goal also means you do not live in the present. The
distant goal will always translate into an external measure of success,
such as exams. And most exam - focused children start forgetting what
it means to be a child, to be curious, mischievous, exploring, falling, getting up, relating, discovering, inventing, doing, playing.
Childhood is very precious; precious enough not be wasted by the
artificial pressures of contrived competition, by too many hours of
bookish study and by school report cards that simplistically wrap up an
entire human being in numbers.
The second assumption is that education is merely a
ticket to socio-economic success. Given the state of our country, this
reality cannot be ignored. But restricting education to only this
aspect is, I think, a very limiting notion of the aim of good
education. The primary purpose of a school is to guide the child
in her discovery of herself and her world, and to identify and nurture
the child's talents. Just as every seed contains a tree, each child
is born with infinite potential. Imagine a school which sees children
as seeds to be nurtured. The teacher is the gardener who helps bring
out the potential already present in the child.
This is very different from our current view, which sees a child as clay to be molded - where teachers and parents are potters deciding what shape the clay should take. There is an old (and often forgotten) Chinese saying:
"Give a seed to a potter, and you will get a bonsai".
Even in a commercial organization, to make profits we do not have to
chase profits. Rather, we need to build an institution that gives every
employee an opportunity to do meaningful and fulfilling work.
Create an organization driven by values of innovation,
integrity, customer centricity and care. And as you practice these
values everyday and every moment, you will see the profits take care of
themselves.
Similarly dear parent, this is my request to you. Do not give up your child's present to secure his or her future. Give your child the freedom to truly explore creative and life with abandon. In doing this, you will see your child
flower into a sensitive human being. And when this
happens, everything else - money, social success, security - will fall
into place automatically.
Let your child be a child.
Name:
Monisha
Country: india
whatever we do, however much we create a competitive environment and push our children, thank goodness children still remain children. they get as much pleasure in mucking in the sand, and it doesnt matter to them that their moms push them to write their abcs before they are 3
Name:
Priti
Country: usa
i strongly believe and agree that a child needs to enjoy his childhood. i am a mother of a 4 year old, 2 months ago we moved to united states from mumbai. i was shocked, confused, sad when i would see 4-5 year olds going for tution classes. i feel parents are responsible for making this world so competitive and they should be giving the kid the right to live and enjoy his childhood. i do agree that we need to educate them but may be when we meet each other we should not be saying - hey my son has started writing his abc's and 123's does your daughter do it ? we all know that this is the only age when we really enjoy life without any pressure of performing - why not live it the way it was meant to be
Name:
Rani
Country: canada
it is a good message for parents to put things in perspective. it is true, we get carried away with the competition, making sure that our child stands first in their class. i am a mother of a 5 yr old, and when we was 4, i must admit, i was pushing him to learn as much as he could...numbers ..abc..etc. i have started to take it easy on him. both myself and my husband play other childhood games that we used to play and spend time with him that way....it is really and fun family time for all of us.
regards,
Name:
Sunanda
Country: india
good article. only if, it were the yester years. today's child is born in the age of computers, internet and hi tech gadgets. can they ever imagine how we used to be as children ? did we ever do so ? my mother used to tell me how she used to climb trees, swim in ponds, enjoy playing in the orchards. i grew up in a city . i didnot enact what my mother did.i laughed as to how come she was enjoyoing these types of activities.days are changing and we have to change. otherwise we will only repent that we could not bring up our children efficiently. however, we can help the children live their childhood. many a time i see children hooked to the computers rather playing games outside( if there is a place). we must not only encourage them to play but also play with them. they copy their parents and hence they would take up in the right direction.
Name:
Priya
Country: india
good article.i too believe that competation is not necessary in kids of very young age instead, if we cultivate good socialization in them they may turn up well.i do no why parents make the competitive atmosphere for the kids.i hope atleast people like us who r educated should be more practical.hope the best.
Name:
sandeep
Country: India
a very good article.we are teaching our childrens for being clerks,not for enterpreneurs.
please think it over
Name:
Rinku
Country: U.S.A.
beautiful speech by mr. premji and thanks to jaswant kapur for sharing such a moving speech with us. i loved all the comments from everyone, there are lot to say but briefly, it is hard in today's generation but it is doable.
Name:
jeyn
Country: malaysia
i am a professional and mother of 2 girls aged 5 and 2 and a half. my first girl started reading (actual reading) when she was 2+. it was definitly not done through hours of drilling. she had and has tremendous fun. even now she loves reading. she loves mud, sand, water, tv, computers, outdoors you name it. my 2 and a half year old has not really started reading but she too spends a lot of time playing. i have not sent them for any formal music or ballet or speech and drama or karate lessons. many of my friends have started all or any one of these. i am least worried. we do these informally at home during play. if they want to seriously learn (adhering to strict class schedule, routine and what not) then i leave it to them.
