Where have all our children gone?

The long awaited sports' week has arrived.The whole school ,the staff and the students ,were in a festive mood even days before.The campus resembled a rainbow with an array of colourful flags and papers representing various houses..blue,green,yellow and red...The announcements,music,children in their sports wear,refreshments,warming up...the whole atmosphere had contained the real spirit even before the inaugural functions and the commencement of the events.

And for the teachers these festive days are of self appraisal.These are the days when we understand if our students are really being "taught"or more better if we have succeeded in imparting the proper meaning of 'education ' in them.These are the times when most of the teachers realize that ,the students whom they often address as mere morons ,are those who extend a helping hand in all the tedious manual labour,whether be it like arranging the stage,marking tracks,climbing up the trees and heights decorating the campus,carrying desks and benches up and down,giving first aid and what to say..volunteering the whole events and activities and even staying back if needed;thus revealing the value and essence of education.

Going down the memory lane ,I remember when it was time for my choosing a career ,there were two options before me.being a diploma holder in journalism i could either step into the fourth estate or else pursue my career in teaching with my degree in education.but unlike today,none of the dailies and magazines in kerala encouraged the so labelled fairer sex and my thoughts always quoted kalpana chawla reminding me"if boys can do,why can't I?"Thus after assumptions and presumptions ,I made up my mind to take up my job as a teacher and continue being a free hand writer.Thus I am here as a loving teacher to my dear students and writing my thoughts out to satisfy my ambitious self.

Everything went on smoothly until a few moments before we could call it a day when there came the unexpected bombshell.One of the teachers was hit on the face by a student.The issue goes like this...two of the boys who came in the second and third positions were disqualified for violating the track rules and this provoked some of their housemates .They straight away came to question the teacher and hit him on the face violently.Some other teachers seeing the happenings came running and seized the boy away from the scene.It was later reported that the boy on regaining his senses,confessed his mistakes and wrote a letter of apology to the teacher.The whole matter could have stopped then and there because we teachers like parents,wish to see these children realize their mistakes and rectify their flaws to become nice citizens.

But the next day,shattering our hearts and thoughts appeared posters all around abusing the teachers.There were a battalion of police outside,reporters from both print and visual media,cameras ,inside and outside the campus.What could have happened after the boy left the school apologizing?Who could have prompted him to get hospitalized declaring that the teachers have cruelly and brutally attacked him?A whole lot of unanswered questions and the very incident lies within ,undigested ,belching every now and then,and forcing me to explore the real meaning of education in these sleepless nights.

This and many other recent activities of the young generation proves that the meaning of education is misinterpreted.Somewhere and somehow the youngsters ,their stream of thoughts is being misguided in their attempt of comprehending the sense of education.If education simply means learning a set of facts what is the need for teachers ,as a good library this more an enough for that.Where do we fail in understanding and imparting the real meaning of education?Isn't this failure adding to the increasing crime?Skimming through the dailies a lot of young faces are seen caught for different crimes and as much as young faces are seen to commit suicides.

For me,education simply means the right flow of the stream of thought or in a more better way,guiding one's thoughts and ideas in the right path.This is purely individual and should happen within one's self.Here comes the relevance of a teacher.The teacher should take up the role of a catalyst helping in the development of individual minds,guiding and prompting them to think in a proper manner.

Let them have the patience to distinguish between right and wrong.
Let them think alone, reviewing one's own activities.
Let them be alert,listen to the world around them,hear everything,
but at the same time let them take in only what is good and true.
As Abraham Lincoln had said, let them have the strength not get behind the bandwagon.
Let them have a mind of their own.

And I ,who is better teased by friends as a preacher rather than a teacher,am far behind the syllabus trying to properly 'educate' the students.!

Syllabus changes...
Curriculum changes..
Examinations happens..
Evaluations takes place...

But years after while evaluating one's own life will there be any literate people to pass out in flying colours?

winding up for now quoting Swami Vivekananda...

“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”

“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”

.“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced"