The story of a generation gap !

A girl of 9 years old was very fond of her teacher. But to her utter surprise the teacher didn’t have any warmth for her. She has humiliated her so many times. Those were the days when child psychology was not so prevalent in school curriculum and education was not child centric. The little girl was very good at singing. Once there was a solo song competition and there were twenty participants. She sang a beautiful bhajan and bagged the first prize. Everybody patted her, blessed her congratulated her. The teacher too came near her and said that you sing all right but the boy who stood second is better than you in every way. The small girl touched her teacher’s feet to seek blessing.

The girl didn’t know that whether she got the actual blessings or not but she made a promise to herself that she would prove her teacher wrong.

Everybody forget the incident that day as life moves on and it does not care for these petty things. Moreover at that time children were supposed to be highly disciplined and almost could not imagine any freedom of thought and expression like today’s children. Those were the days when there were no computers, very less TV sets (who owned were always under the jealous eyes of neighbours).There were abundance of Radio sets and definitely open playgrounds where children used to play with heart filled desires. No air – conditioned room with playing consoles. There were poodles, meadows, rainbows, brooks, trees, story books of Enid Blyton to enjoy and spend the spare time.

With time the little girl grew up but fortunately with an empowered mind. She lived by the poem – “where the mind is without fear”.  Not only she has dwell on its actual meaning but added some of her own to it.

The girl who desire to live her life at her own terms. No she is not bohemenian, just a free flowing heart. She believes in taking life as it comes. Thanks to her upbringing that she has grown up in an empowered environment.

After 20 years she met the same teacher on facebook. Alas!  to her dismay the teacher could not recognized her but remembers all the other classmates. Again life has given her a big humiliation after 20 long years. She could see the teacher commenting on her old buddies wall : you were my best student beta . The teacher may be not abreast with the latest teaching psychology where every child is teacher’s favorite one. And being impartial is the buzz word as every child is special in itself. After few days of persuasion the teacher finally could recognize the little girl and added her to her friends list. The girl was overjoyed!

Time passed by, one day as an inherent nature the girl gave a general status on her social network site. Most of her friends liked it some pulled her leg and few speculated as well. The high spirited girl enjoyed them all and replied at her best.

But again amongst these there was statement which needed to be read between the lines. A deliberate attempt to discipline the free flowing thoughts of a carefree bird. A bird who knows no boundaries to live, her domain is the high sky and her soul travels the core of the earth.

But this time the young woman decided to be vocal about her childhood humiliation.

Please do not misunderstand the young woman that she wants to take some revenge, which will be a narrow thought.

The young woman is also a teache , but of this generation with recent trends. The education today is child centric and the CBSE board has done everything to implement CCE and eradicate humiliation and corporal punishments from school and develop a child both scholastically and non co scholastically.

MORAL OF THE STORY à Dear friends we are living in 21^st century where experimental life is in. Artists have experimented even Rabindranath Tagore’s creation with their own blend. So let us become teachers and parent to our children where the boundaries are not cemented but permeable membrane where the child can breathe freely. He can express his innate thoughts and feeling not only on social networking sites but to your heart and in their cohesive cocoons. Please allow your child to live freely on his or her own terms. Believe me it is true that we need to discipline our child and teach them big lessons on morality, but please remember that your child too has so many things to teach you. You can learn from your own children, students. Just a small change in attitude is all that required. 

Happy Reading!!!