Issues in Education - The child and his Surroundings

Reading the above Photo, the following remarks can be made at random 

Observer 1: “The child in the photo is struggling for his needs for affirmation and is getting the conclusion for himself.”

Observer 2: “the child must be wanting to go home or want to ask permission from the teacher but the strictness of the teacher is not able to ask permission”

Observer 3: “the child feels that the school is a boring place”.

Observer 4: “The child is new to school and he is anxious and shy.”

Observer 5: “the cause of his action is the bad remark of the teacher”.

Observer 6: “the child is not able to understand the teaching and is not in a mood of studying.”

From the above statements we understand that the child is surrounded by too many persons, varying emotions, surroundings, things and the other invisible forces that affect him in his growth. What comes to my mind is the movie, “Taare Zameen Par” in which the child is in a boomeranging world (of remarks, school, friends, parents, varying moods, the world of comparison and competition, etc.). The question that should arise in our mind is – how far a child can decide for himself to construct a world of meaning?

A child needs to be affirmed for what he/she is to create an interest in learning. The transition from home to school and from parents to teachers and peers are definitely the factors shaping the growth of the child. So we need to make a sharp contrast between school and home; the needs of the child and education, the method of education and the child; the child and others’ incapacity to know the exact inner happenings of the child, the adult world and the world of the child.

Amidst this, one common and very revealing thing is that no human is capable of knowing the internal happenings of the child. Hence, respecting the child as he is and helping the child to construct his own world in his own perspective is a duty rather than imposition of adult forms of set modes of behaviour.