As a teacher, I face interesting problems every day. One of the major challenges is keeping parents of our students abreast of the educational reforms sweeping across the globe over the last and present centuries, especially as my colleagues and I, as a team, try to implement new ideas that we consider beneficial to our learners.
It may come as a surprising fact that some parents, though extremely well informed in most fields, are unaware of recent trends and developments in education. I still continue to convince parents today that learners need not memorise every fact that crosses their ken, that guided surfing on the Internet will hone their reading and research skills, that handling electronic devices with educational applications will diversify learning and that risk-taking while attempting independent learning is better than the ‘tuition crutch’ in the long run, and most crucially, that we must allow every learner to progress at their own pace, noticing and encouraging small steps forward. This forms the crux of my usual ‘spiel’ which, with much repetition over time, is almost gaining the dignity of an educational ‘philosophy’ for me.
This experience has prompted me to take a fresh look at the deep seated parental fears that arouse such anxiety about results, results and yet again, results. In my day as a student, results, linked directly with examinations and co-curricular achievements, were treated with extreme gravity. Today, when students can even score 100% marks in board examinations, perhaps, the other extreme, of parody, has been reached. Isn’t it time we seriously and completely shelve this measuring of results and instead, recognize individual ability and merit as it exists? Where should this begin, if not at home? If parents pay lip service to current liberal notions of individuality and yet privately berate the learner for failing to ‘achieve more’ and ‘score higher’ – then by what measure must the learner assess himself or herself?
This query brings me back to the learner, who is at the centre of this maelstrom of parental anxiety, governmental reform, institutional effort and technological innovation. If the learner has to acquire academic concepts and practical skills as well as the knowhow to survive in the future world – then that is a very big challenge. It should not be trivialized or falsely represented. At the same time, we need not set a uniform standard of achievement, damning those who fail to cross this arbitrary barrier. In a world being taken over by differentiated classrooms, India should not lose sight of the individual embryo citizen and his/her abilities and talents in the struggle to decide between marks, grades, examinations, reports and various other measures. Those who spend the greater part of their working day within classrooms will recognize that it is more important to acknowledge the individual effort made than it is to measure the gap that remains to be covered to reach an arbitrarily set target.
If this fact becomes more widely and honestly accepted, then it will prevent the spiralling of parental anxiety at its root. I regularly meet anxious parents who would protectively prevent their child from trying out anything challenging and new in the academic field due to their fear of possible failure. The tried and tested old formulas of ‘stick to the textbook’, ‘do not venture into the unknown’, ‘go for what you can do well’is their safety net. Anything revolutionary and new on the educational horizon is a threat.
The reason why I often have to go into my spiel to reassure such parents is that they lay more stress on products than on processes. Is homework easily finished? Are tests yielding high marks? Yes?Then, this school is excellent. They sit back with a sigh of relief. On the other hand: Does my child have to ponder over a novel problem and can only solve it partially? Are the test questions a challenge to critical thinking and cannot be solved by rote memory?Then, the burden of the syllabus is on the parents, and the school doesn’t know what its teachers are up to! So, who cares what learning has happened in the latter process? Instead, their worry is:What marks or grades will my child score in the report card?Sad, but a sad reality, nonetheless, when parents rush to book their seat at the nearest tuition centre, totally discouraging their child from forging the first tottering steps in a new direction into strong strides of self-confidence and independence, a process that only needs time and encouragement to become future reality.
I confess in the end, that my spiel is sometimes addressed even to myself, in my role as a parent. I recognize in myself this weakness, this urge to measure what is lacking rather than acclaim the effort made and the distance covered. That is why in my role as a facilitator, I am sure that learners cannot make progress unless their own parents show resilient faith in their ability to grow from mistakes into excellence, a sense of wry humour in accepting failed attempts, and willingness to measure the improvement made rather than carp about the targets missed. Would other parents agree?
Dr. Sanjukta Sivakumar
Principal