She came jumping and was brimming with spark in her eyes and smiling ear to ear and she said
Amma..
Amma..
Ammmmmmaaa….
Would you like to know what did my child say? Well, she was excited that she scored 8/20 in her online-objective exam. I smiled for the fact that she scored more than me, because I scored beautiful Zeroes and maybe managed to scrape through with 1 or 2 marks, it was a constant number out of 10 / 15/ 20/ 25.. As a child I never knew what these scores were, but Yes, I knew that my friends and their parents laughed looking at this score, and I thought they were happy with my score. I remember how my Amma and Appa stood during those situations, I am thankful to them for being that way! They smiled and hugged me and said, it’s okay “Give us those marks card, it’s precious and let us keep it in the almirah!”
To this day I smile about what they said and did and a happy state I pull within myself, I would say a ‘Resourceful state’. To cut the flash-back story short, I studied 1st grade again and when all my friends were in 2nd, I was confused why they moved on. I remember Appa mentioning that, “Chikli (that’s how they called me), let old friends go, come let’s meet new friends and maybe you can teach them.” I never knew the meaning then, but, I trusted in my parent’s words and happily finished 1st, 2nd grades in one-go there after and somehow manage to remember even now on what I studied then with the same enthusiasm I went to school.
As am sharing this, I wish to draw you close to LOVE & ANGER..
How important it is to channelize on these two energies?
One mends and the other breaks.
I wanted to mend and that’s what I did when my minion came running to me about her 8/20 score.
I smiled ear to ear and the zest in me had no bounds, it just went dancing like those happy clouds in the sky. We both danced and we have named it #Jumpingbeans.
She was puzzled for sometime, because, she heard her friends screaming their heart out (in real sense, parents were in their effervescent mood) 20/20, 18/20 , 19/20…. She asked me, “What is this amma, why didn’t they score like me?” I didn’t know what I should, for sometime I was worried about the rat race I have put her into and the next moment, I told myself, Let the Rat decide it, if it wants to run or create cannels underneath or just be in it’s meditative state, pause and enjoy the beauty around.
I smiled at her and said, “This is your marks and that is their marks, what you got is what you attempted and how beautiful it is see you happy with your marks and I am excited to celebrate.” She after sometime said, “Amma, I didn’t know few answers I think there’s an option to correct it!”
That’s it, I felt that the need is met.
As Parents, Teachers or care-givers, when we give education, are we intending to give them experience or thrust knowledge in their super-conscious mind?
What is that we can focus on, may be this may not be the exact thing. What I am sharing is from experience and not knowledge, because to me the knowledge factor comes in various sizes and quantity and it varies basis person, situation and all stringed to memory, which is all about pulling the dead or trying to give life to something basis others.
- Let the Spontaneous river flow.. The child’s power centre, i.e the Super Conscious mind is active and it is aware about the fact that, they are being sent to school and thumb-rule is that they should read…The thought is already set and what they are doing is in their own natural spontaneous way they are learning things around them, which could be a playway method. And, they are excited about whatever they do and it is the best what they deliver. The best gift would be to jump and celebrate on their findings or accomplishments.
- Problem solving: The don’t what problems are until or unless we tell them so. From 6, they kind of build to look at things to solve or understand what it is, it is an exploration stage and as a Care-giver or Parents or Grand parents, rather than preparing them for solving we should allow the Little Scientists to explore. It is at this stage that we try to mold them or force them to solve than understanding them that they are solving in their own space and pace.
- They can feel shame and guilt, their marks or not scoring as per the syllabus needs or y-(our) needs shouldn’t make them cringe or feel ashamed. This would be the beginning of them hiding things from us, because they feel whatever they do will be made fun of or criticized….
Some more points and thoughts on your way in the next post, until then keep scoring Zero or 8/20….
If you are wondering why we fear about the marks, maybe it’s because of the Raven on the Eagle, grab a read and you may connect with few points on why we rush through
When the Raven is sitting on your back – Meera’s Oasis (meerasoasis.com)
Foot note, Image source
Score Cartoon Image – Bing images
(Royalty free as per 13th Oct 2021)
