A lot of people may not agree with the idea, but my 18 month old baby boy is already getting prepped up for school. He visits a playgroup thrice a week in a mother and toddler program where his teachers try to force down some flash cards, some old nursery rhymes, colours identifications, colour sorting, shape recognitions, some really technical artwork (like gluing together 3D cards!) while all my son Ayaan is interested in is running around the play area and climbing up the soft-stairs.
This all puzzles me. Do our kids really need this kind of work pressures so early in their life? Why can’t we just let them enjoy their childhood like we did when we were young? I remember my childhood before i joined school was all about spending time with my parents, playing with my siblings, enjoying my toys and creating imaginative pretend plays all in my own time, at my own pace and without any time boundaries and strict curriculums.
I will not blame the playgroup here. They are after all just following the social norms and trying to help these kids meet the standards that the proper schooling systems have set up. Just the other day the teacher asked the group a question. Can you tell me what shape this is?
It was a cube made out of sponge with a cylinder cut out from the middle. Half the group answered: Circle and the rest settled on a square. The right answer, it’s a square. Shockingly, this was the question asked by one of the prestigious schools of the city and a 30 months old baby is supposed to know the right answer! Not only that, they are also required to know 7 fruits, 7 vegetables, 7 modes of transports, 7 farm animals, 7 wild animals and know how to sort colours into their respective groups and they should be fluently bilingual. Have these schools really gone crazy? And believe me; this craziness is quite contagious for the parents as well. What choice do they have anyway? They all want their children to get the best education possible with the best school in the city and so they too are under immense pressure to ensure that they child is ready for the vigorous albeit ridiculous tests and standards.
Why are we as parents so determined to make our children join the rat race as soon as they learn to walk? Do they really need this to excel in life? Am I missing something here? Is this fair? I keep asking myself these questions but to no satisfying answer. I shudder to think that my kid might feel left out or unable to compete with the ultra-geniuses that our society is presumably producing at the tender age of 30 months and less!
I have been told that my baby is on the books to start his own independent classes from this January. I do not feel comfortable with this idea. After all he is still just a baby and aren’t all the parenting websites telling us that the best mode of learning for kids this young is through parent interaction? I am really confused. All I want for my child is to grow up to be a fine human being with high moral standards and ethics (something that is not learned at a school anyway!). I wish for him the best that this world has to offer. Yet I find myself uncomfortable with this system. I question these so-called tests and standards. Are they really a measure of my child’s aptitude to excel in life? Should the schools be allowed to discriminate so early and on the basis of non-scientific test measures? I feel it is wrong. Is it just me?
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