Effective Communication 2

Parents are sending their children for Speech and Drama class. This is supposed to make the child bold and confident. Every one wants a child who wins debates and speech competitions. I know our school used to have something called Extempore competition where the topic was given and children had 10 minutes to prepare and then go and speak on stage. For me, I never understood the meaning of extempore. I could not even understand or pronounce it correctly. I have just checked the meaning on Google and it says to talk or do something without preparation. Preparation for a speech always meant my Mother helping me by writing the speech and guiding me where to pause when I tried to 'mug' it and 'rattle' it at the same time. 'Rattle and mug' was the colloquial language that I knew. Children would get a couple of quotes from their parents and tried to fit it in the extempore speech. 

Nowadays in schools, if the child is quiet, it  is a problem. All parents want their children to be go- getters and aggressive. The teachers also like the vocal kids in class. A child who will 'jump' when the teacher says Jump, is the one liked by the teachers. This is considered obedient and disciplined child. Any other behaviour is termed as Attention deficit disorder or depression or child dealing with issues at home . Child is branded in one of these categories immediately. The fault is not with the teachers but with the science, the education system, the psychologists, the law makers etc. I am always perturbed when the teacher says Your child is very quiet. Why can't my child be quiet? Why can't the child be as he or she wants to be? I definitely mean without harming anyone or breaking the social norms of living in a society. Why does everyone have to talk to communicate? From a quiet child in my kindergarten to a gregarious child by the time I reached tenth grade, I have experienced both sides of the spectrum. I had to do well in studies to feel the confidence in myself and for the teachers to have confidence in me. Then also I remember a teacher saying that I do not have the competitive spirit. I came from a business family. The first child to go to an English medium convent school. We did not talk in English at home or in our family or friends circle. English was not heard except in school. I used to find the school kids aggressive. I could not understand half the things happening in class till my fifth grade. All teachers would give work or praise or talk to the vocal children. Children who could speak well on stage or dance well or sing well or were good in studies and giving answers in class. I was 'oh so mediocre' as I could not do any of these things. Neither was I good at art and craft that I could make something extra ordinary for the class bulletin board. 

Father had got a WWF wildlife calendar. I had given it to my class teacher. The class mates had cut all the small animals and put it on the bulletin board in alphabets which read World Wildlife Day. I remember I was so happy that it was my contribution to the bulletin board. We also had to clean the classroom every day. The task included making all the rows straight, wiping the black board with the duster, cleaning the teacher's desk of all the chalk particles. Sweeping the floor and emptying the dust bin. I loved doing the 'Jaadu' or the sweeping. The chairs had to be lifted and put up on the desk in an inverted fashion by the individual students. We had to begin cleaning after that. Two children were allotted the task and it was on rotation for all the class rooms. Every week, in the school assembly, a prize was announced for the cleanest classroom and for the best bulletin board. I never went up on the school porch to collect the prize but the joy when our class won was immense. The prize collection was done by the class leader or the squad leader. I was never any leader in school. In today's times, if the students are asked to clean the class room, all hell will break loose . Parents will go ballistic and child labour laws and NGOs will protest and what not will happen.  I miss cleaning my std four class room which was a big hall. It was our class room in grade three and four. This is when we moved from the junior school to the senior school. Both the buildings were a couple of hundred metres away in the quaint township called C.F.R.I. (Central Fuel Research Institute of India) It was so organised, clean and green and so so unlike my town Jharia. 

In schools now, there is so much emphasis on talking and talking based activities. It is either Sports or Talking as in debates, drama etc. Our school had drawing, painting, flower arrangement , knitting, embroidery, singing, dancing, sandwich making, fancy dress, mimicry competitions for children. Kids sitting in the sun on the grass on chilly winter mornings and drawing something or singing songs. We actually had a Singing period in school. All of that is gone from the schools. New thing is to make children understand politics by making them participate in Mock UN. It is such a rage and a money making thing. All schools and organisers charge hefty fees to participants. The kids read up the topic on the net and speak for a country or its policies. It is a big socialising thing. Some schools conduct it well. There are a lot of fly by night operators who organise it and schools send their kids as they will bring back awards. On such organiser, gave bad food to all kids and there was a college full of a few hundred kids puking. Of course, nothing happened to the organiser or the  app based food provider. for putting lives of children at risk. So much for teaching your child world politics. None of those vocal children spoke up or protested against the contaminated food by the organisers. What is this 'vocal ' all about? Just to win awards at mock events? Is this why we want our children to speak well and debate well? Do we even teach the child to stand for what is right? Or do we teach the child to play safe and not get into a mess?