The best school of all

CHOOSE PRUDENTLY

School blues have already started for parents. Toddlers less than three years old are in the race to get into a “good” school. The process of issuing application forms at hefty prices for nursery admissions has also started.

I met one stressed parent waiting to collect her admission form. Her diapered son was two years and four months. Hardly able to walk or talk in full sentences. But, the thoughtful mother had calculated how he would have completed five years and ten months when primary school admissions began. The different schools where she stood in long quies had already warned her that she would miss the bus if she did not admit her infant son into a nursery class right now.

The schools also promised parents that their kids would continue up to Class 12 in the same institution if they admitted them into the nursery class now. For many parents, this a big deal, even if their wards reap no benefit from the first few years in that school.

They don’t realise that an institution that bags ranks and prizes in the high school or the higher secondary stage need not be the ideal choice for an infant who needs space to play, caretakers who understand her needs, and an environment that is conducive to explore and learn. A toddler does not need costly equipment or state of the art toys.

She needs freedom to relax, careful attention to be safe and lots of love to make up for the shift from home to a school. Institutions that brag of education from playschool to higher secondary with a reputation for winning ranks and medals need not necessarily be the ideal place for very young children. 

There are several “playschools” in my neighbourhood. Some have large gardens if its an independent bungalow. But, these are few and far between. The rest occupy small houses or even apartments which are stocked with some standard toys and picture books. The children rarely use them as they are all carefully locked up in glass cupboards.

I visited a few at random to find very young toddlers packed into small rooms on a carpet or mat. A young, inexperienced teacher was reciting irrelevant nursery rhymes in one. In many others, the teachers were busy writing alphabets and numbers on a blackboard.

None of them qualified to be called a “play school.” They were places where parents incarcerated their young ones for 4-5 hours every day to attend to their own other preoccupations. If the managers of such schools do not understand the very concept of a nursery education, the parents are worse in this respect. Both have not realised that infants need space, security and personal care at their age. They do not need to be taught numbers or alphabets. In fact, they do not need to be taught anything at all.

I would place the entire responsibility on the parents themselves for this situation. They want to pack off their kids to school before they are ready for it, either because they fear that primary admissions become more difficult otherwise; or, because they want the children out of the house for a few hours to give themselves time and space for their own activities; or, worse, because their friends and relations have already placed their children in school. One young mother confided: “I feel bad to see all my neighbours’s children go to nursery schools while I look after my child at home.”

Little did she realise that hers was the fortunate kid who spent time with her mother in her most formative years. She had the best school of all — her own home. The best teacher of all — her own mother. The number of things a child of two or three learns while playing at home is phenomenal. No school can ever teach what they learn through their own little activities in their familiar environs with parents as mentors and siblings as teaching assistants. If there is a small garden, it’s even better.

They learn botany through the plants they see and touch; they learn biology watching ants walk in long rows in search of food, or bees alighting on flowers to catch the honey drops; they learn geography watching the sunlight moving from east to west every day. Since children are naturally curious, they learn to ask questions.  If their parents can show them the same things in books and read out to them, they would not only learn simple scientific concepts. They would, at the same time, become literate and enjoy reading books later.

So, parents! Don’t become agitated because your baby son or daughter was refused admission into a nursery school. Make the most out of your own resources. If your kid got free admission into this school which is your own home, and has a teacher who teaches out of love and concern, who is your self, what better education for an infant who is not yet out of diapers? Trust me, you have laid the best foundation for a life long education.