Rat Race

Times of India had a very interesting article today... "Now, 4-yr-olds take tuitions".

It reads that even while court and Delhi Govt is debating on whether 3 or 3.5 year olds should be going to school, many parents have gone a step ahead and started sending their little ones to private tutors!! Some say that their child is weak in Hindi. Others say that they want their kids to be ahead of the class. Parents want their kids to learn things in advance to ensure that they score well in kindergarten!!!

Private tuition for pre-KG and KG kids!! Can you imagine that??!

During this Feb and March (the board exam months in most parts of India), all TV and radio channels had special programmes on how kids and parents can deal with examination stress! OK, anything where you are getting evaluated, rated or judged is stressful. I used to find all my exams stressful. My parents say that they did too in their schooling days. But I dont remember it reaching such a frenzy that kids and even their parents need professional help from counsellors! With a population of teeming millions, it definitely is a rat race. But in my opinion, the problem with India is that everyone wants to be a doctor or engineer or someone like that. We no longer hear children saying that they want to be a police officer or even a teacher. Those a lowly occupations! Kids are not encouraged to pursue their talents. There are kids who are gifted painters, musicians, cricketers, et al. But these are not viable money grossers. The Indian cricket team might be making millions even if they suck at their primary profession. But out of a population of millions, only 11 make it to the team... and our players have a shelf life of almost 15-20 years!!

Getting back to the original topic, parents inject a huge sense of competition in kids right from the time they are toddlers. Pretty soon, we'll hear about kids on KG and lower primary getting counselled for stress... The sad part in all this is that they miss out of something amazing - childhood!! They are busy going to school and then to tuitions and then doing homework. When do they play? When do they bond with other kids of their own age? When do they learn about teamwork and kinship? We are nurturing a bunch of mechanical beings... we study round the clock as kids and then we work round the clock as adults! And by the time we retire or realize that we are missing out on life, it is usually too late!

[PS: I am not putting all the blame on parents... All these ideas have their origin in our current social setup. And parents are just going with the flow.]

Reminds me of a quote... The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat!