I was talking to one of my neighbours a few days back. She was much concerned about her daughter’s studying pattern. Her daughter used to come from school by 3 pm and then watched TV for some time after which she had dance class and Karate class. As she comes back home by 7 pm, she is tired and rests for some time. This is followed by regular dinner but after this, a major struggle starts for my neighbour. Her daughter is so tired by then that she feels sleepy after having her dinner but her homework is yet unfinished. It’s only on the days that she does not have these extra classes that she is able to finish her homework. She has discussed the same with her husband many times about dropping her extra classes but he thinks her daughter should be an allrounder and even if the kid does not want to do that, he motivates her to remain pressurised by his own aspirations.
It has to be noticed that this kid is only in 3rd standard and does not even get time to play outside. This family lives in a metro city and the school to which the kid goes to has all the facilities of extra-curricular activities. In the school, her daughter has different classes daily and they also help the students to grow and learn different things.
But the parents expect that their child should be doing a little bit extra.
The child has to take part in all the extra-curricular activities, also remain among the top students in the class, take part in Olympiads, also be very good at communicating with anybody even if it is a stranger and after all this pressure, also behave as the most well-behaved kid in the whole society. However, this little girl finds herself so tired for the whole day that she has lost interest in all the activities. She has to finish her homework daily while in half sleep, she does all the activities without any interest and no surprise that even after incessant efforts of her parents, she is just an average or below average in all the activities.
So, why this kid is not that enthusiastic even after so much encouragement?
I agree that kids cannot understand what is good for them and what is not. They are prone to make several mistakes and it is the duty of parents to protect their kids and help them to grow so that they become a ‘responsible’ and ‘successful’ person in future. But here, the definition of successful has become quite abrupt for the parents. They think it means having superpowers and being able to do anything that is asked from the kid. Parents often forget that their kids are also human beings and they have a limit to performance.
There is nothing astonishing that youth of the country is too much engrossed in psychological problems which often remain undiagnosed. Neither parents nor the society realises the importance to set the children free and making them able to take a decision. Our government has been trying to put in efforts in order to make the environment stress free for students. Some of the steps that have already been taken are:
- No stress of boards on the students, they are free to decide whether to give board exams or not.
- No percentage and marks to the students for examinations and this is applicable for all the classes.
- Career counselling being provided to the students through National Career Service and such programs are being highly promoted by the government.
- An introduction of wellbeing programs in schools such as Yoga and regular exercising so that students remain healthy physically as well as mentally.
- Emotional counselling to the students who feel depressed or face psychological problems.