Inculcating values of prime importance
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 15, 2012 -

In one of the most disturbing news these past few days, a 15-year old boy studying in standard IX stabbed his teacher to death inside the classroom.

The student in question was reportedly angry over some negative remarks which the teacher entered in the school diary and wanted to take revenge on the teacher, he also talked about being influenced by a popular Hindi film.

This incident once again highlights one of the troubling issues confronting our contemporary society – how do we bring up our children? Or should we say how are we bringing up our children?

When we were growing up, we were taught to respect and obey our elders. Teachers were especially held in very high esteem, their utterances were taken as sacrosanct, and their chidings and beatings were considered an essential part of making a more rounded individual.

Consequently, there were no grudges for a few harsh words here, a few beatings there and the children did not show any signs of being psychologically impaired as a consequence and the parents did not come complaining against the teachers for having inflicted irreparable damage to the psyche of the young child.

The children then grew up in much free wheeling manner; they were left to their own device to mix around with their peers, play with them in whatever game gets their fancy at a particular time, play pranks on the elders, and even gets involved in physical fights.

In schools, they were supposed to respect and obey their teachers, learn whatever is being taught.

Getting punished for not paying enough attention in class, not learning your lessons, not doing your homework or for getting into fights with fellow students or for playing pranks is a common daily occurrence then, but rarely do we hear of a student seeking revenge and stabbing a teacher.

The reason for such incidents is not far to seek. As education system evolved, any talk about disciplining the student schools is frowned upon, if any teacher dare lay a hand upon errant student, he/she would have committed the worst crime.

Parents, child rights activists, will leave no stone unturned to let him or her know how insensitive and damaging the act was.

While we do believe in non coercive form of imparting knowledge, which do not in any way suppress or repress the natural mental growth of a young person, we believe treating them as highly fragile being susceptible to the mildest rebuke or the lightest touch is taking it to ridiculous level.

This atmosphere at school is compounded by the highly shielded atmosphere children of middle and upper middle class grow up in. Most of the parents belonging to this category monitor their children jealously, rarely allowing them to mix freely with other kids.

The parents try to make up for their children's lack of socialization and their inability to spend real time with their kids by giving in to all kinds demands of their kids – buy snags, toys, electronic gadgets, designer cloths, bikes etc.

They are also all too ready to come out and defend any kind of transgression of their children by using their official, financial status. In effect, what we have today is a whole generation of spoiled brats who will brook no censure of their action, however wrong or faulty they are.

If we want to avoid such incidents cited above from becoming a regular feature, it is important that we take a relook at how we are bringing up our children. They need to be equipped to handle the highs and lows of life and take them in their strides as part of life.

More than the teachers, who are blamed most of the time, it is the parents who have the major responsibility of bringing up a child into a rounded human being by inculcating the right values.