Crazy Competition!

• My nephew got his report card today. He ranked 14^th in class compared to 18^th in the last semester. I was ready to open a bottle of bubbly, but he got a lecture on how he needs to change in order to rank #1. He is in 3^rd standard!
• I was waiting in a school reception the other day. A teacher was explaining the performance of a child to her parents. There wasn’t much of update, because the child stood first in the class. I think she was in sixth standard. The father was very serious and his only comment was “She needs to work harder next time, because she is ahead only by 5 marks.”

Where is the celebration? I didn’t know what rank meant till I was in 6^th std, and people thought I was overly-competitive. But I used to love studying and cracking math problems, all children are not like that. Parents shouldn’t have unreasonable expectations from their children. They shouldn’t try to correct mistakes made in their lives through the lives of their children. Parents need to be the change the want to see in their children. They need to give their kids a break! It’s the best time of their life and they should be allowed to play without feeling guilty about it. There is too much pressure on the child! The child will crackunder the pressure. And thatz whatz happening with a lot of students, trying to look for a way out and opting for suicides. Easing the IIT JEE is just a tip on the iceberg!

If I thought my upbringing was easy compared to the current generation of kids in school, then listen to my dad’s. According to him all you needed to pass was - one day study before the
exam and a visit to the temple after the exam :D

I like that philosophy, and guess what - both my dad and I turned out fine!

Here is a document written by Azim Premji, expressing his views on the same matter.