Understanding the existing scenario

Meeting Teachers-1

Prior to that day I had spoken to Mrs. Himani and scheduled an appointment.

She has been in the profession of educating playschool children for the past eleven years and currently heads Cocoon, a playschool and a nursery. I began by explaining my purpose to see her and then went on to explain the project. Interacting with tender aged children as well as their parents has given her a wide experience of the numerous situations that occur and how the children, parents and teachers deal with it at their own levels. She felt that every child is unique and each of them should be treated so. No one solution is good enough for a problem faced by these children. 

Beginning with education consists of familiarizing with the environment and the people around, understanding the why and how of things happening around us. Children initially do take some time to adjust with the new surroundings. In most cases ten days are minimally needed after which he begins to enjoy school. He or she will become active in what goes on at the school. However the time junction where the parents take their child out from home for school still remains crucial for parents to handle. They may enjoy school but the phase where they are to leave the house still remains troublesome. Many parents find it very hard to handle their children not because the child is being stubborn but because they themselves are afraid to detach themselves from kids. This usually happens in cases where mothers are homemakers.

Also with changing times many women too have decided to go out and work. Many scenarios have emerged out of this. The child could be left in care of his grandparents or his maid or his siblings or any relative. In each case the behavior possibility is manifold. In a case of nuclear family, when both parents are working, often the aspect of guilt comes in where parents feel that they are not devoting enough time to their children and in turn over pamper them. Whereas there are some parents who do time shifts so that when father is not available the mother is and vice versa. One can’t really generalize the situation.

School beginning is one of the first big changes in a child’s life. Even though a child can put his feelings to words he feels stressed. In such a scenario parents often forget about the fear in their child’s mind and force him to school. There are two things parents should keep in mind:

1. They should not push their child a lot, give him his space.
2. They should never compare its growth to others.

Parents should give their children time to settle before beginning to question them about what is happening in school. The children should come by themselves and talk about it. The conversation ended with Mrs. Himani mentioning a memory of hers when her daughter was born. She said that one of the first lessons she learnt as a mother was to be patient and not compare her child’s capabilities with any other because every child is unique.