An Open Letter to
Parents
Of
Dear Parents,
Could not stop writing this letter to you. With hope and
positivity I am looking up to you all as the future of mankind is being raised
at homes.
During the past three months, the life as we knew it, has
been changing so fast in front of us all that we could feel the change
happening and could relate so well with the age old wisdom that – Change is the only constant.
As the things were taking different shapes in front of us,
among other things, we could also see Education
emerging in its new avatar. The traditional teaching has been replaced by Online Teaching and the roles of parents and teachers have merged.
In such a scenario, I have few questions to ask you all.
Ø Are you ready to accept the change? (which is still going on)
Ø Did you ever wonder what will be the new scenario of education?
Ø What will be your role in the hybrid model (a combination of online
and offline teaching once the schools open) of education?
Ø Are you ready to home school your children?
Ø Did you ever visualize a world without schools?
Ø Could you have done something to collaborate with the teachers of your
children?
Ø What could you have added to the learning of your children
during this opportunity (though forced one) when you were available at home
with your children?
Ø What is more important?
Basic competence in reading, writing arithmetic along with life skills
Or
high proficiency in reading, writing and arithmetic without
any life skills?
Ø Did you try to coach your children basic
life skills for physical survival, like cooking, washing, cleaning etc. other
than studies?
Ø Did you coach emotional stability, courage and resilience through your
talks and actions to your children?
Ø Could you have done something to make the situation better?
Try answering these questions very honestly. I am sure your
answers to yourself will help you to find out the meaning of education and identify
your role in the education of your children.
Remember parents, education
is not what happens inside the four walls of the class room, education is all
about our experiences and leanings out of them.
This corona time was an excellent opportunity to make the
most of such experiences happening to all of us together.
Did you make the most of this opportunity? If yes, keep it
up. If not, you still have time to think over and make the most of the time
available. Nobody is yet sure as to when the schools are reopening. The schools
open or don’t, the life goes on. So the learning for life must go on.
Wishing you all courage and resilience.
Truly Yours
Anju Arora
We really need to answer these questions and do the needful to adapt this fast changing scenario.
ReplyDeleteThanku Ma’am for this eye opening letter for parents.
Hello Ms. Priya, this lock down is actually the time to rethink and challenge the established practices and ways of working. I believe, we need to rediscover and reinvent.
DeleteVery relevant questions as per the curent scenario, ma'am. We all are in search of answers of these questions .Everyone around is so confused, what will happen next?.... But as you said life goes on and so the learning. Hope we all learn to handle this situation also by maintaining patience .
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Ms. Mamta Saini. YESSS..Learning for life must go on. This is where the parents' role becomes very important..the value system of any growing child develops at home. If the environment at home displays life skills effectively being demonstrated, the child will be more likely to pick them up. And of course survival skills are to be deliberately coached to our children. All children must know the basic cooking, cleaning and washing. Next we must consciously teach finanical literacy to our children as there is no such provision in the school curriculums.
DeleteLet every home be the school and each parent be the teacher. Ma'am this is the opportunity to spend more time with our kids and educating them beyond books, as said by you giving them life lessons, and making them more skillful.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Shipra Gautam. I believe, not only this, at all times we as parents must see to it whether our children are learning basic life skills or not other than pure academic learning. That is what makes us effective...as challenges come unannounced. Only stability and resilience will help us to overcome them.
DeleteThank you for sharing your opinion. True!! every home is a school and each parent a teacher.
The current unexpected change in education has left parents and children feeling like their world is being turned upside down. Rather parents are feeling more helpless than children because they have lot of misconceptions regarding this hybrid education as we all are brought up and studied in traditional ways. So..this time parents need to come out of this as soon as they can..and must turn this beast side into beauty for our children..this is the best phase where every parent can be a parent cum teacher and can impart basic three R's with life skills...
ReplyDeleteMa'am...Your questions in this open letter will actually pave a way for parents to think about ...and what to do rather than getting panic in this edudamic situation...
Thank you so much Pooja Arora for sharing your opinion. You are very much right when you say that parents are feeling more helpless because their schooling had happened in traditional ways.
DeleteThat is why it is very important to build discussions on such issues. If the issues are raised and discussed at various platforms, it provides insights to others too.
See, as the time and context change so we must also adapt. This is also one of the basic survival skills.