Teaching the three R’s

It’s back to school time .Children are getting into the study mode again.

Soon the excitement of new uniforms, and crisp new books will wear off and they will be facing the rigmarole of assignments, and tests. If they are in  the ‘board exams’ category added pressure of tuitions will also weigh them down.

Pressures from parents, teachers and peers will soon start piling up on those young shoulders.

My heart goes out to all those back-to-school children and the children who are facing the ordeal of CET, IITJEE COMED, ACE, BASE ,Reservation   and what not.

We definitely had it easy,while  growing up.Why aren’t we able to give that to our children.?

Let me dedicate an article, that I wrote about 4  years back, which shows the flip side of ‘Studying’ to all these children.

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Let me take you on a flash back trip to years back when I was still unmarried, and my parents were  on the look out for an eligible groom  ( bhakra?) for me.

In conservative homes arranged marriage was and still is the norm. News is spread far and near that the hunt has began. People , even strangers come up with suitable horoscopes of boys from ‘decent families’

My parents didn’t want to leave any stone unturned.

At times like these even the most honest and simple minded  people learn to lie through their teeth when it comes to marketing their product  in the marriage market.

My qualifications listed by my parents were- tall, Post graduate,  good looking(?), soft spoken(?), …I refrain from putting up the whole list   for want of space.

Some parents  add singing and dancing too. Wonder of what use that is going to be of, in a marriage. Aren’t we supposed to make him dance to our tunes?

The qualification that landed  me a highly educated ‘boy’ with a cushy job in the software industry , i:e: my Msc in Mathematics, proved to be a bane in disguise in practical life as you will soon see……

When children grew up and started going to schools, I got stuck with the responsibility of honing their 3 R’s ‘cause either their father wasn’t around at home all the time, or just didn’t have the patience to sit with their homework.

Let’s start with basic English-

Why couldn’t English be a straightforwardly designed language like many Indian languages?

Explaining the words were a letter or two are silent ( eg: pneumatic), or explaining the absence   of an  letter in the spelling but that figures in the pronunciation (leiutanant-which has a ‘ef’ sound after ‘le’) when said in the British -English way.

Try explaining the logic of pronouncing ‘cut’ and ‘put’ to a small boy who eagerly is waiting to learn a new language and trying to ask smart questions.

I gave up on English saying if you do not understand my way of teaching you are welcome to  go to your father. My son took that as an ultimatum, because he did not want to have ‘dangerous liaisons’ with his father as a teacher.

Next comes Maths.That can’t be difficult because its my subject, afterall.

My son once came to be asking”How to find the Antilog of .1254”

I frantically tried to go through the whole chapter, understood it myself and tried to do that problem .I cursed myself for not  concentrating properly  when I was a student. Finding a solution to Antilog was making me frustrated, angry and slowly turning me into an antisocial.After about 10-15 minutes I excitedly screamed,”Eureka” and ran to him with the answer proudly only to get a luke warm reply,”O! that ? I already got it ,Amma. Don’t worry”

As though it were not enough that you tackle the studies  of your children you have friends sending there kids to you to “clear doubts from aunty”.

My neighbour’s daughter once wanted me to explain “co-ordinate geometry”.

One look at that chapter is enough to break the co-ordination between your brain and  your senses.

Hindi……Try asking a south Indian to explain why a table is a masculine gender , while few others are femine or even neutral genders ?

Chemistry…Tried  teaching ‘balancing equations’ in a scientific way….and finally ended up saying “ Yeah, well just mug it up.”

What do you do  when you are asked “Why is gravity different in different planets.I tried saying it was created by God like that  and my son didn’t think it was a scientific reply. Where is Newton when we need him.

Finally all that matters is my son passed with flying colours ( school topper in 10^th ) inspite  of my teaching.

My second son is now in  class 10 but I don’t have to worry because I have learnt to tackle the situation well from the “Guru” himself ( my husband)  I have now learnt to say,” Go and ask your brother , he was a topper not me.”

What my elder  son goes through is de ja vu for me. My sympathies are with him.

As for me –all I tackle are the dosas and potato curry off the so called-nonstick kadais!!...!!