Guide, Encourage, and Motivate!

Parental Pressure: A Virus For The Child

“Is Your Child Ready to Face the World?” by Dr. Anupam Sibal is an outstanding book, which deals with the qualities and skills that are necessary for both parents and teachers to build a strong relationship with a child. With changing times, the emergence of a generation gap between parents and their children is natural. This book has effectively touched upon a range of qualities that can help us approach a child, communicate with him, and instil these qualities in him.

This book consists of eighteen qualities which, I think, are necessary for a child preparing to face the world. If a teacher wants her child to imbibe these qualities, she too needs to change herself first. A teacher is a second parent to the child while he or she is at school. Her first task is to absorb these qualities herself so that she can set a good example in front of her students. Students always look upon their teachers as role models so it is necessary for them to change first. 

The book has inspired me greatly. The qualities and values elaborated upon in the book can help us teachers in moulding our students in a way that makes them adept at facing challenges and obstacles in pursuit of success. This book has been a great learning experience for me and I am absolutely sure that this will make my students' life worth living.

I remember my student Ajaydeep, who was a brilliant student. She was good in academics, acting, sports, drawing, etc. She was great in every field! After looking at her results, her parents thought of getting her promoted. This double promotion affected her a lot. As she had missed an entire year's coursework, she could not understand many of the concepts that were covered in her missed year. Due to this, she could not perform well. In Mathematics, she barely managed to pass in her First Term examination. This put her under pressure. She started keeping to herself, stopped eating her brunch, and started losing weight. At first, I couldn't understand why such a brilliant student had changed so much. I called her one day and tried to find the reason behind it. She burst into tears and narrated her story. At the time, I consoled her and sent her back. Later, I called her parents to school and made them realize their mistake of pressurizing their child. I made them see how the pressure of double promotion had led to this situation. I also made them understand that they need to let her set her own goals and avoid letting the pressure of competition get to their child. The parents promised not to pressurize their child anymore.

After that I called Ajaydeep and told her to not worry about marks. I asked her to put in her best in the areas she felt she was confident and strong in. After some days she became her original self again. The same lively and ever-smiling child that she once was! Teachers need to guide, encourage and motivate their students so that they can overcome the challenges in life easily.

~ Bharti Rao is an Educator at The Fabindia School. Her email is bro4fab@gmail.com