Quality and Love - Roopa Bhattacharyya

A student who does a shoddy job with classwork and homework

The pandemic has had a telling effect on the writing ability of many children. In the last two years, assignments and tests were mainly based on google Forms and multiple-choice responses. The students were rarely required to submit classwork or homework in written form. So, when I started teaching grade three in physical classes last April, most students could not write words and sentences with clearly formed letters, as expected from a third grader. So, in addition to the regular work, I had to make them practice handwriting. While many improved, two children submitted shoddy work after six months. So, I gave them particular practice and motivated them to get a gold star for doing neat work. This has helped improve the quality of the classwork and homework. 

However, only one of the laggard children still needed to improve. Counselling the child showed that his parents could not help him due to their busy work schedule and general apathy towards education. The child was bright and knew all the answers orally. However, he could not write it down neatly; the handwriting needed to be legible. It took almost one year of constant motivation, and finally, the child is writing legibly now. 

Two underage students in a romantic relationship

Since teaching in the primary department, I have never encountered students in a romantic relationship. Nowadays, children are overexposed to TV and OTP platforms thus, they often say things like “I LOVE YOU” to other children, and immediately, some others respond “, HAW”. Some even go to the teacher and report this. So I, as a teacher, explain that love is a great feeling and nothing to be embarrassed by. I explain to them that their parents love them, they love their parents, they love their brothers and sisters, they love their teachers, and the teachers also love them. So, love is a feeling of concern and sharing. It is one of the noblest emotions. 

Roopa Bhattacharyya

Ahlcon Public School