Millennial-ized, yet?

So I am just going to have it this way. I am going to write when I really want to and I really can. Somehow Mr. Want and Mr. Can never decide to show-up together. Some generational animosity, it seems. And then, to make matters worse, the obnoxious Ms. Guilt arrives, with her “should-haves” and “could-haves”. Arrgh! How I loathe her!

Teaching has been, by far, one of the most soulful involvements I have been into. As a teacher, there has been a whole gamut of experiences that has surrounded me and has made me richer in ways more than I can say. It is so enchanting to see children have so much to contribute to the class by way of ideas, energy, excitement, feedback and lethargy too at times. And I guess, I can safely say that I do give them that space to speak their minds out. There have been times when they would just shut the book and say that they were not in a mood to study. Being a teacher, wanting to think logically was my first instinct- about how I needed to complete my course and what do I tell my higher-ups,  were thoughts which plagued me and to which I have had succumbed more often than not. But then, at many instances I have willfully played along and have shut my book close. And we have talked about what was on their minds- the good, the bad, the ugly, you name it!

There is a very very fine line between being a friendly teacher and being a friend. There is a certain sense of authority involved in being a teacher for the sheer purpose of being able to direct the troop, which is lost when you become their friend. And a classroom of students with no direction is pretty much like a group of friends hanging out, hence teaching-learning goes out of the window! It is no less than art to be able to strike that right note of relationship with ones’ students which is quite an intuitive process and involves evolving overtime. I’ll gingerly admit that there have been times when I have plunged across the above said line and gone so far ahead that the line had become a dot to me! (F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan alert! :D)

Teacher-student relationships have seen a major shift since the time I was a student and you would know what I am talking about if you have been a kid of the 1900’s in India. When I look back on times gone by as a student and think of my teachers, an image of a figure dressed in a sari, an authoritarian tone of voice, a condescending attitude; pops in my head. And any teacher who used to be even a tad bit different from the above description was idolized- any teacher who smiled, or greeted the students back- I would be in awe of her. And if she greeted me first, I’d go bonkers! In my school days, I had taken “geeky” to a whole new level. And to this day, whenever I come across a teacher of mine, I run up to them and wish them and be all sparkly-eyed, while my other friends would run in the opposite direction! Hey, being a nerd was in, ok!! 😀

Also there was fear. Teachers in those days made for really strong figures of ascendancy. They operated more or less through instilling a sense of fear. Their means of getting things done from students were primarily threats which could be ones like corporal punishment, diary note to parents or worse- calling for a meeting with them. Then there were more deal-able ones like- “go kneel down outside the classroom”, “write things 100 or thousand times” or a nice, eloquent, long, seemingly subtle threat- a morality based lecture, which used to be the most painful thing for a guilt-prone soul like me. The thought of not being liked by a teacher was gut-wrenching and would swallow me up! Fortunately, fear doesn’t seem to haunt children anymore. Or at least they are not terrorized as some of us were back in the day, thanks to some good work by Education Boards in India. The millennial kids seem to either like or dislike a teacher and are quite verbal about their disagreements. It could be said that most children then had fear camouflaged as fake motivation to “respect” their teachers and the kids of this day have no such pretend-motivations unless its intrinsic.

Who is to say what’s good and what’s not?! And honestly, we boggle ourselves a lot with “children these days are very disrespectful!” Well, may be they are! Then we have got to device something to help them see that and behave. But most certainly, instruments as obnoxious as threats and fear should not be the resort. These are nothing but redundant tools which need to be buried exactly where they belong- right in history’s grave.

Enough with the tags of “glued to his X-box”, “doesn’t go out to play”, “fussy-eater”, “disinterested in studies”, “too much into her looks”! Enough already! They were definitely not pushed out of their respective mothers’ vaginas with a phone in their hands! It’s a learned behavior. The child is only reacting/responding to the various stimulants in the environment. If as parents and as caregivers, we cannot create a wholesome and holistic ecosystem, befitting the needs of the present generation in mind, we have no rights to label them or admonish them!

Stories of how we walked 10kms to reach school; helped our fathers in milking the cow and studied late night under the street light- sure can be inspirational but these lasses and lads don’t know what to do with that now! Its quite irrelevant to them. Perhaps these anecdotes are aimed at helping them to value what they have?! Well then – appreciate them. Compliment them. Feel free to ask them questions about things you don’t know. Challenging stuff, huh? Because our parents hardly ever praised us or patted us on our backs, it takes some work to get out of our cozy-cribby comfort zones and do what this situation calls for. Arrive to terms with the fact that they are smarter in different ways and not in the ways we want them to be. These babies are born in a different time and age. They are born in a time when the entire cosmos has been shrunk and stuffed in a capsule placed right in their palms. Jupiter is just a click away! Let’s face it, life is easier for them. They don’t have to climb mountains or bend over backwards like their parents or grandparents did. Raising them requires a different sketch which ought to be engineered for a world of today and custom-made for every single one of them, like a pin-plug for their DNA.