For a morally robust society we need good parenting.However, parenting is closely related to schooling of a toddler. In moderntimes, schooling is considered essential part of the child- upbringing. But inmost cases there is no synergy between parents and teachers in our society. InPrivate sector there is constant interaction between parents and teachers butin Government schools we hardly find such interaction happening. The result isthat our new generation is lacking in terms of confidence, and responsibility.
Parents hold a significant place in a child’s life. Withtheir constant efforts, they trim down the bad, harmful, and useless qualitiesof a child and cultivate a sense of morality in him or her that acquaints thechild with his or her culture. This essentially makes the child an exemplaryindividual who in his or her own way attempts to take society towards thezenith of morality by assisting people, if not all at least those around him orher, finding out the right way of life. However, without the support of ateacher, it is not possible for parents to mould their child best.
The role of a teacher is as important as that of parents ashe educates the child by imparting knowledge that makes the child tocontemplate about himself as well as about his or her environment. Indeed, ateacher is not equal to parents rather he is considered to be next to parentsthat carries a remarkable significance in itself.
Benjamin Franklinsays about the involvement 0f children in activities.
“Tell me and Iforget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
But as we know without the parental support no child can getinvolved in real life practices to be taught at school. I have observed inIndonesia that the young students of Pesentrans (boarding schools) are involvedin the activities of the societal life and even cultivate the nearby farms asthere is specific period for that job. They clean the campus themselves, managethe flow of traffic within the campus of schools and prepare their food andserve their guests themselves. This empowering experience is absent in ourschools and there is no involvement of parents in the functioning of schoolsand of the students in that of society.
I had the opportunity in 2016 to visit a women university inYogyakarta and I found the girl students were performing all the duties exceptteaching there.
This is the story of the residential universities or schoolsin developing countries. The children need to be constantly under the guidanceof their parents for a period and then under the guidance of their teachers wasthe lesson I got from this experience.
But there has to be constant interaction between the parentsand the teachers in both the cases.
Since education in our part of world is not given thepriority which it has in developed countries. Therefore, there is no proper andlong term educational policy governing the parent teacher interaction also.
At least education could be exempted from all outsidepressures and interferences and excellence should have been the mantra.
Thus we can say parents and teachers must together strivehard to make child bloom holistically. Thus, the child must also consciouslyendeavor towards becoming perfect by constantly rectifying his or her errorsall through life. However, the term perfect here is used in the relative sense,which means the persistence of the child in becoming a better person makes himperfect in his imperfection.
The society has to provide the teachers support to devise aprogressive forward looking policy for the education and the psychology of thekids needs to be kept in view.
There needs to be constant interactions between parents andteachers not only in schools of Private sector but also Governments schoolsalso.
As parenting is one of the most tough tasks so is theteaching and if the teachers can’t play the role of parents at least theyshould try their best to at least play the role of guardians to the students.Education should never be left to teachers only but the parents and the societyat large should also play its role to make it the most vibrant duty of humanworld!
Hureen Wasifa Siddiqui is a researcher based in Hyderabad