School and competition

Today was form morning at Chubbocks's school, where all the youngest kids were performing a circus. Before the act began, the director of the school came up on stage to address us, and his talk was really interesting and thought-provoking. He said that in Germany, Sweden, France etc, schooling doesn't begin until the age of six. It was only in the Uk, way back in Victorian England during the industrial revolution that people started to send their kids off to school early so that the kids would finish their education fast and be available as juvenile and therefore poorly paid workers for the factories...and since India inherited her education system from the UK, that's what we do, though possibly not with the same objectives today. He also said that a lot of research on the issue of early versus late schooling had not resulted in a win for either side, though earlier schooling was only considered helpful if it helped a child develop his or her natural abilities, without the stress of competition.

I'm a pretty laid-back parent in that sense, and can't be fussed about making sure my kids are meeting their milestones, except basic health-related ones. I remember once when Chubbocks was in playschool, he had to take part in some such performance but was too shy and lolled about on stage. Shortly thereafter, A had to leave for office and that made Chubbocks burst into tears. Immediately all the teachers and the principal of his playschool were on me like a pack of wolves, explaining that I shouldn't scold the child for not doing his part and that this was no age to submit the child to competitive pressure and so on. I was taken aback and eventually managed to tell them what was going on, but I don't know how many of them believed me. I was a little irritated at the time, but later I realised that I should be thankful that we had chosen such a nice playschool, whose focus was not on 'getting kids ready for the admission process' but on helping them discover themselves. That school was an amazing boon for Chubbocks and helped turn him from a shy child into a confident, articulate little communicator, so much so that he always gets kudos for his verbal skills.

At the start of today's program, the director also made the point that in case any of the kids didn't do what they were supposed to on stage or did their own thing, we were there to celebrate their spontaneity and creativity, and their confidence in just coming up on stage. Different kids learned at different ages because the neural connections grew at different paces. Reminded me of the message from TZP all over again, and I was again grateful that we had decided to put Chubbocks into this school.

BTW, Chubbocks was a mighty lion in the circus - and a darn cute one too. he wanted to bring his ears and mane home but his 'ma'am didn't let him!