The Right Kind of Education and How To Impart That!

Home is our first school!

– Rightly said!

Our actions align with what we observe at our homes – the way our elders live and behave.

Imagine yourself as a 5-year-old kid. And now imagine someone in your family disrespecting another person.
It is highly likely that as a child, you may think that this is probably the right kind of behavior, and this is how you are supposed to act in similar situations. If you see someone stealing or lying, you may think this is a correct and convenient way to get things done.

As kids, we can hardly differentiate between right and wrong. And it is easy to be influenced by what we observe in our closest surroundings. When we reach the next level of growing up, schooling, we can try to unlearn what we learned at home and understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong (something we might have failed to recognize at our homes). With this, our school becomes our second step in learning.

As we start meeting other kids and making new friends, with the innocent knowledge that we exchange, our friends become our third step in learning.

Learning and Improvement is continuous process

The more we share, and the varied information we share with our friends, the more aware we become!

We are learning and unlearning many things throughout our lives. But it is easy to learn, re-learn, and unlearn when we are young. The process gets slower, and it becomes even more difficult to amend our habits, thoughts, and actions as we grow older. So why not try to impart the right values to our kids at a younger age(the sooner, the better!), and not act in a way that we would not want our kids to follow. Although this kind of observational learning begins at home, the school as an institution also carries the responsibility to teach the right things to their kids at a younger age.

In a recent incident, while I was strolling on the streets of Hyderabad, someone pinched me on my butt. Hyderabad had always felt safer, and this kind of physical abuse was shocking. I was even more appalled at what I saw when I turned around!

It was a 5-year old kid who did that!

I could never imagine a child, someone who has very little understanding of what is right or what is wrong, doing something so disgusting. I could only assume that the kid must have learned at home, or school, or from his friends, that it is okay to disrespect women, or in fact, any individual.

So, what as a society we could have done better?

• Taught our kids to respect others, irrespective of their gender, age, beliefs, whatsoever!
• Taught our kids, what kind of touch is a wrong touch, what kind of words are the wrong words, and make them understand why they should not pursue them, and how they should react if they face something inappropriate themselves!
• And when we teach our kids to respect other individuals, we need to teach them to respect nature and their surroundings, and not do something that might harm the environment!

Believe me, when I say, we can produce the best-ever next-generation if each one of us takes responsibility to teach the right things to our kids.

If we don’t teach our kids how to respect fellow beings, then I think we are failing as a society!