A Thoughtful Selection of School…!!!

 Over the years during my professional journey I have met thousands of parents and especially those who were looking for a school to admit their child either for the first time or switching from one school to another, I got a chance to interact. I always asked them what they were expecting from school and honestly 80-90% had a common response “GOOD EDUCATION”. Yes, you are correct, they all had a great answer but ohhh… they meant only GOOD GRADES decorated in the grade card as answer and had no idea what was the actual definition of “GOOD EDUCATION” while the actual answer lies in the depth of these two words and our own understanding only plays an important role here.

I understand it this way that looking at beautiful roses is the end result, however the right environment, enough opportunity, required fertilizer, watering and timely care is something which makes the plant get us beautiful desired roses. And I am sure you got my point. Schooling is a journey where children grow day by day, and they come to a final shape by the end of this journey but only by fulfilling the right amount of the needs.

Now our focus which is on getting beautiful roses at the end without taking care of the conditions, capacity, environment, care etc during the entire year results in disappointment and we see the rose either is not fully bloomed or having a few petals and of course we are not satisfied with such flowers. Therefore the focus should be redirected from what we want to how we get. Let’s understand what we want and how to get-

What should a parent of Foundational Years children i.e. age group 3 to 7-

Note- I am considering age 3 years onwards as I personally do not support any kind of school for kids with any excuse. At this time the child needs the mother most and of course the family environment.

So the parents of 3-7 years should visit the classrooms, meet children and the teacher of the class. They should discuss the day of school, plan for the day to find the opportunities for their kid to bloom at his/her fullest. What does a kid of this age need and you should observe-

·       Look for a nurturing environment.

·       Emotional security

·       Hands on learning

·       Teacher’s interaction

·       Engaging and age appropriate environment

·       Parental involvement

·       Equal opportunities

For those who are changing the school, for any reason should first –

·       Define their why over this switching (Academic gaps, environment, bullying, distance, participations, growth etc)

·       New schools should align with their child’s strengths, interests and future aspirations.

·       A school’s quality is defined by the personalized attention and not the big number.

·       Ensure if the school’s philosophy matches their expectations of holistic development.

·       Remember, the best school is the one where your child can get his/her part of attention, opportunities and grow holistically.

·       Also note when you are selecting one school, some parents are leaving from that school too so better to identify our own needs.

The biggest missing factor is that parents rarely take the time to sit with themselves and reflect on the what, why, and how before selecting a school. Instead, they simply follow the crowd. I've often heard fathers proudly say they don’t have time for their own children—the irony being, they are the very ones responsible for shaping their future.

Be wise, be thoughtful. It's not just an admission and a school but the entire life of your child and both you and school plays equally important part.

Wish you a great learning journey ahead.

- Manisha 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Suicide cases among Pre-teens- Just a Worry or An Alarm?

  The WHY is not yet answered and perhaps there would be no BECAUSE in the suicide case of Amayara, the student of Neeraja Modi School, Jaipur since the one who knew the reason, is no more. My brain was really frozen for the days in this context. I could not move an inch in my thought process but the reason was very clear that I didn’t want to play a blame game by finding out the visible faults but the root cause. Else being a principal and teacher it would have been easy to blame parents and as usual for parents it was easy to blame school and teachers which they did. I had clear answers to unanswered questions Amayara left us with, that we got failed in nurturing children rightly, failed in shaping the secured childhood, failed in being careful guardians, failed in teaching the importance of a human life, and failed in raising the children of 21 st century. Amayara's steps toward the jump is not just a death but a progress report card to all elders where the progress proves our ...
Read more

A Reflection On Indigo’s “Sleep With Your Wife” Tagline

Image
 W e are living in an era where everything is advertised, anything can be advertised and lac of brains are simply working on catching the catchy taglines. In other words they are trying their level best to catch our brains. And the journey started from 1970s with the ads of Nirma washing powder, Lux Soap and Colgate etc and today it’s Indigo selling same day flights “Sleep With Your Wife”. I am not being paid for favouring Nirma, colgate or Lux and neither my opinion is going to affect Indigo but its my own satisfaction that I am not supporting such cheap & unhealthy marketing strategies that’s all. I have no idea where was this billboard displayed, since how long and was really displayed or not. I came across a post on Linkedin today and found this disturbing and I really wish this should disturb each one of us. I always questioned why an advertisement be it men’s wear, radio, TV,  or anything else needs a woman in short clothes unnecessarily but it’s a trend. I am questi...
Read more

Does teaching begin with a lesson plan?

  Thank youuuuuu mammmm, the students of grade V sang and Ms Desai, their Science teacher smiled while cleaning the board, collected her teaching material and left the classroom. Upon reaching to staff room she met Mr Nadan who was the SST teacher of grade V. Ms Desai asked him, if he had no challenges in handing those four students in the class named Riya, Aarush, Varuni and Samiksha who hardly opens up in the class. Mr Nandan, as if was waiting for someone to knock him, quickly said yes, I do face challenges since those never speak out but what to do they are so and don’t perform well in the assessments too. Ms Desai who is recently awarded as a best teacher, whose lesson plans are the most descriptive and dam good has the sense of students not opening up and performing well. While Mr Nadan has been serving in this institution for 10 years and he is also known as Mr Perfect of the school but has nothing to do now. The four walls of a classroom are the visible boundaries and...
Read more