My kids went back to
school today! I am not quite sure if I am sad or not. My heart aches to not
have them around but the quiet house reminds me that silence is indeed an
option. I had forgotten silence. I was the most 'wanted' person during the
Summer months. "What's for breakfast, MOM?", " Where is my shirt?",
"Where is the remote?"," Where are my keys?"(this was the
husband), "Where are we going today?" "Mom" "Mom,
where are you?" Right about now, a teacher
in a school nearby is wondering why she signed up to be a teacher! I sit back
and giggle. "I hope you had a well rested Summer, teacher! My kids have a
lot of questions".
But as we watched our kids get ready for their school, my
husband and I could not help but be reminded of our own "getting ready" in
India. We constantly are amazed by how drastically different and similar it can
be. For one we had uniforms that we purchased every year, 2 sets and wore them
throughout the year! Every school, public and private, had uniforms for their
kids. Mine was white and blue. My husband's was white and khaki. We bought our soft
cover books and bound them into hard covers in a 'printing press', were given a
list of school supplies on the first day of school, we bought those and got them
covered with brown paper and labeled them with our names and grade and section.
We fought to get a seat at the very back of our classroom away from the direct
vicinity of the teacher, not too hard when you are one in 70 students in a
class. There was no meet and greet, no first day pictures. Just 'utter intimidation'
as you step foot in your new classroom. Another year of "dread and high
expectations" hanging over you! Dread
because of the curriculum that adds on more for every exam that comes along
the year. We had 3. Quarterly, Half yearly and Annual exams and for everyone
you study more and by the time the annual exams come along, you better have
studied the whole curriculum for that final exam. The make or break exam. The
Annual exam. If you were a 12th grader in India it really is. That decides
where your life will go! Whether you enter Medical school or Engineering. The high
expectations are that you are expected, by everyone else except you, to do
your best and be the class topper and make it into Medical school or
Engineering . Somehow other venues of
education are looked upon with much lesser value and yet the predominant
society pursues those very venues when they don't make the cut !
As I try to find some similarities to the 'then and now' and
the 'there and here', the list of school supplies costs about a million bucks in
both countries these days. Suddenly everything 'needs' to be purchased
including backpacks and clothes and shoes in addition to the bare necessities. Is there a remote possibility of a laptop
computer? But the electronic calculator-not the cheap kind- is mandatory!! I
sensed a subtle 'dread' in one of my 2 kids. Not my kind of dread-but dread of
waking up early and the definite possibility of too much homework. The other one dreaded having to wait out
21/2 months of Summer to go back to school. I do suspect my kids have a similar 'high
expectation' criteria to meet.
Everything was done online this year-school
fees, registration, schedules. Truly at the cutting edge of times, aren't we? My kids are ready to roll. I bet yours
are too. Here's to wishing they have a joyful, healthy year ahead. Wishing for
extra snow days and less testing. Wishing for more fun and less homework.
