aartiK, Abi, ajay.co, alan.fly, anganaG, aparnaA,
biniS, carl, devanshiS,
Gordon, himaP, jyotsnaM,
kanikaS, kevin, komal,
meherM, namita,
paridnyaK, prachiS, priyaBaid,
rackheeT, rasika, renitaF, ruchiPar,
sanketK, shrutiW, sohiniM, soniaJ, supriya, swethaA,
trishaH, udayK,
vaishakhee, vaishaliJ, zenia,
My dear
Teachers’ Day sometime back. One must not forget to include parents too in the blessings and wishes for teachers. Much of their lives is precisely engaging themselves in teaching and helping their children grow up.
I occasionally wonder how successful I would have been as a parent. It’s easy when one does this from a distance and makes suggestions to those who are in that particular battleground doing their best to combine educational discipline with parental affection in a way that wins all round approval.
Life in that arena is really very challenging for sure, and I am glad that I am out of it!!
Of course we should fuss over our children and pamper them and make allowances for the many bizarre things they are doing. Now and then, however, we also need to bring to them home truths in ways that are practical and effective…
Lipsticks in school
According to a news report, a certain private school in Brisbane was
recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were
beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was
fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to
the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls
would put them back.
Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all
the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She
explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the
custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the
yawns from the little princesses). To demonstrate how difficult it had been
to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how
much effort was required.
He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned
the mirror with it.
Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
Much of the wisdom we try to pass on to our children bounces off their psycho-reinforced body armour and we worry about all our efforts going to waste.
I often tell parents here not to just bring up their children but also to grow up with them.
Growing-up is for everybody and just because we are older it does not mean that we have all the answers. (Much of the time we do not even know what the questions are!!)
Neither do they, for that matter! And maybe we will have to continue cleaning mirrors with water from the toilet bowl and they will continue kissing lipstick marks on those mirrors for a while before the lessons finally go home.
(Parents please note: It is possible that the children get to like the taste for toilet bowl water! If they do that then you are in it a little deeper that you think and you might have to try out some other method!!)
Real education is not obvious and does not come easy!
All else well with me and I continue enjoying the many things I am busy with… well… more or less!
Love to you, Terry