The views and experiences of a child penned by a parent. - Deepthi Uthaman “You, are not the highest in class? Your mom is a teacher right?“
“Your mom is a science teacher then why have you chosen humanities?” These are some of the questions my daughter had to endure being in the same school where I am a teacher. As teachers we know that every student is different, each student has their own individuality. However somewhere when it comes to advising students most of us tend to forget this and judge students by their parent’s profession. A doctor’s child should be interested in science and not in literature, or an artist’s child cannot try for the common entrance exam for engineering; these are some of the common views that students hear from their teachers. Do we as teachers realise what we are doing to the young minds? For all you know the parent must have taken up the profession under pressure and not for the love of it! May be not under pressure, but yes the society outlook made me take up science (you know the “Log kya kahenge” thing). I preferred Biology over the other sciences; however the subject that fascinates me even today is Indian History. Selecting "Humanities" with a distinction in grade 10 in the 1980s? It was unheard of! People would have claimed you and your parents insane; hence I ended up taking science. Coming back to my daughter; she being the daughter of a Biology teacher was expected to do something great in the field of Biology. Something like, discover a new species or may be create a new theory, or discover a process that allows animals also to manufacture its own food like plants… that’s not all, the worst part was that she was expected to excel in Biology every time with the highest marks! She had heard “Biology is in your genes” so often that she started hating Biology and also the fact that her mother is a teacher in the same school. According to my daughter, it is difficult for a normal child to understand this; children having their parents working in the same school will only be able to understand this condition. The daughter of my former Principal rightly puts this as the "PIS syndrome", … never heard of it? Well it is Parents In School syndrome. So if you have parents working in the same school, you get special treatment as no one will want to mess with the "child of a teacher". On the other hand as the “child of a teacher” you are supposed to excel in sports, dance, recitations and academics. Making friends is also a tough game as you don’t understand who are genuine and who are the ones just befriending you because you are “child of a teacher”. Again being the “child of a teacher” everyone has an eye on you, where you go, what you do, whom are you talking to, and even what you had during break time! Most people derive great pleasure in going and telling your parent all this with their views. The parent actually gets a daily report. Gives a feeling of a celebrity right? Yes, but how many of us would like being this type of a celebrity? The condition of the teacher-parent is also perplexing at times. Especially when it comes to questioning the system or giving opinion about something, we are unable to put up our views, the entire brunt of our view or opinion has to be borne by our child. There are times when my daughter has come home and said, "Mom, I told you not to talk to any of my teachers, why don't you understand?" However, as parents the good thing is we know that our child is in safe hands. The school, the staff are all familiar to us, we know when and what to expect. Apart from this, there are teachers who genuinely care and give critical feedback to us while treating the child normally. As a parent it may be good idea to have your child in the same school….. but as far as the kids are concerned it is difficult to comment. After all they are different individuals and have their own views!
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