fated pronouncements

So, it is that time of the year when the results are out; they are out fast and furious, and before one registers the other is upon you, like blows in a concentration camp. The children and parents do not know what choice to make: if at all they are given a choice, that is. It is as if the fate is all written by a chosen few, sitting at the helm of the examiners’ pulpit, waiting to pronounce judgement on the basis of a couple of hours’ performance by a child, who has otherwise sweated it out throughout the year, qualified in a whole lot of fields like sports, art, debates, got nominated to positions of leadership in their institutions, which built in them a tremendous sense of self-confidence and made them walk mighty proud. Then here comes a bunch of people, who, on the basis of the child answering (or not answering) a couple of hundred questions supervised by a deadly clock which has got the timer moving, or under the supervision of a sand clock, brush aside the chances of the child getting an opportunity to be guided in an institution which would be able to hone the child’s skills further. Not taking into account the child’s personality, motivation, past performance and academic records.
How does one deal with such a system? How does one help a child to cope with such disappointments, and how does one tell a child, that this is not a judgment of his or her potential? And more so, if the child’s friends have got through, and they do not know how to handle their success, in the context of their friend’s so-called failure. So they do not call. Or if they do, they do not know what to say. Or they call someone else to find out what is happening.. Oh god, so much for education, so much for growth! You want to hug your child close to your heart and tell her, it does not matter, please do not punish yourself, please do not go away…. But suddenly you are not able to do that. You realize that overnight, your child has indeed grown up… and perhaps, grown away. The pronouncement of results did it! My daughter is no longer mine, but just a statistic, a figure in a list of numbers which decides where my daughter pursues her future!!!


Mohana Narayanan
June 1,2011