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Do Schools Put Too Much Pressure on Kids

The rising population over the world has made the intraspecies struggle of human wider than before. Its implications are uglier than expected. Parents and guardian are putting much effort to transform their offspring a fitter individual to persist this survival race. The ancient gurukul system of India considered a child mentally fit enough to get trained, at the age of seven, but today's globalised education system lowered the bar to two years and not only that, a kid before it starts to speak is taught a variety of things beforehand in order to get into school and handle the pace and pressure generated during the course.

The childhood that is juncture of amusement and relaxation has now become an old story. The kid of twenty first century has to learn, the tactics to face the burden brought forward by the schools. The nursery school that is aimed at physical, social and emotional development of the kid through ways that is meant to give the kid far reaching enjoyment is now diminishing. The toys like elephant, horse, truck, doll, bus and helicopter are now replaced by big letters of English alphabets, geometrical figures like square triangle, cube and mathematical symbols like plus, minus, into and divide. These new methods are only emerging intellectual portion of the kid rather than overall development. These education systems in the race of being the best have only become a centre of business. They are snatching the pleasant moments of kids and substituting it with weight of study which their delicate brains are incapable of handling. Parents too are not considerate that what their kid will lose today will never come back again-"the hassle free moments". But in spite of all these parents are unable to judge the precise school which doesn't threaten their kid of the upcoming higher education. All these kindergartens that are meant only for business purposes may be quite detrimental for the growth of the kid into a successful person. Rather schools should understand that education should be a balance between skills and creative expressions-between the head and the heart.

For the kids, the primary school is like a new world. Here they first learn the principles of discipline and that is in no way bad. But happens when the moderate level of discipline turns into excessive level of discipline; it not only pressurizes the kids but also make them rude internally which bursts out in their later life. The kids who are unable to do the home works are harshly beaten up with stick, which tortures them physically. Neither the teacher nor the principle ever tries to look into the matter why the kid was unable to do the homework. Instead of making the kid understand the concepts and clear his doubts in solving the problems, the teachers approach to his parents complaining "your kid does not study". This creates mental pressure to the kid not only from the school but also an added pressure from their parents.

At the secondary school level the kid, who was already facing the pressure of strict discipline and moral values, feels the pressure of higher studies. He feels the competition between his other class fellows who are getting better rank than him. He labors hard day and night, and in this race he hampers his health. But let me ask "why he feels the competition?" everyone knows that all of us have different capacities. Some are good in sports and some are good at studies. But the main problem is our education system-the teachers praises those students who get better rank while they criticize and underestimate the one who are poor or average at studies. This mental pressure reaches its peak when the student appears for board examination. It has now become a remarkable truth that students getting poor marks in the board exams are criticized by the school, the parents as well as by the society. These extremes of pressure force the students to do suicide.

The level of pressure experienced by the high school students is no less. They now become more alert towards the choice of their future profession. They also feel the stress of advanced studies in the stream they are pursuing-science, commerce or any other stream. The evils of increased criticism preexisting from the secondary school are inherited to the high school. The students have to prepare for entrance exams to get a fine college. While the school is focused at receiving better percentage in board, the student aims at getting better rank in entrance exams. As the syllabuses of both are different, the student feels loss in his confidence level. The teacher trains him shortcut methods for entrances which if he uses in his board is sure to get reduced marks. Hence the school confuses the student. If he doesn't do well in his board then the school is ready to criticize him, and if he doesn't do well in his entrances his parents rather than supporting him in this delicate situation are going to add extra mental pressure. This results in students of high school getting into grave depression.

The kid of nursery, by the time he reaches high school becomes completely tired and exhausted by the pressure generating system i.e. "the school". The schools of present era should use innovative strain free techniques to make the kid learn. They should understand that their aim is "To educate students" but not "Pressurize students and educate them".

Nishant Kumar Shekhar

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