To School or Not to School
Covid 19 has changed how we look at the world. It has made us stop in our tracks and rethink our priorities. So many things have changed, take schooling for example. We still wake the kids up each morning for school, but it is not to the bus-stop or school gate that we lead them to. We wake them up and plop them on a chair in front of a gadget where a teacher, who is just as harassed and new to this whole thing, is trying to find a semblance of order.
The syllabus and old style (old = circa 2019) of teaching/ schooling may have worked once upon a time, but it simply is not built for this long distance, virtual set-up.
Most people associate schools with friends and games, annual days and picnics, punishments and shared secrets, feared teachers and beloved facilitators. How does one replace all that?
When the whole concept of schooling has changed, does it make sense to have the regular and archaic method that was initially developed to churn out obedient automatons/ factory workers?
It’s a question that has stumped us at Tribe Insightful Parents and we are digging deep to find plausible answers. We have started a series where we are talking to Parents with different ideas and journeys with regarding schooling. We are trying to understand the various concepts — Regular schooling, Unschooling, Unlearning and more via parents, children and experts from the field of education.
We spoke with Sumi Chandresh whose children aged 20 and 16 years have never been to school.
We also spoke with Ritu Mathur whose 16 year old studies in a school that believes in letting children grow in a natural phase.
It is not an easy decision to make, but together we can research, talk, discuss and take informed decisions.
Until then, Shakespeare mode on — To school or not to school is the question.
