In one of the recent cases where a girl child was found dead in a residential school, the story gravitated the attention of the people in the local community which resulted in an extensive damage to the school property. With a lot of suspicion hanging around the case, the following part of the judgment of the Hon’ble High court is indeed a matter of concern.

” It is unfortunate and a sorry-state-of-affair that teachers, who teach the students, are facing threat from their students and their respective parents. It is very unfortunate that the petitioners were arrested and under imprisonment for advising the students to study well," the judge said.

The role of the teacher in the classroom is becoming increasingly challenging, stress-prone and a matter of social debate. While no one could justify any act of lack of morality in any school environment either by an individual or by the organization, it is equally important that the teachers need to be given the basic authority and responsibility to mould the students in a befitting manner. While there is no second opinion that the children are not subjected to physical, emotional, social, cultural or psychological assault in the classrooms, the teacher cannot be a mute witness to all the wrongdoings as they do have a moral responsibility to shape the mental, emotional, intellectual, and social profile of the learner. The stress experienced by the teachers in doing this part of their work calls for several facets of life skills including tolerance, patience, understanding, outreach, empathy and what not. Blending these skills with their academics and providing a right pedagogy creates a lot of stress.

In a world haunted by consumerist tendencies, parents tend to transfer a lot of their aspirations to the learners. They often fail to understand the essence of the words of Kahlil Gibran in ‘Prophet’ -“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself… You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls’ dwell in the house of tomorrow” Preparing the learners for a future involves a lot of planning, meaningful inputs, engaging actions, clarity in aspirations and programmed efforts. In the absence of these all-airy visions about the future of the learners would be disastrous. This can be done only when the parents extend unqualified support to the school community and build a system of mutual trust, support, scaffolding all the activities.

In one of the recent incidents when a student set herself on fire because she was not able to cope with one of the subjects and was hesitant to do the homework, the student appears to have been in stress. This was further triggered by the excessive pressure from the parents. Several times lack of understanding of the learner’s aptitudes, interests, line of thinking and goals leads to conflicts in the child management. Learning is an exercise which calls for adequate time and space.

It would be in their own interest if parents understand the following in creating an effective learning environment. Schools need to make parents understand the following:

1. Learning is indeed a neural network and is influenced by several inputs including the hormones.
2. Learning does not happen the same way with every learner and hence is unique.
3. Learning is shaped by aspirations, aptitudes, and interests, but achievements depend on actions that are engaging and rewarding.
4. Learning is poor when a learner is under stress and hence parents should help in enabling a stress-free environment in learning.
5. Short term achievements of learners are not necessarily the indicators of their learning pathways or the roadmap for their long and futuristic learning.
6. Comparisons and competitions have only limited value in learning curves and self-directed and enthusiastic negotiation with the learning resources only empower the learning curve.
7. Learning doesn’t happen by waving of a magic wand and no one including expert teachers have any claim to such a magic wand.
8. Teachers need to be trusted and supported in shaping their wards. They have indeed a difficult job in providing a multi-dimensional learning environment in a classroom to facilitate differentiated learning among the children.
9. Thrusting a future aspiration on the learner who is neither academically or psychologically ready, would do a great damage in their balanced growth and sometimes may be hazardous.
10. Learning does not happen only in classrooms, nor exclusively through textbooks, tuitions, or technology support.

Schools need to have periodic counselling session for parents to educate them with the current knowledge dynamics and how the institutions responsible for a holistic growth manage them. It is important to drive home the point that misplaced aspirations, stressful actions, unrealistic goals do not lead to achievements. The learner should be helped to enjoy learning.