Why going to school is so important?

Victor Hugo says, "He who opens a school door, closes a prison." A new session in school has started. Some of us are even more excited because we are going to send our child school for the first time. But have we ever thought that does our child really want to go to school? Does he/she learn anything from there or they are just going for the sake of their parents or some other? We all force our children to go to school without making them aware that why going to school is important?

School lay the foundation of a child's development. They play a key role in developing children into responsible citizens and good human beings. Mostly at age three or four, we send our children off to school, where they remain for about twelve years, ultimately graduating from high school at about age sixteen.  Many go on to higher institutions, getting rewarded with college degrees in preparation for their chosen careers. Most of us think that going to college and choosing the career is the only importance of going to school. But is this the only reason to go to school? Not exactly.

Throughout our lives we are constantly learning new things and life is so complex and challenging. And our school gives us the learning to overcome the challenges that we have to face in our life. . Socializing is an important aspect to be learnt to adapt in society for human beings and school does that. There are many life lessons to be learned in the classroom that will benefit students as adults:  time management, a strong work ethic, collaboration, multi-tasking, and self-discipline.School introduces a child to other points of view, which is necessary to learn tolerance and empathy.  School provides him/her with exposure to diversity in culture and religion, something we also need to develop tolerance and empathy.  School also provides exposure to activities, ideas, and fields of knowledge that a child might never encounter otherwise. While some of these experiences strike students as being a waste of time and effort, others may open up whole new areas of interest in a person's life

But, most of the children find going to school boring. They don't want to go to school. And here, the problem is that we tend a child as an empty vessel and try to fill the vessel with the bookish knowledge only, which creates a situation that a child can never connect the education provided in his school with his real life and is always concerned about the marks he/she obtains in the report card and the bookish knowledge only. This ultimately leads the child towards frustration towards his/her school whereas learning is not limited to lessons from textbooks.

On leaving school, we are all set to soar high in life, and enter the real world to fetch our dreams. So, we must take care that whether we are forcing a child to go to school just for our sake. Every single child has something that he/she is good at. Every single one has something to offer. And we the guardians and teachers have a responsibility to help the child discover what he/she is. We must create such an environment where a child loves coming to school which would help the child to mold and develop as a good citizen.

???...

I completed my first year of fellowship with the note of positivism. I even showed positivism inside my classroom the whole year. There were so many days, when I wanted to burst on my kids, especially my grade nine kids, but I just controlled over. There were so many times when I remembered Ram Ashis dai for his theory of 'mild corporal punishment', there also I controlled. I walked with the theme that 'a positive attitude may not solve all my problems, but it will annoy the people around me to make worth the effort'. I thought it would work, not so early but in a long run but what happened today just made all my positivism and all my efforts go in vain. 

Out of twenty five students our six students failed some subjects in their grade nine exam, so our school management had taken the decision of not letting them upgrade in their grade ten. But the students and parents were so angry with the management team that they threatened the school management to upgrade their students. After the discussion, one of the student agreed to repeat grade nine but others five didn't. And those five were so rigid in their decision that school had to compromise saying that the school will take the repeat exam and they would be given chance only when they would pass all their exams. They agreed but the problem arise when some of the students even didn't agreed that. They just wanted to sit in grade ten. This process of  consoling went on for three days and except one student, other didn't show up. So, me and Seetu thought to convince them and at least bring them to school as we heard that those students were going to leave school. After school, we went to one of the student's home and found that she wasn't in her home. We met her mother. She asked us for help to convince her daughter to go to school as she has made up her mind to leave the school. She said that as they were unable to convince her they had sent her to her maternal uncle's house in Sunakothi so that her aunt would convince her. We returned consoling her mom that we would talk to her the next day but while we were returning, suddently 'Bindu' came on my mind. She was very disappointed with herself that she could not meet one of her students who got married a day before she went to visit her and she had a guilt over that issue which she had expressed with us. I became afraid with the thought that 'tomorrow never comes', so we stopped our micro at Sunakothi and then started searching for her maternal uncle's house. We asked door to door whether it was our student's maternal uncle's house. Approximately after half an hour of searching, we found the house but unluckily she was not there. And there we came to know that she had not come to meet them. We were so afraid after all where had she gone as she was neither in her home nor in her maternal uncle's house. Then, after some time we found her cell number and contacted her. She was not picking up the call, we became much more afraid. Finally she received the call, we interrogated and what caught my nerves was she lied us that she was in her own house. I can't explain what I felt at that particular moment. When we interrogated more, we found out that she had gone for shopping lying her parents and even not attending school and exam. At this moment, my hypothesis of positivism all flowed away. I requested her to come school the next day and give exam and continue her class otherwise she would miss so many lessons, her answer was that it would not matter her. She would pass her S.L.C even if she doesn't take classes. I asked her, how she was so confident about it. She just smiled and I knew the reason how.

I don't know where I did mistake. Was I teaching them good? Why couldn't I make them realize the value of learning. Today I failed. 

Positivism...

Mind was on a great dilemma. Exam was going to finish at school and I was looking forward for the holiday. My mom was eager to see me and I had promised her that I would come home to enjoy New year with her. And as often, Amrit dai, became my villain. He mailed me with the schedule of the upcoming residential training. And I couldn't understand what would be my rational decision; going to my home or to my training. But there was Seetu next to me who was so happily sharing the bungee jump plan that she was making that she would be doing at 'The Last Resort' where we were going to be taken during the training. And she was persuading me to join. 

Yap, I joined the training but was still on dilemma. My mind was not fixed there. But when I met my loveliest buddies there, I just felt that I have forgotten all my worries. Rojee was there leaving her own exams and that made me more firm on my decision. The training was more focused on reflecting our one year experience and we too were in our own ways doing the same throughout the training. And here, I noticed that every one had changed. Everyone had been filled with positivism and good thought. Yes, the experience was there, some bad experience too but along with that all was so good. And when we shared what changes we have seen on each other, there were so many. 

Utilizing the strike taking some photos, on the way to Last Resort

Pandav sisters

I can't say, what techniques I learnt to teach from this training but what I learnt was the process of overcoming the hardships, the bonding of the friends and the hope. When I go back and visit the ten days, I would frequently remember the moment when I was about to have the bungee jump, the three seconds when I was hanging on bungee, the enjoyment that I was feeling when I was shouting throughout the moment. the canoeing and the high ropes moments. And most of all the reflective sessions of we five pandavs (name given by Prabin dai for Rojee, Rijuta, Isha, Seetu and me) at the terrace. During this training I enjoyed late night talk with friends which I didn't had in our first residential training. So, now when I am sharing this, I don't have any guilt that I could not go home for my new year celebrations. And this positivism is what I got from the 'Second Learning Institute'.

Global Youth Ambassador; one step more to end the education inequity

Education is the prime sector that directly affects our lives and mine is also not far from it. Being the daughter of a middle class family of a Nepalese society, I have faced many troubles only to get the quality education which my other family members longed for. That's why as soon as I was enrolled in the high school level, I thought of helping the needy children, especially the girl children, so I started taking part in different volunteering  programs which gave me an immense pleasure inside my heart and made me more passionate about it.

hosting my television advocacy program Pariwesh (Society)

Thus, I chose my career as a journalist and started producing an advocacy television program which used to research on the deep level about the condition of women and children residing in the remote areas of Nepal. I used to go different places and talk with the children and women around there. Most of them were leading a very tragic life mostly due to the lack of education. Though our government has made primary level education free, most of the people are unaware about it also and don't go to school. For three years I did my job and was able to influence the lives of more than hundreds of people and being able to make enroll some of the needy children to school through the help of some Non-governmental organizations. I was feeling happy in my success till the date when I went to one of the remote village of Morang district of Nepal where a 14 year old girl was gang raped by her classmates. And whole village thought that it was the fault of the girl and her family for giving her the freedom to go to school. Then I realized only advocating does not change the lives but working with them and changing the concept is the main thing. So I thought that I must change the thinking pattern from the bottom level and it would be possible only if I worked as a teacher as I could teach them not only the curriculum but these kinds of morals which would affect even their family members and their future generations also. So I came to be the fellow of Teach for Nepal, an organization working to end educational inequity and chose to be the volunteer teacher of Jyotidaya Co-operative Secondary School  and have been teaching for one year and have been contracted to teach further for one more year. 

And I am noticing the change I am bringing not only in the children but also in the community through education.My job as a teacher has made me more passionate about Education. I not only teach them the curriculum but other life skills that they should have in their lives. I also aware them about female rights, protection of environment and so through different projects. One of the social project that I did with my students.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnDCyCvbjso ). The dreams of my students, their small achievements but by now I have also realized that if I have to make a more remarkable impact, I would have to take support of more people in my passion. More people should be passionate about it, then only education system of Nepal would change in a proper way. And here, I am proud that I have been selected as a Global Youth Ambassador of A World at School and now will be helping to reduce the number of children who are not being able to go to school in my country through my effort as well as the effort of other five hundred ambassadors of eighty different countries. ( http://www.aworldatschool.org/news/entry/500-young-leaders-become-a-world-at-school-youth-ambassadors )

I hope to gain different tools and techniques that would be beneficial for the education sector in the context of my country, for the support that we can get from each other as I think I can also contribute to some extent in the educational field in the international level and most of all I hope to get the inspiration to continue my journey in this field because by now what I have realized is that motivation is the only tool that can make the people stand still in this field as there are so many pit holes where we can fall and so many hazards in the society who don't let us move to fulfill our dream of an educated society.

Final day of First year...

Today is the final day of our first year of fellowship. And at this moment I feel that how fast it moved on. I would always feel nervous about completing it, whether I would be able to do it or not? But today it's the final day of first year. Now I am hopeful about the second year. Sometimes I used to think that may be two years commitment is a long time, but what I feel today is if it was not of two years, one year would just be gone knowing the school and the students. So we would not be able to do anything remarkable only in one year. Reflecting the one year of fellowship, there were so many days where I got frustrated, where I felt that no, I can't do this any more. But there were also some days when I felt happy over my achievements, on my students' achievements. And this fellowship has not just given me the memories of happy and sad days but I got beyond that. I always tried to control my habit reacting of every issues but had never been able and now when I look at myself I have been able to do that most of the times. And I think it's what I wanted my self to transform into. Now, I hope that I will do my best in the next year of my fellowship....