Recently, Natalie Munroe, a Pennsylvania schoolteacher was suspended after a bit of a non-racy scandal
Recently, Natalie Munroe, a Pennsylvania schoolteacher was suspended after a bit of a non-racy scandal. She vented anger against her students on blog, calling them "rude, disengaged, lazy whiners" and went on to say: there is no other way to put this. I hate your kid.
She swiftly found herself at the centre of huge media attention over whether she should have said these things. But there's little debate about what's going on today in classrooms, which actually seems to be the concern of her blog. Admirably, she continues to stand by her statement, which is braver than we can imagine, in the current hothouse understandings of upbringing.
There have always been teachers who were disinterested, abusive, even cruel. The power equation inherent in the teacher-pupil relationship holds much potential violence and a lot has happened in the last 20 years to address this, especially in more privileged schools. But now, the flip side is playing out ufffd adults refuse to allow their kids to be called on their bad behaviour.
In Mumbai this week, two Standard VIII students were suspended from their respective schools. They were fooling around on the Internet. Which involved Boy A trying to chat with Boy B's principal, whose daughter had mistakenly accepted Boy B's request to the principal's Facebook account. When Boy A got no response to his question ("what's up?"), he apparently turned abusive. Result ufffd both boys were suspended. Given how close the final exams are, that's understandably worrying and stressful for parents, who claim they have punished their children and the system should not penalise them further.
Were these boys our children, we too would try to defend and save them. Yet, I find their behaviour difficult to dismiss as just youthful hijinks. Merely saying, what's up? Ok, that's a bit silly and naughty. But becoming abusive due because you don't receive a response? That's a violent kind of entitlement ufffd its grown up version could be shooting a woman bartender because she didn't give you a drink.
Parents today are very anxious to give their kids a competitive advantage ufffd education has increasingly become about that. In this world view, schools eventually become service providers, and students, clients.
Since the customer is always right, I guess the child is never wrong. We cannot do a greater disservice to ourselves than to recreate everything in this model where money is the only measure of the relationship.
Our kids live in a larger culture, which is comfortable with violence of all kinds ufffd abusing, belittling and insulting others not seen as 'normal' is after all very accepted in Indian society and popular culture. Added to this, our society is increasingly insular ufffd witness the marginal focus in our media on the fantastic, historic, revolutionary changes occurring in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain. But here we are with channels and papers still and only obsessed with Salman Khan and the Ambanis.
All of this combines to create children who are narrowly focused on themselves with little or no regard for other people, other realities and other ways of being. Their ignorance, lack of curiosity and conviction that the world must bend itself to suit their needs is something that kids, especially privileged kids, take for granted. There's nothing unusual about these boys ufffd they are like many others with a similar sense of entitlement and lack of judgement with respect to, well, respect, etiquette, propriety.
Does understanding their context mean they cannot be held responsible? Actions have consequences. Learning that is to become responsible for your behaviour and perhaps a better person. We need to find a good way to teach our kids that truth.
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Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with
fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at https://www.parodevi.com/.
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.
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