As a child I always used to look forward to buying new school books so that I could take them with me to school like my brothers did, but the maximum number of books I needed back then were only six, and those too were very thin.
And as I’ve finally and rather happily ended my school years, I remember studies being kind of difficult, but carrying the bags was never an issue.
A few days back I saw a five-year-old in my neighbourhood putting a lot of effort into carrying her bag, I thought of helping her by carrying it for her. With a lot of confidence I told her I could pick her bag up with just two of my fingers, but as soon as I did it I realised I shouldn’t have, it felt like a bag full of bricks. Later when I asked her if she was actually carrying bricks she opened up the bag for me to see the number of books in there. I suddenly felt sorry for her, at five she was carrying such a heavy load on her little shoulders.
We must not fill our children’s mind with “data” before they even need it. They must learn everything during a gradual learning process. Giving children so much work to do at such a young age is not going to help them become any better, let them learn, study and live their life at their pace so they can understand everything they learn in life before they have to give an exam for what they memorised.
- The reader is based in Dubai
