We as parents feel annual day celebrations at school are a big punishment, the feeling is further bad on a parent-teacher meeting day. Our fears for annual day celebrations starts with whether we will be able to attend it or not. What kind of costumes the teacher will ask us to bring and how much it will tax us?
I had an opportunity to attend most of the annual day celebrations of my kids in the recent years. And one was in 2008 UMANG festival. The school in Pune had a unique method, which is 100% participation of children for the school day. Imagine each class has 8-10 sections with a class strength of 40 maximum. It was on a week day and parents were pushing each other to ensure their kids are handed over to the teachers before start of the program. As usual the mighty prevailed over the meek. Adding to this, there were few quarrels and bizarre incidents for getting a right seat to see the program. The so called highly educated and elite parents were busy reserving seats to their kith and kin. Even the senior citizens and physically challenged parents were not obtained a place to sit.
Some of the enthusiastic parents were busy filming the entire programs inspite of announcements that they will be provided with entire video fell into deaf ears.
It is indeed good thought of having 100% children participation on the annual day, but the logistics should also support for conducting it.
Parent-teacher meetings are also scary for parents, cause even your child gets above A+ grade the teacher expects parents to work hard for securing very high percentage for their children.
Let us discuss some more issues in the next issue.