APR 18 - A parent drags his son to school and pleads with the principal to give him a powerful slap in his presence. What can be more shocking than this? This father of a class 12 boy came to the school angry and dejected. He asked the principal to slap his son and said, “I’ll remind him of your slap whenever he doesn’t obey me at home.” He was at his wits’ end because his son was careless about his studies and didn’t listen to anybody at home.
This incident is just a glimpse of how today’s parents are losing their bond with their children. Many parents today cannot sleep or eat properly because of their bad relationship with their son or daughter. The children are almost out of their control. So parents often seek the help of the principal and teachers to “correct” their children. This only aggravates the woes of the “generation gap” between them.
Many parents think that their children will be kept occupied at school and be separated from their bad friends, at least, during the school hours. I doubt their belief is correct in this age of information and technology.
I find that most of the parents of plus two students are in favour of strict discipline in school. They even say they won’t object to any level of corporal punishment against their children if they can be “corrected”. But they hardly visit the school on other days except when the exam results are distributed.
Parents have lost faith in their sons and daughters who spend the school fees on other purposes and hide their poor exam results. They often complain that their children keep watching TV or movies and playing with their mobile phone or laptop most of the time and do not study properly at home. A father recently complained to me that his daughter started going to the neighbour’s house to watch television after he disconnected the cable network at his house.
Not only parents but also many teachers are concerned due to the bad performance of students and unfavourable activities in class and outside. They are worried to see them growing more and more disobedient and careless. The students keep yawning in class and always look tired making it difficult for their teachers to motivate them. Their exam results prove that they were not sincere in their studies.
A Nepali magazine recently published a report on the plus two generation getting entangled in drug addiction. Therefore, the future is sure to add more challenges to the parents and teachers who are already bearing an extra burden of “straightening out” juvenile delinquents. It’s high time parents and teachers acted together seriously to save youths from this perilous path.
Published in The Kathmandu Post on 18.04.2012
