Childhood-Then and Now

Clive, Outram, Nicolson, Taylor, Cornwallis are some of the squares that I remember in a place called Gole Market in New Delhi where I spent my childhood. Each square was a very huge square piece of land with single story houses all around, divided in half by a road. The central area was green with grass and had huge trees of Semol, Peepul, Neem, Jamun, Mulberry, Amaltas, Imli, Gulmohar and many more. This vast expanse of land was not only our play area but the place where most of our time was spent as children. Every evening was spent playing in these vast greens and play continued till late in the evening till our mothers sent us an ultimatum to return home. In the summer break, every afternoon was spent under the cool breeze of Semol, Peepul, Jamun or other trees and not in the close confines of air-conditioned spaces. None of us had any space cooling at home nor did we need them. Have you ever experienced how cool it is under a full grown lush tree even on a hot summer afternoon? I can assure you most children do not.

We often put jhoolas in these huge majestic trees and spent the summer afternoons under them playing with our friends. The coolness under the trees, the open environment, vast green grass on all sides, carefree attitude and company of friends is something that still lingers in my memory. I compare this with children of today who live in concrete jungles of multi storied houses with little or no open spaces to play and often little greenery. Parks and playgrounds if at all are small and overcrowded, no jhoolas in trees, no neighbourhood friends and perhaps no time. Children are so overburdened with home work and often play is at the cost of missing a class- dance class, swimming class, tennis class, personality building class and so on. Is personality not built by free play, physical activity, managing group dynamics and making friends? Can you build personality in class rooms- teaching lessons on personality?

Children are going from one hobby class to another after school hours in junior and middle school and tuition classes or the so called Narayana/Vidyamandir type coaching institutes once in high school. Evenings are full up with home work and classes of some nature. Children have no time to play- if it has to be play it should be coaching- football coaching, tennis coaching and so on. Can parents stop putting so much pressure on the child?

Where are we heading and what are we doing to our children? Look at a child of today.  Children are always preparing for tests and completing projects. Having no time to play is causing many health problems among children including obesity, diabetes, hormonal problems and many other issues. Let us change all this and go back to the basics, from where we started, how we were to begin with. Let the children play, let them enjoy their childhood, lets unburden them and take away the ghost of home work from their lives. Is our educational system listening???