My younger one is in the virtual school this year. For his classes he sits in the living room where my wife can keep an eye and help him if he needs something. We time our lunch during his afternoon school break so that the family can have lunch together. Today however I was occupied at work and by the time I went to eat, the break was over, and my son’s school had already started. I could hear my son’s teacher as they went on with their regular school schedule.
Having seen my elder one through those
years and now seeing my younger one every day, I know teaching small kids is
not easy. If you are lucky, they will sit and listen to everything you say. If
you are not, they can ask complicated questions or relate something you are saying
to something unrelated and take the conversation in a tangential direction. A
classroom full of kids can be a different story altogether.
This is how some parts of the class
conversation went –
(The teacher
was teaching math addition and was explaining how numbers can be added to each other
to get a bigger number)
Student 1: Teacher,
I want to tell you something.
Teacher: Yes,
sweetie; what is it?
Student 1: The
grass in our lawn has been growing taller and taller. They are adding up like
these numbers.
Teacher: Yes,
that happens sweetie. Did you have any question on what we discussed?
Another kid
raised his hand to catch the attention of the teacher.
Teacher: Yes
Student 2. Do you need something honey?
Student 2: Teacher,
I want to use the rest room.
Teacher: Sure
honey, but please be quick. I don’t want you to miss the lesson
Student 2:
But I am not going to pee. I am going for something else.
Teacher: ok,
but please try to be quick.
Student 2: I
cannot be quick. I will need some time.
Teacher: Sure
honey…
Every now and then one of the kids would
say something unrelated to the math class and the teacher had to sweet talk the
kids focus back to the class. I wondered what I would have done if I was a kindergarten/elementary
school teacher. Would I have run away the first day?
As I thought, I felt, maybe most of us are like that schoolteacher in some way. We too face incomprehensible questions and ridiculous requirements from our team members, managers and customers at work. Yet we always answer with courtesy and treat work situations with upmost dignity.
As
my thoughts flowed, it suddenly struck me; I realized there was a problem. We
treat random people at work, on streets, in restaurants, in movie halls; whom
we may never even see in our life again, with courtesy and patience; but forget
to apply that same courtesy and patience to our own family members without whom
there is little meaning to our lives. We often seem to take our family for
granted. We patiently spend hours repeating the same answer to our customers
and office colleagues but snap the minute a family member repeats the question.
It took a while for me to finish the last few
spoons. I was shaken, but I knew it was time for me to learn from this addition
lesson and add a few things to my life. I have to put an effort to bring all
that courtesy and patience I use in my work life, to home. The methodology is
all there, and time tested. If my kids ask the same question repeatedly, I need
to answer them as how I would answer an office colleague or a customer who is asking
the same question repeatedly. Such an easy thing; yet it needed me to listen through
an elementary math class to put it together.
~Narendra V Joshi