29 Aug 2021 HYN Himalayan Yoga Academy
Why Balanced Education for Children? Children need to be mischievous. If they are not allowed to be mischievous and are suppressed or restricted, they will become bad later, and their parents will not be able to control them. When children are naughty in a small apartment, it is very difficult for their parents to handle them due to the restricted space, but if there is a property like an ashram, who cares? The children can run five times from one end of the boundary to the other. They can play, make mischief, and exhaust all their energy, then they sleep well. That kind of mischief is bal lila, child’s play.
Children have an excess of energy. Therefore, they need to run, play, and enjoy a lot of games. It is not good for them to simply sit and study alone. Their energy has to be balanced. Parents have a very bad habit of nagging their children and saying, “You are not studying. Have you done your homework? “Children are never asked, ‘Why don’t you go and play football ? ‘or’ There is a good movie showing today. Take some money and go and see it. People think their children have the same level of consciousness as they do.
The levels of consciousness of a father and his six-year-old child are entirely different. When the child says, “I want to see a movie,” there is a different idea in his mind to when the father, who is twenty or thirty, wants to see a movie. Children do not have an impure motivation; their level of awareness is very high. Children are very close to God. Children are indeed pure. This state of innocence is described in the first part of the Ramacharitamanas, where the childhood of Rama is described.
Arrangements must be made for games or sports to become a subject at school. Games could be compulsory for all children except those who have physical problems. Games, drama, and music competitions need to go on side by side with intellectual pursuits. What is the use of teaching your child that Akbar was born in 1615 and Aurangzeb in 1750? Who wants to know all this history? When children have time and want to read, then let them, but do not impose study as a part of their education. It is not necessary to overburden children with too much bookish knowledge.
Children do not become great through study or qualifications. They become great through the quality of their mind, intelligence, and receptivity. They are based on how much they can receive, retain, and give. It does not mean that one should not study. One must have qualifications because today, this is the system throughout the world, and we must respect it. But when children are continually asked, “have you done your homework ?” They become scared of not getting first-class marks in their exams. They worry about what their parents will say if they fail.
School children are always afraid that they might fail their exams. What does it matter if they fail? Parents should tell their children, “Never mind, if you fail, you can try again. “ But parents do not dare to say such things, so their children think, “ other students are fighting for first divisions. If I only get a second division, what will Daddy say ?” This idea, which is drilled into the minds of children, ruins their entire personality. Instead, the child should be told,” Go and study if you like, but do not bother too much about it.”
We know that many students who lagged in their school studies went on to have brilliant careers. Isaac Newton, who discovered the law of Gravity, was a poor student, but he became the foremost scientist, and today, the law of gravity is the basis of every scientific experiment. If a child is a dull student, it does not mean that he will remain dull all his life. In my school days, I was very bad at mathematics, but today I can do any calculations without a calculator. You have to be able to tackle the problems of life, whether business, family, or institutional. If you cannot, then what is the use of being a first-class student?
Nature : Balanced Education For Children
The popular notion is that if children play and have fun, they will fail in their studies and life, but it is not true. However, if they have time to play and have fun, they will be successful, and if they study too much, they will spoil their lives. Playing balances the muscular and nervous energies of children, and it circulates blood throughout the system many times over. If a child sits in front of the TV all day or something only once. Children listen to a song from the cinema just once, and they can memorize it, yet they need a tutor to help them learn from the schoolbooks. Children should be left free to play. I grieve to see what is being done to children these days.
Usually, there is a very big gap between the mental state of teachers and young school students. While teaching, one has to be mindful of this gap. One has to come down to the level of students to teach them. A teacher must not always be saying,” Do this; don’t do that .”Don’t always try to find a fault with the child. A teacher is neither a policeman nor a hunter. Rather, he should be a loving companion who can become their teacher when the child is ten to twelve years old. Until the age of seven, forget that you have to teach children anything. They should be allowed to grow and develop naturally, to sing, play, make noise, and do mischief. There is nothing wrong with that.
An important point to remember is not to tell the child what is right and wrong, good and bad. This distinction is the complex of a guilty mind. Do not put this sense of guilt into the minds of children. When they grow up and become adults they will know the difference between right and wrong, Good and bad. Even birds and animals know this. Parents should not tell their children to read a lot, study hard, or try to be great or important. Let them enjoy their schooling. They should think that their teachers in the school are good, loving, and friendly. This will generate a feeling of unity in their hearts.