ALSphere Foundation
Childhood – the age of innocence is not a favour bestowed. It is a ‘given’ in every young soul’s life!
Not that Rohan knew this at three years of age. All he knew was that for the past few months the change in his parents’ behavior scared him. His beloved parents interrupted his discovery of this wondrous world, interrupted the many questions popping up like colorful fireworks lighting up the night sky, and made him repeat certain alphabets and poems. They gave him a pencil asking him to create weird shapes he did not understand but tried to do his utmost just to please them.
His mother had always rushed to him when he fell down or was in pain. She had then held him in her warm embrace, soothed him with her soft voice, and kissed away his tears. Yet now when his hands strained and pained to hold on to the pencil, the mother got annoyed and that made the pain worse.
There was however very excited and anxious conversation in the house over a certain day when he would have to perform at a ‘test’ to the best of his ability and if he did well, he would be showered with gifts.
So, Rohan found himself in a strange cold room one day with four pairs of eyes staring down at him. He was being asked to recite, write, answer questions, draw, smile, please everyone- all at the same time. He gave his very best and walked out proudly. He did what he did as he felt that it would bring back the smile on his mother’s face.
Rohan waited anxiously for the elusive smile to light up his world. Little was he prepared for what followed. It was as though a dark, threatening cloud had gathered over his home. Mother and father were fighting and no wonderful aromas wafted in from the kitchen. Was no one hungry? He felt responsible for the sorrow he seemed to have brought on, though he did not know how and no one told him why.
Unknown to him, innocent little Rohan had been declared a reject through a ridiculous, unscientific, and purely subjective method of meaningless screening even before his life had begun!
Rohan sat in his room looking out at a beautiful butterfly flitting from flower to flower. He wanted to rush out, grow wings and fly free like the butterfly but he felt a heavy burden of failure weighing him down – not that he understood failure. He did not know that he had been tested for skill and knowledge even before he had started his schooling. He was not aware that the onus is upon the school to find and nurture his potential, to teach him skills for the life that lay ahead of him. He did not know that true education allows entry into the marvelous world of learning through joy of exploration and does not restrict pure minds to a bound syllabus.
