EDU-EXCELLENCE, a seminar at IIT, Delhi for principals and with parent-participation

Last week, some parent- reps were fortunate to be invited to EDU EXCELLENCE, a seminar for chiefly school principals at the IIT, Delhi. This year IIT had inserted a workshop for parents in the seminar called EFFECTIVE SCHOOL PARENT PARTNERSHIPS About 10 of us parents attended this workshop and it was a sure eye- opener. An interactive session, it was led by Mr. Harish Chaudhury (IIT, conference co-ordinator), Mr Raja Ram, NCERT, Mr Madhav Rao, Principal and Mr. Sandeep Srivastav, IT - school education. The crust of the talk revolved around the immense amount of time and energy spent on private tuitions and the stress parents pass on to their children to succeed. Success doesnt necessarily ensure happiness. As explained by Mr Chaudhury, every year 4,50,000 applications are received by IIT out of which only 4,500 get through. After 2 years of study, only 40% of these 4,500 students actually want to be engineers and by the time their studies are over, only 20% actually take on engineering as a career. Why do parents knowingly or unknowingly place pressure on their children to become doctors and engineers if it is not going to make them happy or if it is not what they want in life. One can be happy and not successful but it is equally important to accept that one can be successful yet unhappy. Parents were requested to encourage their children to tap their hidden talents ( musical instruments, sports etc) so that they there is a space created for their children where they can unburden themselves of their stress. Parents did express apprehension that many times schools apply pressure on parents/children to perform, which is true in many cases. Parents were in informed that slowly the education system has been changing and in a matter of a few years, things would be better for our children. All is not well, however, within our homes though. The not-so- subtle changes in age-old institutions such as family and marriage etc have made parenting all the more challenging. To top it, the long established division of roles between the schools and family/ community with regard to education of the children stands fairly ambiguous. Worse, we, the parents, are waiting as if education itself will enable our children to self-correct and atomatically realign to the altering socio-economic conditions. Of course, it wont. We will have to work at re-negotiating the division of responsibility and resources between schools and homes. In the process, we will need to also factor-in the metamorphosized contours of career and living into the school curriculum, pedagogy, teacher- profiles and infrastructure. The session ended with a presentation of a lecture by Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Late Randy Pausch, his Last Lecture on REALLY ACHIEVING YOUR CHILDHOOD DREAMS. The link is as follows www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo Randy Pausch says - Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don't achieve theirs, and I think that's a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I've actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (etc.cmu.edu), of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams. This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how *you* can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too. As a parent, I would strongly recommend every parent to watch this video WITH THEIR CHILDREN. A big thanks to The Indian School for giving us this opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful session and look forward to more such opportunities. Sangeeta Aswani, VP PTA, The Indian School.