Pappa, I Can't Get 10 Out Of 10
One morning,
as usual, we all woke up, me, wife, daughter and son.
As a family we eat together, whether it is break fast, lunch, snacks or dinner.
We sat together on the ground for the break fast,
My wife went inside and came out with a notebook.
Held it in front of my face.,
i believe my daughter was in 1st standard at that time.
I saw,
it was about an English dictation,
where my daughter scored 6 out of 10!
I glanced the same, and turned to my daughter and jokingly said,
come on you didn't even write 'tooth brush' spelling correctly,
you wrote 'BRESH'! and you are brushing daily!!
She was smiling.
Just to add little more fun, I said,
next time 10 out of 10? OK...
She didn't smile this time.
She looked at me and said,
Pappa, i can't get 10 out of 10.
I asked,
why?
She said, in a low tone,
Pappa, i am an average student!
My head went into a spin!
WHAT!!!
Got shocked! I just went silent.
Several thoughts started bombarding in my head.
She is in class 1,
how come she came to know about this word "average",
that to in the context of labelling some one as "average".
it is really sad!
Where did she get this idea from?
Who had made her believe that she is an “average student”?
Or had she somehow arrived at that conclusion herself?
thoughts continued..
If a child is already using the word "average" to describe herself,
What happens when she starts seeing herself as an “average student”?
What happens the next time she finds something difficult?
What happens when she makes a mistake?
What happens when she gets a low mark?
Does she think,
“I made a mistake.”
Or she thinks,
"I am not good"
It took couple of minutes for me to recover,
Once i recovered, I looked at her and said:
Please, never think, you are an average student.
if you put little attention and with little help you can
learn and you can get 10 out of 10 too.
I don't think you need to worry about this 'average' thing.
Took the note book, I looked at her spelling, "BRESH",
thought for a moment, I got the root cause:
Turned to her, and told,
Listen,
when you were reading the word BRUSH,
probably it sounded like BRESH,
that is because our mother tongue is Kannada.
We probably asked you every morning: Did you BRESH?
The actual English word is BRUSH.
It is an "U" ovel sound.
That was the confusion.
That's all.
I don't think it is anything to do with the 'average' student.
Smilingly, I asked her,
Is that ok?
Being a small girl,
she smiled and ran away,
and curiously telling her little brother,
It is BRUSH not BRESH, OK.
He simply nodded, as if he understands everything
That day stayed with me.
Not because my daughter got 6 out of 10.
Not even because she wrote “BRESH” instead of “BRUSH.”
But because a little girl had already started
describing herself as an “average student.”
Have you ever thought about these labels:
“good student”, “average student”, “weak in maths”,
“not good at studies” — or something similar?
Where do you think these labels come from?
And why do we create such unfortunate labels in school years?