School Blues

Today was my sister's second last day in school, because most probably after her Class 10 boards, she'll take admission in one of the better Mumbai or Pune colleges and move out, just like most of her friends. So obviously it's a big thing for her. Ma and I reached school to pick her up expecting them to be running around the campus to make sure the preparations for the last day bash was going great.

But what we saw there wasn't a pretty scene at all. The girls were literally sobbing their hearts out, because early this morning their bags had been checked and their "opinion diaries" and Bonanza ties had been confiscated and they were told that they were the black pages in the history of Notre Dame. All this on the second last day of 13 glorious years of some of the most brilliant students Notre Dame has ever seen. In the last 5 minutes of school, the rather sickenigly sadistic new Princie of the school I have always been proud of announced on the P.A. system that Class 10 didn't need to attend school tomorrow, and were being "suspended" for a day, to punish them for their indiscipline. Their fault? Taking a few pictures in the school campus and carrying opinion diaries to school to get small mementos they could remember their friends of 13 long years by. This in my opinion was downright dictatorship in the name of discipline.

I mean I understand the need to discipline 15-16 year olds in a world where peer pressure and media exposure is taking a toll, but is this the way out? Is this the limit school authorities should stoop to, in the name of discipline? I wasn't too disciplined myself in my school years, but I don't remember such harshness. We were handled in such a way that we regretted our mistakes, but we never resented the authorities. I got suspended too, for bursting a cracker. And by all means, it was an offence, not serious, but an offence nevertheless. But is clicking photographs, neat and clean ones mind you, not explicit MMSes, wrong?

Anyways so my mom decided to meet the Princie because she was really angry with the way the students were beign dealt with. And when Ma puts her heart to something, she makes sure she gets her point across, some way or the other. So Ma and this other lady whose daughter is also in Class 10 went to meet the Princie while my sis, her friends and I waited anxiously. The super bitch was sweetness personified! And imagine her guts, she actually advised my mom and the other lady to check their daughters' bags "secretly" and keep an eye on their phone calls! Is that the transparency between parents and children most educationalists preach? In our times, we used to have Mothers' Meets for mothers of teenage students, where they were taught how to be friendly with their daughters, and not spy on them. My mom proudly told her that she believed in the principles of the old Princie of the school and that spying wasn't the way out. And finally she asked for my sister's opinion diary "because she wanted to know what her daughter was upto!" And we got the diary from the unsuspecting bitch of a Principal! LOL! I was pleasantly surprised, I have suffered a great deal, because mom didn't understand me when I was 16, or so I thought. On our way back Mom and sis grinned away to glory at all the things my sister's friends had written in her diary... A few specimens - "Mrs Shoaib Akhtar", the phone number of the only guy my sis has ever had a serious crush on but never bothered to talk to, etc. Pretty harmless stuff I tell you!

Today my sister knows she doesn't need to hide things from Ma, and probably that is why she also knows she shouldn't break her trust. I learnt that too, albeit a little late in life. I learnt only a couple of years back that Mom was the best friend I could have ever asked for. We love her, for everything she is to us. :)

That's not all. It seems the stupid Princie's warnings have made no difference to my sister's batch. They are going to school anyways, just to sit in the playground. In their uniforms mind you, just to bug the crap out of the Principal. If only the authorities understood that they need to command respect and not ask for it, they need to instill discipline, not force it.

- posted by Newton's Apple @ 4:48 AM
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