Summer Vacations

Dr. Subhash Pande (India, 15/06/07)

Yet another summer vacation has begun for our children. After a hectic session at the schools, they have now been relaxing a bit and now it is the time for the parents and elderly persons in the family and the society to guide them properly for fruitful utilization of their spare time.

This is the high time to draw up plan for action in terms of character building, working on his/her attitude, improving on their limitations, tell them about our national heroes, to draw their attention towards the essence of all religions, to educate them on family culture, and the cultural and social value systems that we had in the past and what are our expectations from them in the future to come.

It has been observed that the children are busy through out the academic session due to load of the studies, home works, coaching and the project works assigned to them from time to time. Hardly any time is left for other activities as mentioned above. Some times they are even deprived of participation in sports, cultural activities during the academic sessions.

This is the opportunity when they can be asked to learn other things in their vacations. There is a trend observed that the children are shown the way of some professional cultural agencies where in they are taught about dancing, paintings, playing instruments etc. Some of them who are fortunate enough get privilege of spending a few days on a hill stations. Some plan visits to grand parents.

Overall we [parents] do not find time to educate our children on the value systems, religious books, nationality which we expect them to have in their future.

We the parents and the senior persons of the society must know and own this responsibility and offer proper directions to the growing children depending upon their age and the level of understanding.

My father once narrated, that he had gone through RAMAYANA at the age of 10 and that had a great impact on his life. Every time in his life, various teachings in the book helped him to come out of the difficult situations and brought mental peace. Similarly the essence of GAYATRI MANTRA as explained to him by his father provided him the confidence to fight all the odds in his life. He learnt about GITA and many other books at an early age. He still remembers each and every stanza of the same. He cites examples from the quotes whenever occasion arises in the midst of discussions. This has also helped him to inculcate the habit of good reading material, a hobby he has still been nourishing even at the age of 84 years.

I some times wonder as to why we have not been doing similar things for our young generation .The fault lies in us because we don’t take pains to interact with the children when they are comparatively free and induce the values which are required to be instilled in them for their all round development as per our expectations.

Have we ever introspected and thought whether we have done or have been doing enough for them. We often feel that educating them in a well-known school paying high fees would solve all our problems and it is the duty of the schools to ensure overall development of the children .Yes it is their duty to some extent, but we should also share the responsibility. Schools impart general teaching and it is the duty of the parents to promote it further and bring seriousness to follow up what has been taught.

We should see what efforts we have been making to improve upon the situation and what our contribution is to the over all development of our children.

Children kill their precious time by watching TV or playing games at home or at video parlors. We also take pleasure in doing the same. But is it giving them any fruit full education or entertainment. The children are becoming direction less when they watch TV operas. They feel what is being depicted in the TV serial, it is the real world which they are supposed to face in their life .The reality is that environment outside is entirely different. It is full of competition.  It is merciless and full of hardships all around.

Let us ask ourselves what we have been doing to make them fit to face future challenges?

So let us help them to prepare for it. Such grooming will be no doubt a slow process but a regular dose is required at a certain frequency to make up the delicate minds tuned for the eventualities.

We have an expectation rather desire that our children should be smart, intelligent fluent in English, secure good marks, perform well in sports and cultural activities. In fact over all an all rounder is expected from each one of them. Nothing is wrong in that expectation. But is it all ?

The answer is big NO. The over all development includes some thing more which the parents, elders in family and society can induce in a child. The Indian culture demands some thing more than this. For example, in the west a specific day is dedicated for Mother, Father, and Friends etc.  But here it is different .We must realize that our values are different. We cannot be so commercialized professional.

We have culture of paying respect to neighbors, elderly persons around us, who may need a helping hand. We have parents and grand parents, who are to be looked after and we celebrate many festivals which all have some significance. We worship our respective god /goddess in form of some ritual like POOJA/AARTI; we go to Mandir, Masjids, Gurdwara or Church.

So let us plan and utilize the summer vacation to the utmost advantage and make little bit of efforts to introduce our growing children to those things which require our support. We should also make them practice so that such education and values become part of their lives and pays dividends in future. Such efforts would also help them in sustaining future pressures of studies and challenges in life, when we may not be around.

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