Anushka's Horrible Experience at School- Part 1

Dear readers
WARNING! WARNING! This might be my longest post, so read it at your own risk. I have written it in two parts. this is my first part.

We reached the school promptly at 9.30am and reported to the coordinator; P .We introduced ourselves and was briefed a little by R, the program coordinator. She explained what the mother-toddler program is about and how it is conducted. She was very clearly trying to sell her program to me. She seemed a little arrogant and was also a little pushy. Immediately, she suggested that we should sign the forms and attend school the very next day. We told her that we would like to see her school and attend a session of it. P then took me around the school, (by this time, Rahul had to leave for his meeting), and showed me the different rooms. I was pretty impressed that various activities were conducted in smaller classes and that mom and their tots would go from one class to the other. The last room she showed me was the computer room. I asked, "Computer room for a year old"? And she replied, "Yeah, children love computers right, so we try to make it fun and let them "watch" the computer". Okay, I thought.

Anushka and I were looking at the huge fish tank as we had a couple of minutes before the class started. Anushka was mesmerized by the fishes. Soon, we went into the class and there I saw baskets on the floor with fake money in it. There was a teacher on the stage who pretended to be a grocer; selling various fruits and vegetables. She told the children to get a basket and come up the front to buy vegetables or fruits. All the parents did as they were told, and I too led Anushka to the pretend grocer. Toddlers were eagerly looking around to see the various fruits and vegetables, all this while the pretend grocer aka the teacher was shouting out like a typical "bhaji walla or rather bhaji walli".

Moms then started hurrying their toddlers and made them pick up a fruit of their own choice. I on the other hand showed Anushka the fruits and vegetables that were placed on the stand and asked her what she would like. She told me purple, as in the brinjal, so I picked that up and gave it to her. She then said peppers and apple; I asked her if she would like to pick it up on her own. She said "haa" and then slowly retreat her hand to pick it up. She also wanted strawberries, and I probed further by asking her how many strawberries she wanted. She replied by saying two. The grocer then said, "Anushka pay me some money". And I showed Anushka the pretend money that she had in her basket and told her to pay the grocer.

All the children began playing with their fruits and vegetables; examining it, feeling it, and tossing it and some even tasting it. Anushka too tasted her strawberries. The children seemed to enjoy this activity, but before I knew it, it was time to put away the fruits and veg. They sang a song to put away these things.
After the clean up, there was a puppet play, or rather a circle time. One of the teachers was singing a song, and the other was hidden behind a puppet stage showing the various sea puppets. One of the children wanted to touch the lobster, but his mom held on to this shirt so tight and pulled him back. The teacher neither encouraged the child to come up nor say anything! Maybe this is what circle time meant to them.

Then, there was a song about a snow man. Every child was given a snowman book and they sang the song twice and again it was time to put the book away. One of the children was not ready to do so, and the dad said that "It’s ok, let her hold it for a while, and she will give it back". But the teacher, oh the teacher, was adamant on taking it back and making the child upset! After this, there was a name song, where the teacher showed a book with pictures of individual children. They sang a song like this, "Where is Arya, where is Arya, there she is, there she is...”. Then it came to a child who was not present. They sang the most horrible rhyme in Hindi. It went something like this, ("Where is Julie? Oh Julie is not here today, why is she not here. She has high fever, she has gone to the doctor and the doctor gave her the biggest injection. Julie cried so much as it hurt her.) What the hell! This is what you teach a child about doctors. Not bad! One thing I was pissed about was, after the teacher mentioned everyone’s name, she looked at us and did not bother introducing us to the group. Yes, just looked at Anushka and expect Anushka to know that she is welcomed to the class. How can they be such idiots! How can they not introduce someone who is new to the group! It’s just like when you meet someone new, you introduce yourselves just to make yourself feel comfortable. So this was my first peeve; of course there were many before my first, but this was it!

Later on, we went to the GYM class. There was another teacher in the gym class, and some sort of a rehearsal was going on, I was told that there will be a concert for these toddlers and hence the practice. I was asked to sit down and watch; I sat down and watched. What a performance! All the children were forced to act upon the teacher's and their moms' wishes. No one was allowed to run away to climb or jump, or play with the toys, but DANCE like their teacher and their moms.

Okay, why will they want to have a concert for a year old? What’s the purpose here? First of all, the room had some jumping and climbing equipments, and cool manipulative were lying on the table. How do you expect a one year old to follow instructions when these fun and interesting things are inviting them to play? Anushka kept asking for the toys, as I had told her that we are going to a school and there will be toys to play with, books to read and many other things to do. She insisted on having the toy and I wondered if I should hand it to her or not. What if I do, and some other child would want to play too, and the teacher would not be happy as she has her ACT to finish.

After clearing my thoughts, and seeing that other children were playing with the toys, I handed some to Anushka. Boy oh boy! The teacher saw it and immediately said, “Mummy, can you please put the toy away?" Put the toy away, then why the freaking hell is it out there? If it’s not meant to play, then you PUT it away, you dumb cow! How can a one year old resist playing with toys and climbing? HOW? HOW? HOW?

After the wonderful concert was over, the teacher took out 5 balls. 5 balls for 12 toddlers! I think even my youngest sister will know that this is the biggest NO, NO! How can you have 5 balls for 12 toddlers! Well at least my child goes berserk when seeing a ball, I don’t know about others. Each wanted a piece of that ball, and since there weren’t enough, there was utter chaos in that classroom. The teacher quickly suggested that we should play dodge ball; meaning the parents form a circle, and the children will be inside the circle. The parents will throw the ball to a particular child, and if it hits that child, he or she is out, but since they are young, they still get to stay inside. Seriously, I was losing it! Was she just plain stupid or what?

However the parents tried to play the game but were unsuccessful. So then the teacher said, “Okay parents, how about you pair up and roll the ball to your child but do not let your child touch the ball”. So the parents followed suit. I think by this time the toddlers had it! Some howled their loudest cry and a few displayed the most outrageous tantrums I had ever seen. This might have terrified the teacher and she quickly went to the nearest cupboard and took out hundreds of smaller plastic balls. The children stopped whatever they were doing and hurried to get the balls. Anushka was thrilled to see those balls, and she pulled me to wherever she was going and started picking up the balls like there weren’t a tomorrow. As if that was not enough, she put some under her arms and wanted me to carry some for her. (How long this activity lasted, don’t even get me started, or else I will never be able to finish writing this post.)

We were led into the language room where we got to read books to the children. Anushka picked up some books and sat on a chair. She began to flip the pages when she realized that she wanted another book. She got up and went to look into the box. She saw another girl coming to get some books; she looked at her and said, “Book”, and then offered her the book. That was such a sweet gesture. Again she sat on that chair and began to read the book, but before I could even turn to the next page, it was time to PUT AWAY the book. I just could not believe it. Why are they hurrying the child like that? There weren’t one activity that lasted more than five minutes. What were they trying to achieve by doing this?