"Give the Benefit of Doubt to the Child" "It looks like he is acting." - Maybe not. He could be communicating differently. Seek to understand further. "She is just attention seeking." - Maybe yes. Attend to her. She is probably seeking to connect with you. "One lazy bunch they are." - Are you sure? What makes them want to be lazy? "Arrogant and disrespectful." - On the outside, yes. But have you looked deeper? "I tell a thousand times, and still the child can't understand." - Really? Then who is the slow learner here? Decide as an educator to believe that your students are doing the best they can. Any suspicion or evidence to the contrary, just remain firm in your conviction that all your students want to be successful and are working toward that the best way they know how with the tools they’ve got under the given circumstances at home and their neurological make-up over which they have no control. It is keeping the above in mind that the RTE and RPWD were probably made. But do we, as educators, need to wait for a label or a diagnosis to be able to work with our students? Don't we know well enough that no two diagnoses, however similar the assessment report might look, cannot have the same intervention plan. Given the system we are in now in which students are assessed/judged based on a single written examination in which they are expected to retrieve all that was taught in the course of the whole year; in all 5 or 6 subjects; within a span of a month; from the limited choice of subjects offered; in a matter of 3 or 4 hours without moving out of the seat. Given the current plight of schools that are assessed/judged by the media, parents, and society at large based on the "marks" their students score in the 10th and 12th thanks to nationwide "celebration" of the same; where a 100% pass seems like a basic benchmark of survival. Given the kind of parenting that is seen around where children are packed with activities back to back - either in tuition or in other structured, instructor-controlled classes in games, art, music, or any other. Or children who spend more time with technology than with real humans! Given the CBSE exam format which only calls for a 33% in both external and internal combined. 20 marks are given as internal (notes completion, homework submission, project, class tests, or any other) and external (the final exam). To pass, a student requires only 13 marks out of 80! Please let us ensure that no child is stuck in this system for any longer as a result of detention in Grade 5, 8, or 9 as allowed by the CBSE. Let us help our children come out of this system with some self-esteem intact. Understand that no child wants to fail. No child enjoys criticism. Let us look at learning as twofold:
