Scarlet Writes

When I was in school, I was insecure about a lot of things. I used to have a lot of pimples. Well, I still have a lot of them. My hair never looked right. My uniform was never of the right shade. The skirt was one shade lighter and shirts were always an inch or two shorter. I was always an average student. I never really participated in any extracurricular activities and/or sports. I was just an insecure, completely normal teenage girl, giggling all the time. At that point of time, I thought, I’d always be an insignificant, average, random girl in life. As I stand on my 27 th year of life, I look back at all my insecurities and wonder how and when it transformed into my strengths and when did I actually become so oblivious of my insecurities. Not that my pimples don’t bother me anymore! They do. They just don’t alter my life in anyway, anymore. With time and age, I have simply learnt to overcome my insecurities and accept my flaws and not be so harsh and mean on myself. So...

Earlier this week, I had to deal with four students of Grade VII, who were found cheating during their second terminal exams. Two of them were repeat offenders so it made the situation worse. Physical punishment is seen as a way to correct children's behavior. In this case, I knew it wasn’t going to work. In our society, the sight of a mother spanking her kid and teachers carrying a cane to the classroom isn’t such an uncommon sight. Ask a mother or a teacher who follows such practice, the answer will be that our kids need a spanking or a two to control their behavior. In my recent visit to a public school, I was bemused to see a teacher walking around the class with a stick long enough to hit the child sitting in the corner of a bench. In another school I visited, a child was expelled for failing to follow the norms of the school of speaking English. Many teachers and parents feel the need of controlling children’s behavior through various punishment mechanisms. The ...