Tiny heads Huge brains

There are instances in life which takes away our breath by surprise. You may have to lose a moment of yours to think; before you react to it. These are moments we live only once. Every next time it is a different surprise to take your breath away.

I lose myself to such moments often. And these surprises come to me in small sizes. They surprise me, scare me, make me think deeper than the depth of my brain, sometimes confuses me and sometimes makes me doubtful of my own intellectual capacities.

Half my size and less than one-fifth my age, my bunch of wonder kids shock me with huge serious doubts daily. It's either doubts or the big concerns they have in life, as they see it as. The way they interpret the learning from the world, surprises me. How easily, effortlessly they learn things which actually I'd feel is hard for them to understand. Am not talking about addition or subtraction, here. Those would be things I'd dare feel is hard for a five year old, anymore.

I was teaching the concept of Living/Non-living things. Things which need air, which grows and which can move are called living things, I said. I gave examples 'me, you, birds, animals, trees...' Then I went on with non-living things, the same way. Once they understood the concept, I asked them to name some living things... Between all the regular answers, Sakshi, the curious one of the lot came out with the answer 'balloon'. I generally, don't say it's wrong instantly, just not to demotivate their range of thinking. So, I asked 'why do you say that'. She said "it needs air, it grows and it can move", so easily. I didn't have time to show a mouth drop to her. I strained my brain for a second and said 'It gets air only when we put air into it, forcefully. It doesn't take air on its own, hence it doesn't fall into that category'. She was convinced and I was happy and proud that I successfully answered to that wonder question and got a full mark from her.

We were practicing for annual day. Children were standing with their partners, a girl and a boy. Vineeta’s partner , Agastya was absent one day. She had the greatest tension that day. Whom will she dance with? She came to me running and said “my husband is absent today”. Hiding my laugh, I asked ‘who’? She said ‘Agastya’. I reacted “Oh, he is not your husband. He is your partner for dance”. She said with a sense of disbelief “yes right, my partner”. I was happy she learnt the word. I didn't want her to feel embarrassed using the word, but I wanted her to use the right word. I was worried if she is uncomfortable making a mistake, she is never going to be spontaneous with me. 

Shorter kids were in front and the tall ones were behind in the dance. We had paired two tall, chubby kids together. After two days of keeping quiet, Varshith, the tall chubby boy came to me and said, “I want thin girl”. It took a moment for me to understand what he was saying; because my mind was not aware of the tension the children are going through in their mind with their forcefully allotted partners. I said, “Varshith, you are tall, so is she, the other girls are short, the other girls won’t suit you. Thin girls wont be seen if they stand behind. And moreover she is the best dancer”, which was all actually the truth. Accepting it as the ultimate lesson, he stood proud there having the best partner, from the next day. Perhaps, he felt like he could do that sacrifice in human interest. I was relieved he is convinced.

Community helpers are people who help us, like doctor, teacher, carpenter, driver, etc, I went on. They were waiting to open their mouth to list their set of community helpers. Tanvi shouted 'spiderman'. Wow, I said "no Tanvi, he helps for sure, but he is a superhero and in cartoons only, he is not real. Have you seen him?" She said, 'No. But in cartoons, he is a community helper right?' What more could I say than 'yes'. I was glad, she understood the meaning of community helper better than I did, when I was her age.

Germination, the topic was. We thought we'll teach them practically. In paper cups, I made small holes, filled with mud and the made the kids sow seeds, in their individual cups. I made them sprinkle some water, daily. Kids were so excited to see the shoots develop. They felt happy that they have done something nice. Once the plants grew to a little height, I let the kids take it home and told them to take care of it. Sprinkle water daily and keep it out in the sun, I said. I forgot to mention, it will grow only to an extent of a plant as it is just moong dal seeds. A month later, Sakshi's mother came to me, dragging Sakshi along and said, 'Mam, please tell sakshi.. will that plant grow more in that paper cup? She is expecting a height of  a coconut tree' I had almost forgotten about it by then. I didn't know my words were considered like those from the Bagawad Geeta, by my kids. I looked at Sakshi. She wanted me to explain to her mother that she doesn't know anything about how nature works. I had to explain to Sakshi that it's just a plant and not a tree, and moreover, there is no space for the roots to grow inside, so it will be dead by now. She accepted it. Mother said 'she thinks, I know nothing. Only her teacher knows everything.' Oh My God! Was I responsible for that?

There is this boy Adithya, who tests my patience everyday. He doesn't like to sit in the class, forget about holding the pencil or listening to the class, and writing is out of question. Give him a page to write and he'll come out with n number of options for avoiding it. He'll say he wants to use the washroom urgently. He'll fix his pencil behind his ears and grab attention of other kids. He'll push his pencil into his bag silently and keep searching for it for the rest of the time. He'll cough so hard and pretend to be sick. He'll bargain with me 'Mam, I'll write one line and you let me out to play". He'll lose his eraser purposely and walk around the class, asking for one. My God, I was introduced to my level of patience, only through him. And the van driver will finally come to pick up all the children. I'd not allow Adithya to go, and finally he'll sit alone in class, cry and finish his work within 10 minutes. Next day he has forgotten the big story and is all set to test my patience again. Uffff... Bless me God.

My kids have the habit of bossing the rest of the school kids, as they are the elder kids in the school (Sr. KG). Every time they'll get scolded by a teacher. Shreyash pushed a Nursery class boy and he got a little hurt. He went home crying. Shreyash was not doing it for the first time and I had to stop him now. Next day, when Shreyash came, I called him aside and asked him,"did you push him yesterday?" And, as expected, he said 'No mam', with all possible innocence. I'm not going to take that. I told him, "That child's father called me and asked who did this; and I told your name. His father said, he'll talk to your father over the phone about it. And so, I have given your father's number." I was playing villain with a five year old. He started weeping and sobbing and said I won't do it again. Now, I knew he was not lying. Never seen him crying like that before. I told him to go and tell sorry to that child. He immediately did that. I held Shreyash close and told "Ok now, I'll call his father and tell that you'll not do it again. And I'll tell him not to call your father. Stop crying now." 
From that day, Shreyash never pushes a child. 
Well..., not exactly, that's too much to expect. Never pushes a Nursery child... 
No..., doesn't push that particular boy. 
At least I achieved that. 

Properties of water I was teaching and I knew some of the kids would love to try some experiments with water. Water turns into vapour while kept outside, in the sun. I told the kids, "keep a cup of water in your balcony for some days. It will evaporate soon, and your cup will be empty in a few days." Amish went home and immediately kept a cup of water. A month later, we had a parent teacher meeting. Amish's father came along with Amish. He said "My God, I am having a tough time with his experiments at home. He kept a big cup of water in our window for seeing how it evaporates. I forgot about it a few days before and threw it off. There was anyways very little water left in it. He literally shouted at me, for that. And made me keep another cup filled full with water. I should take care that I don't mess with it now, absentmindedly". I laughed and told him 'I am happy he takes these things seriously'. Amish was wondering 'why is mam laughing while she should be scolding papa for it'.

Children asked one day, about the scar on my face. I explained to them about how it happened. When I was their age, I was playing in our building compound. A monkey came from somewhere, all of a sudden. All the other kids ran away and I stood there still, in shock, not knowing what to do. It attacked me, and scratched on my leg and cheek. And that's the story of my scar, I finished. The only doubt I thought they would ask was 'didn't it pain?' or 'did you cry?'. But Sanjay asked 'why did you not run?' Oops...I thought, should I say 'I was brave?' No, that was definitely not the right answer. But it would be better for them to have an opinion of their teacher as being brave, than as unintelligent. Then I thought, they shouldn't end up doing something like that and call it bravery. So, I confessed 'yes I should have run. I was not as smart as you kids.' There Sanjay went on with his next 'why you were not smart then? Now you are smart na...' I freaked away and said the typical dialogue of a teacher 'Keep quiet. Take out your pencils'. I was happy at least, he is assured I am smart now. Oooo, what an escape. 

They have no shyness to come to me and say 'Mam, you look beautiful today' or 'your dress is nice'. They don't fake love to me. They wait to tell about how they spent their weekends to me, on Monday. When I take a leave, there wouldn't be one kid left in the class, who has not asked the other teachers, why I didn't come to school.

I can go, on and on with many such episodes, where I have been blown away, by these intelligent little ones. They make me feel proud. They make me feel special. Their ideas and theories are different, clean and clear.

They learn things so fast from everything around; from movies, from people, from friends, from parents, from games and above all from the teacher. The little things each one does in class, in so amusing and joyful. They give me a great work-out daily. They keep me busy mentally and physically. They make me come up to their level and understand the world as they see it. They smile for nobody else, but for themselves.

Cheers to all those little monsters in my class.
Shwetha