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The right to do nothing
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Do summer camps rob children of their right to be happily silly? asks MALA KUMAR
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PEER PRESSURE? Should we send our kids to camp because, of course, Meena, Reena, Banu and Naresh, Suresh, Himesh are all going there? PHOTO: H. VIBHU
Mom's Things To Do list, June 15 to March 30: Yank kid from bed, shove into bath, shovel food into mouth, pack bag/lunch/project work, drag kid plus luggage to bus/van-stop, push into vehicle, sigh contently... aah, finally kid's off to school!
Mom's Things To Do list, School vacation: Yank kid from bed, ditto, ditto, ditto, ditto, ditto... aah, finally kid's off to summer camp!
I've been there, done that a couple of times for each of my kids, and now we all think summer camps should be banned. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against kids learning nice things like nib-painting, artificial flower making and developing their self or their personality in 10 simple steps in 10 long, hot days. I'm not against kids learning how to make a photo-frame using ice-cream sticks or something equally dust-attracting. I'm not against enterprising citizens making money by conducting classes on how to manage pocket money, how to plan your future and how to make friends.
I'm against entrepreneurs, small and big, using summer holidays to "teach" children. "When else do they have the time to learn anything?" asks my neighbour, looking at me like I'm some kind of freak. "Children must be kept occupied, you know, otherwise, Aiiyyoo Raama, we'll go mad!"
Should we pack of our children to summer camp because `Aiyyo Raama we will go mad'? Should we send them off to camps because we can't handle our own kids? Should we send our kids to camp because, of course, Meena, Reena, Banu and Naresh, Suresh, Himesh are all going there? Should we steal our kids' holidays because otherwise they will die of boredom?
Richard Ralley, a psychology lecturer at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk, Lancashire, has embarked on a study of boredom. Boredom, The Guardian reports him as saying, is an evolutionary necessity like rage and fear. So it is perfectly all right to do nothing. It is legal, ethical and healthy to sit on the terrace wall and dangle one's legs, or to sleep on the sofa and wonder if there was ever a Newton among spiders, or think about a day when you were allowed to have soggy chips if that's what you wanted! And it is this precious time of doing nothing that summer camps steal from our kids.
The old dependables
"Allfinetotalk for people whodonavejobs," mumbles Ms. Accountant down the road as she gobbles her breakfast in fast-forward. "Who's going to take care of my kids when I go to work?" she asks clearly later. "Grandparents?" I venture, being pretty sure the world still has grandparents in spite of hair dyes in all hues and dentures in all sizes. "Oh, them!" glares the lady.
Going to the grandparents' house is what all kids of my generation did. Now grandparents live in the `upstairs portion', or the `downstairs portion', and kids see them throughout the year between serials, kids' parents don't see them throughout the year, and the grandparents, noble souls, are just waiting for a single day when they can see a serial without a grandchild commandeering the remote control.
"I hate what my generation is doing to their parents," says my 35-year old friend. "If only we treated them like parents through the year they would be happy to enjoy holidays with their grandchildren," she sighs.
If a child wants to learn something specific, say charcoal sketching, and volunteers to attend a dedicated camp, that's fine. "But what use is it to send a kid to a drawing and painting camp when all through the year he begs to be let off for games during the art class in school?" questions Ramanathan, an art teacher. If kids want to learn swimming, or improve their sports skills, that would be fine too. But otherwise, why not let kids come up with "Things To Do" on their own at home? Why not give them the freedom to be happily silly?
"I put my six-year-old in a camp thinking she would enjoy the various activities. The camp was open to children in the age group 5-15. After just three days in that place, my kid refused to go," says a fellow journalist. "The children hadn't been put in age-appropriate groups, nothing was planned, and the kids just hung around not knowing what to do, for which we had to shell out quite a bit!" she adds.
There are also camps conducted by some enlightened entrepreneurs that try to address all these issues. Other groups use the summer holidays to help the community. "We held a camp on the issue of Right to Water Source for adolescent urban and slum girls in Belandur," says Geetha Menon of Stree Jagruti Samithi.
How about a Right to Holidays camp, kids? The Right to Do Nothing, and do it happily?
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