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FUN OR FAD Kids seem to be increasingly comfortable using foul language

Walk into an VIIIth grade, VIIth grade, or for that matter a VIth grade classroom, and you are more likely to come out having a massive heart attack, thanks to the kind of language kids these days use in class. A quick peep into classrooms reveals a rather appalling fact. More and more kids are comfortably using foul language in school!

Recently, a friend’s daughter returned sobbing, unable to bear the harshness of foul language her peers used in class. Another child suffered a throbbing headache after “day-long torture” what with having to listen to girls and boys play word-building using foul words! Since when did a day in school become a day of torture? Wasn’t school meant to provide an environment of safe learning instead of an environment of vulnerability? One thing is for sure, society has an enormous task at hand – to refine and remind kids to Mind Their Language.

Kids pick up foul language from just about anywhere. But adults have a responsibility to ensure that kids are not exposed to such language. So where does this education start? Many parents believe it is the school’s job. The schools argue that they can only be partners with parents but the base clearly has to be laid at home. A good number of parents have little time to spend with kids and the person mothering the child is the helper at home. Reason enough for a child to pick up obnoxious vernacular vocabulary! Some educated adults fling abuse at kids who think the best platform to try it out is the classroom. That slowly ‘graduates’ into defying school rules, hurting or even ‘impressing’ other children.

Students who spoke on the condition of anonymity had some shocking stories to narrate. Some said children shot paper rockets with foul words on them and enjoyed coining “vulgar code words” for simple school vocabulary. The naughtier lot used the black board to “impart” their code words to friends. The class was divided into the ‘nerd’ group and the ‘cool’ group. And the nerd group would be subjected to ridicule and laughter on almost every ordinary day at school! Teachers, most times swamped with work, turn a deaf ear, unless children get into fisticuffs. Besides the fact that they have little influence or interest in the welfare of a class that’s almost as big as a “mini city.” Some parents argue that schools should reduce the class size and perhaps increase the fees. School principals were unanimous in their opinion that schools were only partners with parents. Lakshmi Priya, Principal in-charge, National Public School, felt use of foul language was rampant in schools patronised by the affluent. She says, “Our teachers spend enough time reminding children to maintain their decorum in school.”

Ramaa Subramaniam, Principal, DAV Higher Secondary School, said, “Children are not allowed to remain to idle. It’s when they are free that you face these problems.”

Yoga and meditation were necessary tools in grooming children, she felt, adding that lack of a spiritual background was a key contributor to bad behaviour.

Dr. Bhavanishankar, Principal, Chettinad Vidyashram, attributes the use of foul language to, too much exposure to cinema. Quite rightly so, as some children watch vernacular movies at least half-a-dozen-times in the company of their parents! Wonder if there is a mistaken identity for the kind of hero Swami Vivekananda wanted for India when he told the youth, “Your country requires heroes. Be heroes. Your duty is to go on working and then everything will follow of itself.” Did our youth hear that as working or watching?

Some principals refused an interview, while some who preferred anonymity stated that bigger children should be dismissed from school for using foul language, though it was not the practice now. Parents of younger children picking up foul language from older siblings, should take them home, reform them and then bring them back to school, say some. Clearly there are three lessons to be learnt for three sets of people. Parents: “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”

Schools/teachers: “The quality of a university is measured more by the kind of students it turns out than the kind it takes in,” and Students: “All power is within you.

You can do anything and everything. Stand up and express the divinity within you.”

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