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Kids, the new brash pack
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Children pick up foul language from just about anywhere. It is the responsibility of schools and parents to nip this tendency in the bud
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FUN OR FAD Kids seem to be increasingly comfortable using foul language
School children, should you use foul language? Aren’t there better ways to express yourself? Walk into an eighth, or for that matter a sixth grade classroom, and you are more likely to come out with a massive heart attack, thanks to the kind of
language children these days use in class. A quick peep into classrooms reveals a rather appalling fact. More and more children 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.
What parents should do
Children pick up foul language from just about anywhere. Adults have a responsibility to ensure that children 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 children and the person mothering the child is the helper at home. Reason enough for a child to pick up a colourful vocabulary. Some educated adults fling abuse at children 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, a teacher, 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, a teacher, 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.
A teacher Dr. Bhavanishankar, attributes the use of foul language to, too much exposure to cinema.
Quite rightly so, as some children watch 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?
SANDHYA KUMAR
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