To Class or not to Class

Author : Swati Mohandas

This afternoon, Aarav, my neighbour’s 11 year-old came to play with my daughter, Khushi who is of the same age as him. One glance at him and I could make out that he was not his usual self. So I asked him what was wrong – to which he replied:“I am just tired, aunty.”and went about to play with Khushi. I could see his disinterest though.

Later in the evening, I met Mansi, Aarav’s mother when our common grocer had come to deliver stuff at our doorstep. Generally, I asked for Aarav’s whereabouts. She replied, “Aarav is busy attending a virtual coding class.”As Khushi was also around she inquired what time Aarav would get free to play. Mansi replied “Khushi beta, after this ongoing class he also has to attend his dance class, so, tomorrow he might have some free time to play with you, only after he is done with drawing and piano classes.” To this Khushi got upset and continued playing Jenga.

Well, I couldn’t sleep that night, but wonder about our neighbours. Besides online school, his tuitions, Aarav also attends various activities. I am all for exposing kids to extra-curricular activities, however with the pandemic hitting us and screen time increasing due to online studies, a bit of extra TV and mobile time(yes, I do monitor Khushi’s screen time as well as the content she watches) I haven’t enrolled my daughter for any activity class as I feel ‘slowing down’ is not going to hamper her progress in life.

I simply fail to understand how it is really essential for a 11 year old child to comprehend coding lessons about problem solving which will actually not benefit him in solving real and tough issues later in life. Why does the child have to be ‘always busy’ by attending classes elsewhere, when he/she can learn so many skills in his/her home too? Yes, assisting in housework is an important life skill.

To sum it up, my Point of View  is to ask all my friends reading this blog of mine to tell me, is it wrong if I haven’t enrolled my child for any extra classes and I am just letting her be? She finds activities to keep herself busy. She even ‘invents’ games by herself (No help from computer) and I really marvel at her imagination. She assists me in housework and in kitchen too, wherein she has incidentally developed a great liking for baking. Not to forget the ample memories we are creating by spending time together. We are thoroughly enjoying this time.