I am Diversity! Accept me and let me grow

Halima Saadia Saeed Ph.d Scholar, Researcher

Education is to accept a child with all his/her natural talents and its role is to polish those talents for the betterment of community ,country and world but unfortunately still this culture is missing in our educational system, either its public or private. Education efforts that are deliberately chosen to influence and assist children with the aim of improving knowledge, physical and morals that can gradually deliver the child to the highest goal( Prof.H.Mahmud Yunus).

When I was two I was an undisciplined child, at age of seven, I was set to play the role of a student on stage of life. The other commanding co-actor “teacher” started demanding to become disciplined through various forced strategies. All the actors in the school started their duty of hammering the natural talent of a child to transform him into a robot. To follow the instructions released by the teacher during the learning performance assessment phase, I was not allowed to even discuss my ideas and imaginatory sentences for the word/ sentence formulation. After strong pressure and training on the stage I was trained to act like a robot and the strategy I learned was “copy paste”. First from text book to note book then from notebook to answer sheet and that’s all! I stand as a brilliant student in the society with higher grades with zero creativity.

No if and buts were accepted by my leading and commanding co- actor. They always forced me to perform all those roles which they designed, plan for me to execute on the stage in the form of words /sentences, essay writing. story writing, précis writing, comprehension etc. whenever I tried to execute my sparkling ideas was judged by the lower grades for which I was responsible to bear the consequences from my parental side. Luckily, Sometimes short-range or sometimes hitter from the long-range distances. Now after ten years of performance as a student I was a package of feared, stressed, zero creativity, zero-ideas, and fully followed the instruction rules designed by my leading actor.

Wait! Was I the same when I was 2 years old, the research data say no. I was a thinker, creative eagle; my mind was a box with multi -directional ideas. Definitely was authority enough to operate my toys, to blend different colors and convert them into amazing pieces of art. I was a poet, writer and much more in different capacities. I was the strength and energy for my parents’ .I was a rainbow in the sky of my mama’s eyes,’ was full of questions coming one after another. My siblings were also a bundle of asking too many questions but I never put up my plans over knowing something.

The tables turned when I started to play the position of student. Lengthy journey of 12 years ended with many hustle bustles, I entered the institute to do my BS, the institute called university. Was a huge place of learning, a big market of degrees awarded ,processing different degrees against different programs and disciplines .Was such a big stage to share the experiences, culture and habits, languages. An amazing place with real joy to enjoy diversity. People all around the world were studying there, and I was thinking myself lucky one to be an element of such a platform and to rejoice all such experiences on a huge podium. Everything was running smoothly from purchasing the admission form to the name in the merit list, but unfortunately an alarming thing happened there which ruined all my happiness and my energy level soon fell to the ground where I tried my level best to find it but remained unsuccessful. Please wait! I just wanted to relax before sharing that incident, o.k.

Let’s move further after taking a deep breath to assure that I am still alive. One such thing happened on the first day of my university life. The day I had my first class and I was thinking of myself as a superior being in a new suit and new shoes that was amazing? But only a few moments of happiness remained outside the classroom. There was an introductory session in the class, to the teacher, who was the leading role on the stage of my all learning phases, and the fellows of the class. After that, the dreams broke.

When my teacher told me that from now on I have to share my ideas, my thoughts in my own words, I have to elucidate, assess , explain my argument and my point of view in clear and logical words by myself in my own words. My recommendations and my analysis are valuable for the whole class and my society. Come with a strong visionary approach towards every issue observing in the society, research the gaps in society and need to do evidence the theory behind it. Now they were asking me to become an undisciplined student again….oh no and with this my brain started to drain. Because after this I have to face criticism that I cannot narrate any of my idea in my own words , my write-up is poor ….please stop it!

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