The Initiation

Me: Hey, what's up?
Sumit: Same ol', same ol'. So how was it?
Me: Oh very good! I loved the homey atmosphere, the bright and colorful classrooms and the teachers are extremely friendly...Peaches had a ball!
Sumit: That's awesome!
Me: Yea... and she was also saying that by the end of playschool, kids can not only identify animals but they can also tell you what kind of animal they are, like monkey's a wild animal,  dog's a pet,  cow's a...
Sumit: Wait a minute. What are they going to be tellin' my kid? Monkey's a wild animal???
Me: Uhh, yeah.
Sumit: Ridiculous! That's exactly how they instil fear in children. I don't want my daughter going to a school where she's taught monkeys are wild animals!
Me:  Moving on, they've got this kickass pool where...
Sumit: I want Peaches to be able to hug a monkey if she wants to...I mean that's how I grew up. We didn't have any fear.
Me: Uhhh...is that why you were bitten by a monkey?
Sumit: That's not the point. You just don't teach kids monkeys are wild animals. It's outrageous! You remember Gir? Lions and men cohabit peacefully...The perception that we create of wild animals......And kids absorb.... we're responsible for bringing up this generation the right way!

And that went on for a while....

As it goes, we've been window-shopping  for schools for almost a year now. Talking to other parents, visiting schools, consulting our family...When we started looking out for schools, it felt almost like a ridiculous exercise to look through so many options...I mean when we were growing up, our parents picked the school closest to our house...hygiene, a bit of sunlight, bright classroom walls, and amicability of teachers were probably the only considerations for a pre-school. But now, you need to back up your school choice with a solid pedagogical direction, right from pre-school. Do you want a focus on academics or well-rounded development? Do you want to have her follow an IGCSE board curriculum or ICSE or IB? (Whatever happened to state board, I wonder.) And adding to the complexity of it all are the new age international pre-schools with real-life contexts ranging from food appreciation and table manners to junior couture dress-ups and art exploration and on to the other finer things in life.

Peachy Pie - All Grown Up

The more we explored, the more frazzled I got. You see, I have very few expectations from Saanvi's pre-school experience. They are:
1. She won't wake the entire neighbourhood with her tormented screeches while going to school. (I lived next to that when I was young and I often wondered which concentration camp the wailing kid was enrolled in.)
2. She'll get to keep her internal world and the freedom to learn and explore on her own, and do all sorts of things that make kids kids, including getting mud and paint all over her face. (So table manners, you're gonna have to take a back seat right now.)
3. She'll get to be in a comfortable mixed-bag atmosphere with a bit of sun and sand and water and large picture books and songbooks and easels and what the hell, some cartoons too.

Of course, I do feel the pressure of this decision mounting every day, and not just in the financial sense. That said, I have chosen a pre-school close to my house that meets all of the above criteria and am feeling pretty kicked about Saanvi starting school soon! It's this pretty little space of over-the-top color explosions, kidsy art, backyard pools, and cute, shiny-yellow classrooms. I even sat through a demo class where the kids sat and identified fruits and veggies. And I found myself struggling, for the oranges looked like cantaloupes and apples looked like tomatoes. And I think I made a pretty lousy audience cos  I laughed out pretty loud at this one shy kid who sat tight-lipped through the whole class but the moment the teacher got out papaya, he yelped out horrified, "Paa-paa-yaaa!" (Clearly some force-feeding going on there.) And while I was observing and also controlling Saanvi as she could not keep her hands off the teacher's big basket of fruits and veggies, I was also discovering for myself how Saanvi's penchant for socializing and her natural curiosity for learning new things was getting her all glee-eyed. So I tuned off from the rest of the world and watched her.

And she was happy....She was in her element here. I could picture her jetting down the slides with her friends, giving very specific instructions to everyone on what order needs to be followed. I could hear her singing on top of her voice all sorts of uptempo rhymes and songs, hopefully not the ones that I am wary about. (You've heard them too, I'm sure. See the list here.) I could see her play with glitter and abstract-paint her canvas while also trying to paint her nails with them. I could see her splashing in water with her friends...and throwing a tantrum when asked to get out.

Peaches- the waterbaby :)

This is going to be her new play zone - with a theme. And I get it. Learning needs to have a structure but it also needs to be fun. Maybe not in an obviously boisterous, chaotic fashion but just some good old loud cackles and bursts of energy directed at creating a new world for kids, a new language of their own- one that they're just beginning to grasp.

And Peaches is ready. More than ready for a stab at the world outside her cocoon. And I know her entire existence now is going to revolve around her school - her daily routine, her conversations, her moods, her choice of wardrobe, her social life...Her school's going to be a shifting source of pride, joy and anguish for her in the next couple of years. Pride when she discovers her natural proclivity for things and uses them to excel in something...Joy when she knows that as soon as she gets to school, her friends will be waiting for her to share the highs and lows of the rest of the day with her. Anguish when she gets bullied by a bunch of quacks for being different or for being smarter than them. Pride again when she asserts her will and outsmarts them to emerge as a role model for other kids. Anguish when she has a monumental fight with her besties and spends the rest of the day sour-faced, writhing in her ego. Joy when she makes up with them and realizes how inseparable they are and how ridiculous their squabbles are.

OK....I know I'm getting ahead of myself. You see, I've had months of preparing myself for this day and I've got my imagination and school-time memories playing havoc on me. I do have that undying faith that Peaches is going to be brilliant. She has a photographic memory, she's somewhat of a word-smith and her untouched curiosity and sensitivity to others all whizzed together create a pretty smart kid, one who'll hopefully build a fat wall of achievements and awards, as annoying as that could be to her other siblings...

Peaches - The Selfie Queen

And yes, I'm puffing with pride with such inspiring thoughts. But what if she lags behind? What if she's not challenged enough to learn new things or her motivation and zeal to learn are put to test by unfortunate circumstances? I don't know the answer to that question. As long as Sumit and I, as parents, can see her potential and mould it in a way that's just right for her and not overbearing, and we find an environment that brings out joy in learning something new everyday, we're good. As long as we don't impose our own insecurities and let her follow her own proclivities instead of wanting her to seek our validation, in the mad rush of branding her as an achiever, we're doing fine.

Peaches - The Shoeista

And so I enrolled her in a school with an integrated learning approach, packaged in a fun theme every month, be it pets, food or even fashion. It may not be the best in the locality but I think it'll bring out the best in her. And I can feel the colossal weight of that decision. I mean, sure I want the best for my child but I'm also pretty clueless. I don't have ten-year plans for her and I don't know what curriculum I want her to follow.

All I have then is now.. And for now, I think this is going to be worth it. Every penny of it.