A Co-education − To be or not to be! has been a much debated issue and very little positive action has been taken towards its implementation.
Time was when most parents cringed at the thought of sending their children to co-ed schools and colleges and there are some who do so even today. It is for these parents and educationists that I write this article.
I have a son and a daughter and therefore my natural choice was a co-ed school so as to avoid vehicle problems as well as facing with different holiday timings. For years they have gone to various co-ed schools due to our frequent transfers. However this time round as the children were in 9th and 11th respectively I had only the board scores in mind and so for the first time placed them is different schools albeit almost adjacent to each other and under one management.
I have never worried about my children getting involved in delinquent behaviour of the romantic kind, but as soon as they landed in a girls-only and a boys-only school they have been forced to ponder over mundane romantic issues due to the schools obsession with it. Children seemed to whisper more about boyfriends and girlfriends from the neighbouring school, than they had ever done in the co-ed my children had just left. Teachers were hyper about my daughter being seen with her brother or even the driver.
Soon I started hearing stories of boys who were so much like girls and of two boys hanging out together in the remotest corners hand in hand. There were more romantic stories than I have heard from the previous schools. I am not sure whether I can fully put this down to my son's growing awareness.
Then one day my daughter comes back to recount an incident. During PE period she was sitting with her head on a friends lap and the teacher came by. The teacher gave an odd look and commanded the child to sit properly. In the given scenario, I sometimes wonder whether it would not have been wiser for the management to have had a co-ed school rather than two separate schools.
Well life does seem more complicated these days!
In my school days, even though I was in an all-girl's boarding school, no one suspected us of anything other than friendship even though a pair of friends was seen together for the whole term. I wonder how difficult it must be for parents and teachers to understand where to draw the line of caution. I am relieved that at least my children are getting mature enough to think out stuff for themselves, but I worry for others. And yet I am sure they will cope with emerging social change as well as generations before them have done.
From : Webmaster
8th Feb ' 08
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