The Shift In Perspective part 2

 

When the first day of camp started, the kids were seemingly excited in the presence of such a well-furnished playroom. On the other hand, I was this close to calling it quits at the sight of the kids themselves. Now all the readers might be wondering why I was scared of such puny humans (some may even poke fun at me). The reason was simple; I was not sure how to build my image as a teacher in front of them. I was extremely aware of the fact that I have zero crowd-control and non-existent fluency in delivering a lecture as long as fifteen minutes.  I didn’t even know how I was going to introduce myself. Internally screaming, I make my way to the make-shift stage, and blurt out my introduction. As I spoke, I remembered that many people have had difficulty in pronouncing my name. The ‘Y’ would often be confused with an ‘L’. So, as a half-baked attempt, I made them repeat my name twice. And my eyes might have deceived me but they looked a little bit more animated and eager. I was brimming with sheer embarrassment, by the way.

As I had predicted, this batch of kids were full of energy and completely in the holiday mood. I did not realize that until the organizer told me about it on the last day. That would explain their extreme reluctance to write even one, measly page-writing. I could not believe that kids these days cannot even write about a simple topic. I was at a loss when I saw that some kids couldn’t even write about their favorite food.

Look, I know not every kid is blessed with the ability to magically sprout an essay out of any topic, but even the most mediocre students can write on a topic as easy as your food. My eyes failed me when they couldn’t even write one sentence. I would have forgiven if it was at least four lines, but none?! That day, I ranted about this in front of my mother and she shrugged and pointed out that this is the result of the pandemic. She said that some parents gave up nagging their kids and have given them free rein, free exposure to the internet and less time to devote on a task as simple as writing. She was careful to enunciate that no parents would willingly risk their child’s future for their peace of mind, but some parents took a completely different path by being negligent about such simple things. It is completely fine if a child does page-writing at least three times a week. 

My dad held us at gun-point and made us write a page every day, but I was an insurgent too. I sometimes (that means “rarely”. I have a strict dad, just so you know) wrote in a humongous handwriting to cover it up. And I didn’t do it for any noble reasons. I just did it to fulfill the deed of the day, that’s all. My point here is, that sometimes when you do something for the sake of fulfilling the thing rather than for the sake of a long-term benefit (in my case, I wrote so that I could save myself from a lecture which is a short-term benefit) , you end up benefitting from it anyway; short and long-term. I did the same and my writing improved as the years went by. I know, I know, that the same can’t be said for everyone. My school-mates had a tough time navigating through English but the cases weren’t that worse than now.

 I mean, I know it is not the same as everybody, but…I really was burdened by sheer helplessness that day.

That day I did not let them play and wasted their entire playtime hour. I was a tyrant that day and did not leave until everybody had written at least four lines. I felt bad but at the same time, I was seriously concerned about this.

I made a strict rule for them to write every day and there were more than a few punctual students. Well at least that is better than no students at all.

Anyhow, in the next few weeks, many classes like drawing, pottery and sculpting were organized.In hindsight, these classes demand patience and the kids certainly did not like it at first. In the last week, we were received by two robotics trainers who had come all the way from Hyderabad for us. Honestly, it was really interesting albeit a little boring, since I was tasked to monitor a rather troublesome child who had been picking fights with almost everyone in the camp. He has a troubled background which led him to be rather brash and extremely sensitive to the minor inconveniences. In order to make him feel part of the clan and at ease with his group, I engaged in small talk with him. He is a talkative boy, which is good for him, but I…am far from talkative. To not break his sensitive little heart, I tried to be interested and focused but his train of thought changed topics minute by minute. One minute he was talking about Minecraft (I told him about the Minecraft gamers I knew like TommyInnit and Technoblade) but the next minute, he started talking about the worst food combinations. My social battery suffered great damage but hopefully, I was kind towards him.

I had many interesting conversations with these kids to instill a sense of unity between me and them.

When we were on the topic of games, I asked the kids if they spent real money over games. At first, a few of then gave a guilty start of surprise and didn’t answer but after I laughingly assured them that I just wanted to know, they eased up.

“Well, we do”, an 8^th grader boy answered. He was rather like an idol for all the boys in the camp,” only nine rupees for twenty diamonds.”

“You get a lot of cool stuff out of those!” one of the boys piqued.

“Huh, your parents don’t say anything about it?” I asked.

Turns out, they all spend the money on their siblings or cousin’s account. The topic soon steered towards games and I briefly mentioned about Fortnite. This kid pops the most ridiculous question with the most surprised face. He literally asked, “Miss, you know Fortnite?!”

“What do you mean I know Fortnite!?” I was fatally offended. How old does he even think I am?!

" Of course, I know!," I repeated,still choked up.  

 He only replied with a look of wonder.

Nevertheless, my time at the camp wasn’t merely being an English instructor. It was handling all the kids which was a full experience to me. I learnt a little bit about how to handle a kid at a certain age group. It was a form of enlightenment and I felt a little less terrified of these tiny, bombastic humans. It was worth the sweat, I suppose.