Anyone could tell he didn’t belong once he opened his mouth to sing the first line of the song “Kumbaya.” Apart from the unconscious cracks and the battle of staying on the key of C major, Joni was shaking with each breath exhaled. His legs wobbled, his hands waggled, and his eyes spoke the language of fear mixed with doubt. How shocking! He was introduced to the choir as a tenor singer from a sister church called Oasis. Unfortunately, this oasis had its lungs and throat all dried up. Joni stopped singing from the looks on every face. By a corner, he saw the man playing the drums lift his eyebrows - not in wonder but a mechanism most people adopt to hold back laughter. The woman playing the bass guitar was looking down at nothing. As Joni’s eyes roved around the church, he saw an invisible congregation, all rising from their seats, eyes tight with laughter! The white walls were bloody-looking. Ah! Even the brown wooden cross on the altar resembled a negation. Joni felt the wo...
There was a time when the criterion for enrolling children into school was for the hand to go across their head to touch their ear. It was deemed practical and the proper judgement for establishing a child old enough to get an education.
And so, Diana was taken to school that morning for enrolment. 'Fine girl, raise your right hand over your head and touch your ear,' the administrator said. Diana tried to bend her head, but her ear could still not feel the touch of her hand.
'It is not yet time, fine girl.'
'But my daughter clocked 5 two weeks ago, sir,' the mother confirmed. 'Madam, it is how we have been doing it since I can remember. I will advise you to return next year when she is grown.'
Diana and her mother went back home, and when she turned 6, she was still petite and was rejected again! Until a woman who recognised her from the past year put in a word, for she understood it was not a case of ability but stature.
However, the rule of thumb is no longer based on experience or practice due to factors like alternative schooling options, a child's level of intelligence, working parents who need their kids to be engaged in resourceful activities and even the fast-growing rate of technology.
Today, a two-year-old toddler can recite the alphabet; some can even spell mono-syllabic words and interact with adults fluently due to being enrolled in Montessori or kindergarten classes.
Some have argued that children should be allowed to be children and wait until the traditional age (5) before being introduced to the four walls of a classroom or even home-schooling. It is pertinent to create a balance. If you are a parent and you know a child's strengths/weaknesses, you are in a better position to channel those attributes right. As the African proverb goes, wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.
If you were a victim of the rule of thumb or have other views, please leave your thoughts below.
Don't Forget to Be Honest
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I was a victim of a thumb-to-your-ear situation, and I remember crying as I watched my siblings go off to school while I stayed at home because of my stature. The silver lining was that it made me smarter than my peers in school. I can honestly say I wasn’t a crybaby in my first year, unlike other children who would cry and long for their parents. Thank God that system is no longer in place.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been heart breaking for a child to feel left out. Thank God indeed.
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