Clouds, birds and a purer perception of life - Prothom Alo English
Birds fly in the sky on 20 July in Sadarghat, Dhaka. After a hot sunny day, patches of clouds bring the happy note of rain in the afternoonDipu MalakarLeo Tolstoy couldn't have been closer to the truth when he said that children may be wiser than their elders. A few weeks ago, a journalist colleague of ours wrote a piece entitled "I Wish I Were Analiya." Analiya is the little girl of another colleague, who occasionally brings her to the office.
On this occasion, she had been gazing out of the window at the rain clouds, and our colleague (who wrote the piece) pointed out how fast the clouds were floating away. Analiya pondered for a bit and sighed, "Oh, the poor people far away will get drenched in rain when the clouds go there!"This inspired our colleague to write her piece, "I Wish I Were Analiya." She was touched that this little girl cared so much for people she didn't know and couldn't see, while we hardened journalists tend to see everything merely in numbers -- two killed in a road accident, one drowned in the sea, two thousand rendered homeless by floods, and so on. We, at times, are guilty of not seeing the human tragedies behind each piece of news.
Innocent and untarnished, children think so differently from us. Cynicism and world-weary minds haven't clouded their souls.
Then another child visited our office. This was the nephew of another colleague. While the little girl had been an English-medium student, this little boy was a madrasa student. He stood by my window on the 13th floor, staring at the blue sky. We were watching the kites (the birds of prey, not the paper toys) flying in circles, round and round, like Yeats' falcon turning in the ever-widening gyre. He was talking about airplanes and other aircraft, flying and so on. I pointed to the birds and said, "Wouldn't it be nice to be a bird, flying freely in the sky so high?"
Came his immediate reply, "No, Allah has created us as humans. We should be grateful for that and thank Him for this gift."
But it also got me thinking. These two children I mentioned here were very, very young, yet such perceptions! Such perspectives! This was Philosophy 101.
Flaming red clouds, with a bird flying in the sky.Anis MahmudWe owe it to these little ones to help them continue with their lives, uncorrupted and untarnished by the twisted and devious ways of the world. No, we don't want them to be naive or duped by the evil elements of the world, but neither do we want them to be sucked into the vortex of a valueless society. As parents, guardians, teachers, as members of society as a whole, we must encourage such independent thinking. They can grow up to be pragmatic AND pure, not pragmatic OR pure. They can be innocent AND intelligent, not innocent OR intelligent. One does not need to be wily to be wise.
It is all about letting them think for themselves, guiding them through their lives -- not controlling their lives, but preparing them for the life ahead. Education is not about force-feeding, it's about helping them use their faculties, calculating, analysing and developing a healthy zest for life.
A constructive education will not only equip them to earn a living in the future, but will also help them to enjoy life, contribute to society, and build a world better than the one we are leaving behind.
Utopia? It doesn't have to be. Admittedly, seeing the growth of teen criminal gangs all around, corruption and moral decay, and wars around the world, such hopes do seem far-fetched and utopian. But we cannot give up.
If we just dismiss the possibility of Bangladesh developing and improving in every area and sector, if we just decide that an exodus from the country is the only answer, then yes, things will not change. But we have come a long way. Despite all odds, our ready-made garment sector is flourishing; women are breaking out of suppressive social norms to scale Mount Everest, fly planes, take to politics; we have institutions like BRAC and Grameen; we have ousted a firmly established fascist. What can't we do?
Just look at our beautiful Bangladesh -- the Sundarbans, the tea gardens, the hills, the plains, the rivers, the flora and fauna all around. Can we give up? We have so much to cherish.
Our families, our schools, our colleges and universities, our society, must not numb the minds of the young, but inspire them, help them to live in harmony and happiness.
Let us hand our children books, not devices to watch meaningless reels. Let them use AI, don't let AI control them. Talk to them, listen to them, play with them, teach them history and math, teach them fine arts and physics, STEM subjects and sports.
Tree leaves silhouetted against colourful clouds in the evening sky.Anis MahmudThis is not a lesson in how to bring up your child. This is just a plea to learn from the little ones. When we see a cloud, we see a cloud. When we see a bird, we see a bird. They see so much more. Let us have faith in them. It is not the misguided youth that will inherit the future. It is these pure minds that are our future -- only if we give them a chance.
