<div>Shee Ranjan sat with her eyes shut. The stress was getting to her. A huge argument had broken out at Wisdom Vidyalay, whose principal she was. What was usually a calm and peaceful place had now suddenly sprouted camps, lobbies and groups.<br /><br />Today another episode had occurred queering the pitch for her. If anything, today's episode was worse. But before that, the first episode...<br /><br />Last Wednesday, a student went and posted some foolish stuff on Facebook about his classmate. The teachers saw it too... and they told Shree. Shree saw the words and blew a fuse. Sharan, the eighth grader, had posted that he was dating his classmate Tamara, and then made some unpleasant references to her. For all intents and purposes, really silly boy stuff, but all of Tamara’s friends had read that, as had their mothers. And then her own mother. Now hell was breaking loose at her home.<br /><br />Shree was at a loss. She ran Wisdom with great attention, pride and sensitivity. Every time some technology-related crime hit the news, she discussed it in assembly. Frankly. She knew her students were all active on social media. But this was the first time something ‘bad’ had happened.<br /><br />Knowing that Sharan was the vice-captain of the junior soccer team, she called Anuraag D’sa, the soccer coach, and shared this with him. Anuraag calmed her down and told her young people did all kinds of things and that he would handle Sharan on the field. An exhausted Shree did not want mere correction, and said, “This trend must be arrested... an example must be set! I have called his parents.”<br /><br /><strong>Anuraag:</strong> I just think these are simply people who have neither learnt sensitivity nor respect... And Tamara’s seeming ‘aggressor’ is our own student! To take up cudgels against our students’ behaviours, have we taught them respect, sensitivity, care? Have we ever, discussed the art of using the internet with sensitivity? <br /><br />“And not just what you write on Facebook, Ma’am, but what you choose to follow and read on social media. Have you thought about how our kids get impacted by these silent persuaders? You have no idea how huge the business of schooling just grew! Do we know what kind of groups they ‘follow’? What music they hear? Worse, have you heard some of the lyrics?”<br /><br />He then opened two different pages on the internet, both interviews with film personalities on their lives — not films. And then he showed Shree the comments. “Such sharply skewed communal comments! See? They were reading all this the other day.”<br /><br />Shree shuddered. “Oh my God!” she cried. <br /><br /><strong>Anuraag</strong>: Yes, indeed! Anything goes on the internet. <em>Anything. There is absolutely no editing it seems</em>! More than teaching, we have to protect their minds because of all this! <br /><br />“Do understand, we teach them to say ‘No’ to drugs, ‘No’ to premarital sex, we forbid them from going to pubs, but social media is the largest foul-mouthing pub going! And there are no rules! Won’t you protect the kids? Would I not be concerned that the boys who show great spirit on the field are growing monsters in their heads about religion and people?”<br /><br />Vice-principal Jaideep Sharma stood behind them listening. “What I post on FB,” he said, “is none of the school’s business, just as it is no business of the school if I spoke rudely to the ticket clerk at Disneyland. It just happens that Tamara is a classmate... but it does not change anything!<br /> </div><div><img width="200" vspace="8" hspace="8" height="200" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=30ce3f50-2693-4b80-9a1f-08f551750042&groupId=222852&t=1357995258891" alt="" />“I lived in a government colony as a student, where everyone knew everyone else and we all went to the same school. The school never had to deal with issues such as, “Jaideep hit me! Please punish him.” If the school had decided to deal with everything that happens between schoolmates in the colony, it would have no time left to educate us. So it stuck to doing what it did best: educated us about civil behaviour, how to live in a community, how to respect everyone, how to live with everyone... and that is the task a school needs to continue to do.”<br /><br /><strong>Anuraag</strong>: Exactly! Except that the definition of community has now ballooned. The social media is a public space with rampant unchecked public posturing and behaviours that kids can imbibe! We need to make it our business! If we taught them values as a part of schooling, then we can pull up Sharan for non-adherence. Now how can we call the parents and say ‘here is a bad egg, take him away’? These students here came to us as toddlers; we taught them to say Good Morning, Thank you, Welcome... and then we got busy with Calculus and botany. But they continue to grow! Why aren’t we with them?” <br /><br />The secretary peeped in through the door and said, “Parents here to meet the Principal.”<br /><br />The moment Shree stepped out, she was hit by a volley of opinions. “This is the new morality; politicians are doing it, then why should students be far behind? Everywhere the mood is rudeness, insensitivity...” Another parent said, “If the environment changes and new behaviours come, I understand. But definitions of schooling need to change with the times!” <br /> </div><div>break-page-break</div><div><strong><br />Tamara’s parents:</strong> If a school will not check conduct, who will? Some parents are deeply involved in character building. Many are not effective. So? We cannot even depend on the law, which does not desire to correct but only punish! <br /><br /><strong>Sharma:</strong> Parents are responsible for conduct and character building and cannot hide behind ‘Oh they don’t listen to me!’ If a child breaks the law, there is the law machinery to manage it. Not the school. The school is for education, not to manage the law. That education should include science, math, languages, history, geography, civic sense, moral science and community living. <br /><br />“As for your views on the law, any law practitioner will tell you that the desired goal of law is to ‘dissuade action that is harmful to society or against public good’. The law can and has to punish you. The desire to correct cannot be effective without the right to punish.”<br /><br /><strong>Another parent</strong>: What?! Sharan is a 14-year-old! You will hand him over to the law?<br /><br /><strong>Science teacher:</strong> There is no law for “everything”. There are general instructions for the use of everything that are meant to create a respectful and orderly society. Such as throwing a packet of Lays chips on the mountain path is generally not doing the right thing. Some of us know this from the cultures we are brought up in; some of us do not understand ‘do not litter’ because for centuries we have been littering everything outside our homes. So schools have to step in and teach us the value: “Littering is not civil behaviour”, or “damages the environment.” <br /><br /><strong>Sharma:</strong> I think it’s unfair to ask schools to bear so much responsibility. The burden of teaching — as learning needs themselves grow — is difficult enough. On top of that we want the school to take action for the behaviour of students outside school? How much time can a teacher put behind all this? First teach in school from 8 to 4, then correct papers and assignments until 6 pm, then attend to parents who have complaints until 8 pm, then go home and attend to their own children....<br /><br />“Let’s first draw the line where school education ends and parental or legal action begins. The school is in the business of teaching subjects. Period.”<br /><br />Friday, Saturday and Sunday — three days of bristling discomfort. Monday morning, Shree woke up to a foreboding sense of trouble. And it did happen. <br /><br />A Class 12 student, Kartik, had made an anti-minority comment on a news report late Sunday night. He did not notice that the site had cunningly pre-clicked ‘yes’ to being copied on Facebook. The young lad had clicked ‘Send’, typed in all the security codes, and gone on with life. But his angry anti-community post popped up when Anuraag logged on late night; Kartik’s post had 14 likes and 72 thumbs down. <br /><br />Early Monday, when Kartik reported for soccer practise, a fuming Anuraag made him run seven laps. When Kartik protested, saying, “You have no right to do this! What have I done wrong?”, Anuraag said, “Likewise, the minority ask, what wrong have we done? You have no right to do this to us! Do you have a coherent answer to give them?”<br /><br />Kartik did the laps but by 10 am he was beginning to feel unwell and went home. He confessed to his mother what had happened. She got into her car and drove straight to Shree’s office demanding why action should not be taken against her for instituting corporal punishment. “How dare your coach punish my son?”<br /><br />For Shree, barely coming out of last week’s boy-girl FB episode, it was as if a wall had collapsed on her back. She called Anuraag and gave him an earful. Word got around, parents called and voiced grave misgivings. By mid-morning, the debate in her office had become vitriolic. Shree was clear, “I will not have this school divided on communal lines. I am shocked at his comments; Kartik will be suspended.” <br /><strong><br />Kartik’s father</strong>: The punishment the coach is giving is symbolic too — like all those ministers who get suspended when hit by charges or sting operations. The real meaning is lost; the underlying rot is not seen! What am I paying fees for!<br /><br /><strong>Anuraag:</strong> The seven laps Kartik did will stay with him as a reminder all his life and stop him when he decides to think inefficiently. And if I may add, the seven laps do not even total two miles. At his age he should be doing much more! Good for a healthy mind...<br /><br />Shree shot him a withering look. But her terrible moment came when three sets of parents, who belonged to the aggrieved community, called to ask her, “Is this a school for the majority or for everybody? Should we withdraw our children from here? How can we feel included when grown-up students write such venomous stuff?”<br /> </div><div>break-page-break</div><div><br />This completely crushed her spirit. This was not what she stood for. Everything was now completely out of control. Shree said to the vice-principal, “Whatever the case for the school’s role, people will say, that comment came from a student of Wisdom Vidyalay. Then our name is mud! I didn’t expect this. One thinks of so many things, but one does not think of our students developing ugly adult minds... We are a confused people all pulling away.”<br /><br />But that did not help. More parents met her and expressed concern — essentially over the soccer coach’s right to punish the students. “He does not have a right!” was their verdict. That was when Shree called a meeting of senior teachers. <br /><strong><br />Vice-principal Sharma</strong>: How dare Anuraag ask Kartik to delete the post to save his neck? Nor is it the coach’s business to teach students a lesson that he deems right. This is the parents’ job. Kartik is a Class 12 student, about to set out into the world of big bad wolves. Will that world forgive him or will it lynch him for that comment?<br /><br /><strong>Shree: </strong>The point is, Kartik is unprepared to step out into that world! If after 12 years he feels what he feels in that post, it means there is something we forgot to do! <br /><strong><br />Rajveer Swamy</strong> (teacher of Business Studies): Kartik must take responsibility. If told how badly his remarks hurt someone else’s faith, chances are he would apologize and not do that again. The reality is, such things happen — insensitive remarks, in your face ‘dislikes’ — somewhat like old school bullying. But weeding it out and having a no-tolerance zone for such behaviour goes a long way. There will always be students whose parents will protest and force their own ideologies upon us. But if the culture (as with any organisation) is built on honesty, openness and inclusion — top down, coming from leadership itself — then there isn’t much to worry about.<br /><br /><strong>Gitika Dutt</strong> (head of design and art): Isn’t schooling all about sensitive awareness of the feelings of others? Isn’t that why we school them? Kartik is lost. What kind of a product is that? And by the way, Mr. Sharma, parents don’t understand the Internet, and to expect them to know all this is asking for too much.<br /><br /><strong>Rajveer:</strong> The question is why schools are not teaching social media protection. Do we not teach Health and hence the pitfalls of premarital sex or adolescent sex? Social media is part of kids’ lives. It is here to stay, just as porn is. Either we acknowledge it and be part of the conversation, or it is one more way in which school becomes irrelevant to kids.<br /><br /><strong>Sharma:</strong> The anonymity that was associated with the Web is gone. There was a time when you could assume any personality you wanted, log into a chat room and say anything you wanted. That was liberating: people who held dull jobs like accountants and railway ticket checkers could pretend they were town planners on vacation, or healing therapists... just about anything you wanted but could not be.<br /><br />“Today, it is actually rewarding to reveal details about yourself on the Web. Which also means you cannot pretend to be someone else. In fact, you are what you are on the Web. That’s because the Web does not forget, it does not bury facts, it does not airbrush them: what you reveal about yourself, remains the way it is, waiting for others to pass judgement. Why, today HR people track candidates all over the Net!<br /><br />In such an environment, can you really afford to be uncivil? Can you afford to be rash with your thoughts, ideas and postures? Can you be one thing in real life and another in the virtual? Not really. Kartik will come to realise this, just as he realised when he learnt to swim what happens if he does not take a deep breath before diving. Some things have to be learnt experientially. The social media behaviours, for example. There is no boundary between the real and the virtual — they are manifestations of the same self. So it becomes necessary to weigh your words well before you cast them to the Web.<br /><br />“It becomes necessary to ensure that the images you publish reflect yourself. Now, is that self a believer in civil rules? In social norms? In legal processes? That’s the key question we need to ask ourselves. That is what the school needs to involve itself in — in completing the understanding of law, how it is applied, what it does and how do I work with it. <br /><br />I think Kartik learnt that today and he will continue to learn. That world will teach him.<br /><br /><strong>Anuraag:</strong> Punishing one ignorant student for dark behaviour has only made it easier for all of us to shift the blame and responsibility away from ourselves. I believe some things have to be specifically taught. We tell a Class 1 student that fire is hot. We don’t wait for experiences. Yes, I know, I know we use website filters, but filtering should not be a tool to block but a tool to manage. But only if you have walked with them down cyber space and shown them how the March Hare fell down a bottomless pit.<br /><br />“Previous generations of kids would also write abusive things on papers and walls of the class rooms but no one took away pencils and papers from them! Students are still forming a sense of self, they are trying to build their identity and may not be exactly where we want them to be. Mr. Sharma, the point being missed here is this: students are products in process, not finished products like managers, like politicos. I believe in the adolescent brain being as yet impressionable. I think it is important for educators to understand these young students and try to meet them halfway. To ignore how our students learn would only push them away from enjoying the process of learning. But it is we who need to develop the skills to manage this.”<br /><br />At the parent conference that evening, various parents urged Shree to think deeply about whether the school could participate in building values. But one parent, Nandini Satpute, said, “I firmly believe that we are what we consume: including from parents, from media online or offline, and just about everywhere. <br /><br />“We returned to India last year. What I witness leaves me numb. People shout when they can talk softly; they honk when they can wait patiently; they clean their homes but throw litter right outside; they pray at places of worship, and come out to spit on the road and bribe a cop. The handicapped and fat people are for making fun of. The old are disrespected only in India. And all these are people who went to school!<br /><br />“It has nothing to do with consumerism in my opinion. Rather it has to do with the way we prioritise our lives. We start teaching our kids tables at two years of age, instead of teaching them the magic words ‘please’, ‘sorry’ or ‘thanks’. The law of the land — the police and legal system — will register your complaint only if your surname matters. And understanding!? An MP thinks rapes will go up if we register an FIR! <br /><br />“So if bulk of the brick and mortar society is nearly lacking in every human dimension and the governance in ethics and morality, how can online responsibility, given the anonymity involved, ever be? It’s no more about what teachers should teach but, what can they teach! If I teach you to be honest and your environment teaches you otherwise, will my teachings last? If I teach two genders alike, but they get treated poles apart, will my teaching make any difference? If I teach you to be polite and respectful, yet the culture teaches you that symbolism is enough, will my teachings go far? Nah!”<br /><br /><strong>Classroom Discussion</strong><br /> <em>Should educational institutions spell out a value statement and, like organisations, get students to walk the talk?</em><br /><br />casestudymeera(at)gmail(dot)com<br /><em><br />Now, discuss ‘Businessworld case studies’ on Facebook</em><br /><br />(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 21-01-2013)</div>
