A word to the parents

Many of us as parents are not fully conscious of the enormous potential of the brain that
each one of our children possesses. This brain is one of the most valuable gifts of God.
It is more than a miracle - an extremely powerful force. It is a bottomless ocean of
wisdom, ideas and skills from which every child can draw an unending quantity to
quench his eternal thirst for knowledge, and can discover the innumerable ways that are
available to fulfil his dreams, visions and aspirations.
This half a Kg. of mushroom- shaped substance that every child possesses, consists of
nearly 30 billion neurons and almost 150 billion cells.
This wonderful gift of God, this marvellous super, super computer is possessed by every
normal child, without exception. This brain has such powerful thoughts that, if released,
could glut all the telephone exchanges in the world put together! It could, single-
handedly put to shame the most sophisticated computer ever invented so far.
The most exciting piece of information that I would like to share with you, dear parents,
is that your child has this remarkable gift of God. Be convinced that your child
possesses this stunning generator, this splendid dynamo. The controls of this generator
are in the hands of teachers and parents alike. What use is this unbelievably powerful
generator if you and I prevent the release of its power? The controls are in our hands and
we must never forget this fact.
As a good parent, you do so much for your child, right from providing him with food,
shelter and protection from harm, to sending him to the best schools, but many of you
neglect one very very important aspect of the development of this brain or the releasing
of its power - you are very casual about creating the right environment for the growth of
your child - you don’t offer enough wholesome and nourishing food to this brain at the
most formative years of your child’s growth.
Your child’s brain is like an unending plot of land with acres and acres of rich and fertile
soil. If neglected, it will grow wild and untamed. But if you take care and cultivate,
nourish and tend this plot tirelessly, you will definitely harvest a rich crop that will be
priceless and highly valuable and contributive.
Have faith in your child’s capabilities and encourage him to be curious, imaginative and
creative. Don’t get too easily irritated by a child’s unending questions. One of the best
methods of developing an imaginative and creative mind in a child is to either tell him or
read to him interesting stories that will catch his fancy and eventually help him become a
dreamer himself.
Another valuable input that you can offer to your child is to guide him lovingly, gently
and patiently avoiding irritation, impatience and unfair rudeness. Upto the age of about
six, an average child’s brain develops by about 80%. Isn’t this a rather mind-boggling
piece of information ? Now, equipped with this hugely valuable knowledge, do your
utmost to help your infants draw the best out of you.
Dear parents don’t ever forget that from the moment your infant child announces his
entry into this world with a loud wail, he steps into an environment that is going to test
his abilities to the utmost. And if you, with your love, caring and understanding nature,
develop his dormant capabilities - you will be helping your child in realising the
stupendous power of his generator.

We, in C.M.Academy, Ankleshwar, believe very strongly that every child comes into this
world with a mission - we strongly believe that we are only here to help the child’s inbuilt
perfection manifest or take shape by lending a helping hand of encouragement and
support at the right time.
We have successfully cultivated the soil and aim to nurture the innumerable seeds that are
under our care - only time will tell how many of them will bear fruits or give shade to
weary travellers or be a resting place to many homeless or be a source of hope to
innumerable despaired souls.
The second thought that I would like to share with you, is that we are unfortunately
entering into an age where every course in an educational institution, be it in a school,
college, university or in a polytechnic is measured purely in proportion to its ability to
impart earning power to its votaries. There seems to be little or no interest in the moral
or principle-based dimensions of education.
The overwhelming sense of loss that pervades the educational system today is largely the
outcome of two conflicting points of view. This conflict is not new. We still continue to
debate whether Socrates was right about laying more stress on creating better thinking
and dreaming human beings or Plato was justified in supporting rapid changes based on
science and technology.
In the rapidly transforming contemporary society the one lesson that we need to keep in
mind is the danger of subordinating learning to power. By surrendering before the
doctrine of “Usefulness” in education, this is exactly what we have ended up doing today.
We have, so unfortunately created an ironic situation where prestigious institutions
imparting classical education, that of liberal arts and science education are systematically
driven into fiscal dehydration while schools and colleges of vocational skills, that started
as road-side teaching shops, are now being allowed to attain national and even
international status.
Think of the preposterous situation where proponents of the arts, philosophy, literature,
history and pure sciences are driven to explain whether their subjects have any relevance
in the curriculum today! Note also the situation where respectable age-old centres of
learning are persuaded to give up, or seriously dilute, their traditional strengths and
transform themselves into pale imitations of polytechnics.
Teachers have a very important role to play in preventing violent swings of change in
contemporary society. Despite the information boom, it is still the teachers, especially in
schools, who have to impart values to students. It is our most sacred task to mould them
and influence them into becoming better human beings.
Another aspect of teaching and quality-education that keeps bothering me is the
unfortunate more-than-normal-focus on financial rewards in young minds. Young minds
make a bee line for lucrative professions that would fetch them many times more money
than that of a teacher.