THE PLACE BETWEEN YOUR COMFORT ZONE AND YOUR DREAM
“Risk, then, is not just part of life. It is
life.
The place between your comfort zone
and your dream is where life takes place.”
-
Nick Vujicic
A
‘Certificate of Learning Disability’ (LD) can do more harm to a student than
good. Well, that’s my take.
As a Commerce teacher,
I get to deal with college students. When parents of some of these students
tell me that their young ones have been ‘certified’ to be ‘slow learners’, I
literally choose to be deaf.
This modern vocabulary has
crippled more young boys and girls than illiteracy and poverty have done to
them. For whatever reason, and under whatever circumstances, the Certificate of
Learning Disability (LD) may have been given to your child, my take is this: ‘Let
it not be a permanent label or a chain of confinement for your child’.
The old story about the 'Baby-elephant Syndrome’ perfectly fits in, here…
When a baby elephant is
born, it is tied with a thin rope or chain to a tree around. Initially, the
little elephant tries to break free. But, after some attempts, it gives up… It
thinks that it cannot break free…
Many years later, when
the elephant has become a mighty animal, it still continues to be tied with the
same thin rope or chain to a tree around. The elephant has given up
trying… It still thinks that it cannot break free, even though it can bring scores of trees down with it its might!
The elephant has just
become a giant creature only physically… But, in mind, it’s still a baby. This
syndrome is widely known as ‘the Baby-elephant Syndrome’.
When these .big
elephants' are brought to me tied with the thin chain called ‘LD’ – or whatever that
is – I, therefore, prefer to go deaf and blind, both.
A couple of days ago,
in my eleventh standard class, I had to break free two elephants…
One was Rahul*. When I started teaching him, his
instinctive response was ‘Sir, you are very fast’. I empathized... I slowed down.
But, I kept a constant watch on this elephant… And, I realized, it was time to
push the elephant out of its comfort zone…
Rahul was the only boy
in my class who came from the farthest distance. He came by the fast train, and, therefore,
was the first to arrive, always. I was very happy about it. So, in class, I shouted, “Rahul,
do you time yourself to the fast train or does the fast train time herself to
you?”
Rahul got it,
instantly. He has stopped complaining, “Sir, you are very fast”.
I still remember, Rahul’s
dad anxiously telling me about his son's ‘LD’...
And, I remember my
response, “Don’t worry’!
In the same class was
another elephant, *Nirav. This elephant was not tied with the chain called ‘LD’.
What I was teaching him, he had already learnt in his college, as the college
teacher had already completed that chapter. So, from, the word ‘Go’, I sensed
the resistance from this elephant… “Sir, I am getting confused,” was the
complaint. Initially, I tried presenting it the way he had arranged in his
college. But, he was simply ‘shut’ to my teaching. It was a mental block and
the boy was refusing to learn afresh. Finally, I shouted, “Nirav, what if you
had learnt this chapter first from me… Would you have remained shut to your
college teacher? Get out of that mental block… Be open to learn through a new
perspective… Grow more… Don’t remain in a prison.”
It worked!
The Certificate of LD,
perhaps, was needed when the elephant was just a baby. But, why now?
*Names changed
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Inteernet
Videos: YouTube
Comments