There was a post admiring an IAS officer for sending her child to the village balwadi.
That very post, if we realise it, stands witness to all our prejudices. As if sharing spaces with the poor is such a earth shaking thing to do.
Our daughter was in the village balwadi, her happiest years. And then in the village primary school, again her happiest years.
These spaces are places where children are most natural, most cooperative, most happy. Where the older children and the younger children help each other in the most unselfconscious ways. As a single teacher attends to the 5 classes.
One learns of simple joys in these spaces. Of a happy balance of work and study the children work out. As they also cook at home, graze the cows.
And also learnings of the real problems of poverty that the children deal with, as they grapple with life and also school.
To put our children in the government schools is to gift them an understanding of our country, as no other way can give.
An understanding of immense strengths and also immense challenges. Our country has.
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