I went to my children today. On reaching there, I learned that some group of foreigners was expected there. So we didn't plan anything and just chatted. I learned the names of some more children, listened to a pre-nursary kid's ABCD song, and taught some geography in the map of India to a 10th grader. I didn't tell him that I myself never attempted any single question of map in my 10th board and got 69% marks in Geography. Would have given him a wrong signal..lol. Then I corrected a long time mistake of theirs. They always introduced themselves as "I am XYZ from PQR." Today I taught them to break this introduction up into two separate sentences - "I am XYZ. (And) I am from PQR."
I asked the caretaker what the foreigners did with children. They had been coming from previous 2 days. He told me that they taught songs and dance to children and did some activities. I was excited. It was definitely going to be a delight to see foreigners meeting these children who do not properly understand english. I wanted to see the expressions of both, the children and the visitors. We chatted and in about 15 minutes, the group came. They had a translator with them who was a teenager from India.
The excitement soon disappeared and to my disappointment, the group proved to be completely different from what I had expected. Apparantly they were spreading their religion. They had many papers with their prayers written on them, which they hung on the clothesline. They had their holy scriptures, some religious emblems, and other such things. All of them seemed to be the teachers of their religion. The children were following everything they were being told to do but only few were really listening.
While trying not to be judgemental, I was really in a predicament. What should take more weight - the fact that a religious institution is providing home to those children and looking after them or the fact that in return they are probably subtly trying to influence the choice of their religion. Perhaps the first. I enquired with some elder children of the place later. They told me that no explicit instructions or requests had ever been made to adopt the religion. But with what I saw there for 2 hours, you could affect any child's choice by teaching and showing such things to him at such a tender age (2-18 years). Of course affecting this choice is not a big cost when seen in the light of what they are giving to these children. Still, what pains me is the fact that religion really means so much to some highly educated people.
I have been born in an Indian Hindu family but still never believed in any religion. My mom and dad do daily prayers and inculcated in me as a child all the good religious habits but they never tried to grow me into a religious person unless I myself wanted to, which I didn't. Today I sit with them in all the major prayers but I do not really worship or go to a temple and they are fine with it. Because I am still a sensitive and caring person. I care for human beings, for life. Religion doesn't matter for me. And still I believe in a some power which is controlling such a mysterious thing called life. I believe in rebirth because some theories really make sense to me. But these have nothing to do with a particular faith. If the argument is to grow the children into responsible, and sensitive human beings, we can just explain to them the contradictions that point at some controlling force, without any bias of faith.
I respect this institution very much for what they are doing for these children but it disappointed me to discover that their intentions lack logic. Investing those 2 hours telling them about rebirth could have fascinated every one of them present there. Teaching religion would hardly add any value to their lives.
I asked the caretaker what the foreigners did with children. They had been coming from previous 2 days. He told me that they taught songs and dance to children and did some activities. I was excited. It was definitely going to be a delight to see foreigners meeting these children who do not properly understand english. I wanted to see the expressions of both, the children and the visitors. We chatted and in about 15 minutes, the group came. They had a translator with them who was a teenager from India.
The excitement soon disappeared and to my disappointment, the group proved to be completely different from what I had expected. Apparantly they were spreading their religion. They had many papers with their prayers written on them, which they hung on the clothesline. They had their holy scriptures, some religious emblems, and other such things. All of them seemed to be the teachers of their religion. The children were following everything they were being told to do but only few were really listening.
While trying not to be judgemental, I was really in a predicament. What should take more weight - the fact that a religious institution is providing home to those children and looking after them or the fact that in return they are probably subtly trying to influence the choice of their religion. Perhaps the first. I enquired with some elder children of the place later. They told me that no explicit instructions or requests had ever been made to adopt the religion. But with what I saw there for 2 hours, you could affect any child's choice by teaching and showing such things to him at such a tender age (2-18 years). Of course affecting this choice is not a big cost when seen in the light of what they are giving to these children. Still, what pains me is the fact that religion really means so much to some highly educated people.
I have been born in an Indian Hindu family but still never believed in any religion. My mom and dad do daily prayers and inculcated in me as a child all the good religious habits but they never tried to grow me into a religious person unless I myself wanted to, which I didn't. Today I sit with them in all the major prayers but I do not really worship or go to a temple and they are fine with it. Because I am still a sensitive and caring person. I care for human beings, for life. Religion doesn't matter for me. And still I believe in a some power which is controlling such a mysterious thing called life. I believe in rebirth because some theories really make sense to me. But these have nothing to do with a particular faith. If the argument is to grow the children into responsible, and sensitive human beings, we can just explain to them the contradictions that point at some controlling force, without any bias of faith.
I respect this institution very much for what they are doing for these children but it disappointed me to discover that their intentions lack logic. Investing those 2 hours telling them about rebirth could have fascinated every one of them present there. Teaching religion would hardly add any value to their lives.
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