A Day in School

My school day starts off with my journey from home to school in the school van. It might sound fairly uninteresting, but to me it is an opportunity to refresh my memory of yesterday’s events. As we go through many ups and downs (literally!) we regurgitate the jokes and lessons of the previous day. And when the school is in sight, we start looking forward to another new day in this perfect place.

Our first stop is the breakfast room, which could be appropriately renamed “The Raucous Room”. Earlier, it used to be “The Pandemonium Room” but now it has been brought under control, though not completely. No matter how hard we try, we eventually lose control there, since it is one of the few places where we aren’t supervised. But there is hope that we will grow into adults who don’t override each other or talk between themselves.

Next is the reading room where we all read silently for two hours in our Kindles. Reading is one of the qualities our school prioritizes a lot, and there is a great drive towards instilling in us a love for books. Our school kids start reading storybooks from a very young age in our school’s very own online software, Delta. The main purpose of that is: in adult life all of us need to read; its a very basic skill all jobs and businesses require. In exams too, better reading skills lead to greater performance since we can read faster, comprehend better and learn to empathise. More importantly, it helps us to get much more knowledge about different parts of the world sitting at home. Its a most pleasurable activity and I personally love reading various books by authors like Ken Follett, Arthur Hailey, John Grisham, etc. Even these are provided by our school in our Kindles.

Then we proceed to our daily common meeting, consisting of classes between seven to twelve. Here, Sir discusses many things going on in the world, country and our school. These discussions are highly enjoyable and have a lot to learn from. We interpret current news, new decisions, advertisements, tweets and articles (I’ll come to that in a minute) and of course, funny events inside our school. We learn to analyse and dig deep inside the surface of articles, statements and people’s minds. This meeting is one of the best parts of the day.

Then we head to the computer lab, where we unload all our new-found wisdom on Twitter. All of us who attend the common meeting have our Twitter and Medium accounts where we try to write wise and witty tweets and articles. This develops our writing skills, which is also one of the most necessary skills in the world. We mostly write and read about the discussions that happen in our classes and the things we learnt from them.

We also have movie class during this time occasionally. In our school, we start watching movies right from class six. We watch movies from all over the world which have something to teach. These movies are very much about the reality even though they might be fictional. We have watched movies like Shahid, The Godfather, Revolutionary Road, Crimes and Misdemeanors, episodes of Black Mirror and many others which have a lot to teach any person. In addition, they improve our reading skills and vocabulary.

After this we have English discussion class where we discuss the books we are reading in Delta. As I told earlier, reading is very prioritized in the school and we read a lot from our childhood. We also read books which have a lot to teach us like Animal Farm, Sapiens, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, A Fine Balance, etc. These are very thoroughly explained in a very enjoyable manner by Sayoni ma’am who also takes the previous class. Her classes are simply delightful. She not just acts like a teacher, but is also our very good friend.

Then we head off to the dining room where we have our common lunch. This lunch is a silent lunch currently because the whole middle school has it together, and we don’t want it to descend into chaos. But, once we prove that we are capable of having lunch decently and quietly, talking will be reinstated. One good thing about these lunches is that they don’t need supervision. People are silent because we have been asked to remain so; there are no teachers needed running around, keeping people silent.

Then we have Delta class, which I mentioned earlier. This in-house software is a much more efficient way of checking and a much less administrative burden. Teachers can also easily check our ‘reading speed’ and ‘accuracy’, which are automatically calculated by the software.

Then we have a two-hour long class with Sir. Needless to say, it is a great time since Sir takes it. This is our Math and Chemistry class (currently). Though these subjects are quite hated in other schools, here we enjoy them. We are taught with a conceptual approach and in an easy way. Unless you aren’t paying attention, its quite easy to comprehend these subjects. The Class 11 and 12 students have proved it true by getting perfect grades in these subjects. A* in IGCSEs and 800s in SAT subject tests. This is made possible just by studying for a mere two years because we build up our basic and foundational skills right from childhood. That’s why the classes are so enjoyable and effortless.

Then we go back home but with wry smiles. We want to stay more and learn more and have some more fun. But, unfortunately we have to go.

Sometimes, we forget what is it that make our school day so perfect. It is Sir and Ma’am. They teach us so perfectly, they learn themselves, they read every story and they ensure all the good grades. They are the ones who put in the maximum effort so that we can learn pleasurably.

But, we forget. We commit crimes rampantly. We don’t listen, we don’t read, we don’t talk properly. Even though we all want to learn more, we get carried away. The prospect of laziness seems just too good.

This can be tolerated to a limit. But, recently we have been crossing that limit too often. So, I wrote this; to remind myself and everybody else that what is the most important part of the school. It’s what we learn here, not our silly talk with friends.

So, we must keep in mind the fact that we cannot stop learning which, in effect, is very demotivating for our teachers. We must continue to learn and engage and we’ll have this ideal school day every day.