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sense of freedom and without the pressures of comparison and competition? That is whyZubeida asks that question in her letter to Uma:“Must we applaud excellence and punish mediocrity to make children learn?” Itprompted Uma to hold a spirited discussion in class that day and most of the childrenconfessed that comparison did hurt them and was not necessary or desirable.Wilt you also give this question serious thought? Discuss it in class or with yourfriends.Do you remember any situation when you specially needed reassurance and kindlyappreciation?Do you think competition results in discouragement and fault-finding?10. On RelationshipThere was a general grumbling session on and they were talking about their teachers— some nine or ten students sitting by a lovely lotus pond. None of them watched thegoldfish in the waters, for their eyes and ears and minds were on the conversation. Theywere discussing their teachers. Their feeling was that a teacher who develops a prejudiceagainst a student never drops it. However hard you tried, it was always the same story;the same distant look, the same harshness in the voice, the same remark in the notebook.They may talk of not having fixed opinions, but the students’ experience was different. Ifthey liked you, you could do no wrong; otherwise you were always in the wrong.“Teachers are very partial,” they argued.One of the girls said, “I don’t like them generally, because most of them are sonarrow-minded, conservative”, using haltingly the latest word she had learnt in class.“Look! What is the point of having a co-educational school, if girls can’t talk to boys orboys can’t talk to girls? We have to sit separately, eat separately, and read separately. Theother day, Saleem and I were together looking at the Encyclopaedia in the library to findout all about dolphins and there was Miss X giving me a nasty look. I wished I couldhave gone under the sea myself.”They conceded that there were exceptions and some of the teachers were wonderfulpeople but in a large school like theirs, the verdict was that most teachers cannot beloved. Teachers are to be feared and obeyed.In another corner of the school, correcting notebooks of various classes was a group ofteachers discussing students. They felt that students were no longer eager to learn, nolonger hard working and innocent as in their days. “They are a bunch of lazy, good-fornothingkids,” they grumbled. Gone are the days when you saw their eyes shine in classwith understanding, when hands would be raised before they answered, when all theirwork was neat and tidy; (something has gone wrong today. There may be exceptions but,on the whole, (students are not interested in their studies. They are too distracted. Perhapsit is because of the cinema or the radio or the television. Their minds have becomerestless. They are pleasure-seeking. They are bored with everything except those thingsthat arouse their sensations. “Their parents are to blame,” they said,’’ Do you thinkparents have any time for children these days?’’ they argued.