Questioner 1 (Q1): I’m a single parent and I have a son. He gets a lot of homework from school, but instead of doing it he likes to just play around. Next day, when his teacher tells me that he hasn’t done anything, how should I react?
Acharya Prashant (AP): See, first of all you must know and tell apart black from white. Not listening to the right person is not as bad as listening to the wrong one. If you’re not listening to the right one, at worst you have a clean slate: the right teachings have not reached you. But if you have listened to the wrong one, then your loss is two-way, two-fold.
Firstly, the wrong teachings have reached you, and secondly, your slate is now occupied. The right thing cannot reach you now.
Who are these teachers? From where are they coming? What do they know about child and mind and development? Are they operating from compassion? Are they gurus?
One must have a healthy contempt for rubbish. Doesn’t matter if it is coming from someone who is officially designated as a schoolteacher or a college teacher—how does it matter?
In India, especially—with all due respect to the profession of teaching—it’s not the best talent that goes towards teaching. And especially in the junior classes, you know how it is. Why must you then take the advices or instructions of these teachers seriously at all?
