I AM SORRY SCHOOL, I DON’T WANT TO COME TO YOU

This is a fictional letter written by a small student to his or her school. In today’s context, every student wants to write a letter of this kind to his or her school. After reading this letter, the readers can understand the mental faculty of a small student and his perception of a school education. This piece of article has beautifully presented a student’s internal, mental clattering that teachers never try to comprehend.

By SUMAN GHIMIRE

I have two eyes two ears, a nose, a mouth, and a head. I have two hands, two legs. I have a brain, heart and all internal systems. In fact, I have a whole body. I learnt these names of my body parts from your teachers.

I remember those days when your teacher used to pull my ears because of not remembering those names and their functions. But school, I would have been able to know their functions without your teachers.

I come to you every day-to get education where there are same teachers every day, same friends every day, same class every day, same environment every day. And same books for 365 days. I wake up to come to you and return home to sleep and I sleep to wake up again. This process gets a repeat every day.

There's a word called 'enjoy’ in my book and I find its meaning only on my dictionary and never in my life. Because I get time to wake up, I get time to come to you, I get time to sit on the same bench for the whole boring day, and I get time to do my assignments given by your teachers. I get time to see a dream in which I am punished by your teachers and my parents for not mugging up the definition of ‘education' given by a writer.

I swear, only the book I open willingly is my dictionary where I see the meaning of words ‘enjoy’ and ‘happy’.

The buildings of my school compress my enjoyment and happiness to a limit; and my creativity never gets a flight as my course books increase the burden of hollow wisdom.

I don't think that studying in a same place for half of my life gives me the best education. I have a beautiful life and I get it only once. I don't want my merit of certificate by staying on only one place. I already said that I have legs. What are those for? Just to come to you and return my house built by my grandfather?

I am sorry school; instead, I want to travel around the world with my own legs and gain knowledge. I want to worship nature as my teacher and I have found no best teacher as nature. School, You may teach me to read letters but nature teaches me to read the life. You may teach me to make my writing good but nature teaches me to understand without writing. You may teach me to copy and memorize but nature teaches me to remember by doing. Because I know that:

“I hear and I forget,

I see and I remember,

I do and I understand.” – (a Chinese proverb)

If I fail in your exam or if I ask a question that sounds funny, instead of answering and teaching me, your teacher becomes angry and resort to corporal punishment. I prefer being humanly wild rather than just a copycat. If a lion doesn’t roar in the jungle, moving around fearlessly and doesn’t hunt itself then, it is not a lion. It just seems like a lion.

One day, in a biology class I was given an assignment. It was to pluck out the small plant and label its parts. I went home and did it. On the following day, the first period was health and environment. I showed my biology notebook to my friends proudly because that was only the day I got time to do all my assignments. Health and environment teachers saw that. He gave me one hard slap, said, “instead of planting trees you pluck them out?”, and threw it into the dustbin. I could hardly pronounce a word or if, I could have got another good slap.

In the biology class, my cheeks were again facing the good slaps for not doing my work. One of my friends said that the work was on dustbin. I immediately got another hard slap for throwing it. I wanted to say that health and environment teacher threw it but I was speechless otherwise, I could have got another slap for speaking back to the teachers. Oh, School, look; this is your system.

What if I fail in the exam? What if I didn't get good marks as compared to others? What if I am not an intelligent? What if I play? What if I sing, dance, and play music?

Your teachers always compare me with the one to whom they give highest marks believing the lies beautifully written on a piece of a paper. If I were to compare them, why couldn’t they be Einstein? Napoleon? Holmes? Gandhi? Buddha?

But they don’t realise that “everyone is genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” (Albert Einstein).

My IQ and intelligence level might not tally as compared to my colleagues, however I have my own ethics, morals and principles and I have the right to live without harming others. I am proud to be myself.

Certificate is compulsion to get a good job. That certificate is the acknowledgment of scholarship. School, you teachers used to say knowledge is the only thing that money can't buy. Now school, to my amazement, I have seen certificates stamped and printed by the bundles of notes. Respected School, your certified teachers have been proved wrong. Yes School, I don’t need such education and I am happy with myself.

Yours sincerely

A rebellious student

Thank you very much for reading this article. I hope you liked this article. I will be glad if you take little time and make a comment about this article. Your comment is highly appreciated.

About the author

Suman Ghimire has completed his SLC and +2 education from Galaxy Public School, Kathmandu. He has earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality Management in 2018 from Mid-Valley Int’l College, Kathmandu (affiliated to HELP UNIVERSITY, Malaysia).

Apart from the formal education, Suman is a musician and plays the flute. He is a passionate traveller and wants to explore new places. He is a voracious reader and regularly plays different outdoor sports to stay fit.

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