Parents realize the strengths of their children

[Jyotika Barua]

My colleague Tutumani and I did a SALT visit to a group of people in May 2017. This is a remote village called Hatipota part 1, Mazbat block in Assam, India. The group we met included 5-6 women, one man and 4-5 children. They are daily wage workers who often get to work in tea gardens nearby.

We asked the adults what are their hopes for the children. They said that they would like their children to get good education.

We turned our attention to the children. We asked them what are their hopes? Would they like to draw? Parents interrupted saying that our children arre not used to charts and pens. However, the children were eager to draw. The children with great enthusiasm started drawing on the chart. We need a carrom board to play they said. They also drew a football field. What if a train comes puffing up to our village children smiled with a twinkle in their eye.

Then the children shared their dreams with their parents. The parents were amazed, ‘our children can draw so well…we did not know. We have just focused on their studies and ensure that they go to schol and study well. But now we know that they can draw well. We also realize that the children can dream and dream big.”

Thus, through this conversation parents realised that their children had much more capacity than they had thought of! 

[Phil]

I wonder if the parents say, "If our children can dream, then so can we?"