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{mosimage}Sometimes back I was talking to my colleague whose daughter I like the most. She is such a lovely shy kid. My colleague told that he has enrolled his daughter in UCMAS and vocal training class. He said that she is not going for painting and swimming classes and she is strictly saying that she will go to two classes only at a time. While talking about the current UCMAS trend and other things talks turned towards the extra curricular activities of todays children. My opinion was that current day children are being stretched beyond their limits and "grow" ahead of their ages. Then came the counter arguement that children should be adapted to the competitive environment. But my opinion was that competition exists in the minds of the parents only. I seriously feel that the current generation of kids are denied the pleasure of being innocent and enjoy their childhood.

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I am writing these things based on the real characters that exist in my circle. For example I can cite my cousin's son, who I used to admire that he is extra brilliant. One day while we were talking on my brother's home, something on Star Movies was going on. There came a smooching scene we most of us didn't even notice. Accidentaly I turned and saw it and observed what the kid was doing. It quitely looked around whether any of us is noticing him and when knew on being noticed, it immediately switched channel. If it had been done it in 10-12 years I would have enjoyed it, but it did these things when it was at only 5.

{mosimage}Another brother's kid used to compute decimal multiplication and square roots, what we learnt in our 8th standard, when it was just 6 years through UCMAS. Believe me, really it didn't fascinate me. Infact I wondered if the kids learn all these things much ahead what they'll do at later age. I want to give this example from a well educated family. There was a girl from a doctor's family, who was very brilliant. Her language was terrific that even sometimes graduates too won't have that kind of vocabulary. She used to read only English novels and watch only English movies. Everybody thought that she would do SAT and go abroad. Sometimes back when I heard this thing through a reliable source I was perplexed. She had sex with her tution master when she was at only 9th std. What shocked me was that it was not a rape, a mutual agreed intercourse. I am still surprised how she sent / interpretted the non verbal signals and f***ed by him. Why go so personal, what about the celebrated India's first MMS scandal of a 10th std girl giving oral sex to her boyfriend? Both of them were from defense families which are supposed to be most disciplined.

I don't mean to say that if a kid is well educated it always ends up straying. Most of our scientists learnt english only from their 6th standard, but that didn't deter them in achieving or building an ISRO. Many of us who are doing well in technical had their grounding in their regional language. I think the problem lies in the domain where we confuse language with knowledge. My cousin whose kid is in the subject used to "advise" me to watch English channels to develop my "knowledge". I couldn't stop controlling my laughter when he said this. May be he wanted his kid to develop his "knowledge" by watching English channels, it had lost its innocence at much earlier age. Reading English novels is a symbol of esteem, but the contents are of an alien culture replete with sex, violence and treachery. Same goes for English movies. Let the kids read and watch what they should, not something that is suitable for adults.