Teachers, Stop Asking Children To Click Pictures. Instead, Do This One Thing
Ignite their curiosities and help them open up their minds.
When my 4-year-old son sat down for his online class a few days back, he was very excited that morning. He wanted to share something big, something new, and different with his teacher and classmates.
After all, it's really a drag most of the time for kids to sit through these online classes. And any new thing that they experience, they want to share with the whole world. Who doesn’t?
Most of us already know by now, how boring and mundane these online classes can be for kids, especially the younger ones. So when he sat down this specific morning, he was bubbling with energy and waiting for the class teacher to arrive on the call. I sat next to him as well, not knowing what he was excited about. But I was just happy to see that he was in such a great mood.
After the usual pleasantries were exchanged and all the kids had settled down, he un-muted himself (it's a shame that we are teaching young minds these days to mute and un-mute themselves).
With a big smile on his face, he said, “Teacher you know last night while I was playing in the garden, I saw Jupiter and Saturn with my naked eye”.
Wow — even I was surprised when he said that. I looked towards him and he had this big proud grin on his face. He knew he had shared something important and exciting with his teacher.
He waited for a moment, hoping to hear his teacher’s response. But when his teacher responded with “So did you click a picture?”, it totally shocked him and took him by surprise. My son didn’t know what to make out of it. Here he was, sharing something exciting and that too of a topic that was being covered in the class, and he gets hammered with a question of whether he clicked a picture or not.
Since he didn’t have an answer to this, and kind of least expected as well, he looked towards me for an answer. I gave him a small pat on his back and told him to say to his teacher that we don’t click pictures of whatever we see all the time.
He gathered some courage and said the same to his teacher. It was now his teacher’s turn to be shocked and surprised (guess we were equal now). She didn’t expect this response as well. You could see that she was a bit flustered and didn’t know where to look or what to say anymore, so she quickly muttered, “Alright, class let's move on and open page 20 of the Phonics Workbook”.
All the kids hustled up to open up their books just like zombies mindlessly wandering around empty streets of a city looking for other zombies. In a few seconds, everything went back to normal.
Except for one thing. In one single swoop, this young teacher who was probably in her early 20’s killed the excitement and curiosity of a child. By the look on his face, you could see how deflated he was when he heard his teacher respond in that manner. The smile was wiped off his face, he didn’t share anything further after that. He too opened up his book and just sat there looking at that screen, wondering.
This interaction brings forth a very fundamental question of interaction and communication. Why was it so difficult for this teacher to engage with a kid with something more meaningful and interesting. Why wasn’t she able to respond with a better question that evoked a sense of curiosity and imagination in the child?
Couldn’t the teacher have responded with any of these (literally, anyone could have been good enough) —
“Oh wow — that’s so very interesting that you saw Jupiter and Saturn with your naked eye. Can you tell me how both the planets looked?” or
“In which direction of the sky did you observe these planets” or
“How did you know these two objects in the sky were Jupiter and Saturn” or
“Did you smile and wave out to those two planets?” or
“Which of the planets was shinning brighter- Jupiter or Saturn?” or
“What time of the night did you observe these planets?” or
“Why don’t you share something more with your class friends about what you saw last night?”
You see there could have been an endless stream of methods and questions that the teacher could have engaged him with. She could have made use of this opportunity to make him share more, use his imagination to generate more curiosity amongst the other kids in the class, or simply guided him to dig deeper into the subject by learning more about the planets.
Infinite possibilities existed, but it was killed by a mundane question of whether he clicked a picture or not. Really, what would you do clicking a picture of Jupiter and Saturn that look like two shinning dots millions of miles away from us?
Journey Of A Thought
I kept thinking about this interaction all day and tried to play it in my head multiple times. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions basis this just one interaction. Maybe the teacher was already stressed out (online teaching can mess up the best of us), or she just wanted to move to finish the portion that was lined up for 30 mins that morning, could be any number of things that come with being a teacher. I wanted to offer her the benefit of doubt.
I tried hard. But I couldn’t.
Many times when I have sat with my son for his online classes, I keep seeing a repeat of this happening. Other kids share something exciting and interesting, and the teachers asks the kids to share a picture or to click a picture next time so that it can be shared with the teacher and the class.
Looks simple and straightforward, right? — Take a picture and share it with the class. Really, what’s wrong with that? But it's that not straightforward. Mind you, it’s a vicious cycle. Let's dive a little deeper.
On any given day, a kid observes something — an insect, a star, a plant, a flower, a piece of paper, a planet, a rainbow, and it creates a light bulb in her head, she gets excited, her mind starts to wander and imagine, she wants to share her thoughts, she wants to engage in a conversation, she wants to hear what other kids have to say. She is all getting ready for the next day to share her stories. She comes to class with a lot of excitement and energy. She proceeds to share it with her teacher.
Boom. The teacher asks her whether she clicked a picture or not. The poor kid did not. She had not thought about it. She had not bothered to click a picture. It did not even cross her mind. Now she has no story to tell.
Worse, she now believes that other kids think that she didn’t see anything at all (because there is no picture to show). She goes back to staring at the screen. She joins the other Zombies.
But wait, it does not stop there. Next time the same kid goes out and observes something interesting or exciting. She again gets excited, her mind starts to wander and imagine. But at that moment she remembers what her teacher asked of her last time — “to click a picture”.
So guess what she does. She looks towards her parents and asks for the phone to click a picture. Some parents may resist (like me), but then she may argue that the “teacher has asked her to do that”. So many parents oblige thinking it's probably part of the school work and it is what the teacher wants. Parent hands over the phone to her. She proceeds to click a picture (and a few more just in case).
In one click, in one instant — that action of clicking the picture has killed her curiosity and suppressed her mind’s desire to imagine. The wonders of the world that she could have gained by observation has now been relegated to the stacks of memory of the mobile phone. The next day she comes to the class, proudly she shares the picture with the teacher and the other kids.
The teacher looks at the picture. She doesn’t learn anything. Other kids look at the picture. They don’t learn anything. The kid who shared the picture, she didn’t learn anything. So what good did that picture do to anyone?
Welcome To The Clicking Generation
I finally realized that it’s the new culture with the younger generation. It’s the trend. It's what defines them. For them, everything that they see around themselves has to be clicked.
Walking by a row of flowers — click some pictures. Eating food in a restaurant — click pictures. Having a drink — click pictures. Just hanging around with friends — click pictures. Wearing a new dress — click pictures. Wearing a really old dress — click pictures. See a moon in the sky — click pictures (hello, you get to see the moon every night). Got a new haircut — click pictures. See a grasshopper in a park — click pictures, Standing next to a garbage pile — click pictures. Watching poor kids on the street — click pictures. Got a new phone — Hell yeah, go bat shit crazy and click loads of pictures
I guess their vocabulary revolves around clicking pictures. The frenzy of clicking pictures is not necessarily meant for sharing most of the time. Mostly these pictures are clicked to freeze the image, not in their minds, but on their phones.
Clicking pictures is a way to store that specific observation, so that after 15 years when they look back, they are able to pull out that ravishing picture of those flowers that they clicked one day while returning home. I don’t know if people even bother to check the pictures that they clicked last week.
For them, every observation has to be clicked. Whether it makes sense or not. Just click and then click some more. Until they have clicked 10 shots of the same thing, it does not feel that they have clicked anything at all.
For them clicking pictures has become a way of life. They don’t want to engage and communicate, only share pictures and more pictures.
When their friends share about the restaurant that they went to last night for dinner, they don’t ask — “how was your experience?” They ask —” did you click any pictures of the food?”. Pat comes the reply — “Absolutely, let me share those with you.” (You see it works both ways. People asking for pictures, and people clicking pictures. Neither can exist without each other)
When someone shares with them, that they just returned from a trip, instead of asking “how was the trip, or what did you do there, or how was the overall experience?”, they will ask you to share the pictures of your trip. You end up sending all your pictures (even the blurred ones).
When someone shares that they just got a new pet dog, they won’t ask — “how do you feel having a pet dog?” They will ask you to share the dog’s pictures. And you are happy to oblige.
Everything has to be about pictures. No talk. No expressing. No questions. No curiosity. Just pictures.
It's as if, they don’t want to communicate at all. As if speaking is boring and time-consuming. They rather stay (or look) busy going through 100s of pictures of food, places, flowers, insects, garbage, etc than to engage in stimulating conversations with other people. And even you see them talking, it would be mostly with 3 people holding a phone in their hands and talking about the pictures on the phone.
For them, everything has to be stored in that tiny memory card in their phones, but not up there where it truly belongs.
Final Thoughts
If you look around, the most fundamental problem that we are facing today is the — lack of attention span. Every passing moment, we just want to jump on the next thing. Rather than pausing for a moment, or observing and thinking about how to respond to something, we just want to frame up responses in our mind so that we can quickly get to the next thing. Doing all these takes time and your ability to listen with patience.
And hence the young teachers who have taken up the responsibility to nurture the young bubbling minds, have to go beyond just teaching some historical facts, or going over the curriculum, or teaching them a particular language or any subject. They are supposed to know how to ignite curiosity and excitement in these young minds, and not shut them down. They have to stop asking children to click pictures for every random thing that kids observe and want to talk about.
Most of the young crop of teachers of today’s generation is seriously lacking in their engagement capabilities and their ability to immerse the children in more conversations and ideas. They just want to get onto the next chapter, next subject, next class.
It's very important that schools who hire these young teachers put them through programs that allow them to practice the art of engagement and conversations with kids. It's something that need not be taught, but unfortunately, it's becoming a dying art, so it has to be done whether you like it or not.
We have to be right to our kids. We have to be fair to them. We have an obligation to teach them well. We have to tug at them.
Kids have a bottomless pit of ideas, it’s the role of a teacher to be able to catch hold of that thread of conversation, give it a tug and build on it. Ignite that curiosity and let them open up their minds.
Teachers can either spread the fire of ideas, or they can just pick up a fire hydrant and smoke out the ideas by asking to click a picture.
In my publication Any Given Sunday, I mostly write stories about parenting, being a dad, motivation, fitness, and some off-beat controversial topics.
I am also very passionate about F1, and run a publication — Formula One Forever where writers from across the globe contribute to this publication
Some more thought-provoking stories from Any Given Sunday —
Dad Stories
⭐ Say Hello! To The 4 Year Old Forrest Gump
⭐ If You Don’t Pick Up Your Kids Now, You’ll Surely Regret Later
⭐ How to Extract A Commitment From Your Teenager?
⭐ That Day When Dads Took Charge Of Their Kids For 1 Day
⭐ Your Kids Need To Sleep For Atleast 8 Hours. Otherwise, The Consequences Are Quite Severe
⭐ Teachers, Stop Asking Children To Click Pictures. Instead, Do This One Thing
⭐ If a 9 Year & 4 Year Old Can Climb 69 Floors, What’s Really Stopping You?
⭐ The Real Truth About The Discovery Of The Indus Valley Civilization
Motivational Stories
⭐ If I Miss A Rep, I Punish Myself. And The Results Are Amazing.
⭐ Top 15 Quotes from The Navy Seals That Will Motivate The Hell Out Of You Everyday.
⭐ 5 Simple Reasons You Are Not Motivated, And What You Need To Do About It.
⭐ To Merely Want to Do Something Is Not Enough. You Need To Take Action.
⭐ To Earn Respect, You Have To Look Sharp
⭐ How To Manage Negative Talk From Negative People?
⭐ Making Promises To Yourself Don’t Work. Never Will.
⭐ When Disaster Strikes, Just Say The Four Letter Word.
⭐ Fail You Must. History Is Full Of People Who Failed & Bounced Back
⭐ Achieve Personal Glory By Embracing Your Challenges With Open Arms.
⭐ Why You Should Apply For A Job That Says, “Men Wanted For Hazardous Journey”
⭐ Be Different. Become Different
Off-Beat Stories
⭐ The Information Tsunami Is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It. (Part 1)
⭐ The Information Tsunami Is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It. (Part 2)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 1)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 2)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 3)
⭐ 26 Amazing (Or Not) Things That We All Can Do During Humanity’s Downtime
⭐ Trust Your Common Sense To Beat The CoronaVirus
⭐ Why 2500 deaths/day is Creating a Bigger Panic and Emergency than 17,000 Children deaths/day?
