Coping during times of crisis

High up on the balcony, I watched the neighbourhood from afar. The once green grass is nearly gone and replaced with a brown patch instead. Each morning, the children in the neighbourhood wake up to play football. Other children roam the neighbourhood while others watch TV all day and play video games.

They have had to find things to preoccupy themselves from the boredom of staying home for more than nine months.

Listening to the news the other day, one of the headteachers from one of the private schools was lamenting and pleading with the government to seriously consider opening schools.

She lamented that the children are the future and there is no way their future can be secured when they are out of school. To emphasise her point further, she noted that schools provide the best and safest environment for children to grow, to be nurtured and to thrive. She said children are productively engaged on many significant fronts while at school.

Her arguments were solid and compelling. Although I know that the same arguments carried economic and financial connotations, because school closure means no income for school owners. 

School indeed contributes significant value to our children. Especially in a world like ours, where only a very small percentage of the children have access to some semblance of online learning. 

The other option of learning by watching television, which is one of the improvised means, carries its own set of challenges too.

Of course, school should not be used as a means for parents to abscond from their own role and contribution to their children’s lives but you must agree that each of these roles has their important place in society.

Because parents and teachers complement each other in raising children, it is quite a heavy role to choose to place the entire responsibility of growing, grooming and nurturing children to their parents alone like it has been in the last nine months.

The parent must balance this delicate role with fending for the children. A parent who is out tussling with work to take care of their homes and children will be significantly incapacitated in fully and completely fending for the children. That is the reason we have helpers on all fronts.

It’s a cycle where we all need and support one another. Last year had a huge toll on many children’s development and overall well-being.

Although, the Covid-19 pandemic is a reality we cannot wish away, we must learn how to live regardless of its presence. We must learn to cope with its reality because we must accept that we cannot hide from it forever.