We send our kids to school, to study, learn and gain a broader perspective of the world. But do we really know what our kids are learning at school these days?
This is a picture from a children’s textbook.
The image features two girls. One of them is fair-skinned, wears a maang-tikka, and appears to be smiling. She is called ‘Beautiful’. While the girl on the right-hand is dark-skinned, appears to be wearing dull clothes, and definitely seems to be sad. She is called ‘Ugly’.
What the hell are we teaching our kids?
Even though we could not trace the origin of the book, it is unfortunate to see that the Education Board actually allows such vile ideologies to be printed.
Sadly, this is not the first time when textbooks have promoted and idolised stereotypes and misinformed students. These kids are at an age where they are not only easily impressionable, but also have a tendency to act out such misinformation in real life. A kid who is not corrected or misinformed like this can go on to discriminate his/her friends and classmates on the basis of their colour.
Enough misinformation has been dumped upon Indian consumers by ads promoting skin-lightning products. Why teach our kids the same thing, and mar their childhood with such discriminating, wrong, and illogical ideologies? School is the first institutional place of learning where a person spends almost half of their growing age – a place where they learn everything, a place that will mould their personalities, minds and determine the people that they go on to become.
