BIS #1726 NOTES! CHAPTER NOTE

Bosco Pereira sdb
MUMBAI, JANUARY 21, 2010: To Be or not to Be!! Each passing day brings in a funeral that was not to be. A teenager commits suicide.... A school boy/girl hangs himself/herself.... Parents gather in to protest.... The father of the child defends the school management.... everybody seems helpless !?!

ABE calls a meeting of people concerned with the Cardinal. What can we do is the burning question.....? No real rescue operation would happen. Pain killers would be manufactured and as the days go by all will feel better. Dying will become news but the “not-to-be” will happen again and again and again.

Our schools are a suicide point. No sensible kid feels good about coming to school. They say that school is second home but my home is in a mess, it is dysfunctional, there is no proper partnership and parenting is from a distance, a remote control, no real presence.

Keep in mind that our education system itself is sick. The child is certainly not the centre of education. The syllabus is. The ‘marks’ and grades count. ‘Remarks’ become the power-point for the so called educator. Fear is in the air, the ‘presence’ is absent. You are ‘not good enough’ is a chorus for every note in the calendar. This note – remark – is out of tune in the mind of the individual student. It becomes a ‘tape’ that plays itself for the rest of their lives. To end the ‘record’ suicide is the only rescue point. Not to be is the saving grace.
To Be or not to Be, that is the Question that does not have an instant coffee answer.

Our Don Bosco institution has not yet featured in the suicide episodes (two years ago we had one at our very home where a staff member’s teenage son hung himself) that has been forgotten.

The silent killer is slowly being activated WHY, WHAT, HOW the exact reasons can always be debated. Once again we are helpless.

Chapter 2010 take a note! Change the menu. The need of the hour is seriously looking into how we don’t really look into bringing out the best (to be) in the person. Education is all about bringing out the best. Our youngsters choose not to be as the better option.

In am not a pessimist, neither am I am optimist. I am more of a realist.

Getting real is the only option.

Chapter 2010 please note..... Emergency landing !