[Reader-list] India's Umbridges

[Shivam Vij]

Dispel The Darkness

By Sunil Batra
The Times of India, 31 July 2007
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Dispel_The_Darkness/articleshow/2245538.cms

There is an uncanny resemblance between the headmaster of a private
school in Hyderabad who chained an 'errant' student and Dolores
Umbridge, the temporary head of Hogwarts School in Harry Potter and
the Order of the Phoenix.

The resemblance is about the repeated abuse of power over children in
educational institutions, across generations and cultures.

Winston Churchill aptly said, "Headmasters have more power than prime
ministers ever will". By enforcing innumerable decrees, Umbridge had
thwarted collective and individual freedom of choice. She had
systematically scuttled the students' right to find relevance and
meaning in learning.

What explains the power of the headmaster and the continued abuse of
this power? Schools as modern, populist institutions in many parts of
the post-colonial world are built on the behaviourist school of
psychology and learning. Based on the belief that children must be
taught and their behaviour controlled to make them learn, behaviourism
as a practice has become deeply entrenched in many societies. That the
rise of this school of thought is akin to the rise of military states
and the emergence of the autocratic states has also been articulated
by writers, including Bertrand Russell and C W Mills.

Just as temples and churches are known to have created symbols of awe,
schools have also learnt to hone their own symbols of authority and
power. Drills, examinations, uniforms, punishments, report cards and
the red pen are the most ubiquitous symbols of behaviourist
institutions.

The primary belief is that children and young people do not have minds
of their own and if they do, they must not exercise it to question the
authority of adults, providers of the institutions of the home and the
family. The 10-year-old Hyderabad boy was discovered crying on a
street in the city. He narrated the cruel treatment meted out to him
by the school leadership. Surely, he was in his senses and could
recall the episode coherently enough to warrant police action. We are
equally aware of the many cases that go unreported because the trauma
inflicted is so harsh that the victim can hardly claim veracity of his
story. Could the story of the 10-year-old not be heard by even one
person in that school? Could the school head not have thought 10 times
before actually chaining him?

Under pressure to implement policies, we become blind to differences
in perceptions and needs. A narrow, administrative approach blinds us
teachers to the impact of our policies on young people, now and in the
future. A different kind of skill is required to step into the world
of another person and understand his grievances.

Does the modern, exam-oriented school system push normal, caring
people to situations where they are forced to call upon their dark
side? If we were to closely study the range of schools in India and
the world, the most likely answer is yes. We are so preoccupied with
reprimanding for behaviour-correction that as school heads and
teachers we become used to exercising the dark forces inside us. It is
not uncommon to see a school head with a broken stick roaming the
corridors of power to herd students inside the classes after the
morning assembly or break time.

Following the Supreme Court ban on corporal punishment, school heads
train senior students to act as constables for the younger ones,
hitting them every time they question or walk outside the line.
Reports about young students being made to stand in the scorching sun
for hours or about children being chained, caned or locked up are not
new. Over time, we tend to become numb to oft-repeated stories of woe.

Teachers and school heads feel that they are trapped in tension when
confronted with the experiences of their own as well as other
children. In their role as parents, they are compelled to question
their assumptions and attitudes as educators.

Just as teachers require training and sensitisation to understand
children's needs, school heads also require training on institutional
management, handling personal stress and sensitising the entire
institution to providing for children's needs.

The central point in all Harry Potter stories is the choice that Harry
has to make to discover his inner being and his truth — as distinct
from the temptations and traps that Lord Voldemort lays for him to
exercise his dark side and become one with Voldemort. Had Umbridge
been through training on understanding children's world views, her
responses as the temporary head of Hogwarts would not have been
influenced only by her personal insecurities and lack of discernment.

We often resign ourselves to fate and feel fortunate if we have a
benevolent head or feel victimised if we have an autocratic head.
Training for school leadership is much more than training for
performance results and efficiency.

It is about creating and sustaining a humane culture in an institution
— understanding the many ways in which children learn and educating
oneself about evolving leadership demands.

Modern school heads ought to become mature enough to not fall back on
mediaeval ways of exercising adult control and constantly living with
the dark side of human nature.

[The writer is director, education, Shikshantar]