I had always naively believed that the celebration of a Valentine’s Day is the exclusive business of adults. But I couldn’t have been more dead wrong.
The fact of the matter is that the spirit of Valentine’s Day is increasingly gaining ground and becoming a common place occurrence in both public and private schools.
Right from the foundation - pre-primary school to high school teachers, with the support of parents, are encouraging students to come to school clad in red or black attire to mark and honour this day of love.
This new culture is a bit more established in private schools and public schools are catching the fever. Private schools go a little further to enlist the support of parents to make some financial provision for this day of love. And many parents if not all cooperate in this regard. Financial contributions made go towards creating a colourful and fun-filled day for students as well as catering for gifts for the students. While this development is gaining popularity, some find it alien and therefore disturbing. One parent asked an Education Officer whether it is right and proper for schools to introduce the spirit of Valentine at school.
He thought that it was premature to usher school going children to the world of Valentine, which in his view, is the preserve of adults. The question is what is love and who does not need love? The challenge is that when valentine is discussed, it is more often than not viewed and seen in its narrowest sense- an affair between two adult people and therefore a forbidden world for school children. In that context, I would support the chorus to insulate schools from the Valentine’s Day celebrations.
However, love is bigger than this. The world experienced the calamities of two world wars because love was conspicuously absent. Hatred assumed precedence over love and the world paid a heavy price. The two big wars resulted in wastage of too many innocent and precious human lives. A repeat of the folly of the past must be avoided at all costs. If the world is to build a durable and ever lasting peace, it is important to catch our students young and inculcate in their impressionable minds the value of love. Love is a broad and all-encompassing subject, not knowing any boundaries or discrimination on the basis of age, race, creed or colour of one’s skin. Seen in its broadest sense, love is the world’s most powerful, unifying and universally acceptable force that people ever invented.
The book of 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 gives a clear picture and general definition of the depth and meaning of love. It says, “love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth and it always protects.”
In this context schools have every right to join the rest of the globe in celebrating and honouring the power of love. When they enter the school space, students are taught at a rudimentary level the value of caring, sharing, peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and togetherness. They are taught not to use vulgar language, not to fight or steal from others. These are basic ingredients of love. Valentine’s Day presents an opportunity for schools to reinforce the good values taught and learnt in the classroom through practical experience. On display during Valentine’s mood is the value of sharing. The money raised with the assistance of parents enables schools to get each and every child a present. And this gesture nurtures and cements a culture of giving at an early stage. The experience of returning home from school with a small gift will forever be etched in the minds of the pupils. Children deserve love and a bit of pampering and schools that organise sessions inspired by love are worthy of commendation.
Love is capable of driving performance. Students who join the school system reluctantly can turn around, thrive and prosper in their academic pursuits when motivated and surrounded by love and a caring and compassionate spirit. Public schools are encouraged to move away from a culture of coercion and frequent use of corporal punishment as means of enforcing order and discipline. The idea of creating child friendly schools based on love, persuasion, motivation and mutual respect is gaining currency. The object of child friendly schools is to attract, incentivise and retain students. Consistent with the goal of creating child friendly teaching and learning environment, schools should exploit every opportunity to excite and exceed expectations from students. It is critically important for schools to always endeavour to inculcate the love for school in their learners. This is a worthy investment because when feeling loved and cared for, students will always relish the opportunity to return to school the next day. And this would minimise the number of desertions and dropouts and create high time in school. Love is a necessary ingredient that can keep a school community together and help it focus its energies on the goal of unleashing the potential of students. A school can only ignore the well-being of its students at its own peril. Among the student body, some come from difficult and unfortunate circumstances. Many students come from dysfunctional poverty stricken families and children are preoccupied with worrying about where their next meal is going to come from, other children are parents in their own right, from child headed families - where a child is tasked with the responsibility to look after siblings. A school must prepare itself for the noble job of creating joy where there is sadness and hope where there is despair and giving love to those coming from a loveless environment.
So Valentine’s Day presents a once off opportunity to schools to mend broken hearts and to show students that schools care about them. I think it is important for schools to couple their teaching responsibilities with looking after the welfare of students. It has been observed that students stop learning properly when those hired to preside over their studies and well-being cease to care. Good governance in schools does not just mean close monitoring instruction it also means taking care of the well-being of students. Well governed schools make students study hard as much as they have fun.
The importance of balancing the business of teaching with the welfare of students cannot be overemphasised. The Ontario leadership framework contends that there is a strong relationship between school governance and learning outcomes and the well-being of students. A better managed school will always explore innovative ways of attracting and retaining students without necessarily compromising classroom instruction. I see no wrong in celebrating Valentine’s Day in schools as long as it is done in the right context and is subject to teacher-parental supervision. This should help in allaying the fears of many parents.
