Theory and Practice..

I have never been an athlete. I cannot even think of running a marathon. I have nothing to show as achievement in sports related activities, although I keep lots of interest in them.

I have always encouraged my sons to take part in all sports activities. They have not achieved anything great till now. But, in the process I have learnt a lesson or two from them.

One fine morning, my elder son approached me for permission to join the open marathon to be held in their school that day. It was to be a seven kilometer run open to all students. My son was about eleven or twelve years old at that time, not an ideal age to take part in such type of events as told by an expert to me later. My son was eager, so I gave him the permission to join the race.

I was not qualified to give my son any advice since I had never taken part in marathon race myself. But, as a father I had to encourage my son and give some tips based on whatever little knowledge I had about the event.

Behaving like an experienced athlete, I told him, “Just enjoy the run. Take it easy. After running for about 100 meters you’ll have a strong urge to stop since you’ll start getting tired. But do not stop. Once you stop, you may not be able to run again. Just keep going and going.” 

My son nodded and left for school.

He returned from school in the afternoon very much excited. Before I could ask anything, he declared, “Daddy, I secured fifth position in the marathon and I’ll get some award for that.” 

I was surprised. 

He continued to narrate his experience, 

“Almost the whole school participated in the run. Initially most of them were leading, but after sometime, many of them stopped and started getting into the bus that had been following us. I kept on running, remembering your advice not to stop. I started overtaking others and after sometime I found myself almost alone on the road. After taking a turn suddenly I saw our school building looking at me. When I entered the school compound students and teachers started cheering and clapping for me. Some one of them was shouting, Fifth, Fifth.. Arpit is Fifth…”

My son put into practice my theoretical knowledge however limited it may be. The mental strength he  had shown by not stopping halfway made him successful.  

In the process, he taught me a valuable lesson too.

A Little Personal attention..

My son had never joined any coaching classes nor had any home tutors. I encouraged my son to be self-reliant in his studies from the very beginning. He used to come to me for help only when the situation turned desperate for him, otherwise, he studied everything all by himself.

He had been very good in social studies, science and English but could never do very well in mathematics. It is strange, since usually students who are good in science are good in mathematics also.Whatever may be the reason, he was never comfortable with his maths. My initial response was to get angry with him and rebuke him for his poor performance in that subject but it made the matter worse. Finally, I decided to take it easy and advised him to work hard and come to me whenever he feel like clearing any doubts. He hardly came to me and continued to study all by himself. 

When he reached the tenth standard I started getting a bit worried as he could score only fifty something out of hundred in the first two tests in maths. I encouraged him to work even harder. He did. Then came his third and last test before the finals. One fateful day, he returned from school totally downcast. His maths papers had been returned and he could score only 61 out of 100. I could sense his feeling of depression. The finals are only about three months away, time was running out. I knew, it was time for me to take charge of the situation.

The next day, I gave him a model question paper to solve in a simulated examination. He took the examination in right earnest. I checked the papers and his performance was in the expected line. I conducted few more examinations and found out his areas of weaknesses, sat down with him to sort out the related problems in those areas. He fully cooperated like an obedient boy. I continued to conduct examinations for him and he started showing improvements. After about fifteen tests, he scored 96. I knew, he had gained confidence.

The final board examinations started on schedule and the D-day arrived, the day for maths examination. He was very very nervous. I drove him to his examination center and could see him gulping frequently. We did not talk on the way. I had the confidence deep inside me that he would do well to score at least 80% in that subject. And he did. 

A little personal attention to find out the weak areas and to help him improve in those areas did the trick. 

I wish, all the schools did that for their students.