There is a saying in China's education industry: don't let your children lose at the starting line.
This starting line refers to the education of children, and the ideological concepts of China and India are quite consistent.
The content of the movie "Starting Line" is quite familiar to everyone, school district housing, private famous schools, all night queues for enrollment registration forms, school interview written tests for children, interview written tests for parents, Indian tricks and Chinese tricks are completely different.
The film uses humorous brushwork to exaggerate all this. The scenes in the film about India and China are exactly the same.
Almost all of the film uses the technique of contrast, and the details are actually very interesting.
The hero, Raj (aka Pia's father), is a clothing store owner who loves his wife and daughter very much, and he is always obedient to his wife, whether her behavior is right or wrong.
For example, her wife chose to go to the number one private school in order to give her daughter Pia the best education. But to get into delhi's best private school, Delhi Grammar School has one condition for admissions: students who live within three kilometres of the school can apply.
In order to let their daughter have a good educational environment, the Raj couple staged the Indian version of "Mengmu Three Moves", moved away from the previous old market street, and bought a "school district house" around the private school, so as to have the application conditions. Although Raj did not approve of his wife's approach in his heart, he still did it according to his wife's request.
The heroine Mita is a typical "tiger mother", occupies a strong position in the family, loves and cares for her daughter and even feels a little excessive, and for her husband, she mostly commands things in a commanding tone, giving people the feeling that she is the head of the family.
To some extent, she was very anxious about her daughter's education, and she believed that if her daughter went to public school, she would definitely go bad, and eventually lead to drug use.
Her theory is like a butterfly effect, as if as long as one step does not meet expectations, it will lead her daughter to an irreversible crooked path. So she did everything she could to get her daughter to go to public school.
I have to say that in the matter of parenting, the mother is always more worried than the father.
Mitu is such a worried and anxious mother who wants to choose the best aristocratic private school in the area for her children, but does not agree on it when discussing it with her father Raj.
So Mitu used her powerful imagination to convince her father: her daughter Pia would be inferior because of her class, timid, bad learning and even drug addiction, and her life would be over.
Her reasoning was that her daughter, Pia, could no longer repeat the path her parents had taken and accept the education that her parents had received before.
Although I think this mother is too anxious, not convincing, just a kind of anxiety and chicken baby, but this father Raj said two sentences at that time impressed me: Is it not good that we are living well now? You can't predict what will happen to Pia in the future!
"Aren't we having a bad time now?"
Compared with her mother Mitu's anxiety, her anxiety is reflected everywhere in both her choice of school and her living habits.
Pia and her mother are taken care of with great care, but this kind of care is not free and self-sufficient.
Mom seems to have a very mature and absolute parenting concept, watchING TV for no more than half an hour, playing slides to disinfect first, encouraging children to make friends but never asking Pia if she wants to.
Mom loves Pia very much, but she is more concerned with right and wrong than with whether she wants to or not.
Dad Raj is just the opposite, very Buddhist, and contented, optimistic, happy and humorous, of course, very kind, very emotional intelligence, very good at doing business (clothing store owner) and neighbors are very happy, but also very good at coaxing his wife, playing with his daughter.
The first scene in the film that struck me was when Raj danced with her daughter.
Mitu, who had moved to the wealthy area, invited her aristocratic neighbors to a banquet at home, and played one of Pia's favorite songs, and she happily called out to her father to dance together, which could be seen as an entertainment game they often played, and it was also the nature of Indians to sing and dance.
The sharpest contrast appeared, the children all had a good time, even the well-educated aristocratic children joined in, releasing their nature, while the adults holding wine glasses, one by one, looked at each other, showing surprise and embarrassment and contempt, was it the warm and happy Raj ridiculous? It is even more ironic that a dignified and restrained appearance is a dignified and restrained appearance.
It feels like Pia is happier and more innocent when she and her dad are together, and mom is certainly very good, but she also represents rules and regulations. If Dad represents freedom, then Mom is the rule.
"You can't predict what will happen to Pia in the future"
That's a great sentence.
How many parents are raising their children with their own values, cognitions and life experiences.
We often like to map our denials of ourselves to our children, thinking that we are right and good for them, in order to deprive children of the experiences and experiences they should have, just based on assumptions and imaginations.
We also often selfishly project our own imaginations on our children in order to train them to become the people we expect, but no one has asked the children what they think and feel, what they like, what they want, and what they call it "for your own good."
Parents are good for their children, but these so-called "good" are not equal and objective, we have the responsibility to help children make seemingly wise choices, to give themselves may not be perfect and mature but sincere and pertinent advice, but in the end can not make decisions for them.
There are too many contrasts like this in the film.
The elegant temperament of the Mitu couple full of luxuries and the comical contrast of the image in the poor area, the living conditions, living habits, including the contrast between human feelings and warmth are too strong, the gap between the rich and the poor is too large, and the class concept is solidified, which is a dark and terrible reality.
In order to enter the aristocratic school of the anxious, Raji has been challenging his own bottom line, including hypocrisy, bribery, lying, embezzlement of rights and interests, etc., he does not like such a self, so he has always been trembling, and his insistence on the nature and values are separated, so in the rich area seems out of place, do not agree with the aristocratic school commercialization of education philosophy.
Instead, they met The warm and optimistic family of Shyam in the poor area, and they reaped a sincere friendship, Shyam was kind and optimistic, industrious and sincere, and finally when he knew the truth, knew that he was deceived, knew that he wanted to defend his rights and interests, and was ready to go to the school to expose Raj (The free quota of Hiyam's son in the noble school was occupied by Pia), but because of Pia's "Uncle I miss you", Shyam said "She is also my daughter" This kind of kindness, respect and sincerity to the child are particularly valuable.
Similarly, Raj decided to fund the poor public school, and seeing those innocent and simple children and responsible principals, Raj felt at ease and steadfast in what he had done, which was Raj's nature, kind and optimistic, simple and sincere.
As the final theme sublimated, Raj said in his speech on stage: Parents only value their children's abilities, not their personality. We thought that this school (the aristocratic school) would make her knowledgeable, and it was not you who were cultivating them, but they were satisfying you, and education had lost its essence and had become a business...
In fact, on the road of raising children, we are constantly meeting ourselves, denying ourselves, and affirming ourselves.
At the beginning of the film, Mitu excitedly says, "We can't let Pia receive the same education as we do." ”
In the end, Mitu said softly: I want Pia to be someone like you, confident and understanding.
Sit back and think about it, what kind of people do we really want our children to be?
The ability to create better life and education conditions for children is the ability of parents, but ability is not equal to insight, may our children be treated tenderly by this unfair and imperfect world, and be more tolerant.
Write to the end:
Finally, I would like to make a point: when did education become a commodity?
One scene in the film is during a school celebration where Raj brings public school students onto the stage of the number one school, allowing the children to show their talents in the eyes of these parents.
The parents in the audience also applauded because of their performances, but... When they learned that the children were just public school students, the audience became silent.
Seeing the performance of these parents, and because of the headmaster's words, Raj woke up at this moment and changed his original intention. Instead of fighting for a place for Shyam's son, he decided to let his daughter give up attending this "prestigious school". And on the stage said a blunt statement that no one dared to say—the principal was no longer the principal, but a businessman. Education is no longer education, but a business.
When Raj said this, he thought that the parents in the audience would applaud for it.
In fact, even if some parents recognize this passage and want to applaud him, they will eventually choose silence and accept it because of the resistance of their loved ones around them. The end result was that only the wife stood up and applauded Raj's courage. What an ironic scene...
Nowadays, with the intensification of social competition, more and more parents will fall into such an educational anxiety, and the problem of educational fairness needs to be solved urgently.