The Days That Bind Us
Assemblies, festivals, national days, Grandparents' Day — the occasions that fill a school calendar are not interruptions to learning. They may be some of its most important moments.
An outsider glancing at our calendar might see the assemblies, the festivals, the fancy-dress and cultural days, and quietly wonder whether they take time away from “real” work. I understand the thought. But after a lifetime in schools, I have come to see these days as some of the most important we keep.
A school is a community, not a building
A school is not really a set of rooms; it is a community of people who belong to one another for a while. That belonging has to be built, and it is built on shared days. When the whole school stands together for the morning pledge, when children in costume perform for their parents, when we mark Republic Day with flags or fill a hall for Grandparents’ Day, something happens that no ordinary lesson can produce: a child feels part of something larger than themselves.
What a child carries away
These occasions also teach in their own right. A shy child who recites a poem on stage, or dances in a group before a watching hall, discovers a courage they did not know they had. Preparing together — learning the steps, painting the backdrop, waiting nervously in the wings — teaches teamwork and patience as surely as any group project. And celebrating our festivals and national days, side by side, quietly teaches respect for one another and pride in the country we share.
Years from now, our students will have forgotten a great many lessons. But they will remember the annual function when everything nearly went wrong and then went right; the grandparent who came, beaming, to watch; the flag going up on a cold January morning. These are the memories that make a person say, warmly, that was my school.
That is why we protect these days rather than trim them. They are not a pause in a child’s education. Very often, they are the part a child keeps.