Of school mottos and their relevance

In a beautiful valley nestled in the Nilgiri mountains the British decided to set up a school for children of domiciled Europeans and children of mixed marriages, way back in the early 20th century. Children who went to this boarding school were from extremely poor backgrounds because their parents were no longer preferred employees of the Raj - the locals had acquired far greater education and therefore had a greater claim to the jobs that these domiciled Europeans got by default until just a few years earlier. Joblessness and poverty set in among the domiciled Europeans and they could not afford to educate their children any longer. Yet they hung onto their old habits of having ayahs and nannies to look after their homes and children, they looked down on doing non-white collar jobs. It is in this backdrop of poverty and misery that thousands of children of this community were being raised.

A group of Englishmen felt responsible for the condition of these indigent children of domiciled Europeans and went about raising money to set up a school for these children. It was to be a boarding school where the children would get a formal education and learn to be self reliant - thus the motto of the school came to be 'Self Reliance'. The girls in the school learned to sew, nurse and look after children so that they could be gainfully employed in schools, hospitals and the hospitality industry. The boys were taught carpentry, radio repair and several other trades so that after school they might get employment in those areas. Everybody woke up early and was assigned housework duties to clean up their cottage, their toilets, the dormitories and even the surroundings. They swept, swabbed and polished every day. Self reliance as a motto or a dogma made huge sense and was most relevant in that day and age.

Lets cut to today, almost a hundred years have gone by - the boarding school is thriving, it has kids from all over the country, most are not from indigent backgrounds (although some continue to be) and their parents pay a tidy sum towards their schooling. Back home these kids have servants to clean up after them, drivers to take them around and cooks to cook for the people at home. These parents don't fancy the idea of their children having to sweep, swab and polish. They would rather that the children use that time for something more useful to develop body and mind.

The old timers who left school in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's today bemoan the fact that the children in their alma mater no longer are required to do what they did in school - clean, sweep, swab and polish. They bemoan the fact that the school motto of 'self reliance' has been 'kicked to the kerb'! They even want to make a representation to the school to re-instate those bygone practices or change the motto of the school! To me this seems way out of line - in today's world of outsourcing it just doesn't seem like 'Self Reliance' is a value that needs to be taught to the kids - they will do fine if they get themselves a good education and can afford to out-source. Reminds me of this lovely piece of graffiti I saw somewhere - Every dogma has its day - maybe Self Reliance has had its day!

Also, its not as if all of us who went to school in those early days are or continue to be 'Self Reliant'! Those children who passed out of the old school in the new millennium seem as 'self reliant' as you or me so maybe the old school motto really doesn't after all have to mean that you spend a good part of your day cleaning, sweeping and polishing! Sure, its great to be able to rely on yourself to get things done so maybe its the ethos of self reliance that could be ingrained in the kids. They should be taught to roll up their sleeves and dirty their hands if they really need to. But then again can that attitude be taught? Some have no problem doing exactly that while others, no matter how much of self reliance you teach them, have reservations about getting their hands dirtied! For instance I have no issues with having to change a car tyre if I have to but my brother who went to the same school as I, doesn't fancy the idea of rolling up his sleeve and doing the job.

At the end of the day a school motto is perhaps just that, a motto. It could well have been anything else! So is this all 'much ado about nothing'?