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A child with low confidence and speech impairments can still flourish in school with the right kind of support!
Zeeba was very excited. Today was going to be her day, her day of winning the quiz. Zeeba was an extremely shy girl and usually the last one to speak up in the class.
Mrs. Adams, her general knowledge teacher liked to give the class quizzes on important topics. The first ones to answer and the ones answering maximum questions were not only given extra credits but also received handcrafted chocolates from the school’s kitchen. It was considered a big honour.
Today’s topic was ‘Fire Station’ and who better than Zeeba to win it? Her father was the ‘Chief Fire Officer’ of their town’s fire station. She had learned and practised all about a fire station with her dad. She just couldn’t wait for Mrs. Adams to begin the quiz.
Mrs. Adams began with a big smile, “Hello class! I hope all of you have learned well. I am going to ask you five questions. You know the rules, if you know the answer to the question, put up your hand, and the first one to raise their hand get to answer. If you answer right, you get a point, if not the next person gets to answer and so on till we have all the right answers. Are we ready?”
There was a big “YES” from the class, everyone wanted those delicious heavenly chocolates sitting in a nice gold pouch on Mrs. Adams’ desk.
“O.K. question 1: Name five important things on a fire truck?”
Zeeba’s hand went up immediately.
“Yes, Zeeba?”
“They ara ..a hoooo……..sssseeee, soooo…rry………, I mean……….” Zeeba stuttered, and the class burst out laughing. As usual Zeeba’s shyness had taken over despite her preparation and determination.
Mrs. Adams understood at once and declared, “Sorry class I forgot, today’s quiz has to be answered in writing. Mr. Robert, our chef has asked for the answer sheet of the one getting the chocolates today, he wants to display it on his board for a whole week. It is an added honour.”
“So, I am writing the questions on the board, please answer on a sheet in neat handwriting. The first one submitting their sheets will be checked first, rules are the same as always. Please do not forget to write your name.” She was both speaking and writing the questions on the board.
Q1. Name five important things on a fire truck?
Q2. What does a fireman do?
Q3. Why do we need a fire station?
Q4. What are the 3 Ps of fire safety?
Q5. What are your three fire safety rules?
Zeeba was well prepared and wasted no time, in less than 10 minutes she handed her answer sheet to Mrs. Adams, way before anyone else in the class. Mrs. Adams looked at her answers and announced, “Ok class, today’s winner is Zeeba, 5 credits and chocolates and her answers on Mr. Robert’s board for all to see, well done Zeeba!”
The class applauded Zeeba as Mrs. Adams presented her the chocolates.
Everyone in school who passed Mr. Robert’s Board saw Zeeba’s answers and couldn’t help but think what a clever little girl Zeeba was.
Her answers, proudly displayed on Mr. Robert’s Board were:
A1. Water tank, ladder, hose, helmets, axe.
A2. A fireman saves life, property and the environment.
A3. Because we can’t handle the fire and rescue people easily like firemen. Fire station has enough water to control the fire.
A4. Three Ps: prevent, plan and practice.
A5. Do not play with fire, matches and lighters are not toys. Do not hide during the fire, let firefighters see you. Stop, drop, and roll if your clothes catch fire.
Image source: Akshayapatra on Pixabay
Pallavi Prakash Kumar is a conscious parent, an IT engineer, an author, and an award-winning parenting blogger, poet and the founder of 'She Narrates®'. Her forte is Technical Writing and creative writing. Her favorite read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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