“Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you.

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.”

-The Poem “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran

Parenting is a privilege as well as a responsibility. Parenting is a privilege because kids start as a ‘bundle of joy’ in the arms of parents and progress to providing the parents unconditional love and cheer as they grow up. Parenting is a responsibility because a whole new life has been entrusted to the parents. Parents have the solemn task of nurturing future citizens for their country and the world. Parenting involves making sacrifices – from foregoing sleep at nights to compromising on career growth and life goals.

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines Parenting as the process of raising children and providing them with protection and care in order to ensure their healthy development into adulthood.

As per Diana Baumrind, a developmental psychologist, and Stanford researchers Eleanor Maccoby and John Martin, parenting styles can be classified into four broad categories – permissive, authoritative, neglectful and authoritarian. Let us have a look at each of these styles briefly:

Illustration of family with kids
  1. Permissive

Permissive parents are highly responsive to their child but have very less demands from the child. They go out of their way to keep their children happy and prioritize their children’s needs (and wants) over theirs. To avoid conflict, they easily accept and fulfill their children’s requests/demands whether they are justified or not. They give independence to their kids and may not offer guidance or direction, unless asked. Hence, permissive parents’ relationship with their kids may be characterized more as friendship rather than parental.

  • Authoritative

Authoritative parents are highly responsive to their child but also are highly demanding in return. They guide and provide directions to their child but also listen to their children with empathy. Authoritative parents are flexible, that is, they can be strict with or indulgent towards their kids, depending on the situation. So, authoritative parents are nurturing, supportive and always responsive to their children’s needs. As a result, children who have authoritative parents are self-disciplined and can think and conduct themselves maturely.

  • Neglectful

Neglectful parents are characterized by low responsiveness and low demandingness. They are detached from their children to the extent that they seem cold and uncaring. Thus, this style of parenting is sometimes referred to as uninvolved parenting. This neglectful nature might not be intentional as these parents might be suffering from low self-esteem or might be struggling with their own issues. The children of such parents are left nurtureless, directionless and have to take care of themselves.

  • Authoritarian

Authoritarian parents are characterized by high demandingness and low responsiveness. They set strict rules for their children and brush aside or simply ignore the kids’ feelings and needs. Their communication is one way – from them to their kids. This is a rigid parenting style that is justified as “tough love”.

After closely looking at the above styles, it is clear that authoritative parenting is the most preferable style of parenting. As in all matters, flexibility in parenting approach is the most optimal. For example, an authoritative parent may become permissive when their child is sick and may become authoritarian when it is a question of safety. So, parents should adapt their parenting style to the given time, place and situation.

How to be a Good Parent

“… the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the word.”

  • From the poem “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” by William Ross Wallace, who wrote this poem as an ode to Motherhood

Parenting has evolved over the centuries and parents now, in the twenty-first century, have many child psychologists, family therapists, and books on parenting to guide and help them in the formidable task of parenting in today’s busy and fast-paced world where the most precious commodity is Time and the most difficult task is emotional bonding, even with one’s own family. Our ancestors, millennia ago, were aware of the importance and complexity of parenting. The legendary Chanakya, also known as Vishnugupta and Kautilya, the mentor of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the vast Mauryan empire nearly 2500 years ago, gave the following sound advice to parents on parenting, which is relevant to this day, in his book “Chanakya Niiti”:

  • Pamper children with unconditional love till they attain the age of five.
  • Be a tough task master to your children when they are between the ages six and sixteen, so that they become disciplined and responsible.
  • Start treating them as friends once they attain sixteen years.

From the previous Section, it is clear that extremes in parenting, like over-regulation or overindulgence, over-attention or neglect, should be avoided.

But what are needed for good parenting? The National Academy of Sciences (NAS), USA delineates four major responsibilities for parents: maintaining children’s health and safety, promoting their emotional well-being, instilling social skills, and preparing children intellectually.

How parenting evolves as child grows up

How can parents be encouraged and helped to more actively participate in their children’s schooling? Education expert Joyce Epstein, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, has developed a framework facilitates this. She divides types of parent involvement into six categories:

  1. Parenting

The most important way parents can support their children’s education is by providing a healthy home environment. Parents may need to attend parenting workshops to help them in this task. For example, parents are advised to encourage the reading habit in their children by reading to and in front of their children.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s letters to his daughter Indira Gandhi when the former was in jail for fighting for India’s independence from the British, and the latter was a 10–15 year-old child show how parents can teach and inspire children. The letters speak about world history, science, geography, evolution, etc. and most importantly about how to be a good human being and a great leader. Needless to say, for Indira Gandhi, her father Nehru was a University. Nehru’s letters to his daughter tell us about the importance of parenting in education and how parents can help in making children, future leaders.

  • Communicating

Parents should keep themselves informed about their children’s school activities and children’s progress by taking some time to go through the e-mails, memos, student homework, report cards, etc. being sent by the school. They should make themselves available to take calls from the school and attend PTMs (Parent-Teacher Meetings) without fail. This will help parents be up-to-date about their children’s performance and progress at school and enable them to take corrective steps on time. This will prevent children from a drop in their performance and keep them in synch with their peers and the class curriculum.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of USA, wrote a letter, which is now famous, to his son’s teacher, when his son just joined school. Lincoln wrote this letter to the teacher as an ordinary parent and not as the US President. In the letter, Lincoln asks the teacher to teach his son the values of honesty, truthfulness, courage, originality and hard work.

Abraham Lincoln’s letter shows that communication between parents and teachers is important and they both have to collaborate for the education and development of a child.

  • Volunteering

Parents can volunteer in the classroom and/or school which is one of the direct ways to involve themselves in their children’s education. They can help with office work, organizing events and other tasks that the school may request them to do.

  • Learning at home

Parents are the first teachers for children. Even when children start going to school, parental help at home in their education is important. Parents can directly help their children in homework assignments and projects. But sometimes parents may require additional resources like time and study material to be able to help their wards in their academics. This additional effort put in by parents for their kids is worth it because it has a multiplier effect on students’ education and helps the school too in its responsibility of imparting education.

  • Decision-making

Parents can be part of groups like Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA), Child Welfare committees, etc. so that they are more actively involved in decision making on matters concerning their children. This will help in taking well informed decisions that are best for children’s education and development.

  • Collaborating with the community

This point is a more general form of points 3 and 5 above where parents are collaborating with the school and/or other parents. Parents who are involved in the community are invariably going to be involved in the school system also. The synergistic interaction of parents, teachers and administrators can do wonders for children and education.

Conclusion

Parenting is one of the traits that is common to the human and the animal worlds. Love springs naturally between the parent and the offspring in almost all species of the world. This bond of love is very essential and crucial because it is what helps nature and life in survival, self-preservation and propagation. But is just love enough in the parent-child relationship? As seen from above, the answer is a clear “No” because parent-child relationship is much more than mutual love. Parenting is also about responsibility, caring, foresight and planning. In the animal world, parenting is instinctive, spontaneous and hardwired in their genes. But in the human world, the method of parenting is a choice, is learnt “on the job” and there may be as many ways of parenting as there are parents. This article attempts to provide an overview of different types and ways of ‘Parenting’ and gives an insight on positive parenting.

Asha Kiran Puli
Primary CoordinatorChrysalis High, Kadugodi

Chrysalis School is a hidden gem that is absolutely amazing. The experience started when we were driving through in search of school for our kids and saw this attractive newly built school.

Our interaction with school alumni assured us that our child will be in the best hands with the teachers and staff. The faculty and staff truly care about the students and are available around the clock to help with student needs.

Cheers!
Yaduveer Singh & Tanu Chaudhary

I started my journey at Chrysalis High in the third grade, and have been studying in the same till now and from all these years, I can say that Chrysalis High has the best staff and curriculum.

PUPA (Prior Understanding of Pupil Attributes) is a unique method used in Chrysalis High to understand a student’s learning ability, skills and emotions. They gain this knowledge from the parents and us in an effort to understand us better. The extracurricular activities, inter-school competitions, sports and cultural days organised help incorporate fun and games along with academics.

The student council and the elections for its positions familiarise a student with a sense of responsibility and teamwork. Studying at Chrysalis High has helped me grow to my full potential and has indeed trained me for the exam called life.

I would like to thank all the teachers and staff at Chrysalis High for making my learning experience the best.

Indrani-Singh

Ms. Indrani Singh

Chief Vision Officer, Principal, Chrysalis High Marq & Head - Chrysalis Kids

Ms. Indrani Singh possesses a MSc and B.Ed degree to her credit. She has over 10 years of experience in the field of education and has climbed the rungs of leadership with her sheer dedication, hard work and love for her profession. She joined as the Head of Chrysalis Kids in 2013, which is a pre primary school of Chrysalis. Her out of box thinking and her ideology of doing the right thing for the children have helped her to pioneer new processes to make learning an enriching experience for the children. Across a period of seven years, Ms. Indrani Singh has become a flag bearer of Chrysalis vision, especially the PUPA (Prior Understanding of Pupil Attributes) Program. Indrani brought in the idea of Pre-CHAMPS to all Chrysalis schools. Known for her ideation & focus on quality, Indrani leaves no stone unturned to ensure children have a wonderful learning experience at Chrysalis. In 2017, she was made Associate Academic Director – Pre Primary & again promoted to Academic Director – Pre Primary, a role she handles along with the responsibilities of Chrysalis High, Marq. Under her supervision and guidance, many initiatives like Pre-CHAMPS, AwSTEM, Festival of learning were initiated and appreciated by all. Today she handles multitude of responsibilities from heading two schools to overseeing the Pre-Primary Curriculum Team of Chrysalis as the Academic Director. In addition to these profiles, she was recently promoted as Chief Vision Officer to propel PUPA, an initiative of Chrysalis, to greater heights. To this day, her ideas and her sheer determination to always try something different and new makes her a formidable and integral part of Chrysalis. With an unending pandemic looming over us, the future for education looked uncertain. But Ms. Indrani with her belief that learning should not stop for the children, ideated on the perfect balance of online and live class model to suit the learning styles of the children. The plan started with what best would suit the children and also help the working parents who were facing their own challenges and obstacles. The online model started with curriculum videos which the Chrysalis teachers recorded with the right guidance and methodology which was well defined by her. The live classes began with once a week class to slowly introduce the children to digital learning. With children adapting to live class, the sessions increased to add more to their knowledge. Teachers were sensitized about the challenges of live class and how to ensure that they do the right thing for the children and be an integral part in their learning given the circumstances. Providing the right support to parents and the challenges they faced, were also key elements of the whole digital teaching process. Providing individual support to the children was one way to ensure we partnered with parents to provide the right support to the children and ensure that the learning did not stop.

Transport

We provide a fleet of well-maintained buses with trained drivers and lady attendants. Special care is taken while appointing the drivers, to ensure that only the experienced and qualified drivers are appointed after undergoing a driving test. The buses are equipped with safety equipment and a first-aid kit in case of an emergency.

Being GPS enabled, the school can locate the position of a bus at any time during commute and in case of a breakdown, can send a replacement bus instantly. To avoid rash driving and speeding, speed governors are installed in all the buses.

Salient Features

Nutrition

The School serves balanced and nutritious vegetarian snacks and lunch to students who have opted for the facility.

To supervise students during lunchtime, a teacher is appointed for monitoring each table. Children are trained to keep themselves clean and display correct dining manners.

Reverse Osmosis systems for purifying drinking water are available across the campus throughout the day.

Student Safety and School Security

Safety Always a step ahead!

Chrysalis is inarguably the only school where at no point of time, any child is left without supervision of a female teacher!

CCTV Cameras- Entire premises

Precautionary measures

Working at Chrysalis High has been a wholesome experience for me. What stands out for me is the support I receive from the school management in standing by my vision and passion as a teacher.

It would not be an exaggeration in the slightest, if I said that I feel always supported by the principal, coordinator and staff in performing my duties to the best of my abilities. This makes me confident that I would be given room to grow as an educator. It feels great to be part of a group that takes meaningful steps towards turning our philosophy and values into action!

The values we would love to instill in our students at Chrysalis High are strongly rooted in our hearts by our compassionate and efficient school heads and mentors and model them to our students.

The induction programme has been nothing short of immense learning and much-needed guidance to face all our challenges head-on and it has helped prepare ourselves for the year ahead.

At Chrysalis High, I find myself doing what I love to do, staying true to what I strongly believe in and above all I can see myself as a passionate learner with new opportunities to learn each and every day. To top it all, the love and support my students shower on me is an additional perk without which I cannot be the happy teacher that I am today.

Suhasini. S
Secondary Teacher

Chrysalis High team integrates compassion into their teaching standards, emphasizes the importance of values and builds leaders through each of their classes and lessons. It allows for a lower student to teacher ratio. Online teaching during difficult times of Covid – 19 was indeed a huge challenge for all schools but the support provided by the school to transcend the challenge of teaching students by providing apt and timely training to teachers in online teaching methodology is commendable. This has been very useful to students as well as their parents. The teachers had worked hard in coming up with innovative methods of teaching to keep the students up breast with subjects with their enthusiasm intact.  It’s been a wonderful journey for me at Chrysalis High so far.  The entire team works in unison with one thought in mind – the betterment of the children.

My sincere thanks to Principal ma’am, Coordinators and last but not least my colleagues for the constant support and love.

Upasana Banerjee –
Primary Teacher

I am very happy studying at Chrysalis High Bannerghatta Road. I got admission during the lockdown period. The online classes were well organized and very interactive.

I gained a lot of knowledge during online classes, and the teachers understood us quickly and were there for us at all times. Even though we didn’t meet personally, the atmosphere at Chrysalis was always very warm and supportive. Even though online classes were new to everyone, our teachers were able to identify where we were lagging, and they provided Individual Support Classes (ISP).

The teachers are very interactive, friendly with us, and support us to come up with our own ideas. Practical explanation of the subject through STEaM is also one of the most exciting sessions in our school. The teachers also covered extracurricular activities and enrichment activities during the online classes. The warm welcome by the teachers to the offline classes made us more excited to attend school and a day at Chrysalis High with my friends and teachers is something that I eagerly look forward to every day.

Chrysalis High, is a great school which develops a good foundation for kids both academically and also in character building. Both the pre primary and now the primary school years for Samay, have been socially nurturing and academically challenging. Our son loves his school, he has come a long way from his nursery days till today, the 3rd grade.

Everyone at school, be it the Principal, Coordinators, teachers or the administrative staff, all have been really cooperative and supportive. Chrysalis also has one of the best parent – teacher relationship!

Overall, Chrysalis High, has been a wonderful experience for both Samay and us till date. We appreciate the great work and looking forward for more!

Regard,
Kavita

I have been in Chrysalis High BG Road since 2018. The teachers have laid a strong foundation, helped me improve on my basics in all subjects and played a major role in me evolving into the best version of myself. My school has given me many opportunities to develop my leadership skills and I will always feel grateful about that. I have made many friends in the last couple of years, thanks to the warm atmosphere at Chrysalis High. During online classes our school left no stone unturned and even though our classes were online, they ensured we learnt with the same enthusiasm.

My Voyage at Chrysalis High Marq has been spectacular and overwhelming. The school has positive vibes that makes it a beautiful shelter for not only students but also for the teachers. Here at Chrysalis we are motivated to nurture the young minds in the best possible way.

I learnt number of years of work experience is not that counts, what is more important is the quality one possesses through their learning experience. I thoroughly enjoy teaching and unfaltering curiosity.

Chrysalis High is an impressive organization that makes educators feel supported and equipped. I ’am proud to be a part of this institution that strive to take eloquent steps to transform our care philosophy and values into effective action.

I feel privileged to be an integral part of such a proficient and progressive workforce. Chrysalis oozes integrity and excellence that is t=refreshing and essential in our daily duties.

Chrysalis exemplifies what it means to be an organization that is “To help our children excel by understanding them, guiding them on the right path and strengthening their self belief.”

I enjoy working at Chrysalis High because this is a place where high energy meets absolute dedication.As a teacher, each day is a new day for me and I fully value the myriad opportunities that enhance my experience.

I also appreciate the unique working atmosphere and  the collaborative culture  that allows me to grow not only as a professional, but also as a person.

The school provides me with a lot of scope to interact with children and their parents, and this gives me an opportunity  to gain deeper insights into ways to help each of them achieve their academic goals.

The school’s vision for children is a guiding principle for all of us. It is indeed a pleasure to work with my immediate superiors who are both-understanding and supportive in all aspects. Together, I am certain that we will have a mutually enriching and exciting academic year ahead.

Anuradha Shankar Venkataraman,
Employee, Chrysalis High Marq

Chrysalis High Marq has paved new roads of possibilities of learning and fruitful experiences for both teachers such as myself and the students.

The things that are most satisfying for me are the never ending opportunities to learn, perform out of the comfort zone and most importantly the endless love that I receive from the children. Life is a continuous learning process and Chrysalis High Marq has made it possible by giving me many opportunities to be creative in the way I work. The whole team works as a family by supporting and helping each other at any given point of time .

The motivation, appreciation, support and positivity received by us is in turn passed on to our students. The school believes in the holistic development of all its children and takes all the necessary measures to nurture the young minds in a fruitful way. I am extremely proud to be a part of the Chrysalis High Marq family.

Shivani
Educator, Chrysalis High Marq

In the field of Construction, they say- “ A well-designed and strong foundation keeps the building standing while the forces of nature wreak havoc.” The same purpose that a foundation serves for a building, schooling does for our children- ensures they are wholly prepared for the journey called Life!

Having worked for a few schools in the past, I was aware of the paramount role a school plays in the initial nurturing of a child. While joining Chrysalis, I expected a similar school environment as in my past, but to my astonishment, things were incredibly better. While the academics here are indeed exceptional, even better is the focus on the character development of each child. Teachers know their Children really well, beyond just recalling the child’s name; all thanks to initiatives like PUPA. The teachers nurture children in a way that is not just caring and loving but also instills in them qualities like compassion, collaboration, empathy and many more from an early age. Children are also encouraged in a way that they constantly thrive to develop confidence in their own unique abilities.

Well, what we reap is what we sow; and not just the teachers but the whole team in Chrysalis believes in this fact. We work together tirelessly because we know we are nurturing kids to form a responsible and noble generation for the future!

Anjali E
Faculty, Chrysalis High Marq

I have been a student at Chrysalis High Marq for two school years and from what I have experienced, I can tell you it is a great school. The staff is excellent and the rules help keep the school safe and in order.

There is an equal balance of learning and reviewing the information. There are enrichment activity classes as well to where we have life skill and ink well sessions that help in the refinement and polishing of the mind. Chrysalis has initiated many activities for students. We have engrossing and fun-filled Indoor Champs, Performing Arts classes, Buddy interaction time etc. The teachers in Chrysalis are hardworking and determined . I am so proud and lucky to go to Chrysalis!

Sean Lennon
Grade VIII