Schools are preparing you for hospitals — not for life
- Madhukar Dama
- 22 hours ago
- 12 min read
Here’s how:
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1. Sedentary Routine
What school does: Makes you sit for 6–8 hours a day.
What it causes: Early back pain, obesity, poor posture, weak digestion.
Where it leads: Orthopedic clinics, physiotherapy centers, lifestyle disease wards.
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2. Compulsory Timetables
What school does: Ignores biological rhythms and forces fixed schedules.
What it causes: Disturbed sleep cycles, stress, irritability, hormonal imbalance.
Where it leads: Psychiatry, gynecology, and hormone clinics.
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3. Test-Based Worth
What school does: Ties your value to marks, ranks, medals.
What it causes: Performance anxiety, self-hate, depression.
Where it leads: Therapy rooms, anti-anxiety pills, and lifelong self-doubt.
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4. No Real-Life Skills
What school does: Teaches abstract theories, not how to grow food, handle money, fix a leak, or raise a child.
What it causes: Dependency, insecurity, helplessness in adulthood.
Where it leads: Chronic stress, marital conflict, financial strain — and psychiatric clinics.
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5. No Emotional Education
What school does: Punishes crying, avoids tough conversations, enforces silence.
What it causes: Suppression, repressed anger, inability to express or cope.
Where it leads: Psychosomatic disorders, ulcers, skin issues, addictions.
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6. Food Habits
What school does: Encourages lunchbox competition, sells junk in canteens, teaches nothing about nutrition.
What it causes: Sugar addiction, low fiber diet, gut issues.
Where it leads: Gastroenterology, endocrinology, and dental chairs.
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7. Obsession With Cleanliness
What school does: Promotes sanitizers, excessive hand-washing, sterilized living.
What it causes: Weak immunity, allergy development.
Where it leads: Pediatric clinics, allergy centers, and ENT specialists.
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8. Punishment-Based Discipline
What school does: Uses fear, shame, detention to control children.
What it causes: Nervous breakdowns, fear-based obedience, broken will.
Where it leads: Psychiatric dependence, burnout, lifelong emotional bleeding.
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9. No Touch, No Nature
What school does: Keeps you away from soil, trees, rivers, and real animals.
What it causes: Vitamin D deficiency, gut disconnection, emotional detachment.
Where it leads: Weak bones, autoimmune diseases, and spiritual numbness.
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10. Pushed Into Jobs, Not Joy
What school does: Trains you to obey orders, pass exams, and seek stable employment.
What it causes: Internal death, mechanical life, meaningless careers.
Where it leads: Midlife crises, escape fantasies, substance abuse.
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Conclusion:
Schools today rarely prepare you to live — they train you to survive within a system. But the cost of that survival is often your health. By the time you’re 30, you're on medication. By 50, you’ve had surgery. By 70, you're dependent.
And it all began with the school bell.
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HEALING DIALOGUE
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Why Are Our Children Getting Sicker Every Year?
Setting: A rural-urban fringe of Karnataka. The family sits under a neem tree outside a government hospital after yet another pediatric visit. The father, Rajanna (42), works in a factory. The mother, Latha (38), is a homemaker. Their three school-going children — Pooja (13, 8th grade), Arav (10, 5th grade), and Tanu (6, 1st grade) — are increasingly falling ill. They meet Madhukar, a barefoot healer, who sits with a pot of ragi malt.
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Rajanna:
We thought school is the best place for children to grow. But they’ve only become weaker.
Latha:
Cough, fever, constipation, vitamin deficiency, eye power, skin rashes, even anxiety… every year something new.
Madhukar (calmly):
Do you remember how your childhood was, Latha?
Latha:
Barefoot. Playing outside. No snacks. Climbing trees. We’d get sick once in a year — and recover by resting.
Madhukar:
What changed for your children?
Rajanna:
Everything. School starts early, homework till late, tuition after dinner… and weekends are screen time.
Madhukar:
Let’s open our eyes together. Tell me — when was the last time your children touched soil?
Latha:
Soil? That’s only during holidays in the village… once a year.
Madhukar:
Their immune system was built for soil, sun, sweat, and silence. You’ve replaced that with sanitizer, tubelight, AC, and noise.
Rajanna (defensive):
But we’re doing our best! Private school, health checkups, supplements…
Madhukar:
Your “best” is making them worse. Not because you are bad parents — but because you were lied to.
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Pooja (timidly):
I always feel tired. But I don’t want to miss school or fall behind.
Madhukar (to her):
You are not behind. You’re ahead of everyone — because you’re listening to your body.
Pooja:
But when I tell mummy I’m tired, she gives me Bournvita and sends me back.
Latha (guilt-ridden):
I thought it was good… that’s what the doctor said.
Madhukar:
Do you know what’s in it? Sugar, maltodextrin, synthetic vitamins, and addictive flavor. Not nourishment — stimulation.
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Arav:
My stomach always hurts in the morning. But I go to school anyway.
Madhukar:
Because fear has replaced intuition. Your gut is crying, and you silence it with duty.
Rajanna:
But we can’t just stop school!
Madhukar:
I didn’t say that. I’m asking you to wake up before it’s too late. Health first. Always. Or they will never reach adulthood in full strength.
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Latha:
What should we change, Madhukar?
Madhukar:
Let’s begin with ten deep changes. Not easy. But healing never is.
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TEN CHANGES THE FAMILY MUST MAKE (Madhukar's Guidance)
1. Wake with the sun, sleep with the moon
No screens after sunset. Let the body’s healing begin each night.
2. Walk barefoot in soil daily
30 minutes of earth touch builds immunity more than any capsule.
3. No packaged snacks, ever
Switch to soaked groundnuts, roasted chana, fresh fruits, boiled roots.
4. Unburden the timetable
Cut tuition, reduce homework, allow free time. A stressed brain can't learn.
5. Let children rest when sick
Don’t send them back to school with a Crocin. Rest is medicine.
6. One day a week with no screen, no books, only nature
Let their bodies repair. Learning can wait.
7. Morning sun exposure
Half an hour between 7–9 a.m. daily without sunscreen or glass.
8. Fiber-rich meals, no milk powders
Ragi porridge, sprouted moong, banana stem, coconut, greens.
9. Silence and breath before sleep
Three minutes of deep breathing, and no TV before bed.
10. Trust their bodies, not the syllabus
Observe their poop, skin, breath, moods — that’s the real report card.
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Latha (tearing up):
I feel ashamed. We forced them into this.
Madhukar (gently):
No shame. Only return. You were misled, not malicious.
Rajanna:
How long will it take to heal?
Madhukar:
For every year of damage, give it three months of full commitment. And remember — the goal isn’t marks. It’s vitality.
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Scene Ends
The children sip the ragi malt. For the first time, they are not rushed. Latha unties her saree's pallu and lays it on the ground. Rajanna takes off his shoes. The neem tree watches silently, as a sick family slowly learns how to live again.
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FOLLOW-UP SCENE: 3 MONTHS LATER
Setting: The same neem tree outside Madhukar’s hermitage. This time, the family arrives barefoot, holding baskets of homegrown vegetables. The children look radiant, slightly tanned, and more alert. Rajanna and Latha look calmer, more grounded. Even Seetamma and Appanna have joined in.
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Madhukar (smiling):
Ah, the sun has returned to your faces.
Latha (placing the basket down):
These are our first ridge gourds, drumsticks, bananas. From our tiny patch behind the house.
Madhukar:
Food from your own hands is worth more than a degree.
Rajanna (sitting cross-legged):
You were right. It wasn’t just food or school. It was everything. We were raising them like machines. Now… now we are learning to be human.
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CHILDREN’S TRANSFORMATION
Pooja (13):
No migraines for the last six weeks. I started writing poems again.
Madhukar:
The body always knew how to heal — it just needed space.
Arav (10):
My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore. I poop once a day now… properly!
Madhukar (grinning):
That’s a bigger milestone than 10th board results.
Tanu (6):
I like trees more than cartoons now!
Appanna (grandfather):
She even named a neem tree at home “Munni Bai” and talks to it daily.
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CHANGES THE FAMILY MADE (Reinforced)
Rajanna:
We reduced school to half-day. Spoke to the principal. Told them our health is not negotiable.
Latha:
No more Bournvita, no Horlicks, no white bread. Kids eat jackfruit seeds and boiled tubers.
Seetamma:
Even I stopped sugar. Started morning walks and sunbathing. My sugar levels have dropped — the doctor is confused.
Appanna:
I used to laugh at barefoot living. Now I walk to the temple without slippers and feel young again.
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Madhukar:
You have begun the journey back to yourselves. This is not a “result” — this is real education.
Latha (quietly):
We were so desperate to push them ahead… we never saw what we were leaving behind.
Madhukar:
That’s how sickness enters — when living becomes running.
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Pooja:
Can I skip school every Thursday? Just to stay in the garden?
Madhukar (nodding):
Let Thursday be your forest day. Learn from the roots, not the rows.
Arav:
And Saturday, can we help you here?
Madhukar:
Yes. Bring your notebooks. But this time, I’ll ask the questions.
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Madhukar’s Question to the Children:
What does your poop tell you each morning?
Did the sun touch your skin today?
Did you eat with your fingers?
Did you touch a leaf, barefoot?
Did you feel angry or tired, and what did you do about it?
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Scene closes
The children run into the field with Madhukar’s goats. Rajanna and Latha sit under the neem tree sipping warm ragi malt. No one is in a hurry. No one is in pain. The hospital hasn’t been visited in 3 months. And the school, finally, has lost its grip.
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FOLLOW-UP SCENE: 12 MONTHS LATER
Title: “You’re Ruining Their Future!”
Setting: Rajanna’s modest home on the edge of town. The garden is full of greens, banana trees, papaya, and turmeric. The family now eats mostly homegrown food. But today, they're tense. Relatives have arrived.
Characters added:
Murthy Uncle (58) – Rajanna’s elder brother, lives in Bengaluru, works in IT
Shalini Aunty (45) – Sumati’s cousin, private school teacher
Vikram (17) – Cousin preparing for NEET
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Murthy (loudly):
What nonsense is this, Rajanna? Skipping school? Planting bananas? Where will this take them?
Shalini:
You’re emotionally abusing them with your experiments. Don’t call it parenting. You’re anti-education.
Rajanna (calm):
We chose health over hustle. Our children are alive again. That’s not abuse.
Murthy:
Alive? Look at Vikram. 98% in boards. Sitting 14 hours a day. That’s success.
Vikram (deadpan):
I have insomnia, acidity, and hair fall.
Pooja (gently):
I write poems and plant flowers. I sleep well.
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Shalini (to Latha):
This won’t work in the real world. What about college? Job? Marriage?
Latha:
If a degree means broken bones and anxiety pills, we don’t want that world.
Murthy:
You’ve become rebels. Anti-system!
Rajanna:
We’re not against anything. We’re just finally for something — our children.
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(That night)
Pooja cries. Arav looks uncertain. Latha is shaken.
They visit Madhukar again the next day.
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Latha:
We were strong for 12 months. But now they’re planting doubt. Again.
Madhukar:
That’s how the system works. Not through law, but shame. It recruits family as its army.
Rajanna:
I felt it too. Am I being foolish?
Madhukar:
Foolishness is watching your child break and still calling it "normal." You are finally sane.
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Madhukar’s 5 Lessons for Year Two of Healing:
1. Prepare for backlash, not applause.
Healing exposes what others fear to confront.
2. Protect the home as sacred.
No one gets to plant shame inside your walls.
3. Document your joy and health.
So when the world screams “Failure,” you have proof of life.
4. Let children speak for themselves.
Their health and creativity will answer louder than any CV.
5. Know when to walk away.
Some relatives are not relatives. They are salesmen of fear.
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Pooja (to Madhukar):
Will we always be outsiders?
Madhukar:
Yes. But it’s better to be an outsider in a mad world than dead at the center of it.
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Final Scene:
Back at home, the family turns off their phones. Pooja writes. Arav learns to build a compost bin. Tanu paints the neem tree. Rajanna digs a new vegetable bed. Latha laughs for the first time in weeks. The door is closed to relatives — but open to butterflies.
They didn’t return to school.
They returned to life.
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FIVE YEARS LATER
Title: “The Children We Didn’t Lose”
Setting: A lush, food-abundant one-acre homestead on the edge of Bidar. The once-sick children are now teenagers — confident, grounded, and rooted in nature and self-worth. Madhukar visits unannounced, carrying some forest honey. He sits under the now-towering neem tree.
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Characters Now:
Pooja (18) – Grows native plants, writes and self-publishes her books
Arav (15) – Manages a small organic seedling business, mentors local kids
Tanu (11) – Wild, curious, builds bamboo toys and mud forts
Rajanna and Latha – Still off-grid, running a weekend learning circle for other families
Madhukar – Visitor, friend, mirror
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Madhukar (looking around):
I remember the first time you came — pale faces, worried voices. You were drowning in what you thought was life.
Latha (smiling):
Now people say we’re “different.” Strange. But they also say, “Your children are glowing.”
Rajanna:
We didn’t do anything special. We just stopped killing them softly — with expectations, deadlines, processed food, and pressure.
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Pooja (offering Madhukar a leaf-wrapped packet):
Millet laddus with jaggery and coconut. And this — my third poetry collection. It’s called “I Grew From Dirt.”
Madhukar:
You grew because of dirt. That’s what people don’t understand. Cleanliness is killing childhood.
Arav:
Our friends come here now to learn — not for marks. They say it feels like breathing again.
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TRANSFORMATION SNAPSHOT – FIVE YEARS LATER
1. Health:
Zero hospital visits in five years
Strong immunity, deep sleep, good digestion, real fitness
2. Learning:
All three children are autodidacts — they learn by doing, reading, asking
Pooja earns by writing and workshops
Arav runs a nursery and earns cash and goodwill
Tanu builds things from discarded material — her room is a museum of mud, twigs, feathers
3. Family Income:
Reduced expenses drastically
Sell produce, natural soap, pickles, and compost
Teach nature-based life skills on weekends
4. Community:
Other families now visit them — seeking help, inspiration, healing
Once-judging relatives now come quietly for turmeric tea and advice
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Madhukar:
What do you fear now?
Pooja:
Nothing. Except losing this connection with ourselves.
Madhukar:
Then you’ll never lose anything. Because real education isn’t about knowing more. It’s about needing less.
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Rajanna (with tears):
I almost lost my children to schools, to hospitals, to other people’s voices.
But this journey… this gave them back to me.
Madhukar:
No, Rajanna.
You gave yourself back to them.
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Closing Scene:
The camera pans out: The neem tree is full-grown. The children run through the garden barefoot. The family shares a meal with their neighbors. There are no exams, no medals, no prescriptions — only life, raw and real.
The family didn’t produce toppers.
They produced free people.
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“WE ENROLLED THEM IN SCHOOL, AND THEY NEVER CAME BACK WHOLE”
they said:
admission open. bright future awaits.
so we polished their shoes, packed their boxes,
and handed over our children
to fluorescent-lit slaughterhouses.
they came back home with
silent tears,
tight jaws,
and bags heavier than their spines.
they learned how to raise hands for permission
to piss.
they learned that curiosity
had no marks.
they learned that hunger was scheduled,
that failure was personal,
and that joy
was not part of the syllabus.
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they unlearned
sunlight,
mud,
worms,
waiting,
trees,
daydreams,
and mother’s lap.
they memorised diagrams of flowers
without ever touching one.
they drew food pyramids
while eating chips.
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their skin dried.
their stomach bloated.
their eyes strained.
their shoulders slumped.
they laughed less.
they slept worse.
they forgot how to breathe from the belly.
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we called it discipline.
we told them:
study now, live later.
and they believed us.
and later came
in the form of
migraines at 13,
PCOD at 15,
anxiety pills at 17,
and back pain by 22.
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we gave them everything.
except time.
except space.
except silence.
except trust.
we gave them careers.
but not bodies that could carry them.
we gave them competition.
but not digestion.
we gave them tuition.
but not touch.
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we scolded them for being lazy
as they dragged their tired bones
through concrete corridors of
progress.
we called them ungrateful
when they cried without words.
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but one day,
they stood still.
no longer willing to vomit their soul
into exam sheets.
they looked us in the eye and said:
no more.
and we cried.
not because they disobeyed.
but because we remembered
the children we used to be.
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so we left the syllabus.
we left the queue.
we left the shame
packaged as pride.
we dug the soil.
we boiled roots.
we watched their eyes
return to softness.
we watched our house
become a home
again.
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relatives said we were ruining them.
school said we were mad.
the world said we were irresponsible.
but for the first time
in decades,
our children
were not sick.
and no one
could explain that.
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they never got awards.
but they slept without fear.
they never got ranks.
but they had rhythm in their blood.
they never got degrees.
but they had dignity in their silence.
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and when people ask
what did your children become?
we say:
they became human.
finally.
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