Grandparents’ Day celebrations @ GKD
GKD Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Periyanaickenpalayam, Coimbatore, celebrating Grandparents’ Day.It was a day out for the grandparents of the students of the GKD Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Periyanaickenpalayam.They went around the school, played games, danced, sang and made the best use of the opportunity to visit their grandchildren at school. For children who have not had the fortune of growing up with grandparents, the “Grandparents’ Day” celebrated by the school might have been a different experience altogether. “Among today’s children, respect for grandparents is diminishing or they don’t express it,” says Prasanna Radhakrishnan, principal of the school.The special day for grandparents was organised to make children aware of the importance of grandparents and the need to keep them happy. It was also an opportunity to introduce some sort of a change to the elders’ lifestyle.
Out of the 1,700 students, more than 550 of them in the school were living in joint families. “It is not enough if they love their grandparents. Children should express it too. Talk to them and let them be involved in their affairs,” Ms. Prasanna says. The grandparents were asked to share their experiences with the audience too. “The response from them was overwhelming. Some of them were overcome with emotion,” Ms. Prasanna adds.Apart from games and entertainment programmes, a health check-up was organised for them. A team of six doctors attended to all the 500 grandparents who visited the school. A session on health tips discussed health problems common to old age.
Questions regarding dietary patterns, exercises and medical tips were answered by the doctors. A quiz based on the session by the medical experts followed to test how much the elders had grasped.The school had carried out a project on ‘Love for Aged People,’ a couple of years ago during which students were taken to old age homes where they spent a whole day.The inmates of old age homes were taken to the school too where special programmes were organised for them.Apart from making children aware of the need to give respect to elders, it is a gesture of goodwill on the part of the school to honour the children’s grandparents. Value education is as important as academic progress as far as children are concerned. The school will continue to impart it to them, Ms. Prasanna says.
