My five-year-old goes to an international school in Gurgaon. Why did we choose it over CBSE/ICSE? Well, I can give a well-rehearsed five-minute monologue to proselytise CBSE simpletons. But in reality, I just followed what the most accomplished guy on my social radar did. They sent their kid to an IB (International Baccalaureate) school, and so did I.

As a parent, you will always look to other parents for clues in decision-making, excluding your own — old folks who are forever plotting for you to have the (n 1)th kid.

Schools have always been a class-marker in India. Earlier, it was the famous boarding schools that parents boasted about — Doon, Mayo, Lawrence Sanawar, etc. But, once law & order improved and kidnappings for ransom fell to a tolerable count, the rich began sending their kids to day schools. Now, they need a new class marker. So, they learnt a new word: pedagogy.

Pedagogy is the method of effective teaching and learning — and is also used to justify a school fee that makes you download a Chinese loan app. Parents frequently compare it to their college fees — imagine paying the same amount of money to........

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