THE
SCHOOL EDUCATION
Sampath Kumar Thulasi
THE PREAMBLE
School Education needs to be child-centric.
The gigantic and monumental structure of education and each of its detail – brick by brick and element by element – need to be child-centric.
There cannot be, conceptually speaking, any compromise on this. It is absolute. It is indivisible. It is and shall remain unquestionable. In one word it is the finale. What is left out for consideration is how to mend us to suit to this conviction.
This becomes the first tenet.
Then, one has to believe at heart that every child is talented. If a child is ‘not found to be talented’ at a given moment one has to immediately reason that this deficiency is not generic; that this whatever inability identified was caused to it by the elders who handled it prior to that moment. Then, hence, immediately has to search to identify the talent. The talent that we stated above as invariably present is to be identified. It may be in any form and in any field of the world around. What is needed is to appreciate the child for having it, encourage it further to improve it. After having responded in this way the talent may be evaluated. Its relevance and importance must be compared with the popular forms and fields. Then design a specific plan for the smooth transformation of the available talent into the forms and fields that are understood as more important as the child grows, if necessary. A talent in any form and in any field can be propagated into other forms and fields.
This becomes the second tenet.
We call these two tenets in our conviction the child-centric approach.
THE LOVE AND RESPECT FOR THE CHILD.
“LOVE” – FOR CHILD’S FUTURE.
“RESPECT” – AS A CONFIDENCE IN CHILD’S STRENGTHS.
THE DIALECTIC ENTITY OF LEARNING PROCESS
Only when we adopt this approach – the child-centric approach – our understanding of education begins to be scientific. Otherwise, it can never be scientific. Once we adopt this approach it gives us the basic qualifications to formulate the strategy for education; or, to understand any such strategy, if already exists. The whole of education can be encased into one single statement that the process of learning is the dialectic entity of assimilation and expression. As part of assimilation the knowledge to which one is exposed is learnt, understood and synthesized. As part of expression the knowledge assimilated is expressed in the same way it existed while learning. Or, the expression can be synthetic expression. We will leave it here. We will start considering education in the prevailing popular way. Then, at the end, we would, however, get back to this statement of dialectic entity.
[ * In this article the words assimilation and acquisition are used interchangeably. Further 1. assimilativeness and 2. expressiveness are also used though they are not in the dictionary. Their meaning is apparent – they are ability to 1. assimilate and 2. express ]
THE WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED ELEMENTS OF EDUCATION
Education consists of
1. Physical surroundings,
2. Materials and instruments as educational aids,
3. The syllabus and course structure,
4. The topic chosen at a given moment,
5. The personnel and their organization,
6. The behaviors of the elders around at various moments,
7. The teacher,
8. The emotional involvement of the teacher with the child – even more than with the topic of the day,
9. The scope of availability of the teacher to an individual child, etc.
10. The Evaluation.
All components as components to be identified and named are O. K. The important point is that each of these should be planned and provided to give complete mental and physical comfort for the child.
THE MOTHERLY RELATIONSHIP
The string of human relationship between the teacher and taught is of crucial importance. Younger the child stronger is its influence. This, quite often, in its importance, overtakes the mass of knowledge planned to be imparted to the child.
Love and affection are the sole links in the conveyance of knowledge and wisdom from the teacher to the child.
The mind of the child opens up only when it is knocked with love and affection. When the child doesn’t perceive or feel this love and affection its mind gets closed. This forms the first lesson in child psychology.
Younger the child tender is it and lesser are the sub-states (semi-opened and semi-closed states) of child’s mind. Either it is completely open or completely shut.
The state of any child’s mind is originally open. That is generic, intrinsic and natural state for the child. It is the elders who force and thus in course teach to shut their mind. Just, just recall the image of a child with a completely open mind. How lovely, serene, shining, blushingly live and divine is it!! Shall we not curse ourselves every time when we, by our actions and also inactions, force a shut of the child’s mind and be a villain in the life of the child at that moment?
The relationship doesn’t depend just upon that moment’s attitude of the elder who is regularly associated with the child. Children exhibit a high amount of tolerance towards the elders. It is difficult to understand, in this present scope, as to where from the children acquired this tremendous strength. Is it, perhaps, because they have already become aware that they need the elderly hand to sail across the world – all around the bloody elder dominated world? So, whatever be it, what is to be underlined is that it is not the child which dissolves or severs its relationship with the elder / elders who are regularly associated with it.
The child does not know the varieties and flavors of relationships witnessed among the adult world. It knows only one relationship –
The Motherly Relationship
Or
No Relationship.
An elder who does not offer a motherly relationship is a stranger for the child. Not just a stranger but an alien too. Such an elder frequenting around the child is a great harassment for it. He or she is a devil in the view of the child. Also, in its net effect on the child’s life too they truly played a devil’s role and are perfect devils.
Many programs ‘drive’ the children towards the school and inside the classroom and the very classroom that contains the class room teacher also drives the children away. A funny game the government plays. The government does not have a positive planning except the negative planning. Make the school and classroom kind, affectionate and interesting. Make it just affectionate just like the laps of the mother. That is enough. That solves the problem. Why such big programs causing lot of disturbance to all, than generating any interest? Why to repeat them so often? Isn’t it ridiculous? It is a show. Government wants to make a show. Once the classroom is affectionate and interesting no child is away from it. Hence, government can’t have a showy program. The point to learn is that Children run away from intolerable relationships. They can’t just coup up with or withstand the passive and coercive environs and fellows. Wherever they feel so they run away from it to dash into the laps of either the mother at home or the mother nature. Understand the need and mood of the child. Address the need. Allow it to express itself and perform. Appreciate its performance. Making school and classroom interesting would be dealt in more detail in a later section. For now we would stick to the component of love and affection.
So, Mr. / Ms. Elder, why, why on the earth, when you can’t offer a motherly relationship for our child, do you frequent around our child? Please get away. Don’t be seen in the vicinity of the child. Lest, for sure, our child has to run away from those ‘vicinities’ where it is supposed to be for its intellectual nourishment. Won’t you too yearn for the same for your child? So, change. Convert. Take baptism of love for all children. Else, please get away from the ‘vicinities’ of our children. We cannot tolerate the diminishing of our children’s vicinities or any infringement on them.
THE TWO BASIC TYPES OF LEARNING
There are two basics types of learning in our lives. One is GUIDED LEARNING. The other is SELF LEARNING.
GUIDED LEARNING: The guided learning is the process of learning prescribed and attended or monitored by the teacher or the school. It can be a classroom discourse or an activity in the classroom or an assignment or a project to be done at home or such other.
SELF LEARNING: In self learning one chooses the subject for oneself, defines the dimensions of width and depth of it, identifies the sources of knowledge in that field and plans the whole by oneself.
Self-learning is not the theme we intend to explore here. Its domains are totally different. But, we can state one thing of self-learning here. It is: the guided learning should enable the taught to embark upon the great expedition of self-learning.
The concern of this essay is GUIDED LEARNING. An attempt is carried out to elaborate more on this below.
GUIDED LEARNING is practiced through the formal instruction. In case of children this is the most popularly known schooling.
The schooling proceeds through various levels with annual quantum of knowledge. For every year the syllabus is prescribed. The appropriate age is also defined. Periodic stages that are broader than a year are also indicated in the process. A healthy tradition also is seen, though not clear and potential and understood by only a few, in defining the respective intellectual strengths of the child at the end of each of these stages. Notwithstanding any of the above stated good practices we observe the striking absence of a very crucial aspect. It is the end goals of the very formal education. These end goals are nowhere defined. If there existed such defined end goals they would be taken care of throughout the process of schooling right from the pre-primary to higher secondary. Consequently, at various stages of the evolution of the child in the process of schooling the relevant amount of attitudes, skills and talents for self-learning would have accrued.
THE END GOAL OF ALL FORMAL INSTRUCTION
The end goal of all formal education should be to impart the best general techniques and subject specific techniques of assimilation and expression. As, such goals are not defined the contribution of the formal instruction has so far been not sharp enough. Whatever of the above stated end goal is acquired by the children is only incidental than planned. The result is a colossal loss of first of all cultivating the spirit of continued learning and then the handicap of deficiency of knowledge of learning techniques and the lack of an independent mastery over them.
Let us consider a commonly seen truth around us. All educated are the offshoots of the formal education. Vast majority of them end up with a dislike for learning. Few get vexed with further learning. Few others feel that they reached the end of learning. Few others not find themselves fit for further learning, etc. This fact cannot be explained otherwise than as the mere failure of formal education. The guided learning is expected to play the role of a launching pad for continued learning – the self-learning. So, it should not be annoying if it is once again repeated that the end goal of all formal education should be to impart the best general techniques and subject specific techniques of assimilation and expression.
SYLLABUS IS ONLY A TOOL AND NOT AN END IN ITSELF
But what we observe, to our distress, is that merely the syllabus is becoming the end. The proper thing about the syllabus in relation to the stupendous goal set for formal instruction is that it – the syllabus – is merely a tool. The normal prescribed syllabus denotes various amounts of knowledge for every year at various levels is only a medium through which the core strengths are to be imparted. But what is happening even on this issue, again to our dismay, is that the core strengths related to the specific field of science or technology and also the core strengths related to the world of natural and social sciences and technologies are seldom defined in the syllabus plans of the education departments.
MODES OF LEARNING
– ALL TO MAKE TEACHING AND LEARNING JUST AND SIMPLY INTERESTING
Having identified the crucial role of the formal instruction – the guided learning part – of the lives of each child it is worth delving more into the modes of teaching and learning.
Mind learns only when it is open. After love and affection it is only the interesting things that knock the doors of the mind to open further and unleash all the innate strengths for assimilation.
Learning has its second great reliance on physiology of human body and hence of child body also. Be it a directly monitored learning or a remotely monitored learning – its physiological process is quite important to be noted in the programs of formal training and instruction.
The human physiology, in relation to learning, has a unique system. It is the sensory system and the brain. The five senses – the hearing, the seeing, the tasting, the smelling and the touching organs act as the agents between the external world and the brain linked to the five organs. There are studies which are unanimous in their assessment that only 25% of what is heard is retained, only 50% of what is seen is retained and 70% to 90% of what is done is retained. This settled observation should greatly influence in reshaping every session – even every moment – of guided learning.
Hearing can be made interesting. Seeing can be made more interesting. Doing can be made more and more interesting. Hearing, Seeing and Doing – all three can be blended. Or, two of them can be blended. Interactive approaches ensure the participation of the child in the process and thus generate more interest on the things going on.
The sprouts of all the techniques of interesting teaching have shot up from the hearts of loving and affectionate teachers only. If unkind fellows are identified as the originators it is only the later part of the truth. May be, careerism was their concern and they stole it from the real hands. They might have brought in sophistication and rendered such sprouts with academic populist scent.
It is to once again stress the absolutely important role of love and affection. Those with love and affection make things really interesting even though they are not properly equipped with techniques of generating interest. They would contemplate and meditate to generate few that fit to the scenario. May be, for a while, they lag behind those equipped with some advanced techniques but lack love and affection. What needs to be underlined is that those who have love and affection only can create new interesting techniques and also can really appreciate such preexisting techniques. They only can rightly adopt these techniques in the best suitable way to their specific scenario. They are the people who are unhesitatingly prepared to submit themselves and their bodies to be tools and teaching aids in the process of learning. They are the people who have long forgotten inhibitions and egos for the better training of their students.
Whereas the unkind but equipped fellows would only copy and when it doesn’t work well with few of the children – which happens often – and also with the whole class they blame the children. Not only that these copyists can add no new technique but also that they are incapable of adjusting a technique known to them to suit to the specific scenario in which they and the children are.
If those who have love and affection are made aware of the fact that this oldest and massive tree of education already has plenty of such techniques as its flowers, they would with all their passion, violently rock the tree to make the flowers to fall down and pass on their aromas to their students. If one has both – the love and affection and the technique – nothing else is great. In this course, a blend of curricular and curricular activities that would make the school the most loving heavenly place for the child would thus definitely emerge.
INSTRUCTION IN CHILD’S TONGUE
It may sound funny. But it is appropriate. Why because, no fool on the earth can argue to communicate the child in a language that is not the tongue of the child, i.e. a language unfamiliar and foreign to the child. A child may have more than one ‘Tongue’. Or, Sometimes, not commonly, in transformed cultures, it may be different from mother’s tongue. The Child’s Tongue is, in vast majority of the cases, the mother tongue. At other times it may be the official. At other times it may be totally foreign.
So Child’s Tongue or one of the Tongues of the Child is the Tongue in which the instruction should be handled. By and large, as noted above, it is the mother tongue. But, the elders may feel that the child’s present tongue in a specific context is not the helpful and powerful medium of learning and more so for communication in the immediately later part of the child’s life. This in fact is what is funny. It is a disgraceful situation for the dominant generation of such society. Anyway, the analysis of such disgraceful situation(s), it’s being just or unjust, the need to change it or bow the heads before it, etc. are not within the scope of this article.
PROGRAM OF ‘TRANSLATORY-COURSE’: For any such reasons and in any such cases if the elders have decided a specific language with its specific flavour, different from the Tongues of the Child, to be the medium of instruction to the child the following program is needed invariably. It is a ‘TRANSLATORY-COURSE’ on language before anything new knowledge of the world around is imparted to the child in the chosen medium.
Even minor variations of the child’s language from the chosen medium of instruction should not be ignored. The differences arising out of local dialect or even slang, etc. need serious considerations to familiarize the child before the instruction on any topic other than this is introduced. In this context our attention is to be drawn to the cooperative relationship of language and subject. Further these dual forces of the entity of cooperation are enveloped in the attribute of thinking. They take their origin in thinking and terminate in thinking to originate again. The following diagram would give a graphic view of this relationship.
Fig: The cyclic relationship of language – subject – thinking.
It is for the elders – the forces in power, the departments of education and the ‘stalwarts’ in the field of education – to choose the medium of instruction from the point of view of overall advantage to the socio-economic growth. May be, the elders are free in this. If it is so even that freedom is limited to this aspect alone. But they are not free from the process stated above once they choose any language as the medium of instruction even if it is at minor variance with the Child’s Tongue(s). So, the ‘TRANSLATORY-COURSE’ is mandatory in case of variation. The duration of its exclusive prevalence and supplementary prevalence are decided by the intensity of variation, age of the child and involvement time of the child in its basic society – the family and the community.
All the talk of spoken (vyavaharika) language, three-language formula, is absolutely rubbish. Till date educational departments and the academicians have not clearly laid down the language issue. What is the role of medium of instruction? What is the need of link language and when and how it is to be taught? What is the need of learning dominant language of the ‘job market’ and what aspects and how much of them and when and how they are to be taught? How and why should our children be cruelly burdened with 3-language formula? All these questions are vaguely answered. Firstly, there is lot of casual attitude. Then, too many of careerist fussy trends without any pith and substance are circulated. Then, many inhibitions are becoming the constraint for a clinching dialogue and the deduction of a fitting program in general and in various specific contexts.
VICTORY OF ENGLISH AND THE INESCAPABLE NEED TO LEARN IT:
“LOVE” – FOR CHILD’S FUTURE.
“RESPECT” – AS A CONFIDENCE IN CHILD’S STRENGTHS.
THE DIALECTIC ENTITY OF LEARNING PROCESS
Only when we adopt this approach – the child-centric approach – our understanding of education begins to be scientific. Otherwise, it can never be scientific. Once we adopt this approach it gives us the basic qualifications to formulate the strategy for education; or, to understand any such strategy, if already exists. The whole of education can be encased into one single statement that the process of learning is the dialectic entity of assimilation and expression. As part of assimilation the knowledge to which one is exposed is learnt, understood and synthesized. As part of expression the knowledge assimilated is expressed in the same way it existed while learning. Or, the expression can be synthetic expression. We will leave it here. We will start considering education in the prevailing popular way. Then, at the end, we would, however, get back to this statement of dialectic entity.
[ * In this article the words assimilation and acquisition are used interchangeably. Further 1. assimilativeness and 2. expressiveness are also used though they are not in the dictionary. Their meaning is apparent – they are ability to 1. assimilate and 2. express ]
THE WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED ELEMENTS OF EDUCATION
Education consists of
1. Physical surroundings,
2. Materials and instruments as educational aids,
3. The syllabus and course structure,
4. The topic chosen at a given moment,
5. The personnel and their organization,
6. The behaviors of the elders around at various moments,
7. The teacher,
8. The emotional involvement of the teacher with the child – even more than with the topic of the day,
9. The scope of availability of the teacher to an individual child, etc.
10. The Evaluation.
All components as components to be identified and named are O. K. The important point is that each of these should be planned and provided to give complete mental and physical comfort for the child.
THE MOTHERLY RELATIONSHIP
The string of human relationship between the teacher and taught is of crucial importance. Younger the child stronger is its influence. This, quite often, in its importance, overtakes the mass of knowledge planned to be imparted to the child.
Love and affection are the sole links in the conveyance of knowledge and wisdom from the teacher to the child.
The mind of the child opens up only when it is knocked with love and affection. When the child doesn’t perceive or feel this love and affection its mind gets closed. This forms the first lesson in child psychology.
Younger the child tender is it and lesser are the sub-states (semi-opened and semi-closed states) of child’s mind. Either it is completely open or completely shut.
The state of any child’s mind is originally open. That is generic, intrinsic and natural state for the child. It is the elders who force and thus in course teach to shut their mind. Just, just recall the image of a child with a completely open mind. How lovely, serene, shining, blushingly live and divine is it!! Shall we not curse ourselves every time when we, by our actions and also inactions, force a shut of the child’s mind and be a villain in the life of the child at that moment?
The relationship doesn’t depend just upon that moment’s attitude of the elder who is regularly associated with the child. Children exhibit a high amount of tolerance towards the elders. It is difficult to understand, in this present scope, as to where from the children acquired this tremendous strength. Is it, perhaps, because they have already become aware that they need the elderly hand to sail across the world – all around the bloody elder dominated world? So, whatever be it, what is to be underlined is that it is not the child which dissolves or severs its relationship with the elder / elders who are regularly associated with it.
The child does not know the varieties and flavors of relationships witnessed among the adult world. It knows only one relationship –
The Motherly Relationship
Or
No Relationship.
An elder who does not offer a motherly relationship is a stranger for the child. Not just a stranger but an alien too. Such an elder frequenting around the child is a great harassment for it. He or she is a devil in the view of the child. Also, in its net effect on the child’s life too they truly played a devil’s role and are perfect devils.
Many programs ‘drive’ the children towards the school and inside the classroom and the very classroom that contains the class room teacher also drives the children away. A funny game the government plays. The government does not have a positive planning except the negative planning. Make the school and classroom kind, affectionate and interesting. Make it just affectionate just like the laps of the mother. That is enough. That solves the problem. Why such big programs causing lot of disturbance to all, than generating any interest? Why to repeat them so often? Isn’t it ridiculous? It is a show. Government wants to make a show. Once the classroom is affectionate and interesting no child is away from it. Hence, government can’t have a showy program. The point to learn is that Children run away from intolerable relationships. They can’t just coup up with or withstand the passive and coercive environs and fellows. Wherever they feel so they run away from it to dash into the laps of either the mother at home or the mother nature. Understand the need and mood of the child. Address the need. Allow it to express itself and perform. Appreciate its performance. Making school and classroom interesting would be dealt in more detail in a later section. For now we would stick to the component of love and affection.
So, Mr. / Ms. Elder, why, why on the earth, when you can’t offer a motherly relationship for our child, do you frequent around our child? Please get away. Don’t be seen in the vicinity of the child. Lest, for sure, our child has to run away from those ‘vicinities’ where it is supposed to be for its intellectual nourishment. Won’t you too yearn for the same for your child? So, change. Convert. Take baptism of love for all children. Else, please get away from the ‘vicinities’ of our children. We cannot tolerate the diminishing of our children’s vicinities or any infringement on them.
THE TWO BASIC TYPES OF LEARNING
There are two basics types of learning in our lives. One is GUIDED LEARNING. The other is SELF LEARNING.
GUIDED LEARNING: The guided learning is the process of learning prescribed and attended or monitored by the teacher or the school. It can be a classroom discourse or an activity in the classroom or an assignment or a project to be done at home or such other.
SELF LEARNING: In self learning one chooses the subject for oneself, defines the dimensions of width and depth of it, identifies the sources of knowledge in that field and plans the whole by oneself.
Self-learning is not the theme we intend to explore here. Its domains are totally different. But, we can state one thing of self-learning here. It is: the guided learning should enable the taught to embark upon the great expedition of self-learning.
The concern of this essay is GUIDED LEARNING. An attempt is carried out to elaborate more on this below.
GUIDED LEARNING is practiced through the formal instruction. In case of children this is the most popularly known schooling.
The schooling proceeds through various levels with annual quantum of knowledge. For every year the syllabus is prescribed. The appropriate age is also defined. Periodic stages that are broader than a year are also indicated in the process. A healthy tradition also is seen, though not clear and potential and understood by only a few, in defining the respective intellectual strengths of the child at the end of each of these stages. Notwithstanding any of the above stated good practices we observe the striking absence of a very crucial aspect. It is the end goals of the very formal education. These end goals are nowhere defined. If there existed such defined end goals they would be taken care of throughout the process of schooling right from the pre-primary to higher secondary. Consequently, at various stages of the evolution of the child in the process of schooling the relevant amount of attitudes, skills and talents for self-learning would have accrued.
THE END GOAL OF ALL FORMAL INSTRUCTION
The end goal of all formal education should be to impart the best general techniques and subject specific techniques of assimilation and expression. As, such goals are not defined the contribution of the formal instruction has so far been not sharp enough. Whatever of the above stated end goal is acquired by the children is only incidental than planned. The result is a colossal loss of first of all cultivating the spirit of continued learning and then the handicap of deficiency of knowledge of learning techniques and the lack of an independent mastery over them.
Let us consider a commonly seen truth around us. All educated are the offshoots of the formal education. Vast majority of them end up with a dislike for learning. Few get vexed with further learning. Few others feel that they reached the end of learning. Few others not find themselves fit for further learning, etc. This fact cannot be explained otherwise than as the mere failure of formal education. The guided learning is expected to play the role of a launching pad for continued learning – the self-learning. So, it should not be annoying if it is once again repeated that the end goal of all formal education should be to impart the best general techniques and subject specific techniques of assimilation and expression.
SYLLABUS IS ONLY A TOOL AND NOT AN END IN ITSELF
But what we observe, to our distress, is that merely the syllabus is becoming the end. The proper thing about the syllabus in relation to the stupendous goal set for formal instruction is that it – the syllabus – is merely a tool. The normal prescribed syllabus denotes various amounts of knowledge for every year at various levels is only a medium through which the core strengths are to be imparted. But what is happening even on this issue, again to our dismay, is that the core strengths related to the specific field of science or technology and also the core strengths related to the world of natural and social sciences and technologies are seldom defined in the syllabus plans of the education departments.
MODES OF LEARNING
– ALL TO MAKE TEACHING AND LEARNING JUST AND SIMPLY INTERESTING
Having identified the crucial role of the formal instruction – the guided learning part – of the lives of each child it is worth delving more into the modes of teaching and learning.
Mind learns only when it is open. After love and affection it is only the interesting things that knock the doors of the mind to open further and unleash all the innate strengths for assimilation.
Learning has its second great reliance on physiology of human body and hence of child body also. Be it a directly monitored learning or a remotely monitored learning – its physiological process is quite important to be noted in the programs of formal training and instruction.
The human physiology, in relation to learning, has a unique system. It is the sensory system and the brain. The five senses – the hearing, the seeing, the tasting, the smelling and the touching organs act as the agents between the external world and the brain linked to the five organs. There are studies which are unanimous in their assessment that only 25% of what is heard is retained, only 50% of what is seen is retained and 70% to 90% of what is done is retained. This settled observation should greatly influence in reshaping every session – even every moment – of guided learning.
Hearing can be made interesting. Seeing can be made more interesting. Doing can be made more and more interesting. Hearing, Seeing and Doing – all three can be blended. Or, two of them can be blended. Interactive approaches ensure the participation of the child in the process and thus generate more interest on the things going on.
The sprouts of all the techniques of interesting teaching have shot up from the hearts of loving and affectionate teachers only. If unkind fellows are identified as the originators it is only the later part of the truth. May be, careerism was their concern and they stole it from the real hands. They might have brought in sophistication and rendered such sprouts with academic populist scent.
It is to once again stress the absolutely important role of love and affection. Those with love and affection make things really interesting even though they are not properly equipped with techniques of generating interest. They would contemplate and meditate to generate few that fit to the scenario. May be, for a while, they lag behind those equipped with some advanced techniques but lack love and affection. What needs to be underlined is that those who have love and affection only can create new interesting techniques and also can really appreciate such preexisting techniques. They only can rightly adopt these techniques in the best suitable way to their specific scenario. They are the people who are unhesitatingly prepared to submit themselves and their bodies to be tools and teaching aids in the process of learning. They are the people who have long forgotten inhibitions and egos for the better training of their students.
Whereas the unkind but equipped fellows would only copy and when it doesn’t work well with few of the children – which happens often – and also with the whole class they blame the children. Not only that these copyists can add no new technique but also that they are incapable of adjusting a technique known to them to suit to the specific scenario in which they and the children are.
If those who have love and affection are made aware of the fact that this oldest and massive tree of education already has plenty of such techniques as its flowers, they would with all their passion, violently rock the tree to make the flowers to fall down and pass on their aromas to their students. If one has both – the love and affection and the technique – nothing else is great. In this course, a blend of curricular and curricular activities that would make the school the most loving heavenly place for the child would thus definitely emerge.
INSTRUCTION IN CHILD’S TONGUE
It may sound funny. But it is appropriate. Why because, no fool on the earth can argue to communicate the child in a language that is not the tongue of the child, i.e. a language unfamiliar and foreign to the child. A child may have more than one ‘Tongue’. Or, Sometimes, not commonly, in transformed cultures, it may be different from mother’s tongue. The Child’s Tongue is, in vast majority of the cases, the mother tongue. At other times it may be the official. At other times it may be totally foreign.
So Child’s Tongue or one of the Tongues of the Child is the Tongue in which the instruction should be handled. By and large, as noted above, it is the mother tongue. But, the elders may feel that the child’s present tongue in a specific context is not the helpful and powerful medium of learning and more so for communication in the immediately later part of the child’s life. This in fact is what is funny. It is a disgraceful situation for the dominant generation of such society. Anyway, the analysis of such disgraceful situation(s), it’s being just or unjust, the need to change it or bow the heads before it, etc. are not within the scope of this article.
PROGRAM OF ‘TRANSLATORY-COURSE’: For any such reasons and in any such cases if the elders have decided a specific language with its specific flavour, different from the Tongues of the Child, to be the medium of instruction to the child the following program is needed invariably. It is a ‘TRANSLATORY-COURSE’ on language before anything new knowledge of the world around is imparted to the child in the chosen medium.
Even minor variations of the child’s language from the chosen medium of instruction should not be ignored. The differences arising out of local dialect or even slang, etc. need serious considerations to familiarize the child before the instruction on any topic other than this is introduced. In this context our attention is to be drawn to the cooperative relationship of language and subject. Further these dual forces of the entity of cooperation are enveloped in the attribute of thinking. They take their origin in thinking and terminate in thinking to originate again. The following diagram would give a graphic view of this relationship.
Fig: The cyclic relationship of language – subject – thinking.
It is for the elders – the forces in power, the departments of education and the ‘stalwarts’ in the field of education – to choose the medium of instruction from the point of view of overall advantage to the socio-economic growth. May be, the elders are free in this. If it is so even that freedom is limited to this aspect alone. But they are not free from the process stated above once they choose any language as the medium of instruction even if it is at minor variance with the Child’s Tongue(s). So, the ‘TRANSLATORY-COURSE’ is mandatory in case of variation. The duration of its exclusive prevalence and supplementary prevalence are decided by the intensity of variation, age of the child and involvement time of the child in its basic society – the family and the community.
All the talk of spoken (vyavaharika) language, three-language formula, is absolutely rubbish. Till date educational departments and the academicians have not clearly laid down the language issue. What is the role of medium of instruction? What is the need of link language and when and how it is to be taught? What is the need of learning dominant language of the ‘job market’ and what aspects and how much of them and when and how they are to be taught? How and why should our children be cruelly burdened with 3-language formula? All these questions are vaguely answered. Firstly, there is lot of casual attitude. Then, too many of careerist fussy trends without any pith and substance are circulated. Then, many inhibitions are becoming the constraint for a clinching dialogue and the deduction of a fitting program in general and in various specific contexts.
VICTORY OF ENGLISH AND THE INESCAPABLE NEED TO LEARN IT:
With a great pain one has to acknowledge the eventual victory of English in this era. This victory also does not appear to be a short lived one in relation to the career-shaping span of an individual life of a young person. So any discussion on the righteousness of this victory, who allowed it, why was it allowed, who is the betrayer, its sustainability period from the point of view of the eventual social changes that are quite opposite to this victory, etc. are the issues of the platforms and debates on fundamental social changes in the respective nations and around the globe. What we have as an alternative, within the scope of this article, is just to think of the ways of making oneself to fit into this ‘post-victory’ period.
One thing has become clear that any educated has to learn English. Learning English may not necessarily lead to soar its dominance – by making oneself a sailor along with the trend in the ‘mission’ of a better career for the self. It may be aimed at a different mission – destructing its dominance right from the roots. For either of the missions learning English has become a must. In this present state of the social transformation it would be a very crooked act to influence, either directly or indirectly, against this need. More than that, serious efforts must be carried out to introduce easiest ways of learning English. Such efforts should begin, first of all, with a basic definition of the extent of English to be learnt. The most important of the key principles to be followed is: No new point of knowledge should be clubbed with English teaching. Already thoroughly known, highly familiar and the easiest should form the contents or topics in the course of learning English. While learning English all care must be taken that the child – more particularly the rural child – is not learning anything new except the next lesson in English.
BASIS FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTION
What is the basis for further learning? Take the standard of knowledge level of the child as the basis for further learning. Hence, that alone is the basis for further instruction. The standard as per attendance rolls should be only an indicator to work out a special plan rather than the next immediate topic of instruction for the child.
We observe in the academics of school education a very wrong tendency deviating much from this. It is going on unchecked and uncorrected.
The wrong tendency is an utter lack of consideration for the subject standard of each individual child or a small group of children or the majority of the children or all the children of a classroom. The concern of the school has become only to pour down the syllabus of the standard as per the rolls. This is a result of foolishness. If not so, it is a result originating from seriously distracted concerns. Or, it is a result of acute resource crunch. Or, it is a result of absolute apathy for the future of the child – a cruel trait that cannot be corrected except by elimination of those cruel fellows.
Teach the topics not mechanically on the basis of the standard of rolls in which the child is at present. Teach on the basis of the standard of knowledge and mind in which the child is at present. For this let rolls be the rolls. But, regroup the children and conduct the education in such a way that in a few years each child on the basis of its mental standards is really put at the standard suitable for its age. This is not any impossible task. It happens in many cases every year in every standard – mostly in public exams, the 7th and 10th.
INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
The care for individual is also of utmost importance. At the tender age it is more so. The reason is that the natural faculty of keeping the mind open for the things in the world around, the curiosity to learn the detail, the curiosity to express, etc. are at the budding stage. Further, even today, in spite of many a great talks and super plans on education we, the elder world including the forces in power and the departments of education remained highly incompetent to conduct education properly. We have not become capable of providing any other major activity than the formal instruction in the classroom as part of guided learning. This is another sensible reason to be noted. For such reason all care must be taken to secure the interest of the child on the classroom activity. Apart from planning for a variety of interesting methods of teaching beyond the four walls of classroom and beyond the style of group discourse one must ensure that the discourse itself is also interesting to every individual child. The child becomes incapable of being mentally with the teacher for various reasons. This happens many times in our daily experience. It may repeat in case of the same child very often, or it may happen in case of one child this moment and of another in the next. The causes could be many. If the system does not address such occasions of inability to be with the teacher mentally the child’s basic faculties of learning would be subjected to serious damages and they could be irrecoverable in the lifetime of the child. So, what is at stake is not just the topic of such session but great damages of far reaching consequences. These damages could be any or many or all of the following.
1. A phobia against or a dislike for the topic handled such sessions.
2. A dislike for the teacher who troubled the child with such session. Further, the same teacher is going to continue to come to the class and make the child to sit quietly. So the child can neither challenge nor avoid the ‘disliked’ teacher.
3. The child may develop an extreme dislike for, or inferiority complex – considering itself as unfit – regarding the very group discourse style of classroom activity.
4. The child may develop a dislike for the very school. And ,
5. Finally, the horrible effect, it may hate the very studies.
In view of all this serious individual care to the core is required. Younger is the child more is the need of such care.
Even if a single child is not in the mood to mentally and emotionally involve in the on going activity of the classroom its problem is to be solved. The system should not compel the child to submit itself to such scenario un-till and unless it is in the mood. Meanwhile the child should be involved in other interesting activities to give back its mood. How it is to be arranged is a different question. If the deviation is insignificant and if the ongoing group activity is subjected to an insignificant halt then the same teacher(s) may handle the diverted child. In case the deviation and the resulting halt is significant such child(ren) must be separated for a while to bring them back to the group activity at the earliest. For this special / additional teacher resources are to be allocated in the planning stage itself.
EVALUATION IS TO FURTHER ENERGISE THE CHILD’S EXPRESSION
The purpose of evaluation system is to secure, further strengthen and give a powerful shape to another fundamental natural faculty for knowledge acquisition in all human beings and hence in the children. That faculty is expressiveness. Expressiveness is another core strength. The child should be energized with this talent too. Whether the expressiveness manifests in the form of ‘ to self’ or ‘to others’ it is secondary. They are only issues of strengthening it. Then again expressiveness takes or assumes different forms. They are oral, written, enacted, replicated (model), etc. In oral and written the medium of expression – the language – is another form, or sub-form. So an evaluation should encourage expressiveness that is naturally attached to life right from birth.
The purpose of evaluation is to permit the growth of expressiveness than to kill or damage it. This expressiveness, after its manifestation, helps the child to understand or know again with more accuracy as to what it knows and hence, what next should it know. The same is useful to the guide in the same way. Different children have different levels of abilities in different forms of expressiveness. An ability in one form is a solution for inabilities in the other forms.
An ability solely confined to one form can be propagated or extended to the other forms. But underline that, firstly, it needs to be identified before propagation.
Hence it is necessary to make evaluation
1. Absolutely Comfortable and Interesting Just Like a Matter of Play,
2. Generate Confidence
3. Continuous,
4. Multi-Formal and thus Mutable,
5. Free and Fair,
6. Reasonably Non-Uniform
7. Transparent and
8. Reveiwable.
THE SUMMARY
THE SUMMARY IS NONE OTHER THAN UNDERSTANDING THE DIALECTIC ENTITY OF ASSIMILATION AND EXPRESSION AND PLANNING IN ACCORDANCE WITH IT.
The sum and summary of an educational program – that has at its core kindness and affection aided by the most effective interactive ways of training – is to
1. Identify, first of all, the naturally existing intellectual entity of the dual faculties – one, the assimilativeness and two, the expressiveness,
2. Promote and effectively facilitate assimilation and expression,
3. Aim at imparting the child the techniques of assimilation and expression, the strength of effectively using those techniques, know more such techniques and even to invent and design such new techniques in the future.
4. Provide the maximum clarity of things and subjects for assimilation and promise and open the scope for absolute liberty of expression,
5. Ensure the whole course of learning and training in the formal framework is to effectively handle this dialectical entity of dual forces which are not same, mutually opposite actions and which are dependent on each other for their very existence.
* In this article the words assimilation and acquisition are used interchangeably. Further 1. assimilativeness and 2. expressiveness are also used though they are not in the dictionary. Their meaning is apparent – they are ability to 1. assimilate and 2. express
One thing has become clear that any educated has to learn English. Learning English may not necessarily lead to soar its dominance – by making oneself a sailor along with the trend in the ‘mission’ of a better career for the self. It may be aimed at a different mission – destructing its dominance right from the roots. For either of the missions learning English has become a must. In this present state of the social transformation it would be a very crooked act to influence, either directly or indirectly, against this need. More than that, serious efforts must be carried out to introduce easiest ways of learning English. Such efforts should begin, first of all, with a basic definition of the extent of English to be learnt. The most important of the key principles to be followed is: No new point of knowledge should be clubbed with English teaching. Already thoroughly known, highly familiar and the easiest should form the contents or topics in the course of learning English. While learning English all care must be taken that the child – more particularly the rural child – is not learning anything new except the next lesson in English.
BASIS FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTION
What is the basis for further learning? Take the standard of knowledge level of the child as the basis for further learning. Hence, that alone is the basis for further instruction. The standard as per attendance rolls should be only an indicator to work out a special plan rather than the next immediate topic of instruction for the child.
We observe in the academics of school education a very wrong tendency deviating much from this. It is going on unchecked and uncorrected.
The wrong tendency is an utter lack of consideration for the subject standard of each individual child or a small group of children or the majority of the children or all the children of a classroom. The concern of the school has become only to pour down the syllabus of the standard as per the rolls. This is a result of foolishness. If not so, it is a result originating from seriously distracted concerns. Or, it is a result of acute resource crunch. Or, it is a result of absolute apathy for the future of the child – a cruel trait that cannot be corrected except by elimination of those cruel fellows.
Teach the topics not mechanically on the basis of the standard of rolls in which the child is at present. Teach on the basis of the standard of knowledge and mind in which the child is at present. For this let rolls be the rolls. But, regroup the children and conduct the education in such a way that in a few years each child on the basis of its mental standards is really put at the standard suitable for its age. This is not any impossible task. It happens in many cases every year in every standard – mostly in public exams, the 7th and 10th.
INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
The care for individual is also of utmost importance. At the tender age it is more so. The reason is that the natural faculty of keeping the mind open for the things in the world around, the curiosity to learn the detail, the curiosity to express, etc. are at the budding stage. Further, even today, in spite of many a great talks and super plans on education we, the elder world including the forces in power and the departments of education remained highly incompetent to conduct education properly. We have not become capable of providing any other major activity than the formal instruction in the classroom as part of guided learning. This is another sensible reason to be noted. For such reason all care must be taken to secure the interest of the child on the classroom activity. Apart from planning for a variety of interesting methods of teaching beyond the four walls of classroom and beyond the style of group discourse one must ensure that the discourse itself is also interesting to every individual child. The child becomes incapable of being mentally with the teacher for various reasons. This happens many times in our daily experience. It may repeat in case of the same child very often, or it may happen in case of one child this moment and of another in the next. The causes could be many. If the system does not address such occasions of inability to be with the teacher mentally the child’s basic faculties of learning would be subjected to serious damages and they could be irrecoverable in the lifetime of the child. So, what is at stake is not just the topic of such session but great damages of far reaching consequences. These damages could be any or many or all of the following.
1. A phobia against or a dislike for the topic handled such sessions.
2. A dislike for the teacher who troubled the child with such session. Further, the same teacher is going to continue to come to the class and make the child to sit quietly. So the child can neither challenge nor avoid the ‘disliked’ teacher.
3. The child may develop an extreme dislike for, or inferiority complex – considering itself as unfit – regarding the very group discourse style of classroom activity.
4. The child may develop a dislike for the very school. And ,
5. Finally, the horrible effect, it may hate the very studies.
In view of all this serious individual care to the core is required. Younger is the child more is the need of such care.
Even if a single child is not in the mood to mentally and emotionally involve in the on going activity of the classroom its problem is to be solved. The system should not compel the child to submit itself to such scenario un-till and unless it is in the mood. Meanwhile the child should be involved in other interesting activities to give back its mood. How it is to be arranged is a different question. If the deviation is insignificant and if the ongoing group activity is subjected to an insignificant halt then the same teacher(s) may handle the diverted child. In case the deviation and the resulting halt is significant such child(ren) must be separated for a while to bring them back to the group activity at the earliest. For this special / additional teacher resources are to be allocated in the planning stage itself.
EVALUATION IS TO FURTHER ENERGISE THE CHILD’S EXPRESSION
The purpose of evaluation system is to secure, further strengthen and give a powerful shape to another fundamental natural faculty for knowledge acquisition in all human beings and hence in the children. That faculty is expressiveness. Expressiveness is another core strength. The child should be energized with this talent too. Whether the expressiveness manifests in the form of ‘ to self’ or ‘to others’ it is secondary. They are only issues of strengthening it. Then again expressiveness takes or assumes different forms. They are oral, written, enacted, replicated (model), etc. In oral and written the medium of expression – the language – is another form, or sub-form. So an evaluation should encourage expressiveness that is naturally attached to life right from birth.
The purpose of evaluation is to permit the growth of expressiveness than to kill or damage it. This expressiveness, after its manifestation, helps the child to understand or know again with more accuracy as to what it knows and hence, what next should it know. The same is useful to the guide in the same way. Different children have different levels of abilities in different forms of expressiveness. An ability in one form is a solution for inabilities in the other forms.
An ability solely confined to one form can be propagated or extended to the other forms. But underline that, firstly, it needs to be identified before propagation.
Hence it is necessary to make evaluation
1. Absolutely Comfortable and Interesting Just Like a Matter of Play,
2. Generate Confidence
3. Continuous,
4. Multi-Formal and thus Mutable,
5. Free and Fair,
6. Reasonably Non-Uniform
7. Transparent and
8. Reveiwable.
THE SUMMARY
THE SUMMARY IS NONE OTHER THAN UNDERSTANDING THE DIALECTIC ENTITY OF ASSIMILATION AND EXPRESSION AND PLANNING IN ACCORDANCE WITH IT.
The sum and summary of an educational program – that has at its core kindness and affection aided by the most effective interactive ways of training – is to
1. Identify, first of all, the naturally existing intellectual entity of the dual faculties – one, the assimilativeness and two, the expressiveness,
2. Promote and effectively facilitate assimilation and expression,
3. Aim at imparting the child the techniques of assimilation and expression, the strength of effectively using those techniques, know more such techniques and even to invent and design such new techniques in the future.
4. Provide the maximum clarity of things and subjects for assimilation and promise and open the scope for absolute liberty of expression,
5. Ensure the whole course of learning and training in the formal framework is to effectively handle this dialectical entity of dual forces which are not same, mutually opposite actions and which are dependent on each other for their very existence.
* In this article the words assimilation and acquisition are used interchangeably. Further 1. assimilativeness and 2. expressiveness are also used though they are not in the dictionary. Their meaning is apparent – they are ability to 1. assimilate and 2. express
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