FPJ OPED – The Foundations for Life-long Learning
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“Free Press Journal and Karmayog.org have entered into a collaboration to promote the involvement and empowerment of citizens and community groups in civic and social issues. We will jointly present a special column every Thursday for featuring articles on social, civic and developmental issues. The articles carried herein will cover a diverse range of topics ranging from disaster management to public health, improving city governance to senior citizens, etc.”
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What does education mean?
Education means ‘the systematic instruction, schooling or training in preparation for life’. To educate is to bring up from childhood so as to form the habits, manners and intellectual aptitudes of a child. But how often do we think and implement this kind of education? Do we give systematic instruction, or is it just haphazard lessons followed by chapters? Disconnected information is given to children, and disconnected assimilation takes place. Most of what is taught is not relevant to life at all. In most of the education that is being imparted, there is a lack of vision and goal.
Mahatma Gandhi had said that education should be the training of the head, heart and hands. If we analyze our education system in this context, we see that it neither trains the head, heart nor the hands. It is a common belief that since so many Indian students go abroad for higher education, the education system in our country must be good. But when one examines the percentage of school drop outs to those who achieve success, the true picture is revealed. It is also to be noted that those students who achieve success in India and abroad, are the ones that would be able to achieve in spite of the system.
Children or Machines?
In the 16th Century, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Swiss-French philosopher and political theorist, in ‘Emile’ writes that we treat children like machines, they should be given more freedom to enjoy, sunlight, exercise and play. He declared that education should begin in the home, and that parents should not preach to children, but should lead them by example. Unfortunately, changing lifestyles today has meant that parents have little time for their children, leave alone setting a good example. If we look closely, even today in the 21st Century, we still treat our children like machines, programme them to fit into the prevalent education system, thinking they all will turnout to be great products.
But, each child is different, and has a totally unique capacity and perspective of life. Each child needs to be treated differently, and each one captures learning in a different manner. Do we give children the freedom to enjoy sunlight, exercise and play? Most of the time, they are crammed like sardines with no space to move or freedom to play. It is sad fact that even 3 to 6 year olds are subjected to the torture of sitting on benches or chairs with tables without space to move and with no time to really and truly play, and in this way are being deprived of their childhood.
Current Situation in Mumbai
Parents today send two year old children to classes to be trained to get through entrance exams to the school, completely unmindful of the kind of pressure being inflicted on the child. Education is meant to be for all and it should be accessible by all, and hence there is clearly no need for any test for entrance to the school. Why then do almost all schools conduct entrance tests and interviews? They do so as there is a greater demand for admission than the number of seats available, and hence while restricting the numbers of students admitted, each school would like to take the best students.
Sadly, the situation does not improve for the child even after going through the entrance test securing admission to the school. Children of barely two years and six months of age are taught to start reading and writing. Children of this age are developmentally not ready to undertake such activities. Their muscles have not developed as yet, and still they are forced to hold a pencil and write. Hence most of the children today who go to nursery schools, Montessori centres, or kindergarten schools go through trauma when they are unable to write and follow instructions about what to do.
Learning through Play
During the day, there should be a clearly defined time for outdoor play, indoor play, imaginative play and creative activities. There should be time for interaction with each other, as well as time for observing, for experimenting, for exploring. In sum, the entire period that the child spends at the nursery school should be a happy period, where they enjoy their childhood, and build up a life-long love for learning.
The great educationist Friedrich Wilhelm Froebelhas emphatically mentioned that men and plants are parallel in that each should be carefully tended in order to grow and mature according to the laws inherent in its own nature. The teachers work therefore resembles that of the gardener. Froebel’s first nursery school was called Kindergarten meaning garden in German. He made play the basis of his teaching.
At present in our country Kindergarten school is just a label that is used while the true philosophy and methodology is totally forgotten. What is play to us adults is work for the child. The child learns a great deal through play. Maria Montessori said `Children’s interest should be held by the task itself, and rewards and punishments should be abolished’. When the child’s interest is in the task itself, then learning automatically takes place.
Holistic learning
Instead of dealing with words, children should learn through activity and through things, with a special emphasis on spontaneity and self activity. Children should not be given readymade answers but should arrive at answers themselves. To do this their own powers of seeing, judging and reasoning should be cultivated, their self activity encouraged. To assist such a learning process, Pestalozzi developed his doctrine of “Anschanung “, which means direct concrete observation, often inadequately called sense perception or object lessons. He believed that the thing and its distinction must be felt or observed in the concrete. His aim was to educate the whole child with intellectual education being only a part of the wider plan.
Education must be holistic and include physical development, motor development, socio-emotional development, plus mental or cognitive development at all stages. Children, especially at the preschool stage as well as the primary school level, need to touch, feel, observe and explore. Learning takes by seeing, by observing, by experiencing, by experimenting. It is only then that the plant, the tree, animal, or bird that one talks about comes to life and one can describe it, find its characteristic and know the similarities and differences between them all. It is these concrete first hand experiences that the child enjoys. Joy in finding out, joy in talking about the experience, or the observation, this is real learning.
Creating a strong base
Early childhood education or pre school education is the foundation for further education. Just as a building stands on its strong foundation, so does the child stand out in the world when he or she gets the appropriate strong foundation in the early years. The age group of children from birth to six years is the most crucial as 80% of the mental growth of a human takes place at this stage. Pre school stage is thus the base of all education. It is the initial phase of life long education. It must preserve the concept of childhood challenging and encouraging children to develop into worth while learner and thinkers full of curiosity about the world around.
Appropriate equipment, materials, toys are required for pre-school education as the childs thinking develops through playing with all this variety of equipment and toys. Towers, pegboards, puzzles, all help their thinking skills. Dolls house, water play, sand play, blocks corner with a variety of blocks develops the imagination and social interaction hence personality development. Playing in a group, learning to be part of the group is very essential for team building. Beads, shells, seeds, etc. can be used for classification. It helps the children to develop their thinking skills. Crayons, chalks, paints, helps creativity and gives expression to their inner feelings, to their imagination besides giving scope for small muscle development, which in turn facilitates reading and writing. Out door activities help them develop physically and keep them healthy. It is essential to enforce the right education methodology at this crucial stage. Music, rhymes and songs, should be part of the daily activities, as children love singing.
Dr. Abdul Kalam, our President said `Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role models’. Educationists, lets work towards realising this goal and vision.
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Some examples of schools that implement such holistic education:
1. The Udayachal Pre-primary & Primary school at Station Colony, Pirojshanagar Vikhroli, Mumbai 400078. Tel .58963592
2. The Titan School, Titan Township, Mathigiri, HCF post, HOSUR, 635110 Tamilnadu. Tel .04344 262640
3. Atul Vidyalaya, Atul Gujarat Tel. 02632 233317
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Shirin Choksey is Vice President of the Indian Association for Pre-school Education, Mumbai
She can be contacted at the IAPE Resource Centre, Santacruz Municipal Secondary School Building, Gazdar Park, 16th Road and North Avenue, Santacruz West Mumbai 400 054
Email: iapebom@yahoo.com and shirinchoksey@hotmail.com.
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