What Children tell...

This is the foreword to a study I recently finished for Room to Read (India). For those who are interested in what children say about the books they read, this study may offer some interesting insights. Since I cannot add the entire text here, you can e-mail me at giri.shesh@gmail.com, asking for the entire report. Or, download the entire report from this link: http://www.mediafire.com/?hmhwyvmewgq

"Literature for children has to go a long way in our country. Given the size, number of children and diversity in terms of language, geography and culture, books for children are too few. The case is acute with the majority of our children who go to government run schools. For instance, Room to Read India’s collection of story books in Hindi from all the available publishers for primary and elementary school going children numbers just 432! We are sure that the situation in other regional languages is no different. What about their quality and appropriateness? On several counts, this too deserves serious attention. Compare this with the thousands of books that exist for children in some countries of Europe, and the West. Not all of them may be good, or even appropriate. But their numbers seem to suggest that publishing or children is a serious business in these countries.

As adults who write and publish for children, it is important for us to believe that we know what children need and like. Without this belief, the edifice on which children’s literature is based would collapse. This study attempts to keep that belief aside for a moment. In addition, it endeavors to ask some new questions: what do children think about the books they read? Can we use this understanding to create better books for children? In this sense, this study attempts to break some fresh ground.

Along the way, we realized that the above two questions could not be answered without painting a larger canvas – that of understanding childhood itself, in all its richness, diversity and complexity. The experience that a child brings to reading a book is rooted in his or her upbringing – family, friends, community, and so on. As they grow, they create their own stories and narratives. It is the interface between this experience and the encounter with books that determines what children like or look forward to, as far as literature is concerned. Therefore, for us to understand what kinds of literature may be good for children from their own vantage points, it is important to first understand their narratives which really are reflections of who they are.

Room to Read (India) has enabled us to ask these questions through this study. Many thanks are due to them, particularly to Uddalak, Sunisha and Nita for believing that such a line of enquiry could throw up some insights. Thanks are also due to my colleagues Richa and Rekha for their enduring enthusiasm and reflections.

If this study can contribute even in a small way towards understanding where children come from, it will have served its purpose. Happy Reading...!"

Sunday Musings

‘He needs to score more marks. He has lost 4-5 marks in language and literature, and in my subject, general science. Though he has got 100% in mathematics, I’m not sure if that is correct, as his math teacher is very lenient…’ That is how the conversation between my six and a half year old son’s class teacher of grade 1 and me, started yesterday. It was the first parent-teacher meeting after his first term tests. ‘And yes,’ she went on, ‘His handwriting has gone to the dogs…’ Sniff, sniff! My son sat next to me. I wondered what was going on in his mind. ‘If he had got ten more marks, I would have ranked him,’ she rued. Thus, in the general remarks section, she had written, ‘Good. Could do better. Try for higher rank.’ We discussed nothing else about his schooling experience.

As this monologue went on, I interrupted: ‘I’m not so much concerned about his marks…I know he is intelligent.’ What bothered me instead was this overt emphasis on scoring marks, almost to the exclusion of everything else. What a stifling way to begin one’s schooling!

Just the other day, as I was helping him with his math homework, I discovered that he had started learning subtraction with borrowing. He had been taught, ‘When the number below is more than the number above you have to borrow one from the neighbor…’ I soon found out that this had been taught without introducing the notion of place value. The teaching of mathematics depends on a sequence in which higher order concepts cannot be taught without first teaching the more basic concepts. This was just one instance where this rule had been violated.

I requested a meeting with the math teacher, an old woman who had probably seen many years of teaching. “We have taught them ‘units and tens’,” she said. For proof’s sake, she asked my son. He nodded in agreement. But her explanation was not satisfactory. What does ‘borrow the one’ mean? Are we really borrowing one? Why should we borrow only one? It was clear that this had not been explained. Likewise, in addition, children are told to ‘carry forward’. Unlike subtraction in which you can subtract only one number at a time, in addition, one can add any number of numbers. You can carry forward more than one: thus, when we add the numbers 9, 19 and 27, 9+9+9 = 27. We then write down 7 and ‘carry forward 2’, i.e. 20, which is actually two tens (or two units of ten). All of this looks like a bag of tricks which children learn quite fast through endless repetition at school and home. What they do not learn is the underlying structure of the numbers, and how this structure comes into play during number operations. For this, a basic idea of place value is necessary. This expands the child’s conception of number and prepares her for greater learning adventures.

I have seen much older children going around chanting this ‘borrow the one’ procedure as they solve subtraction sums. Thus, by limiting ourselves to a teaching of mathematical procedure, we are preventing the child from understanding the deeper structures and patterns of the subject. This is not surprising, since teachers have also come through the same system for years. It has worked because exams also do not test understanding. Even if they cannot understand everything in the first instance, it is our job as teachers and parents to set them up on that path. I have come across many 90%+ children whose understanding of the basics is very suspect.
One of the aims of education, I would believe, is to foster understanding in children. Much to my frustration, I continue to discover this aim being bypassed without much thought, day after day. ‘I must change his school soon,’ I thought. Finding a school which teaches for understanding is going to be difficult…

Giri
18th November 2007
Bangalore

What are we doing with our children?

The development of the Kargil Education Strategy (KES) document has now entered the final stage. After many months of hard work beginning from March this year, we are now in a position to present our key findings and suggest ways forward in order to improve the education we provide for our children in the coming years. While we are very excited about sharing what all we have found with the people of Kargil, we are also very disturbed with many of our findings. These have often angered and frustrated us. Sometimes, we have also been puzzled as to why things are the way they are. Of course, there has been no shortage of explanations – we have our own theories to explain what we have found!

A key aspect that attracts a lot of attention in children’s education is their achievement on some agreed upon indicators – through these parameters, we would like to find out what children have learnt after a few years of schooling. Some indicators are universally recognized – go to any country, and you will find many a person interested in education, discussing them -- the so called ‘achievement’ indicators which test children’s abilities in basic arithmetic and language. For me, these indicators are not the only things which tell us if our education system is functioning well. Still, they are an important part of what children should achieve after a few years of schooling.

As part of the field studies in 24 villages all over Kargil district, we investigated various aspects that determine children’s education. One of these was the testing of children’s abilities in arithmetic and language. We tested 99 grade 5 children (29 boys and 70 girls, i.e., all grade 5 children from these 24 villages) for elementary arithmetic and oral, reading and writing skills. Please note that the tests were all pitched at grade 2 and grade 3. We have summarized the results of the arithmetic test for you. In a nutshell, this is how the results look:

Addition -- 76% boys and 65% girls could do the addition sums
Subtraction -- 63% boys and 55% girls could do the subtraction problems
Multiplication -- 55% boys and 44% girls could solve simple multiplication sums
Division -- 31% boys and 31% girls only could correctly solve division problems

I would leave you to understand the figures we have obtained. You can do your own analysis and put forward your own explanations. Still, let me leave you with some thoughts and questions. Firstly, what are we doing with our children? Why are these results the way they are? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? What worries me is that after five years of schooling, grade 5 children are not able to solve the most elementary grade 2 or grade 3 level arithmetic problems. I would be tempted to say that we are cheating them and wasting their time in school! What would the results have been like if we had administered a grade 5 level test, instead?

On the whole, the difference between boys and girls is not as high as one would have expected. There are significant inter-block variations, though, like in Kargil, Taisuru and Zanskar blocks, for example. The only block where girls outsmart boys is in Drass. The figures for Drass bring some respectability within the overall % for girls. Otherwise, the overall differences would have been stark. One more point – we should do an ‘error analysis’ to find out what are the kinds of mistakes children are committing, and identify the reasons for the same. The teaching and understanding of place value, for instance, seems to be one of the key problems.

One last comment – notice the huge difference in the number of boys and girls in grade 5 in these 24 government schools. There were 29 boys and 70 girls at the time of the test. Where are the rest of the boys? My guess is that they flood the private fee-charging schools. This shows clearly where parents are putting their money to educate their children. Of course, this demands another article.

Do write in, and tell me your reactions.

Its the small things that matter

Small things count. Sounds clichéd, right? The sooner we realize this, the better. Let me start with a simple example. Then, we can go on to something more complex. This will require another article though.

For about ten years now, I have religiously followed the habit of collecting small change in the form of coins. I began this when I landed in Delhi on a wintry day in 1997. Pretty soon, I discovered how useful this practice was. At the end of the month, with a few days to go before the next salary cheque came my way, I discovered that the amount I had collected was enough to help me through the remaining days. Over time, as my financial situation improved somewhat, I decided not to spend this amount.

In due course, marriage happened, in 2000. The small change collection continued, though. I introduced the idea to my wife, and she seemed to like it though at first there was amusement expressed. Pretty soon, the counting of coins together became a regular feature of our married existence. As the amounts swelled, we swelled too, from inside, with happiness and with some pride. On an average, we discovered, we could collect rupees five hundred every month – bus travel, auto travel, eating out, buying vegetables and fruits, and other daily chores, selling old newspapers and magazines, brought in the moolah. We made it a point not to transact with coins. Once we had collected some coins for the day, we would fiercely ‘protect’ them – we never used them to make any payment, unless there was no alternative. I followed this more strictly than my wife. The coins were collected in different containers after sorting the 25 and 50 paise coins, and the one, two and five rupee coins. We used a combination of plastic containers and two or three small baskets that I had got from the famous Jagannath Temple in Puri, Orissa, on one of my travels. Our practice therefore had a divine sanction!

“At this rate, we can start one LIC insurance policy per year”, I quipped once. We had by then started two LIC policies, each requiring nearly six and a half thousand rupees per year. “On second thoughts, I suggest we use this as a travel fund…once in a while, we need to go out of Delhi to see different places…” This worked once, when we drove out to Mathura on a hot, humid day in August 2002. Our son, nearly one and a half by then, was with us.

The third suggestion I had was to use this as a ‘construction fund’. By then, we had purchased a plot of land in a very beautiful location of Bangalore. I had started dreaming about our ultimate home, where I would have a study with loads of books, where I could invite friends for a conversation, and give them coffee and pakodas on a rainy day. My wife had laughed at this suggestion. “So you’ll buy one tap, or half a door…?” “Even that can make a difference”, I had said adamantly. “One tap at a time, one door at a time…that’s how a house is made…”

Seven years later, we still continue to collect coins, in the same plastic containers and baskets. My own estimate is that we have collected about thirty thousand rupees! Tomorrow, I will deposit another two thousand rupees in the bank where we have an account specifically for this small change. For now, I have given up ideas about travel and construction, though they are still tempting. We are open to spending this money in a useful way should the need arise in the future.

Small things count, right? We are still counting…

August 2007

Words as refuge

Words have a way of obscuring the real thing. We often take refuge in them and use them to say one thing, and mean something else. This happens both in our personal and professional lives. So, for example, when someone says ‘I love you’, it is a nice way of hiding many different emotions, ideas and impulses under the word ‘love’. The person to whom this statement is made also has the option of choosing meanings she thinks is appropriate in that context. In due course of time, both persons involved will know if what was said was in consonance with what happened. Actions, it is said, speak louder than words. I have used the above example because it happens to be the most used and abused statement.

Actually, I was prompted to write this article as a result of a workshop that I facilitated in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands recently. We were talking about the impact of the tsunami on young preschool aged children. The last session was a sort of visioning exercise in which the participants were asked to visualize the kind of scenario they wanted to see a few years hence with respect to young children affected by the tsunami, their growth, their environment and their development. For the sake of our discussion, I have reproduced some statements below.

‘The parents and community should participate more…’
‘The quality of the centers should be better…’
‘Those concerned should show greater commitment…’
“The preschool center should have more materials…’

This is like a nice wish list. Still, I’m not complaining because one cannot deny the situation or state in the future that these statements reflect. I also do not doubt the intentions of those who made these statements. Where I have a problem is in the utter lack of visualization in these above statements – they do not tell us much, and they cannot help us move forward. When I asked the participants what they meant when they used words like participation, quality, commitment and so on, most of them struggled to explain. The one notable exception was the statement from a participant that ‘I would like to see someone from the community walk into the preschool center everyday to see what is happening, spend some time with the teacher and children…this is part of my vision of how young children should be growing up.’ The same participant also went on to share her images of how children would be using the physical space at the center, and the activities they would be engaged in. There was feeling in what she said. You could sense it.

Imagination seems to have gone out of our lives. I realized this as I was facilitating that final session. Following years of interactions, discussions, presentations etc around the same themes and issues, we tend to convert these (and many other…) words into abstractions. It is then assumed that the other person knows what this abstraction means. Words become symbols that convey a variety of meanings, depending on the context.

This tendency for abstraction may be a natural feature of any language, and it is certainly an effective way of communicating with one another. It allows us to economize the way we use language. The danger we fall into is that we allow these words to take the place of images, so vitally important for us to dream, conceive of a better future, and invest all our energies towards making this future happen. At this epoch in human history, the exercise of imagining is even more important than before, for we face gargantuan challenges as a species to even exist.

Let us then reclaim space for imagination, dreaming…Three years ago, in 2004, I happened to attend the World Social Forum in Mumbai. The slogan at the forum was ‘Another World is Possible.’ How powerful! How beautiful…! There were so many discussions about what this slogan meant to each one of us, and many of us shared our dreams for the kind of world we wanted to see and leave for our children. This is the point I wish to make: dream, imagine, feel…for our individual and collective futures.

29th July
Leh, Ladakh, India

Movement...

I wanted to share with you some thoughts that were thrown up in my mind recently, on my train journey from Bikaner to Delhi. I managed to dash off again to the desert for just a day after a hectic round of traveling...!

The Delhi-Bikaner train runs on meter gauge, and is a smaller train. My guess is that it therefore shakes and vibrates that much more…While I was returning on that night, I couldn't sleep easily...too many thoughts were whirring around in my poor brain...

Suddenly, I realized how interesting it would be, if one could plot on paper, the motion of my body -- you would of course get a curve showing the general direction in which the train was moving. This curve would have many squiggles on either side of it, representing the sideways and up and down movement of the train. In three dimensional representation, perhaps, the motion of my body could also be represented...

Suddenly, I realized how much movement there was, generally...

While I was moving towards Delhi thus, the earth was rotating on its axis...and was hurtling through space, around the sun, at 18 miles per second...the sun was rotating on its axis, the planets were going around the sun in their prescribed paths, rotating and revolving, taking their own times...the sun itself was moving, revolving around the center of the Milky Way galaxy...it would take 250 million years for one revolution of the sun around the center of the galaxy...the Milky Way contains 1,00,000 million (!) suns, all moving in their own paths, rotating and revolving around the center...the galaxy itself was rotating, and hurtling though space at an incredible speed...and there are billions of such galaxies...the mind recoils from imagining such vastness and complexity...!!

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Lovers move, when they make love, in erotic, erratic and unpredictable ways...leaves and flags flutter in the breeze, butterflies move from flower to flower...trains, buses, planes, bullock carts, horses, donkeys, dogs, cats, snakes...all move of their own volition...water...blood moves and oozes out...and clots…

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

We move in our sleep...and when we are awake...organs inside of us move...each cell is moving...it has a purpose...huge aggregates of molecules inside these cells move...cells die, humans die, are born again, and there is movement...

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Molecules move, and atoms move inside them...electrons move inside the atoms, rotating and revolving around the nucleus...the nucleus itself moves, rotates, vibrates...there are particles inside these sub-atomic particles, which move mysteriously, and of their own
volition...particles within particles within particles -- where is the end? Is it a particle or a wave...? There is a universe within, just as there is a universe without...again, my imagination recoils and I'm awestruck at this creation...where is the end...the beginning...what am I, who am I?

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Thought is movement...our feelings, passions, sensations...cannot happen without movement...good thoughts, good movement...? Bad thoughts, bad movement...? Evolution is movement...Insight...is movement...Love...is movement...lust...is movement...

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Is there anything that is completely still...without any movement? Can stillness exist with chaos?

The act of writing this is a movement...

Delhi
16th October 2001

Education as Dialectic: Children in Dialogue with a Community Member

Education as dialectic: children in dialogue with a community member

I had the opportunity of translating this very interesting diary entry of a teacher from Bodh Shiksha Samiti’s Bodhshala (in Jaipur) when I undertook an in-depth documentation of Bodh’s work last year (2006). This classroom transaction shows us the possibilities of an education that encourages rational thinking and enquiry…

“Today, there were 19 children in the ‘Badal’ group (ages 8-10 years) of the Guru Teg Bahadur Basti Bodhshala. The topic for discussion was identified by the children themselves. Four days back, we had all felt the tremors of an earthquake. The children had begun discussing this event in the Badal group. They also discussed their experiences of the tremor with me. I observed them following assertions being made in conversations with each other:

1. ‘The earth rests on one horn of a cow. When this horn gets tired, the cow shifts the earth on to the second horn. That is when the earth starts shaking…’
2. The earth rests on the hood of a snake. When the snake starts swaying and hissing, the earth shakes…’

There must have been many more such imaginative examples generated by the children in their numerous conversations.

That year, the Bodhshala was regularly inviting parents and community representatives to take part in its activities. We had two objectives. One, we wanted them to become familiar with what was happening in the Bodhshalas. Two, we wanted them to share their knowledge, understanding and experiences with children. Bodh believes this to be important.

It was Diler Singh’s turn at the Bodhshala today.

I could see that the children became happy when they saw Diler Singh walk in. He was a calm and soft looking person, and the children liked him very much. They were waiting to discuss with him the question ‘What does the earth rest on?’ They had already decided on this before he came. Once he was seated and settled, they placed for him the question: ‘Please tell us, what does the earth rest or stand on?’

Diler Singh pondered for a while. Instead of responding with an answer, he asked another question: ‘What makes you all think that the earth is standing or resting on something?’ Promptly, the children shared with him their experiences of the tremor, and the questions that arose from that experience.

He then said, ‘Look here! This whole thing is a miracle of nature. Your ideas that the earth rests on the horn of a cow or the hood of a snake are all wrong. In reality, the earth rests on a pillar on which is inscribed the name of Lord Ram…When there is much sin on the earth, Lord Ram becomes angry. Then the pillar shakes and so does the earth…’ Barely had he finished speaking, when a barrage of questions was hurled at him by the children even as the group lapsed into chaos.

One child asked: ‘Have you seen God?’

Another child jumped into the fray: ‘What is this Miracle of Nature?’

A third challenged him: ‘How can you prove that the earth does not rest on the horn of a cow?’

Diler Singh was shaken and disturbed. I was not used to seeing him this way. He normally came across as a calm human being. I fell silent. As the volley of questions subsided and as silence set in, a soft voice persisted: ‘Have you seen that pillar of Lord Ram?’ The group again became restive and chaotic. In that din, I could hear Diler Singh’s angry voice: ‘What kind of education is this? You have given the children such a long rope…without any proper discussion they ask all sorts of questions. They do not listen silently, to understand the reality…’ Thus, he raved and ranted.

I tried to collect my wits and regain my confidence following his outburst. Suddenly, the children sensed that something was amiss. As I cautiously looked at them, I could make out that they were all looking guilty, as if they had owned up for a crime they had committed. I tried to reassure them with a smile which was meant to say, ‘Don’t worry, it is not your mistake.’

Diler Singh eventually calmed down and asked me, ‘Why are you keeping silent? You are not saying anything to me or the children.’ His question made me feel at ease. I then decided to continue this process and suggested that everyone could take a piece of paper and draw a picture of the earth and the object on which it rested, as they imagined it. Diler Singh too participated in this exercise. As he started drawing, I noticed that he had a difficulty of balancing the earth on the pillar of Lord Ram…coupled with this frustration, and his curiosity to find out what the children were drawing, he started looking around.

As the minutes passed, I could sense that something seemed to have happened inside him. Something seemed to have changed in him for ever. Resignedly, he said, ‘This is very difficult….I learnt today that talking about something is so easy. So is accepting what someone says, without asking any questions. To prove things, however, is far more difficult. I’m beginning to see that it is not alright if we accept anything without first understanding it. Before this, I used to think that only those children are ‘good’, who learn well, who silently listen to what is being taught and give answers when asked, based on what they have been told.’

There was no need for me to explain any further. The children and I continued to discuss the question. ‘What does the earth rest on…?’

[Translated from the notes of Kusum, then Bodhshala teacher (1992)]

Giri
January 2006

Jaipur