The Reading Habits of Our Children

Dear Teacher Friends

It is important to expose our junior class children to lots and lots of interesting short compositions. But, of course, we should not forget that good writing skills cannot be acquired without good reading skills. Children who fare poorly in the exams are usually the ones who read little. The biggest complaint is 'We have no time to read.' This is not completely baseless. 

Our JNVs do not run on sound democratic principles. Since the time to wake up till they go to bed children are forced to follow a routine which is devised by Organisation, which strongly believes in uniformity across the country. Years of experience hasn't taught us to listen to children. The same is true about most other schools in our country. Giving a hearing to children is an unthinkable idea to our administrators. For that matter, most of us too doubt such ideas. 

Following the superior officers' instructions all the time is painful and, quite often, annoying. The simple reason is we are not a part of the thinking process. Our obedience and compliance is just taken for granted. Undemocratic, isn't it? We all treat the children similarly. So, what kind of future citizens are we nurturing? An I-know-all boss demanding unquestioned obedience and 'boss-is-always-right' subordinates. 

Children are creative. But this creativity is snubbed as they move up the ladder of the academic career in our schools. We create an environment in which they devote more time to no other books but textbooks. We fail to understand that we are sabotaging the very spirit of the textbooks. This is reflected in our science exhibitions and in many other activities that our children perform. We are always short of novel ideas, for we do not know what the creative minds in the world outside are engaged with. We are obsessed with the coverage of the syllabus, giving tests, evaluating them on war foot basis, starting remedial teaching, etc.... We are in a headlong rush to create children who perform alike. 

I must give an example here. I happened to interview Prof. Nageshwar, Head of the journalism department, Osmania University, as a part of my DCGC practicum. He is a very popular news analyst on many TV channels. As a student, he did not enjoy reading physics in Intermediate (+2). Still he scored 90+. He enjoyed reading chemistry. I asked him why he did not like Physics in his college days. He replied that he liked sour things and it was difficult to explain why he liked them. He felt that his dislike for physics might have had something to do with the constitution of his mind. Interesting thing was he once shared the dais with Dr Abdul Kalam.

In our schools, we start with the idea that all children should excel in all subjects. The benchmarks set by the Organisation drives home this point. An Einstein in our classroom is categorised as  a slow learner in the history classroom. He becomes a perpetual headache to his history teacher while the science teachers may find it cut him to their size. I wonder how our attitude to teaching and students has changed for worse due to the benchmarks and our regressive educational philosophy.  We are undermining the personality of the children by treating as objects for our unscientific goals. In schools which are obsessed with coverage of syllabus, exams and benchmarks, creativity is a mirage. We encourage rote learning methods and follow an outdated academic routine but expect our students to be creative in thinkers. Remember the toppers in the exams are not always the best minds. We, as teachers, try our best to influence the interest of the students and do well in exams. But the poor performance of the students does not always reflect our our work. I also have seen the best performance of students in some subjects covers up ordinary teaching.  The best of the teachers do not always produce of the best of the students. It is difficult to understand what interests children and what motivates them to learn. All Hawking's students are not little Hawkings.  

A good school, in my opinion, is one which has its own routine. Here the entire system works in an integrated manner. There is no clash of individual interests. An English teacher shows interest in learning physics. A physics teacher tells stories and reviews books in her/his classroom. Both appreciate fine pieces of drawings, and a musical performance by their students instead of advising them not to waste their time drawing and singing. A teacher who fails to link his subjects with the other subjects and life in general is failing his calling. The ideal school encourages children read books other than the prescribed ones. We are not nurturing the reading habits of the children and it will have a long-term impact. The size of a bulky book should not repel them. A child who has borrowed a book from the library is forced to hide for fear of punishment or ridicule from teachers. The school should always support children and work with children. It is time our school promote the reading habits of children, which is a challenging task. We need to discuss with children, parents and the administrators and put the huge investment on the library to good use. We should not produce children who dump the books at the end of the examination. We should foster love for books - books are our long companions. Teachers should set an example. 

Children learn to write short compositions only when they are exposed to quality discussions in the classrooms, and rich and fruitful reading.  Giving students sample answers on a topic does not take them to a higher level. It may help them score well in the exams but it does not encourage them to experiment with their ideas.   Exams are an evil as they trouble children and do not encourage children to make mistakes and lose marks. 

My worries about children writing short compositions makes me share some of my worst fears our education and our work in the organisation.  I am trying to encourage my children write good compositions by giving them handouts contains some good short compositions from various sources. Let me see how far it works. 

Yours 

K T Prasad