Slow and steady makes sense
Manaswini Sridhar
In a recent workshop for pre-primary teachers, I had nursery, LK and UKG teachers together in the session. The nursery group had two kinds of teachers: mother teachers and (other) teachers. I suppose when the child is a three-year-old infant, it is important to have mother teachers who I am supposing will give emotional support to the child, particularly in the first few months at school, when the infant is frightened, bewildered and totally lost. What I discovered to my dismay is that the mother teachers do not know English. This is all fine if it is a vernacular medium school; but if the school proclaims itself to be an English medium school, then in addition to the local language, it should be mandatory for the teacher to be able to speak English. Schools in their defence say that since the mother teacher does little or no teaching, it is not necessary for her to have the language skills. Is this really so?
A tear stricken, howling child may not pick up anything else, but the words, “Don’t cry!” “It’s ok” “Come, let’s play,” said with the right tone is education in itself. Once the child is settled in class, the child also views English as a difficult language because the adult [teacher] herself has not been able to acquire the skills in spite of years of exposure to the world, to TV, radio, etc. If schools need workshops, then why not have workshops in spoken English rather than in the use of the textbook? Teachers somehow manage to teach the content because of the teachers’ resource packs, the guides and the notes that they seem to be getting from other, more experienced teachers.
But then again, teachers who do not know the language also struggle with something that is pivotal to pre-primary teaching…storytelling. Since the language skills are minimal, teachers prefer to read the stories aloud rather than retell them with the essential drama and suspense that can be used to make storytelling more interesting. Teachers shy away from storytelling even in their own language! Circle time and storytelling are essentials of pre-primary education since they give children an interesting, exciting and adventurous exposure to the language and at the same time kindle and feed their imagination.
When talking about the new series for LKG that the school seemed to have wisely chosen, I pointed out to the teachers how slowly and lovingly the author was holding the child’s hand from slanting lines, to sleeping lines, etc. etc., to the formation of the letters of the alphabet, and how the author dwells on each letter, only to deal with the final letter z after 130 pages. Explaining that children need this kind of time and space to learn the letters, woven skillfully with activities using play dough and other simple materials, I stressed on the importance of the length of time the teacher spends on each letter. Most teachers are today in a rush to go through the 26 letters so that they can get students to learn spellings and then have them graduate to dictation. Just when I thought they were getting my point about the need to be slow and steady with children at that tender age, a nursery teacher, without saying a word, thrust the nursery textbook in my direction saying that is the book they are using for nursery children, who would be between three and three and a half years old. I was speechless, because the child was being introduced to all the letters within the first 30 pages! I gasped and asked whether the children were able to write and the teacher replied, “Yes, but not the slow learners!” When questioned further, she also stated that many children find it difficult to hold the pencils.
When a school selects a book, as parents, we believe that they are fully aware that they have looked at the level of the book and determined that it is pitched correctly for that particular age group. As a parent, I also expect that my child either revise what has been learned in the previous class or else advance to the next level. In the case of the school above, the child learns the alphabet when he/she is three and then in LKG, the child learns it again, but at a slower pace. Is this logical? Should the school not be looking at the books that are being chosen as a series and ensure that they are graded and each level becomes more challenging so that children do not get bored?
Again, coming back to the basic question: why are we rushing through the alphabet? Is literacy the only thing that is taught in school?
Could we not have fun activities for children that allow them to mingle with other children, learn the joys of sharing, explore their feelings of happiness in playing with friends, feel accepted, sometimes rejected and go through all the emotions that they need to be equipped with in their everyday life? What about developing motor skills by placing children in the sandbox and having them jump about and run, form a straight line, raise their hands, hop on one foot, raise their heads and lower their heads, flex their fingers, wring their hands, grasp something with their two hands, push, pull,… all the things that are necessary to write, to draw, and perform all the activities of a student so that the child is not labelled slow learner or dyslexic? Just because we are in a hurry, we are also in a hurry to label our students…it is a way of getting rid of our responsibility or even not admitting that the curriculum is way beyond the reach of the average student who may not have parents educated in the English language.
Why not teach children the sounds of the language by calling out words with long and short vowel sounds, consonant clusters and all those other things that are in the curriculum and yet children fail to distinguish because they have never heard the words, but only read or written the words?
The NCERT preschool curriculum (http://www.ncert.nic.in/pdf_files/preschool_curriculum.pdf) does mention all the important motor skill activities and listening activities as an essential part of the curriculum. It gives a detailed account of how to engage children creatively and physically so that they enjoy learning. Pre-primary education is not the stage to challenge children beyond their capacity because when learning becomes difficult, education becomes stressful.
We read the story of the hare and the tortoise to children to make them understand that when they do things slowly and steadily, they will win the race. But our educational system believes that students are like the hare and forces them to learn so rapidly that they are exhausted by the time they come to high school and just want to drop out of the race.
There is no dearth of educated people in India who are more than willing to contribute to the education of the future generation. The only hitch is the financial one…. they would also like to earn a salary that makes them feel worthy and respected. So if schools are employing teachers who lack the right skills, it is a choice they are making.
Tip of the month
We talk about the magic words to pre-primary children: sorry, please, thank you. Say these often in your class so that children also incorporate them in their everyday language and the words are not left closed in their books.
The author is a teacher educator and language trainer based in Hyderabad. She can be reached at manaswinisridhar@gmail.com.
