Seamless boundaries

Meera Bhuvanesh

Effective teaching is a bumpy ride on a hard terrain and more so when you teach history. It has been two decades now of teaching social sciences and six years of teaching history in grade XI and XII. Students have asked me several times, “Why are we learning history?” Their question is pertinent and valid. And it is undisputed that unless a child feels connected and convinced about the relevance of the concepts she is learning, it is not going to be internalized. And if it is internalized, learning at deeper levels with effective outcomes can be experienced. Let us look at two approaches to didactic interactions with students.

One is, over the years I have realized it is highly pivotal to prove to students in the course of learning that what they are expected to perform in a pedagogic interaction will aid to construct capacities. This is not easy.

Second, an important aspect that most of us have overlooked to instill in our students, is the “joy of learning”, enjoy the journey and it is never about the destination. If this is taken care of, then definitely the first approach spontaneously falls into place.

History remains a dynamic subject, it is constantly debated and argued upon and it transforms itself. The curriculum regularly demands review and at times things that seem to work well can be questioned and a total revamping needs to be done.

The best example is, deep down in South India, the appearance of archaeological findings at Keeladi, near Madurai, with traces of Roman interactions of trade and settlement only substantiates that what we are teaching today may not be relevant or can be negated in the future. (The Times of India, Coimbatore Sunday, 5 March 2023. Keeladi Tales – ‘Caesar’s coin in Madurai’s backyard: A tale of two cities’)

Any occurrence, when positioned in eclectic and worldwide situations, or observed through lengthier rigidities of time, can start to modify its historical meaning. When we amplify the lens, old stories amend their shapes and are thrown down the embankment, new forms originate and fresh enquiries appear to initiate a spectrum of thinking processes.

What remains constant are the principles of teaching history which are verification of theories and perspectives of historians, the authentic sources used to construct a specific period of time and so on. Coming back to the teaching of history in schools, it is not only important to make the student exchanges interesting but also to trigger their curiosity. And the purpose is not about making all students historians or archaeologists but to ignite a sense of historical inquisitiveness; one can be an architect or a film maker, a journalist or a physicist, the love for history is eternal to all.

We can never be cut off completely from ‘our pasts’. Not many students want to absorb the study of history as a discipline. Acquaintance to historic findings, primarily of local histories, only manifests as self-pride and a deep understanding of our own immediate surroundings. History can bond to one’s background relatively well, than continue to be a set of detached details or larger than life tales.

Therefore, after the end of every academic year of class X, I am never anxious to see how many have opted for the humanities stream, as I try to transmit the adoration for the social sciences in the young minds. In the midst of the craze for conventional options and medical and engineering aspirants, we stand a bleak chance. And it undeniably needs courage to choose humanities. NEET/JEE-IIT coaching begins when the child is in grade VIII or even younger, so opting for the humanities can prove a social stigma, where the child is judged on her choices.

In the last academic year, we hosted an inter-school program named HumanitiWorks, which had events such as cartoon making on alarming socio-political issues, presentations by students on ‘My Monuments, My Pride’ to promulgate local histories, quizzes, elocution on famous speeches from all over the globe, model-making was a perfect example of co-relation of subjects where there is a blend of sciences and social sciences. Our school tries to perceive all subjects at par. So, as we have science carnivals, we also have one for social sciences, and we hope to continue this event in the future too.

Our journey of a pure humanities stream started in DPS Coimbatore with seven girls in 2018, who were determined to take up the study of Liberal Arts. Till date, the humanities are a minority and will remain so. The fact that we exist, we are a choice that is available to students and we are thriving is undeniably a great leap. With the advent of AI and a digitized world, the enquiry that “Has the humanities died?” will be pondered upon but also the standards for which the humanities have struggled for, such as ingenuity, critical thinking, imagination, articulation and originality cannot be absolved from this world.

As teachers all of us are facing paramount challenges, such as first getting ourselves and then our students to appreciate the right meaning and practice of democratic values in all aspects of our lives, application of core principles of Mahatma Gandhi and the time bomb of climate change.

Let us look at some ways for actual engagement of learners at different stages of learning history and political sciences in the middle school and senior school levels.

Bustle 1 – Clay Modelling Tablets (Class VI – Early Cities, Class XI and XII – Chapter-2 Writing and City Life and Chapter-1 Bricks, Beads and Bones, respectively)

At any stage, students like to create things and using potter’s clay for making replicas of Indus valley seals or Mesopotamian tablets will be a highly astute experience for the students and the facilitator as well.

Instructive realization – The understanding that written records are available in various mediums, the process of carving on wet clay and then to sun dry them gets them to recognize and acknowledge the practice. They can learn the alphabet from the Mesopotamian scripts and carve something personal on the clay tablet or the facilitator can think of a common agenda on what can be written on the tablets. It is strictly advised that the script should not be blindly copied.

Class XI and XII NCERT history textbooks can be used or internet can be used for carving any deciphered script of the particular time period that we are dealing with and meaningful carvings on the tablet should surface. Also please note students apprehensive of making use of potter’s clay should be given the freedom to draw on a sheet of paper or in their classwork notebook.

Bustle 2 – Timeline and family trees (all classes from VI to XII)

Instructive realization – This can be done at any grade as the students feel connected and realize the prominence of time and documented records in the context of learning history. Family tree activity is also retrospective in nature. This activity fosters pride which many of our young minds lack. For instance students with an infrequent family background may not have the chance to accept these differences, which may be in the names of grandparents or other regional differences which are not common in a particular classroom. The objective is to understand the context of time, origin and a sense of order through chronology. Timelines are always helpful for students to remember events and occurrences.

Bustle 3 – Roundtables (all Classes from VI to XII)

Instructive realization – Discussions are an integral part of teaching and learning social sciences. Monologues by teachers should be avoided as much as possible. In a period of 40 minutes teacher talk should never exceed more than 10 minutes at a time. This is strongly suggested in the book Learning in the Fast Lane by Suzy Pepper Rollins. The author insists that in between halts for discussions, engage learners and they feel involved. Students’ sense of belongingness is enhanced and any kind of deliberations give the learner an opening to adopt their learning to a considerable extent. Teacher talk can be inconsecutive with sensible pauses.

Bustle 4 – Visit to museums, ancient monuments or archaeological sites (all Classes from VI to XII)

In Coimbatore we only have the Gass Forest Museum close to school, it is a natural history museum and displays a variety of local flora and fauna with the technique of taxidermy, a technique of mounting or stuffing the skins of animals with lifelike effects. Now, one may perhaps question how it is relevant to history teaching.

Instructive realization – The whole purpose was that the learner should identify that the display of artefacts have an aim and intention. For instance, in a museum, why certain artefacts are displayed at eye level or some at a particular angle or position in a room. Also, the students should ponder over the necessity of preserving ancient life. Students can be asked to jot down their views, which will certainly be stimulating. Another place is the Perur Patteshwara temple, a Shiva temple built during the reign of Karikala Chola around 3 C. CE. and exhibits Chola architecture. A visit to Keeladi, an archaeological site is in the pipeline.

Bustle 5 – The card game or picture journey (all Classes from VI to XII)

This is an experimented activity in class X. This was during the transition period of being partly online and partly offline. In class X CBSE history course, there are two chapters – ‘Rise of European Nationalism’ and ‘Nationalism in India’. Both these lessons deal with an abstract concept of nationalism leading to the formation of nations. And the facts to remember or the progression of the text is vast for a student of that age to find the lesson engaging. Also the amount of information provided is immense. Another hurdle all facilitators face is getting students to read the textbooks. Possibly this card game could be of some assistance.

Instructive realization –
• The card game or picture journey is where a facilitator chooses the key word or key concepts in pictorial form or in the form of riddles written/drawn on the cards, which leads to the concept or the event the students need to eventually find. The enlisted events from the text can be in chronological order to give a sense of sequence to the students.
• The students are made to sit in a circular form or in the form of a chain one leading to another or in any other way the facilitator wants them to. Then the cards are distributed randomly, the students have to identify the word or the concept with the hints on the cards and arrange themselves in an order expected from them.
• The important step is the student should also spot that exact term or event in the textbook, thus skimming of the text takes place.
• The thread can be the developments in the lesson or story, a unit arranged one after another. It is up to the facilitator to raise the difficulty levels by adding cues that lead to both the right concept and the order.
• With the lesson ‘Nationalism in India’, the units are the major mass movements launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi during India’s struggle for independence. Students find it taxing to remember why these mass movements were launched, their purpose in particular, the aftermath and the counterviews for withdrawals of these movements and so on.
• Thus, the card game helped me to engage the class effectively. It is positively a lot of homework for the facilitator before she plans these activities, but once the cards are ready for a lesson they can be re-used and every time we reuse we will definitely come up with a new cue for the cards.

Bustle 6 – Seminar with a tinge of role play (all Classes from VI to XII)

In class IX and X, history and political science is taught by one teacher and is also considered as a composite single subject. Political science is a cynical cousin of history. Why I say this is, for instance, in class IX, we complete the discussion on the lesson ‘Nazism and the Rise of Hitler’ and then start with ‘Democratic Rights’, thus reiterating more thunderously that, “democracy is the best form of government, with all its flaws!”

So, let us take an example from the political science textbook. Two such lessons can be taken for seminar presentations by students, ‘Popular Struggles’ and ‘Political Parties’ in class X and I have been practicing this technique for quite some time. Also seminars can be conducted for those lessons that are rationalized.

Instructive realization –
• Students have the freedom to choose any one political party from the parties enlisted in the textbook. If they have any other party in mind they can choose that too. In our classroom a political party by a famous Tamil actor was also presented, this party had contested for the first time in the State Assembly Elections in 2022.
• For some political parties there were more than one group or pair presenting, here the role of the facilitator is crucial. More than one set of students can present the same political party, but the facilitator should guide and ensure that the content and approach is not repetitive.
• Some students used a mannerism or an accessory like a dupatta or a muffler, a hand-made face mask or a style of speaking to suggest the scion or the spokesperson of the party. Here, the facilitator should draw lines and guarantee it doesn’t turn out to be a mockery of any party or person.

Bustle 7 – The Ball Game (all classes from VI to XII)

This technique was learned at a workshop for teachers by the History for Peace Conference, the Seagull Foundation. This activity was conducted by teacher educators for school teachers. We had a session by two facilitators from a school in Delhi and the idea was to help young children understand social inequalities.

One of the things that is unpleasant to discuss in classrooms without fiery exchanges is the Reservation Policy in India. Many of our students fail to accept social disparity.

Requirements – a big carton, 10 or 15 tennis balls
• The teacher does not give any idea to the students as to what it is all about.
• She requests any 10 students to arrange themselves in linear lines one behind the other.
• The carton is kept at a distance, the students cannot move beyond their places.
• Each student is given a tennis ball and they are asked to aim at the carton.
• The students in the front row are able to get one or two balls into the carton and the row behind is not able to get any, if they do then it prodigious, they have some special quality of being taller than all and so on.
• After this, the facilitator initiates a discussion with the other students seated in the class as to what can be done to make the students standing in the back row to successfully get the balls into the carton.
• Many responses were received, such as – “we will get them a stool”, “we can lift them up”, or “students in the front row will step aside” and so on, until they arrive at the conclusion that all can stand in a circle and the carton can be in the center, thus everyone is at equidistance and can throw the ball into the carton.
• Here the facilitator should ask if this happens in real life or in an actual society, do all resources get shared equally, are we all at an equidistance from our goals?
• The same activity can be done by making all students stand in two circles around the cartons and see if the students standing in the farthest circle are able to aim right.
• We can also have all the balls in the carton and ask students to take as many as they can, then see if there is anything left for those who couldn’t lay their hands on a single ball.

Instructive realization – Thus, the facilitator can help students contemplate about social inequalities in terms of incomes, castes, language, religion, genders, privileges, educational and employment opportunities and so on. An open forum of questions can be had and students can be explained how the reservation policy was never meant to snatch from one set of people and provide to the other. Eventually, a middle ground can be found. Instilling the habit of democratic discussion from a young age should be an indispensable part of education.

The above is a sneak-peek of classrooms, these are a few experiments. Some gave desired results and some were close and some did not. We need to modify and introspect constantly. And that is what a practicing, reflective teacher does, metamorphose and transform, sharpens her skills every time when the tools are blunted by complacency and conclusions.

As Leslie Owen Wilson sums up in her poem ‘Lessons of Another Kind’ –
“Perhaps it is enough to say, I came to teach but learned instead”…

The author teaches History for grades IX to XII at Delhi Public School Coimbatore. She can be reached at meerabhuvanesh@gmail.com.