Initiating a magical journey

Subha Das Mollick

Critical thinking, a spirit of enquiry, the ability to process information from diverse sources is important for an immersive experience in history. It requires as much scientific temper to study history as it requires to study physics.

The project titled “Magic of My School” was founded on two ideas. One, with each school tracing its own history, this would be a participatory way to explore and map the history of education in Kolkata and secondly, through this project, one could develop an innovative model of pedagogy for teaching-learning history in a ‘hands-on’ manner.

The schools that participated in the Magic of My School project embraced the challenge of getting initiated into the journey of discovery. How to unearth hitherto unknown facts about the school? How to reinterpret known facts? How to keep a record of all findings? To initiate the students into the project, a workshop was designed and carried out in 25 participating schools. Here is an outline of the workshop.

PART 1
Warming up: Why history?
In most of the schools, students were from classes VII to X. They were told that history would be the subject of discussion for the next two hours. They were asked, “How many of you like history, raise your hands”. Many hands went up. Then they were asked, “How many of you hate history?” Some hands went up.

The students’ reasons for liking history were:
• History makes us aware of world affairs.
• Only through studying history we understand our present position.
• We must learn from history so that we do not repeat our mistakes.
• History is full of stories of kings and queens.

In the same way students gave their reasons for disliking history. Their arguments were:
• Difficult to remember so many dates and names.
• History is full of mindless battles and wars.
• Why do we need to bother about the past?

At this warming up phase, almost every student was eager to express his/her opinion. Having drawn the students into the process, they were then asked, “Why is history a compulsory subject in every syllabus, anywhere in the world?”

By collating their own answers, they were made to understand that the study of history gives us an identity. We would know what it means to be an Indian only if we know the history of India. We would be conscious of the legacy we have inherited only if we read about Charak and Susruta, Ashoka and Akbar, about Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose. History takes us back to our roots. Without knowing history we would be rootless. At the same time it gives us an idea that our very own history is a part of global history and each and every human settlement has its own unique history.

Recall your textbooks: What in history?
Having established the importance of studying history, the next question asked was, “What have you recently studied in your history class?”

Some said, “World War II”. Some said, “Formation of United Nations”. Some said, “India’s freedom struggle”.

So in their history class, they studied world history and history of the nation. The next question “Have the names of your ancestors figured in the history books?” inevitably evoked laughter. “We are too insignificant,” they said. “What have we done to deserve a place in the history books?”

History books are all about those who shape our destiny. But all of us have an agency to shape our destinies and our destinies are linked to the destiny of our nation. So all of us deserve a place in the grand narrative of history. The history of our families, of our communities and neighbourhoods, constitute what is known as local history. Since renowned historians do not bother about these local histories, the onus is on us to write our local histories. History of the school is one such piece of local history that the students would now have to dig out. So, from being students of history, they would now have to don the cap of historians.

PART II
Being historians
What are the sources of information for a historian? From where does he get his facts and figures? The students were forthright with their answers – archaeological remains, monuments, old coins, old paintings, books, and manuscripts. If the history is of a more recent period, one can glean information from old newspaper reports, old documents and letters, old photographs and diaries, medallions and trophies, report cards and appraisal certificates, the students added.

Information gleaned from these varied sources are like dots. The historian’s next task is to join the dots and complete the picture. The same set of dots can be joined in two different ways to form two different pictures. What picture the historian would create from the dots will depend on what he would like to see and show the world. When European historians first wrote the history of India, they projected Europe as a modernizing influence over a medieval civilization. But Romila Thapar argues, “Most of the Indian historians had either participated in the national movement for independence or had been influenced by it. Their contention was that the Golden Age in India had existed prior to the coming of the British and that the ancient past of India was a particularly glorious period of her history. This view was a natural and inevitable adjunct to the national aspiration of the Indian people in the early twentieth century.”*

Thus, the writing of history is riddled with subjectivity. Whatever is written in history books is not the inviolable truth. It is the historian’s interpretation of the truth. And the course of the historical narrative takes an abrupt turn with the discovery of new facts. With the discovery of Mohenjo-Daro, the history of India went back to 4000 BC. With the discovery of the Ajanta caves, the forgotten world of Buddhist art surfaced once again in all its many splendored hues.

The Magic of My School project offered the young historians an opportunity to rewrite the history of their school. But what would be the starting point of this journey? It would perhaps be a good idea to begin with a question.

Every student was given a piece of paper. On this paper, they were asked to write a good question on their school. Ten minutes were enough for the students to pen their questions. Some of the generic questions were:
• Who designed the logo of our school?
• What was there on this piece of land before our school was built?
• Who was the first principal of our school?
• Has our school dress always been like this?
• What subjects were taught when the school was first established?

Some of the school-specific questions were:
• Dolna was once a crèche, then a school and now a family. How has been the whole journey?
• A few goals that were of primary concern earlier but now taken a backseat. What are those goals? Why have they taken a backseat?
• Where does the forbidden staircase in our school lead to?
• Whose portrait hangs from the wall of our school office?
• How did the concept of “Courage is Destiny” motto come about?
• What idea came into the mind of Mr Frank Anthony to develop three Anglo Indian schools in India?
• My school was only for boys when it was first established. Why and when was my school turned into a co-educational school?

None of these questions had ready answers that could be found in a guide book. The students would have to figure out how to find answers to the questions. For example, answer to the question “What was there on the piece of land before our school was built?” could be found from old residents of the neighbourhood or the municipality records. Any information on erstwhile principals, teachers, illustrious alumni, and the first batch of students to have passed out from the school could be found in old school magazines or jubilee publications of the school. Information on old school uniforms would be embedded in old group photos of various classes.

The students felt excited about the ‘treasure hunt’. They began to look forward to this exciting journey of rummaging through old photographs, old school magazines, going around the school looking for old pieces of furniture, invading the school storeroom to look for discarded bells, pen stands, typewriter machines, etc., sniffing out stories attached to these artefacts and then filling their bags with these newfound stories. They were told to keep meticulous records of all their findings. The journey was as important as the final destination.

Part III
Keeping records
Since the students had never done such an exercise before, they needed a little guidance in keeping records. They were now divided into groups of five to seven. Each group was given an old artefact like an antique paperweight, an old letter holder, an old book with annotations in the margins, an old wallet with currencies of different countries, a pocket watch and so on. They got 20 minutes to examine the artefact carefully and write down their inferences. Their inference would have what they could figure out about the artefact and what they could not figure out. At the end of about 25 minutes, each group came up and gave a presentation.

It was found that the students had examined the artefacts quite thoroughly. They had figured out what it was used for, they took a guess at the material it was made of, they found out the manufacturing date and the date of publication and they drew interesting inferences from the design of the artefacts. Here are two examples:

Example 1
Object or document found: The object looks like a paper weight. It is a small bronze statue of a lion, striking out his/her tongue, holding on to a Reliance flag.

Inference drawn: I think the artefact was made to signify the power and might of the person.

Questions raised: How old is the artefact? What does the lion signify? What does ‘Reliance’ mean?

Example 2
Object or document found: It is a gold pocket watch from Japan. The company name is JAL. It is water-resistant and the model number is 6031 –343557 KA. The watch is detachable.

Inference drawn: The watch is not made of pure gold because it is not heavy. The case is not in good condition. This means the watch is old. The watch has to be wound, so it is at least 50 years old.

Questions raised: Who owned this watch?

Tapping memories

Besides the treasure hunt to dig out old artefacts and documents, writing local history necessitates another kind of treasure hunt – tapping into memories of individuals and bringing out nearly forgotten incidents, milestones crossed long ago, a life transformed decades back, faces and names faded with time. Churning memories to retrieve relevant information requires a refined interviewing skill. The latter part of the workshop was devoted to developing this interviewing skill.

The first question is whose interview to take? The answer is, somebody who has had long years of association with the school, somebody who has a strong emotional attachment to the school and somebody who has already done some research on the history of the school.

The students made a list of probable interviewees. The principal’s name was on the top of the list. Then came the names of their favourite teachers. Names of the gardener, the tailor and others who have been associated with the school for generations were also included in the list. In schools that are more than one hundred years old, there are students whose parents and grandparents had been students of the same school. So the galaxy of interviewees included teachers, parents, administrators, and office-bearers.

• The most important tool for conducting an interview is the questionnaire. A good question is a question that cannot be answered in one word or one sentence. A good question triggers a thought process in the interviewee’s mind. A good question, sincerely answered, is a rich resource material for any research work. The students were asked to make a list of five good questions they would like to ask their principal.

The order of the questions is as important as framing good questions. The first few questions should be comfort questions – questions that the interviewee will be happy to answer. Gradually, as the interviewee warms up to the interview, more difficult or controversial questions may be asked.

An audio record should be kept of all exploratory interviews so that the interview can be played back again and important information gleaned from it. On playing back the interview one can notice the hesitations, the silent moments and the slight variations in the pitch and tone of speaking. These variations and hesitations are also meaningful. One can actually read between the lines of a recorded interview.

A good interview can take anything between half an hour to one hour to complete. The interviewer plays a crucial role here. He/she should not be overbearing and yet should not lose control of the situation. The reins of the interview should be in the hands of the interviewer, not the interviewee. The interviewer has to do thorough research before facing the interviewee. He/she should be punctual, polite, and have positive body language. To demonstrate what should not be done in an interview, a role-play was enacted between a ‘filmmaker’ and a ‘journalist’. The ‘journalist’ was brash, rude, unprepared and visibly uninterested in conducting the interview. The students suppressed their laughter with difficulty during the role-play and gleefully pointed out the flaws after it was over.

After pointing fingers at the flawed ‘journalist’, the students now had to conduct a flawless interview themselves. And they had to do it in front of a camera.

The students were taught the basic functions of a video camera and the way to set up an ‘on camera’ interview. The students chose a well-lit spot, set an interesting backdrop for the interview and asked the interviewee to pose in front of the camera. Recording clean audio was as important as taking a good video. So the students were taught how to handle a lapel microphone and, if a microphone was not available, how to record reasonably good audio with a phone.

The students chose the interviewer, the camera person and the sound recordist from the group. A ten-minute long interview session was conducted as the concluding activity of the workshop.

A note to the teaching community
The Magic of My School initiation workshop was fine-tuned and perfected through repeated conduction in 22 schools. While most of the workshops were held for students of a single school, in some workshops, students of three schools joined in.

Although most of the participating students were from classes VII to IX, in at least three workshops, there was a group of Class V students along with the older students. Class V students do not study history as a separate subject. So they could not participate actively in the initial warming up phase of the workshop. Some special questions had to be designed to draw the primary school students into the discussion. However, in the latter part of the workshop when group activities, role-play and video recording of the interviews started, these students became very active.

Without being tagged with the Magic of My School project, this workshop can be conducted as a stand-alone history workshop. The workshop offers so many diverse activities to the students that there is not a moment of boredom. At the end of two and a half hours, the students are still hungry for more.

*Romila Thapar, A History of India (Volume 1), Penguin Books, (1990)

The author is the chief ideator of the project Magic of My School. She has also edited the two volume book “Kolkata Schools: Weaving Magic in Education”. She can be reached at subha.dasmollick@gmail.com.