27/1/10

Been an interesting week at L.I. so far, with really high highs and bad lows and a couple of what I am going to call 'moments of revelation'.

The first moment of revelation came on Monday. I had taken a friend, who wanted to see where I taught, along to the class. The kids told us that they wanted to make a skit for the Republic Day celebrations on Tuesday. Despite the short notice, we were all excited by the prospect of presenting a skit. We just needed a story. It was during the brainstorming that one of the kids said to me, "Didi, you've been to school and college and all. You must have read a lot. Why don't you tell us something?" I felt trapped and my mind was blank. (My friend later told me she too had felt the same way.) And that's when I realised two things. One, although I am an avid reader and watcher of films, I am not much of a story teller. Two, and more important, so little of my education has been about creating. It has mostly been about learning about other people's creations and appreciating them, a passive sort of education. I also realised that the kids had the same experience, because they were only coming up with stories they had read in books, most of which were quite inappropriate for RDay celebrations! :-) But in the next hour and a half, the class was able to come up with a short self-scripted play about 'naari shiksha'. Although the topic was hardly new or revolutionary, it was fantastic to see them come up with passionate arguments for the cause of girls' education. Of course, the team work and the newly-revealed acting/directing/scripting talents of the kids were awesome fun. :)

A pity the skit never got staged. This brings me to the second moment of revelation. On RDay, I was, unfortunately, able to stay only for their dress rehearsals and make-up. I had to give the main event a skip as I had to be elsewhere then. The following day I was saddened to find that they had not staged the skit at all! And when asked, they told me it was because someone had told them that they had better be confident they would make no mistakes in the skit. Now, this had the very sad effect of demoralising the whole team, because the choice of words made them think they would be penalised if there was the slightest mistake in their presentation and the girls got very scared. I think fear is the wrong tool to use to discipline kids. That almost amounts to bullying the children into doing something. And with that the important connection of trust that a teacher must have with a student is entirely lost.

Most of us are fragile, especially children. What other people, in particular their teachers, say matters immensely to children. Just as a word of encouragement and a show of faith in their abilities can get amazing results from them, a hurtful or threatening word can break their confidence. The trick is not to criticise, but to show them where they can be better.