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Focus on Books Two manuals to communicate with childrenEDUCATION: From time to time, teaching manuals appear in the field of education. They consist of various factors relating to the development, and the experiments performed both inside and outside the classroom. The manuals help educationists to gauge the direction to which the parents and teachers should guide the children. This was my feeling, when I participated in the launching of two teaching manuals written by Bonnie Miller, a specialist in the field of education, who had started her social work career in the public schools, and conducted training sessions over the years for teachers in various countries all over the world. She was here last week to grace the translation launch of her two manuals, both in original and translation versions, as published by the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute and Plan Sri Lanka organisation. The two manuals are titled Communication with children and Connecting with children in the classroom of which the Sinhala translations are titled as Lamayin Samaga Sannivedanaya and Pantikamaraye Lamayin Samaga Sambandavima respectively. It looks as if the first publication is meant especially for parents, while the second one is for both parents and teachers. This does not mean that there is a strict rule behind the guiding lines underlined by the author. Printed on glossy paper, and profusely illustrated, the two manuals are written with various narratives, poems, parables, dialogues, and facts itemised in a classified interacted order enabling creative thinking. The translation is by the veteran educationist Professor Lal Perera of Colombo University, who also had been in the field for over a period of thirty years. The manuals are meant to be used by teachers and parents not only as a supplementary textual material - also as a motivating force, which is felt as a timely need, perhaps in our country. These manuals are designed in an easy-to-handle form on the part of the teachers and parents, and underline the fact that a manual is a creative indicator on the part of the user. The manual Communicating with children is subdivided as chapters, with headings or table of contents such as Philosophy, Communication, Building self esteem, Love and Logic, Discipline, Choices and Consequences, Resolving conflicts, Encouraging cooperation, How words can hurt, Handling anger, and Special issues. In converse turns, these chapters are subdivided and highlighted into creative paragraphs, emphasizing the mannerisms of a child in his outlook, which should be sensitively understood by the parents and teachers. Addressing the parents at the outset in her manual, the author Miller says that raising a child is hard work. Helping a child is one of the most important endeavours, any of us can undertake. For the individual child and family, and for society as a whole, it is crucial that we encourage growing children to be strong, intelligent, sensitive, caring, tolerant, creative, conscientious, confident and productive. These are some of the basic factors presumably forgotten in the present-day education, as the children are forcefully geared to a competitive form of rat race, where the guiding principle is the actual success in examinations to be a winner, and reach as high as possible in order to earn a luxurious living. Author Miller, without any anger or dispute, underlines some of the salient basic principles that should be adhered to by parents at home and school by the teacher. As such, the author's intention is to compile a manual to help parents and teachers to better communicate with their children, and to use verbal and non physical methods of discipline, as the author further examines communication techniques require practice like speaking a foreign language. However, as you continue to use these respectful strategies, you will be reinforced by the positive reactions of your children. Quoting a UNICEF source, the author says that the day will come when nations will be judged not by their military or economic strength nor by the splendour of their capital cities and public buildings, but by the well-being of their peoples, by their levels of health nutrition education, by their opportunities to earn a fair reward for their labours, and by their ability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. The two manuals supply an adequate dose for creative thinking, and I would like to quote one of the most interesting parables of real life as inserted in the manual on communication, which goes as follows: Once there was an old man walking along a beach with his grandson. The boy picked up each starfish they passed, and threw it back into the ocean. "If I left them here,' said the boy, 'they would dry up and die. I am saving their lives." The old man said. "But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish. What you are doing won't make any difference." The boy looked at the starfish in his hand, threw it in the water, and answered. "It makes a difference to this one." Needless to emphasize that there is wisdom in these few lines, written in the form of a parable, which if required could be expanded to express many more human experience, but suffice it to say that the few lines stand as an epitome of a viewpoint that needs closer scrutiny, for in this wide fathomless world of ours there are simpler significant things that could be done, which in turn will help build a better world tomorrow. The manual Connecting With Children In The Class Room looks an extension of wisdom, as laid down in the companion manual. This manual covers areas such as education for the future, changing the system, school climate, aspects of building esteem, active learning, factors pertaining to the emotional problems of children, and attention deficit disorders, and the need for the parent teacher constant contact etc. This volume is especially addressed to the teacher, and lays emphasise on the aspired attitudinal changes of the student in the classroom and the school environment at large. The author says that this manual should be read by teachers, if they want to see a transformation in the educational system of the respective country, where he or she teaches and envisages that small changes in the beginning could help build better large scale changes, and help build innovative skills in teaching. To conclude my rereading session on the two manuals the apt use of an insert in the manual, which is a Chinese proverb, which goes as follows, is fitting. "When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people." |
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