Educating the child

Somalatha SUBASINGHE

Children, the hope of a nation. Picture by Kavindra Perera

After much deliberation, I decided to pen my thoughts provoked by the latest hullabaloo on mobile phones in the hands of schoolchildren; its prohibition in school premises, so that it may help children keep their head balanced, unconfused and incorrupt and so save their lives. Well, so much for that.

Are there no other measures to keep children’s minds balanced. Have any of the authorities in Sri Lanka taken sufficient measures to allow the child, a child’s life?

Discovering world

What is the life of schoolchildren of today any way? In our days it was not only where we gathered knowledge, it was also where we made friends, engaged ourselves in creative activities, group activities, not for the sake of collecting points but for the pleasure of it.

How does a child learn? The child begins to discover the world through its senses, touch, smell and taste of the environment around it. When child is able to speak a few words it is a case of what, why and where, torrents of questions through which he/she collects experience. As the child grows and goes to school, we have to make him/her learn letters, numericals to prepare him to set out to the world to learn, understand and write. This process begins from Grade One and develops in primary school. Child needs time to observe, absorb, understand and remember the new things he learns, not rush. To see, understand and remember syllables, words, numericals it needs repetition.

A rat race

This can give him confidence to read and understand. Making him learn everything in a rush or by-hearting do not help develop an intelligent and rational child.

Does at least our primary school educiaotn system today in Sri Lanka warrant this? The average child is dragged out of bed by the mother early morning, rushed through a process of getting ready for school, huddled into a van or a bus or dragged to school. The child rushes into the classroom in time to throw its school bag on the desk. The school bell rings. You parrot out your prayers. From then waste no time! With facts about the world, human, animal, physical, on the surface of Earth, deep down, with unnecessary detail except for the reality his little mind is packed tight. If it is leaves of plants you have to learn, you have to observe and remember from the blade of grass on the ground to all other kinds of leaves that grow on tree branches, bushes, barks, and to plant that grow in water, above water, in different size, shape and colours! This is not expected from a botanist, mind you but from a seven to eight year old child studying environmental studies. Imagine him coping up with such detailed knowledge about other subjects he has to learn.

Over burdened

This situation continues up to Grade Nine where it becomes 10 subjects!

Teachers and students simply cannot tackle so much within school hours - for the syllabus doesn’t seem to have been formulated considering the absorbtion power of the human mind. It has not taken in to account the time the teacher and pupils needs to settle down to the lesson, other disturbances around the school and the time to open up the books. So most of it is left for home work!

Home-work-the child’s next plight! You go home with a bag full of home-work loaded on your shoulders. Throw his bag down and falls exhausted. The mother is at him again shouting to hurry up.

Home-work

You have to run for extra education called Tuition! Any mother with average education in Sri Lanka, or educated working parent cannot cope up with the heavy load of home-work helping their children. Nor is an average child capable of doing it by himself. So a second session of schooling for the day! That part is also essentially examination oriented.

Where could such education take a child? He will take with him the facts discovered, analysed and interpreted by others. He has no time to reason out things for himself. He will produce at the examination all that he had mugged up with no creativity.

How about extra reading? We have been told that ‘Reading maketh a full man’. When does the child read books other than the textbooks? By reading have we not gathered knowledge, experience, come across various characters, situation, and gained maturity about the world?

The child today has taken such a narrow tedious path. No pleasure, no time to fantasize. Even some literature textbooks are so boring that they do not inspire reading. They are also far too factual.

Forget all that. Have they got time to experience any human relationship - even with their own families?

In this formative period of their life do they have time for a relaxed chat with their parents where they exchange their ideas and views or to express their sentiments towards each other? What about grandparents? Association with them has become so remote. What a store of knowledge and experience do they miss due to that! That is how children lack awareness of traditions, social and cultural values. Do children have time to relate themselves to the extended family? The strength of our society is the bond with the extended family, not merely being a nuclear family.

Children today have no time for an extended family relationship. Their relationships have to be taught in school. Our ancestors will turn in their graves if we say that our children are taught in school that the father’s elder brother is Mahappa, younger is Bappa, mother’s brother is Mama and so on.

Distancing

It is hilarious. Very soon they will have to be taught their relationship to the father and the mother, at school. This is all because child’s school holidays are also taken up for home work, tution and presentations. There is no time for human relationships.

We, in our time, took a few minutes from the lesson to chat with the teacher - to fill our curiosity for knowledge, at the same time to ask questions we would not dare to ask our parents in our cultural context.

The writer is Director, Lanka Children’s and Youth Theatre Foundation,