ACT- A School at Home
If you read our post The Beginning; you would be aware that the founders of Anugriha Charitable Trust, Mr. and Mrs. Raghavan, chose to home-school their child, Nirupama. As Aruna Raghavan pointed out in that post, "We could not ask people to send their children to us while ours studied in a fancy residential school." Continue reading this article from the Indian Express to better understand their decision, and learn how you can home-school your own child!
I’ve been receiving a lot of mail on home schooling: why did we try for our own child? The
philosophy, the methods.... The number of such enquiries is very encouraging. In '88, when we
decided not to put our child through the wringer of a school, we were accused of many things
including that we were disappointed that we had a girl child! Our reasons were very simple.
Raghavan and I were clear that we wanted to start a ‘new’ school, with new ideas, new
environment. And were garnering all the experience and reading we could. Obviously, one cannot
start something new for the ‘world’ and close one’s own ‘doors’.
Why did we want such a schooling? To give her as many opportunities to do as many things she
wanted and at the time she wanted. If a child has seen an artist paint a ceramic vase and wants to
learn, nothing can be more boring to a child than have his parent say, “Hobby classes are for
summer vacation.” To a growing mind, immediacy is as important as doing it. To think of painting
also as learning was important to us. So was music, creative writing, making friends, going to a
‘drama’ group for under 5, playing in the beach, going to the zoo, the art gallery, the garden, the
amusement theme parks, to take her along to as many and varied meetings as possible even if she
slept through some of them or read through others.[ Since she was a reader from two, she was never
a nuisance.]. To learn slokas, to chant, bhajans, to go to the ‘office’ with her father or the bank with
her grandfather or the airport with her grandmother; nothing was beyond the ambit of ‘learning’.
Then to talk about past ideas with reference to new experiences. All this takes time and time had to
be ‘timeless’. No stress of portions, exams, term tests. Where learning and teaching so
complemented each other that it was difficult to say how much of what was going on. It took up all
one’s energy. Being a parent is then a full time job. And since it is never possible to be a full time
parent we enrolled all the grandparents, uncles, aunts. Each taught what they enjoyed and that gave
us the time that was needed to read up, think up more things we could do for and with her.
So, why was ‘school’ excluded? For that we came up with our own definition of a school: an
institution that taught with joy and anticipation all that a child would like to learn.
Click here to tweet the previous sentence
That while a teacher may work hard at preparing for the lessons, a child should not even be aware of how much guidance the teacher is offering. In simple words, an adult who is available exclusively for the child. By its very definition it became obvious that one teacher for every 50 children cannot fulfill a child’s need. Although in our schools, we maintain a ratio of 1:5 for the pre k.g . And 1:10 for the
primary for all ‘formal’ work, the fact is: only parents can give that love and care that are a child’s
right and parents’ privilege.
story, or tell what happened in the neighbourhood, at work, or when you go for a walk... The trick is
to capitalise on each event. What you say, do with a clear idea of what you are targeting your child
should learn. Here are some examples: If your child is a toddler, bring to his notice the different
kinds of leaves he can see. Collect two sets of leaves. Get your child to stick one set. You’ll be
encouraging concentration, hand coordination and great pride in himself. Sick your set on different
sheets with the name of the tree written large on the top. You’ll teach your child to observe more
than you! If your child is 5 and above, buy pictures of amusement theme park rides. An excellent
introduction to the laws of physics and creation. For age 8 and above, take him to as many local
monuments, temples, museums and have a small album of pictures that he took with your camera!
And under each of the photos he may write 20 –50 words about the place. You’ll be creating a
number of people within one person: a photographer, a historian, a diarist and a writer. But this is to
be done as fun not as ‘its time you knew all this’.
And why do such enquiries make me glad? Because it means every home will be a school and
every home a centre of learning.
Comments
Post a Comment