Nature Wise

In our previous posts we have shared our thoughts about the change that is in happening in schools, families and within society. Meanwhile the mother of all changes has been taking place around us.

Mother Nature has been stretched quite a bit with all the human action of ‘modernization’. Her reaction to the mayhem we created has come forth through global warming, changing seasons, melting glaciers, parched lands in one geography and torrential rains in another. It is not difficult to understand that impacts of these changes are going to stay with us for a while.

We often hear environmentalists complain about people being completely disinterested in issues related to conservation of the natural environment.
Most middle-class families have a car, often more than one. They consider it inconvenient to use public transport, have a car pool or walk. People pluck leaves and flowers from trees with the same nonchalance as they throw a soft drink can out of a moving car or dump garbage under a tree or any vacant plot they can find. 

Yet, we also know that some people like our friend Tara carry back a toffee wrapper home to dispose it in the bin if they do not find a suitable spot to trash outside. Tara attributes this to the fact that ‘No littering’ was a message drilled in her school. She explains that the convent she attended was spotlessly clean at all times. The teachers constantly talked about the importance of cleanliness.

This brings us to the question: “Given that each one of us needs to become more sensitive and caring towards the environment, how do we instill this in the minds of young children?”

A story that a kindergarten teacher shared with us recently, provides us with a clue to answer this.

This teacher is a Nature lover. She introduced her students to gardening in school. Every day her students would visit the patch of garden where they had sprinkled some carrot seeds, until one day it was time to pull out the carrots from the ground. Her fondest memories are of the look of wonder and amazement on the little ones’ faces as they realized that the seeds they had sprinkled had grown into marvelous red carrots. “This was hiding under the ground,” one child said.  “Miss I can smell the mitti!” said another one. This small exposure for the children to the wonders of Nature would have probably developed a greater sensitivity and interest in plants than all poems, stories, songs put together they had heard in class.

So let’s think of how adults can create real and authentic experiences with Nature for their little ones. What about lifting a huge rock and asking children to see what is underneath? Or pointing to a squirrel seated outside the window and having children decide on a name for it? Then weaving a story around it?

In this context we share a curious problem that a teacher faced in her class. There was a lizard that refused to be chased out. Several of the children were scared of the lizard; while many others were for throwing things at it or stamping on it. The teacher named the lizard ‘Changu- Mangu’ and created a story about it. So every morning the Circle Time concluded with a story about “Do you know what Changu-Mangu did last evening?” Finally when the housekeeping was able to remove the lizard from the class, the story was concluded because “Chang-Mangu had gone visiting her friends.”

This is not to suggest that we allow our classrooms and homes to be infested with pests. We want to highlight a teacher’s ingenuity in turning an irksome situation into an opportunity to help children develop a feeling of compassion for animals including the not-so-cute-ones.

Simple initiatives like setting up a bird feeder so that children can feed and observe birds can bring children close to Nature. Another suggestion is to have children lie on their backs, observe the clouds and then draw them. Or have them adopt a tree or a plant during a year and care for it.

We adults in our role as mentors and parents have myriad ways to help our children develop a sense of fascination and respect for Nature. Caring for the environment will be a natural corollary.

The Day that Comes Once in a Year

Annual Days are quite the big deal for all schools. Weeks and months of toil and hard work are put into the preparations for the event. On this day the school comes out and tells the world, “Look at how good we are! All our students participate in extra-curricular activities.” In our adult wisdom we consider annual days a platform for children to exhibit their creativity and develop confidence.

Today we share a story about one such Annual Day.

A harried teacher was instructing her pre-scholars to remain quiet and line up for their performance. She kept running around, from one end of the waiting area to the other, getting her students ready. Just as the Chief Guest was to walk in, one of her students, Priya, started calling out to her loudly. The teacher ran to Priya, first urging her to keep quiet and then asking her what the matter was. Priya, with a face full of wonder and amazement that only a four-year-old can have, looked up at the skies, pointed with her small, chubby finger, “Look! Pigeon!”
The teacher was stumped. Should she shout at little Priya for being amazed by a pigeon, even as the Chief Guest was walking in? Or should she build on this wonder and fascination to talk about pigeons?

As people who are engaged with educating children we often encounter such ‘opportunities’. Yet we often ignore them for our pre-determined agendas. While we talk about experiential education and harp on the Play Way method, we often tailor these approaches to incorporate what we think is appropriate for the children. We try to determine the experiences and takeaway for children from these experiences. What we tend to forget is that each child is capable of thinking. We tend to ignore their authentic responses because we presume that they do not know enough.

Children can partner with adults in their own learning process, if their perspectives are accommodated in. We need to reflect on how we impose our ‘agenda’ on children. Take for example the choice of colour for their dresses - do all girls have to love pink? Or the kind of story books we select, as well as the learning experiences we create for these little individuals.

Let us go back to our story.

The teacher reflected on her experience. She realised that the children were not engaged in the show because it was not something they had wanted to do. They were merely abiding by her instructions. No one had asked them for their ideas or suggestions. So the next year the teacher started a theme on ‘Water’ a month before the Annual Day. Children experimented with water, shared experiences. Among other activities, the class heard stories on water and rivers. The children identified a story they wanted to act out. The teacher then asked the children to pretend that they were 'water' and to decide how they wanted to move. The young children with the teacher’s guidance actually choreographed their routine - deciding movements that were simple, suitable and spontaneous!
Every day the children looked forward to practicing their story. For Annual Day they put up their best performance because they were showcasing ‘their’ story for their parents!

Children have an infinite capacity to learn and express. We as teachers and parents just need to tap the potential and watch how they blossom.

Curriculum Planning

Average school-going children in India spend about 7 hours a day, 160 days in a year inside classrooms - through 13 years of their lives.
They also spend additional time at home, studying or doing homework.
This means that more than a third of the children's growing years are spent in formal education or in the company of school books.
Creating a good curriculum is therefore the first step towards helping children develop a comprehensive education. This includes knowledge of Science or Math concepts, World Affairs, History, Geography and Language.
This learning begins at preschool years.
So what comprises a good preschool curriculum?

• It should keep in mind the fact that preschool children are curious and anxious to know new things. At the same time, they are easily distracted.

The curriculum should therefore introduce topics in a variety of ways that become interesting for children. It should use examples that children identify with or can find in their real lives. This will help generate interest for a topic in children.

• It should include activities or hands-on exercises related to topics – which children can observe or participate in themselves (in a safe setup).

Children this age group find great interest in taking part in activities that make them feel 'grown-up' or 'independent'.

• Children look for means of creative expression – so the curriculum should include occasions for these.
  
  
• The curriculum should ensure that children are provided opportunities for development in multiple domains – which is a requirement at this stage in their lives, but often ignored by traditional methods of learning.
  
  
• Finally- the curriculum should be flexible enough for facilitators who are transacting it to adapt it in their own ways; perhaps add innovations, to suit the learning styles of the children they're guiding.