Progression of Textbooks

Textbooks have an indelible influence in the lives of children, such that that it is almost impossible to imagine a school scene without simultaneously thinking of chalkboards, chalk, notebooks and textbooks.

For a very long time textbooks were the only teaching- learning aid in the classroom. Typical to any demand-supply scenario, they changed character based on the needs of the education system.
In olden days, the teacher was the head of the classroom. He was the mentor – who guided students with his words and wisdom accompanied by the writings in the textbooks. The textbooks were mostly ‘reference material’.

However for the past many decades, the purpose of teaching became simply to ‘complete the syllabus,’ prescribed in the text book rather than focusing on knowledge gain for the students. This system relied less on the teacher’s competency and more on the textbooks. Teachers merely read out from the textbooks; students learnt to memorise the words and reproduce them exactly in their examinations.

In this system it was easy for publishers to develop textbooks. New text was really regurgitated material from books written ages ago. Old content was sold under a new cover. This worked very well to save development costs. More students and schools meant higher volumes of sales. A combination of these two gave publishers enormous margins. The books had little to engage a child and cater to his interest. A by-product of this system was a generation of students who ‘learnt’ by rote - including the answers for a published list of questions, and promptly forgot what they had learnt once their exams were over.

Fortunately the wheel has begun to take a turn. There have been significant changes made in the education system – NCERT being a pioneer in this. Teachers now enjoy a higher status, including more pay and benefits. This has led them to move beyond just reading the books out to their class. Emphasis has gradually begun shifting from rote learning to one that is based on experiencing, thinking and applying. As a consequence to this change in demand, the character of textbooks has begun undergoing changes. Books are being designed to be engaging and containing text that is relevant for modern-day students. They are interactive and provide many hands-on activities for students to apply their learning.

Textbooks continue to form an integral part of this ‘collaborative’ learning process. The influence of technology has helped give them a fresh lease of life since the medium is now no longer only print, but digital and mobile as well. Research has shown the necessity of including support or supplementary learning material alongside the text books. This material like the textbook not only helps in classroom teaching, it also makes learning easier and more interesting for students.

With rapid changes in technology, it is hard to imagine what form textbooks will take in future. One thing can be said however – just like a good teacher is irreplaceable in the life of a student, a good textbook is non-pareil.

To ensure that all children benefit from the current ‘revolution’ in textbooks, it must reach schools and students across different strata of society. Moreover focused effort needs to be given to research; content needs to be reviewed and upgraded periodically and feedback from actual classrooms needs to be incorporated in order to make these books most effective.

Just like a favourite storybook, a textbook should hold a special place in the heart of a student.

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.

Build the Trust

Today we will talk about the influence teachers have on the minds of their students. We have a lot of stories to demonstrate this, but the ones we have chosen were shared with us by two parents.

The first story is about Ishaan who is fifteen years old and like most teenagers spends more time in the virtual world. His parents often worry about the amount of time he spends in front of his PC. They feel that he is somehow losing touch with the real world and Nature. On a recent road trip to the country side, Ishaan was spending a lot of time on his smart phone updating his friends about the journey rather than experiencing the real journey. As the car was passing near a village, Ishaan suddenly asked to stop. There were sugarcane fields on either side of the highway. He stepped out of the car, entered a field and just touched a sugarcane plant. He then requested one of the farm hands to give him a cane. He turned to his mother and said, "Mom, do you remember in KG we did the theme on sugarcanes? Seema ma'am got some sugarcane for us and we had so much fun chewing them! I never realized that sugarcane plants grow so tall and that the leaves have such sharp edges! It has always fascinated me….and Nature too."

Seema would never have thought of the deep impact her getting sugarcane to class would have on the children. She had simply done what she thought then was the right thing, to help children learn better. It eventually influenced at least one child in the way he looked or connected with Nature.

Here is another story.

A little while ago, when the environmental conservation drive was just gathering steam, prominent schools across the country started a 'Ban Polythene' drive.

Our friend, a parent from such a school was strictly instructed by her son to never pack his lunch in a polybag again. Back in those days, paper bags weren't readily available. Packing anything for school had become a daily battle. Every morning there were tears and fights about not taking poly bags to school. This continued for quite some time, till one day, during a struggle to find paper bags, the son just shouted, "Give it to me in a poly bag!"

The parent was taken aback. After months of abstinence from polythene bags, why did her son suddenly not mind them anymore? More than anything, she was concerned that maybe her son no longer gave enough importance to rules or socially-relevant causes. So she asked him, "Why are you asking for a poly bag all of a sudden? Won't your teacher tell you off?" To this her son replied, "How can she tell me off? She gets polythene bags to school herself!"

Adults have incredible impact on children. Sometimes this influence is way beyond what they intend or expect it to be. This is an important message for all adults who engage in 'educating' children as parents as well as teachers – Practice What You Preach. Always try to be honest in your intent. Children look at 'grown-ups' with trust and expectation. We need to work towards retaining and building on their feeling of deference. For if children stop trusting us, then who will they look up to for guidance?

The Missing Regard for Teaching

Education on one hand can be seen as the most basic route of transmitting knowledge - that schools practice. That is centred on the teacher and her students.

On the other it encompasses the ever-growing educational publishing industry, school stationery industry, educational service providers, tuition classes, co-curricular training centres, et al.

One can find that the growth of teachers has not been commensurate to the continuing enormous growth in other aspects of the education sector. While the some school teachers are well-paid and some others also enjoy such perks as attendance to foreign training workshops and certifications, the general state of teachers in the country is mediocre.

In spite of schools being money-churners for the proprietors, one often finds that the most important player, the teacher, is neglected. Why is teaching considered to be the profession for bored housewives and those with a lot of spare time on their hands? Why does every child who is asked want to be a doctor, an engineer, MBA; none wants to be a teacher? Why hasn't teaching come over to the other side, and become an aspired profession?

Many think that those who cannot find other jobs begin teaching. How true is this thinking? Is teaching not one of the most challenging professions, considering the enormous responsibility it comes with?

Only someone who has engaged with an easily distracted preschooler or an angst-ridden teenager for an extended period of time will understand how difficult it is. A teacher's job is not just to engage a classroom full of them, but guide them; make them learn with interest and understanding; work towards shaping their futures.

Appreciating this aspect of the job, can make one well agree to have the teacher well paid and satisfied!

Another line of thought is that teachers nowadays do not take their jobs seriously and have let the quality of teaching slip. Examples from Indian legends are often taken to stress on the elevated status in society of the guru – who was knowledgeable, wise and who gave up everything else in life to pursue teaching. The guru therefore was most respected, as he moulded the futures of his shishyas (students), many of whom later became scientists, scholars, famous warriors and great kings.

The onus is therefore on both teacher and society to reclaim the lost glory of teaching as a profession. Just like in the past, only people who are qualified and trained should become teachers, not those who could not qualify to become doctors, engineers or managers.

At the same time, society should encourage teachers to be treated as any other person working in corporate – who is compensated according to her qualifications, experience and work profile.

By doing this the quality of teaching and teachers can see the same proportionate growth that the education sector is currently witnessing.

The Inspiration for Inspire

At the onset of a new year, a recount from the founders on how the journey of Inspire began...

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.                          Thomas A. Edison                                   

This one-percent though small carries a lot of significance – quite simply, it differentiates someone who completed something successfully from someone who did not.

It is this one-percent that makes an explorer sail in search of undiscovered lands; an inventor labour to craft that unknown miracle that could change the world; a writer pen hundreds of lines to find that perfect prose.

It is this one-percent that brought together the founders of Inspire.

Inspire started as a thought – to bring a change in the 'learning' experiences for a child.

Radhika Suri and Sameera Sood had been educators for many years. They had seen how parents though keen and involved in their children's education were hampered by lack of understanding of what actually 'good' education is. They often based their choice of schools on factors such as infrastructure or catch phrases used in the brochures. On the other hand the school promoters and publishers used the advantage of the situation parents were in to create a successful business model based mostly on superficial elements.The entire industry built around the child paid little attention to what the child really wanted!

The inspiration behind Inspire is the child. 

One of Sameera's fondest memories is of a day when she wore a pink sari on a school occasion. She recalls vividly one compliment among many that she received – this came from one of her students who said "Oh! You look so nice today! Just like a strawberry ice cream!" She had been teaching her class colours. The little child's simple and honest response showed her attempt to extend and apply her learning beyond the class. This has remained with Sameera after so many years.

Radhika recalls how during a class she realized that teaching demanded more listening than speaking. One of her students when asked a question responded exasperated and confused. "Arre Ma'am! Aap chup rahogi toh sochunga na!" (I can only think if you keep quiet!) Radhika calls her it her 'Lesson on Teaching from a 4-year old.'

Unlike Radhika and Sameera, Tilottama comes from a corporate background. Her first interest in education came from the time her son started school. When she began hunting for a 'good' preschool for her son, all the schools she visited looked more or less the same and said the same words. In many of the schools she saw children moving around mechanically with expressionless faces. Ultimately she settled for a school which had strong recommendations from some parents she knew. What she found later in the school was something she had hated as a child – homework! Toddlers were expected to complete worksheets to be signed and graded by the teacher.

Each such experience that the founders went through was like a seed for thoughts of doing something different - wherein a child would be loved, respected, asked, listened to, given opportunities to explore her likes – to channelize the boundless enthusiasm and energy that the child has.

The learning experience would make the child look forward to learning.
The learning tools would be appropriate to enforce this learning in the child.

In its journey, Inspire looks to find many persons who share this thought of bringing in a change. A change that must happen among schools, teachers, parents and even children – in order to be effective.

It is Inspire's aim for a collaborative and accelerated effort towards better education. 

That is the remaining ninety-nine percent...the journey for which has only begun.