On teaching and learning

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and after a nice lunch I was reminded on why Coimbatore was so special to me. The mild afternoon breeze, a little bit of sunshine and cotton dust filling your nostrils. Except that I was told that its just regular dust now after the death of cotton industries. We strolled into a deserted school reminiscing everything we loved about school. The trees, the basketball games, lunch under the peepal tree, monkey ladders, choir room, parlor meetings, class masses etc the list was endless except it did not include studying. Being neighbors and going to the same school helped practically live in each other’s heads. We strongly remembered the “pit in the stomach” feeling we used to have right before school reopened. While for a lot of people it may have been what grade or where they stood in class, for us if we were going to get across the failing grade at all. I hated studying to be plain. I hardly had a favorite subject. English maybe but that was only because it wasn’t really a subject. Looking back now studying and learning were two independent things never tied together at school. The ‘want to learn’ was never there or instigated. But now wanting to learn is what keeps us going helps in climbing up the ladder or even live life better. As an educator, it is important to not take that away from a child. As an adult I can see myself being critical and judgmental more often than appreciative. I swore I would never become that. We are ready to criticize, compare and comment but never take the extra minute to engage someone in the subject or thread him or her in to get into our thinking zone. Hardly ever put on the educator cloak. We somehow do a better job of it when we want to sell a product for our company. Several children including me turn out to be bird brained hopping from one subject to the other struggling to stay focus because they are not into it yet. As an adult now, I empathize with the child who doesn’t get good grades or who hates completing a project. She just needs someone to engage her, to make her think with him or her. I agree it takes a lot of effort and time but it maybe worth it.