Children's Education

EDUCATING children should be normally the easiest of things ; but some-how it has become, or been made, the most difficult. Experience shows that the children are always learning one thing or another, whether we notice it or not and whether what they learn is good or bad. This may seem strange to some readers. But if we would consider carefully — who is a child ; what is education and who is best qualified to teach the children? — the observation made above would not seem strange and might even appear quite correct.

By children we mean young boys and girls not more than 10 years of age. Then, education does not mean simply the knowledge of letters—the capacity to read and write. The knowledge of letters is only one of the means to education. Really speaking, education consists in learning to use in the right way all one's sense-organs, including the mind. In other words, the child should know how to use his organs of action such as hands and feet etc., as also his organs of knowledge such as the nose, the eyes etc. A boy who knows that he should not use his hands in stealing things or killing flies, or beating the younger brothers, sisters and play-mates, has already made a good beginning on his way to education.

The same may be said of the boy who understands the need for keeping his teeth, tongue, ears, eyes, nails etc. clean and does so. A boy who does not indulge in pranks while eating or drinking, who has learnt to eat and drink in the right manner, whether alone or in company, who knows the distinction between wholesome and unwholesome food and chooses the former, who does not overeat, who does not ask for every new thing that he sees and who, when he asks for it and does not get it, remains quiet, may be said to have progressed quite a great deal in his education. Whose pronunciation is good, who can tell the History and Geography of his region—even though he may not know these terms, —who knows what is meant by the Motherland, he has traversed a fairly good distance on the road to education. Similarly with him who has learnt to distinguish between truth and untruth, between good and evil and who invariably chooses what is true and good, there is no need to further elaborate the point. The readers can fill in the picture themselves. Only I should make one thing clear : there is no need of the knowledge of reading and writing in order to learn the things I have spoken of above.

The Alphabet

To make the boys to learn the alphabet is to put an undue burden on their young minds and to misuse their eyes and hands. A rightly educated boy gets to learn reading and writing almost without any effort and, what is more, gladly at the proper time. At the present time, however, this thing becomes a heavy burden upon him. Much of the valuable time which could be put to better use goes to waste, and, in the end, instead of producing shapely letters or acquiring a finely articulated pronunciation, all that they succeed in doing is to produce misshapen letters and cultivate a bad handwriting. As for reading, they read much which had better been left unread, and read it indifferently without any sense of pronunciation. To call it education is to abuse that august term. The boy must first get elementary knowledge before learning to read and write. If this is done, our poor country would be saved from much unnecessary expense incurred on various readers and children's books and many other evils. If children's readers are at all thought necessary, they should be written for use by the teachers and not for boys of my conception. But for our drifting with the current vogue, this thing should be as clear to us as day-light.

Education at Home

The boys can get the education I have spoken of only at home and that, too, only through the mother. In a way, all boys do get some sort of an education from the mother. But seeing that the home has disintegrated, so to say, and seeing that most parents are not equal to the task, the boys should be placed in surroundings where they will get the same atmosphere as they do at home. Since of all persons the mother is the most competent to undertake the duty of educating the children, this particular task should be entrusted only to women.

As a rule, men are far behind women in respect of love and patience. If this is true, the question of the education of children cannot be solved unless efforts are made simultaneously to solve the women's education. And I have no hesitation in saying that, as long as we do not have real mother-teachers who can success-fully impart true education to our children, they will remain uneducated even though they may be going to schools.

Outline of Children's Education

Let me now set forth, in brief, an outline of the children's education. Suppose that a mother-teacher is entrusted with five children. These children have no training in manners. They do not speak distinctly. They do not know how to walk or even to sit in the right manner. The nose, eyes, ears, and nails are dirty. Asked to sit, they stretch out their legs and when they speak, they mumble. They have no knowledge of directions. The clothes are untidy and the pockets are filled with dirty titbits, which they are always taking out and putting in their mouths. The border of the cap on the head has turned black and sticky, and it gives out a foul odor. Now, the teacher in question can train them only if she has the heart of a mother. The first lesson she has to give them would be that of cleanliness. She will drench them with her love and amuse them in various ways, as only mothers know how to do and as did Causally her Ramah, and thus she will bind them to herself with the ties of love, and so will be in a position to secure from them willing compliance to all that she wants. She will know no rest until these boys have learnt to keep neat and tidy, until their teeth, ears, hands and feet are clean ; until they learn to take care of their clothes and have improved their pronunciation.

Having accomplished this, she will first teach them Ramanama—the name of Lord God. He has many names and it does not matter by which name He is called. The next in order after Dharma is Artha i.e., the temporal knowledge. So, she will now set out to teach them arithmetic. She will get them learn the multiplication tables, teach them addition and subtraction—as much of it as can be managed orally. The boys must know the place where they live. So, she will tell them of the rivers and rivulets, hills, buildings of interest, etc., and, in the process, give them the knowledge of directions. She will improve her own knowledge for the sake of the children. History and Geography are not to be treated as separate subjects in this method. Both will be taught by way of stories. She will not, however, be content with this. A Hindu mother will recite Sanskrit verses to her children from their infancy, so that they get used to the pronunciation of Sanskrit words. She will get them to learn Sanskrit verses in praise of God. A patriotic mother will, of course, teach them Hindi, too. She will, therefore, converse with them in Hindi. She will read out to them selected passages from Hindi books and thus make them bilingual. She will not teach them the alphabet yet, but she will certainly give them the brush. She will get them to trace the geometrical figures — to draw straight lines and circles. A boy who cannot draw a flower or a water-jug or a traingle, cannot be said to be educated. Again, she will not but introduce them to good music. She will not tolerate the children being unable to sing in unison the national song or hymns, etc. She will teach them to sing to the accompaniment of time. If possible, she will give them ektara, or jhanjh. To make them physically fit, she will get them to do physical exercises, to practise running and jumping. Then, the boys should also be taught the love of service and various skills. She will, therefore, teach them spinning with all the ancillary processes, beginning from the picking of cotton pods. And these boys will willingly spin for at least half an hour every day.

Text-Books

Most of the text-books which we have to-day are useless for this purpose. The mother-teacher, therefore, will find out or produce new ones, and her love for the children will help her in this task. Every village has its own history and geography ; naturally, it will have its own history-book and geography-book. The arithmetical exercises, too, will be new. The mother-teacher will prepare the lessons she wants to teach the children herself everyday. She will produce new sums and will always have many new things to say to the boys—which she will note down in her note-book when she prepares the lesson. Her lesson in the class will thus be not a mechanical performance, but something lively and creative.

The Syllabus

The syllabus will vary according to the progress of the children. It should, therefore, be drawn up after every three months. The children constituting the class come from different homes—each has his own different background of nurture. We cannot, therefore, have the same syllabus for all of them. At times, it may be necessary even to induce them to unlearn what they have learnt. For example, if a six or seven year old child has learnt to trace letters in a slovenly way, or has picked up the habit of reading without trying to understand what he reads, the mother-teacher will see that he unlearns all that. She must cast out the illusion that the child can acquire knowledge only through reading. It is easy enough to understand that even one, who never had any training in reading, can be wise.

'Mother-Teacher'

I have not used the word teacher in this article ; I have throughout used the word 'mother-teacher' in its place. Because the teacher must really be a mother to the children she teaches. One who cannot take the place of a mother cannot be a teacher. The child should never feel that he is being taught. Let her simply keep her eye upon him and guide him. A child who spends six hours in the school will possibly be wasting his time, while the former will be learning something or the other all the time in terms of real education.

It is likely that we may not get good women-teachers in the existing conditions. That being so, we may make use of men for the purpose. In that case, these men-teachers will have to fill the place of the mother. But, eventually, it is the mother who will have to undertake the task. But, if I am right, any mother who has love for children can easily prepare herself for it. And she can also prepare the children at the same time that she is preparing herself.

— Navajivan : June 2, 1929