The Bookmarks and the Tamarind Seeds.
Mathematics
has been a nightmare for me ever since school. But is it true that certain
people develop hatred towards certain subjects from birth? The Answer is a
simple No. Some of them just need a confidence boost, which they have lost some
where down the lane and purely because of certain circumstances.
Now
here is a story of a small boy from a tier 2 City in India who developed hatred
towards Mathematics at a very young age. One fine day Rahul finds out in his mathematics
class that the teacher has announced a surprise test. Poor chap he was not
prepared, all the questions bounced off his brains. The next day morning the
teacher walks in with the answer papers. She calls out the names one by one and
hands over the answer sheets.
This
was more than what Rahul could take an embarrassment in front of the class and
he knew quiet well how much would he score, but he had never imagined if he had
to go on an insult in front of his friends. As the teacher was nearing his roll
number, from a normal 72 a minute his heart beat went up to 75.
Finally
She calls out: Oh Rahul, Boy what have you done? I thought you were a studious
boy you have scored terrible just a 4 out of 25. Bring your parents when you
come to school tomorrow.
The
teacher did that with a good intention but Rahul could not take it. His
confidence was shattered and there after he has never been able to do well in
Mathematics. A little bit more on a psychological approach towards Rahul would
have completely changed his attitude towards Mathematics.
Here
is another approach. Sonia is a seven-year-old little girl who studied in a
school in the outskirts of Bangalore. She has been very poor in Mathematics
since birth. She lacked the aptitude towards the subject.
Now
here is what this particular teacher did, again she did it unknowingly, which
really generated a lot of interest among the students. The school being in the
outskirts of Bangalore had a lot of open space with natural land, which had lot
of tamarind trees. Little girls in that school started collecting the tamarind
seeds, which they carry back home in their pencil boxes.
With
out the knowledge that the students collect tamarind seeds the teacher gave
them an assignment to both the boys and girls. The boys were to create
Bookmarks and the girls were asked to collect the Tamarind seeds. Once they
have collected enough they could barter 7 tamarind seeds for one bookmark. The
kids started doing this activity with a lot of enthusiasm. The girls collect as
many tamarind seeds as possible and the boys started sitting with their
Scissors, chart papers and sketch pens creating these bookmarks. Finally it was
the day when they were to trade tamarind seeds for the bookmarks.
The
teacher had asked Sonia to keep track of all the tamarind seeds and the
bookmarks. The little girl said yes she would do it. That day evening Sonia’s
father finds her busy doing some accounting. She had very neatly split her
notebook in to two halves and had written down who has given how many tamarind
seeds and Bookmarks and tallied it. Sonia’s father was surprised to see his
daughter learning mathematical calculations. In fact it looked like the debit
and credit of an account book. Unknowingly the little girl had discovered some thing
new. Purely based on her imagination or probably creativity.
The
next day Sonia’s father drops in at the school and thanks the teacher for
helping this little girl. The teacher was taken aback with surprise. But the
teacher now learned a different approach to teaching the little ones with out
killing their creativity.
Many
a time the creativity in the young ones are killed either by their parents or
by their teachers. Lets not hand hold them all the time. Let them learn and
grow by themselves. Lets just support and facilitate them. I am sure; together
we can help the coming generation to come up with their best talent and
innovations. So the next time if your kids are collecting some scrap, please
make sure to find out what they really are doing.
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