The Relationship Being a daughter to aUK- returned Mechanical Engineer with a penchant for perfection in Mathematics turned out to be a demanding profession. My father believed in the best of education system of the West. He had gathered many experiences during his stay in Europe and his philosophy of education was naturally shaped by his interesting exposure. One of the persistent habits he had drilled into me was reading the English daily – The Statesman. He would not only insist on talking to me in English in my early childhood, he would persistently steer all communication to academics.
The newspaper was his playground. And over the last three decades, the newspaper has turned into my comfort zone. I would look forward to reading Now and Then for the interesting anecdotes. Not long before the digital era, when print quality had suffered – the sports commentary was a relief to be shared with teenage students in the classroom. In fact, one of my class x students had once composed a near stylistic replica of a sporting event in his examination. Many could not believe, that it was his months of reading the daily had reshaped his language skills.
Even today, when I start with Desktop Doodles every Sunday, or Moti Nandy’s anecdotes, I am tempted to sail away from the mundane lesson planning. The Present In this age of digitised education, when holistic learning has become an advertising cliché, the newspaper has evolved with voices for many sections. For some, it is the sacred kit of vocabulary. For few, it is the basis of syntax and grammar. Quite a number prefer to use it as models for teaching reviews, history, travelogues and persuasive writing. Some explore the range of emotions through creative short stories and poems while others in the vast sea of informative features.
In my Monday morning classrooms, the daily serves as my case study. I choose an article that aligns with the learning objective. Subsequently, my learners and I explore elements of grammar, vocabulary, ideas or literary devices with the zeal of a mountain climber scaling Mount Everest. The real world application of rules of grammar or varied syntactical uses have always inspired the young learners to pick up expressions. Students are immersed into the act of discovering perspectives and begin to appreciate the nuances of written literature.
In this era of skill building, learners are also exposed to various formats of journalistic writing, illustrations and creative writing. And the best taste of success lies in the fact, that a student of mine is interning at this daily! Thank You, The Statesman for making my classes so relevant, so grounded and so dynamic! The writer is Coordinator, Mahadevi Birla Shishu Vihar, Series Editor of Friends
(An ICSE Course book for middle school) and Member, IPPL)