My Experiments in Education

My Experiments in Education

It is absolutely inconceivable to talk of education sans experimentation. Experimenting with the principles of education and learning are always helpful since they make it more objective and result oriented. Objectivity of the principles of learning is significantly remarkable as it seeks to introduce new thinking, new methods and new pedagogical practices. It makes more versatile and practicable.
Having been convinced that education needs a consistently continuous experimenting, I decided to initiate the moment I learnt that I could do it. While teaching English at 8th class, we were through a story wherein a woman is shown arguing with the shopkeeper for the return of goods sold to her. The school was adhered to the Socratic Method strictly and not other method was permitted.
Under this method all teachers used to frame as many questions as they could and were to ask the whole class. We too followed the same pattern but here I decided to breakaway from the established practice. The lesson over, I gave the class to do some homework and it was to rewrite the story changing one the scenario of the story, two, the characters and third to recompose it in first person and third person. The class nodded in affirmative.
The next day when I went to class, at least four students came up with their stories. I made them read their stories in the class. The language and expression was quite apt to the situation. It was much better compared to the class they were in. I took hold of their stories and typed the matter myself editing where the changed were required. Adding my own poem along with the stories, I designed it as a four page small booklet giving it the title the literary supplement and put it on the table of the Principal.
Mr Gurcharan Singh, the Director – Principal of the school looked at the four page supplement was not only amazed but blessed me profusely for my initiative. It was quite encouraging. Second time, I repeated a similar experiment with class 7 children where they were given an opportunity to write poems. I was told that two students of the class were fond of writing English poems. We brought out the second part of the supplement.
Language is not for learning only. It is a powerful tool of communication. One needs to develop language habits and a habit is continuous use of an action. A strong habit is necessary to make students self reliant. They must be given not only free hand to employ their language power but also given opportunities where they can use their language tools effectively and confidently. Such an action is quite unusual in our school systems, where teachers, students and their parents bother more about curriculum and its completion than to obtain a real learning.
The above experiment I did in Dasmesh Public School Faridkot. The school has not only holds a command in pedagogy but also a sway over the minds of the community. It caters about 7000 students.
The second experiment in education and language learning was conceived and conducted at Swami Sant Das Public School, Jalandhar. The school is quite good and has a good reputation among the city dwellers. I joined it as a PGT in English and was given 11th class. About 60% of the students in class were new entrants and had come from various schools.
We were doing a story about horse and two Armenian boys who stole a horse to have fund of horse riding. They conceal the horse in an abandoned stable. The story was good and it had several expressions about nature of boys and the nature of an animal. After the reading I noticed that the students were very keenly interested in the story. This spurred me to initiate the experiment.
I gave them an assignment. Rewrite the story, this time from the horse’s point of view. Let the horse recount all that happened to him. Whether the animal liked it or not? I gave them The Black Beauty as suggested reading.
Two days later, they came to me. All the 60 students submitted their assignment without any exception. I chose to ask them read their stories out to the class one by one. I sat through the reading session and it was quite wonderful experience. Their expression and imagination both were flawless. I could see many a Jane Austen, Dickens, Thomas Hardy coming up. I took hold of their stories and decided to publish them in a form of small book.
All the sixty students were ambitious as they had joined the school in the hope of finding a place among the successful candidates for engineering and medical courses. None of them was likely to opt for literature. They had vast potential which I know was going to be laid in waste.