Having said so
much about 7-year-old Raman and his challenges in reading, I feel it is
important to share this episode that happened during remedial class this week.
It reiterates my view that learning is not at all about reading & writing.
Raman was given
this worksheet that you see below.
The instruction
had to be read out to him by his teacher and explained to him in Tamil.
Then
Raman proceeded to work on it independently. The first row was a cone, so he drew
a hut having a conical roof, a cone ice cream & a birthday cake with a cone
shaped icing (though to us it looks like a paper boat). Once he came to the
second row, he gave it a lot of thought. The first figure was very easy for
him. Then after a while he drew the second & the third.
He asked his
teacher to take a guess. She said that the first one looked like a ring! He
said,” No ma’am. It is a bid laddu with one kismis (dry grape) & one cashew
nut!!
The second one was
quite tricky! Teacher guessed that it was a bottle filled with pebbles! His
answer was that it was a glass hundi (piggy bank) with round coins!
The last one of
course was easy. He said that it was a police man’s paunch!
Originality,
spontaneity, imagination & creativity of a child with so much potential!
This is an
outstanding example of right brained thinking that children are so good at. Looking
at things from different perspectives & making unusual & quite often
hilarious connections is second nature to them.
It is my sincere
hope that over emphasis on academics does not destroy their natural curiosity
and spontaneity.