Where are we heading ?
This morning I was conducting an activity in which the kids had to jointly ‘write’ an article to a newspaper . The second standard kids were shown newspaper articles and stories. I suggested that they choose an incident that had occurred that afternoon in the class.. a quarrel between two kids as an incident to be ‘written’.They were very interested.
They ‘reminded ‘me to write the date, place, day etc..
I began writing on the blackboard all that the little ones narrated in sequence.Suddenly a girl said, “ pahele ladke ne doosare ki khoon kar di..(the first boy killed the second..). ” This stumped me for a fraction of a second. I quickly reacted by saying , ” We are newspaper reporters, we write only what has really happened.” I was shocked by the extent of their involvement in the gory details of the fight and also about their awareness levels wrt recent happenings in the country and their ideas of how a fight could end!! Fortunately we were alluding to the kids as pahele ladke ne and doosare ladke ne…otherwise things would have gone a bit too far.
Quickly I managed to bring the story to a conclusion . The kids ended up by saying, ..” tabhee ghanti baji aur teacher ko dekhte hi bachche apni-apni jagah par baith gaye…(the bell rang and the kids went back to their places on seeing the teacher. )
The story had other surprises too. One of the kids who really fought is Ahil who doesn’t speak much. The other ‘fighter’ is Sahil who loves to describe things graphically.The narration of Ahil stunned me because he took active part in narrating his side of the duel very well. And Sahil was too stunned to counter /react /defend effectively !!Luckily for him I was busy writing.
The titles they suggested were:
Do ladkon ki ladai,
bachchon ma maraamaari,
school me ladai,
____ me ladai ( the name of the school.. )
They even suggested that a snap should be put. I drew a rectangle and some stick figures in it.
Tomorrow ‘we’ report on a wedding. Looking forward to it.
Now that I have a 3yr old, I tend to think about these on how I can help her understand right things. During our school days way back in Bangalore, we were very much encouraged to read the news papers every day. So now the challenge, is what kind of news papers be suggested to kids. Beyond that, even if such news are read by kids, I think the challenge is to help them absorb such news in a right way and help them think about how to acknowledge and respond.
Tips / suggestions?
well, as I said earlier, you are really good at writing good titles, and let me add, meaningful titles too
The sad part is, we look at those programs on tv or any other stuff which comes with little advice or good message for children, with a feeling ” do we really need spoon feeding of ideas ? ” or ” let them have their on moral views individual freedom bla bla bla… and we let those -ve attitude stuff be distributed free of cost .. everywhere !!!
@ram: as a parent i am constantly worried about influences on my son’s psyche.
TV viewing is really dangerous. Earlier keeping the news channel on was a good option–the kid could hear news, listen to a good accent…
now they are the most dangerous ones!! they not only show graphic details of sensational things , they repeat them n no. of times.
they talk about A movies and show clippings at all odd hours…
even the cartoon channels broacast ads meant for adults.
My son is 12. He reads newspapers . I am open to his questionning. and we discuss many news ‘items’–so that he gets the right perspective.
@ dinsan : thanks! you made my day.
the girl’s reaction is scary.
But life itself is !
Hmmmm with 7 deaths on campuses in India in last one week, our children are already exposed to the dreaded things. The imported culture has brought with it only the ominous traits, forget about the attitude ones.
In that perspective, you teachers has a great role to play in constructing a solid foundation to a stronger India.
@destinationsrik : I agree.
the best way to learn about things is hear about it in the words of a child. the worst part is the level to which the child is influenced. sad but true.