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Do Textbooks Lay a Proper Foundation?
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Education |
The first five years of a child are the most crucial as far as learning and assimilation of ideas are concerned. That is the stage when broad attitudes are developed that will reach right into adult behaviour. When that is the case, are we giving enough attention to the framing and writing of textbooks prepared for kindergarten and the first standard? Some textbooks for these children currently in use, have long-winded sentences, misleading advice and information on family relationships that are beyond a child's easy grasp. I share a friend's experience of study hour in her home.
The in-laws confusion
'I dread this hour,' my friend, a mother of two, says. The previous day, she and her daughter in the UKG were going through a lesson on family relationships and the roles each one plays in a home. There were parents, brothers, sisters and grandparents, all easily-explained. But then came 'in-laws', which was hard for a four-year-old to understand. 'Who are in-laws?' asked the girl. 'Your father's parents are my in-laws,' the mother said. 'I didn't ask about grandparents. I asked about my in-laws,' the impatient child shouted thinking her mother was hard of hearing.
Poetic inequality
Her son studying in the first standard presented his textbook asking her to read with him two poems, one titled, 'Misha, come here' and the other 'Boys don't fight'. The first said: 'Be a good girl. Take your book. Do your homework. Read your lesson. Obey your parents. Respect your teachers. Love your country. Help the poor. Always speak the truth.' The other told the boys: "Don't be naughty, Don't make noise, Don't learn bad things, Don't waste your time, Don't tear books, Don't pluck flowers, Don't kill birds, Don't tease little girls, Don't hate the poor. Never tell a lie.'
Gender conflict
The study session stopped right there as the poems set off a gender conflict, with the boy telling the girl 'Be this, Be that' in the tones of a male chauvinist and the latter responding with
 'Don't be this, Don't be that'. It ended up with a fight over codes of conduct for girls and boys. My friend says the previous year, a sentence in an LKG textbook had read: 'If the clock shows the time to be 8 'o' clock in the morning, then it is time for you to go and have your bath', which would definitely confuse a three-year-old, who would much rather have been told simply, 'You bathe at 8 a.m.'
The primary aim of textbooks is to arouse a child's interest in the learning process. Laying needless stress on gender differences will colour its attitudes as it grows into adult life. And obviously, the learning process will be facilitated if the lessons are framed in simple sentences, says my friend.
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