Child Education

FOR many years, I have felt that we unduly stress the importance of being able to read the written word. Hence, the use of text-books is increasing in our educational system.

We have succumbed to the delusion that as long as a child does not acquire the capacity to read, no knowledge can be imparted to him. I do not know of a greater fallacy than this in the field of education. I am absolutely sure that we arrest the growth of children under this false belief. Experience has proved that the mental development of a boy can, and does, take place before he learns reading and writing. These, to a certain extent, stunt his development. Any teac-her can verify this statement by experimenting. Teach a child orally and see how quickly he progresses—that, too, without the alphabet or a formal education. A teacher can impart knowledge in the course of conversation—such as facts of History. Geography and Science. A child can easily learn the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata within a year. Ordinarily, they learn these only after four or five years of schooling. How unnecessary it is that a child should have to spend a whole year before he can read and write a simple sentence like "Mother, give me water to drink." By requiring the boy to learn reading and writing, we put obstacles in the way of his natural development, keep him ignorant of many things which otherwise he would have easily learnt, strain his memory, get him to spoil his handwriting in hustling him to pick it up quickly, and, in the end, by making him a slave to text-books from childhood onwards, lay on poor India the crushing burden of purchasing useless books.

First Step in Primary Education

If I could make teachers understand my point of view, I would keep text-books only for the use of teachers in the primary schools and not for the boys. Of course, such books would have to be written with different approach. Before learning the alphabet and the formation of words, children should be taught drawing so that they would learn to draw shapely and well-proportioned figures and pictures. It does not matter if a child takes three years to learn even the alphabet. During this period he could be given a good deal of practical and religious knowledge and taught selected verses from the Gita and thus helped to train and strengthen his memory, sense of rhythm and hearing. He should be trained in correct pronunciation and habits of observation and accuracy. Thus, we should aim at an all-round development of his powers. At the same time, he should be encouraged to improve his handwriting as a distinct art. To-day, we find that the writing of most boys is so poor that one is irritated and unwilling to decipher and read it. I state this from experience because my own handwriting is so shocking that I feel ashamed of it and feel reluctant to write to anybody. I am distressed about my ill-formed letters. Just as one cannot eat and digest uncooked food, even so one cannot tolerate poor writing. A man whose writing is not good is regarded as uncivilized. I have often felt that people should refuse to read the handwriting of such men.

If we could take this first necessary step in primary education, we should be saved from much useless expenditure. Not only that, but we would also enrich and even add to the life of children, because the change would enable them to achieve a greater mental and physical development.

— Navajivan : Oct 26, 1924