"The teacher who is indeed wise, does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind."
- Khalil Gibain
Free to Teach
Samanvaya 6th Freedom Lecture
By
Mrs. Meenakshi
Principal, Puvidham Learning Centre and School, Dharmapuri
Mrs. Parimala Rao
Assistant Editor, The HINDU Business Line presided and introduced the speaker
Organised by Stella Maris College (Autonomous) Department of Public Relations & Samanvaya
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The 6th Samanvaya Freedom Lecture was held at the St. Clare Centre auditorium in Stella Maris College, hosted by the Public Relations Department. The PR department students and HOD, Prof. Sundari, gave everyone a warm welcome and suffused the atmosphere with warmth and dignity. Dr. Jasintha, Principal, Stella Maris College welcomed the gathering and said that she is very happy to be here for this occasion and wished everyone a happy time.
Ram, Chief, Samanvaya gave an introduction to Samanvaya and the Freedom Lecture with the help of a visual presentation, that provided a bird’s eye view of all the previous freedom lectures. He also spoke briefly about the impact and replication of the freedom lectures and ended saying that this is a way of engaging seriously with who talks about freedom, and that if more and more grass roots work and voice comes into public discourse on ‘freedom’, then the purpose is achieved.
Mrs. Parimala Rao, introduced the speaker for the evening, and also spoke of her own involvement with Puvidham as well as Stella Maris College. A transcript of her talk in first person:
Introductory Speech
It is a great pleasure for me to be here today on 2 counts – one is that I am delighted to perform the pleasant talk of introducing Mrs. Meenakshi Umesh to you all. And two, it is a thrill to share a few thoughts with the students and teachers of my very own alma mater.
I have known Meenakshi for 15 years and it has always been a wonder to me how she has been able to achieve so much with so little resources. More than 16 years ago Meenakshi, an architect and her husband, an engineer from IIT, settled in Nagarkoodal village, 20 km from Dharmappuri, where they braved all kinds of odds to pursue their dream of farming in a sustainable, earth-friendly and health-friendly way. The transformation they have wrought by coaxing satisfactory yields from the dry terrain, using only organic inputs, in what is essentially a rain-shadow region must be seen to be believed.
Along the way the idea of starting a school came up as they wanted to home-school their daughter. The first students of Puvidham Primary School were Meenakshi’s daughter and a few children from neighbouring farms. The school today has almost 150 children. The children are confident, eager, multi-skilled, hardworking, questioning, curious, articulate… Their attention to detail and receptivity to new things are qualities that are missing in a lot of city children.
Watching the way Puvidham Learning Centre has evolved really brings home the point that it is the teacher who is the pivot, for the exciting and endless cycle of learning, and who also has a very important role in sustaining the quest of knowledge in the child. And having seen Meenakshi, Madhavraj, Rani, Murthy and other teachers interact with the Puvidham students, it is clear that the process of teaching is as much of an adventure as the learning is. This team of teachers has an innate understanding of how to shape a child’s mind in positive ways to bring out the best, with a gentle disciplining that doesn’t stifle their curiosity. Their understanding amongst themselves, each others’ roles and responsibilities is amazing to watch and shows how much of hard work and effort has actually gone into what looks so very smooth and easy.
We tend to take these things granted from the teacher, but he or she can never be wholly prepared for the situation with children and this is what keeps good teachers creative and happy, I guess this is what being a teacher is all about also; the teacher needs to be constantly aware of her own development, attitudes and improvement and reviewing her self. This is what makes teaching more than just another job. Unfortunately in the last decade or so, the situation with teachers and teaching is not what it used to be. However there are also counter instances, and we see many alternative initiatives like Puvidham that create an environment to empower and free the child to learn, so that schooling is fun and meaningful to both, the student and the teacher.
Free To Teach – Mrs. Meenakshi, Puvidham
I spent the initial years of my life in Mumbai. After a time, life had no meaning there and it was all monotonous… My search took me to auroville near Pondicheri. At that time, in my mind there was always a picture of a school where there would be no teaching, where children learn by themselves. You have to really look at children to understand this. Look at the child with wonder! Look to see that the child is not just your offspring or your student but an entity in himself or herself. Look at how the child trains and teaches the adults around about its needs and wants. They are learning to teach us how to manage them!
I felt that teaching should also be in this natural way. The need for learning must come from the child, not the other way around. They learn so much through their living and yet we decide “it is time to teach the child something and so let’s send him or her to school”. So far the child has been learning as a response to the stimulus he has been receiving from his environment. Now suddenly there is a break. Suddenly he has to learn things that have no connection with everyday living. He has to learn to separate the learning from the living. So the very nature of learning is tampered with, and artificiality sets in. Instinct, innocence, creativity, thinking and intuition all get affected. All become maimed. Today what is happening is that we are separating learning and living this way. The child should continue his or her learning with school. The purpose is to sharpen the child’s innate intelligence, not to put this in a bottle and shut it away until after college.
This means we have to enrich the experiences of the child and provide the learning as a response to a search beginning within the child. Is it possible to create an environment where learning is continued in the same natural way in which we learnt to walk and talk! Is it possible to learn on the job, so to speak? Learning by doing. Then what is needed by a teacher for this kind of teaching – learning by themselves? When I started exploring this, I ended up being a mirror to the children – I became a true learner myself. When I started, I learnt the most from the children, and even more from the children who supposedly could not do well, and who were supposedly the most troublesome.
When learning is by doing, the teacher becomes a facilitator. The teacher is no longer a walking-talking encyclopedia. The teacher becomes a guide, a person who is interested in the development of the child’s work of learning to learn under all conditions and from all situations. The teacher becomes a friend of the child, a person who understands and is supportive without judging. The teacher becomes the mirror of the child where the child can see her reflection, becoming more mature, more independent, more caring, more loving and more creative each day.
Let’s see for instance how the child learns language and the alphabets. They first learn just through sound, speaking, stories, songs and so on. They seldom learn alphabets first, when learning by themselves. Then once he or she is familiar and comfortable with the sound of the language then getting into alphabets is easier. Instead, in schools the child learns the alphabet first. And this has no connection with his daily use of words. Language is for the child’s expression of his thoughts, and we have to remember this. The process involves chatting with the child about his likes and dislikes. It involves telling stories in the language that is to be learnt and it involves the teachers to act out the stories and to give the children the idea of what they are hearing through the action. Slowly it has to move to expression of ideas, and so on until gradually the need to learn alphabets arises! But we seem to have reversed this entire process in the schools.
When I started the Puvidham school, I had no idea there was so much to learn about teaching from the learner. I was clear about the idea that I did not want the conventional curriculum. I was convinced that the children who came out of our school should not be oriented to move from the rural area but should be motivated to stay and work from the land not as a matter of no other alternative but should choose to live there because they value the richness of the rural environment as compared to the urban slum which is the other alternative for most of them. We are working with first generation learners, so there would be no help at home for them. In many cases, the children see physical violence in their homes. This is their background. Now we create an atmosphere where they learn at their own pace. The centre of all this activity and the learning is the child – that is first clear in our minds, hence the teachers are relaxed and the environment is learner-friendly. Teachers must be free to invent, improvise and implement thoughts and observations as teachers. Teachers must free themselves of all prototype notions of the child. They must reformulate on their own observations the do’s and don’ts for their teaching environment.
At Puvidham, we equip the children to judge the pros and cons of choices. We equip them to express themselves as individuals. We make them aware of their potential as individuals. This comes about as a result of the emphasis on freedom and the responsibility that ensues from this freedom. The children are equal participants in discussions and most discussions happen with all of us sitting around in a circle. In our school the emphasis on the freedom of the child is very high. The teachers are advised to go to school with an open mind and respond to the wishes of the children with respect to lesson planning. At any point if the children say they are tired or bored then the teacher is to stop. At the same time there is the problem of the children who take advantage of the situation. Initially, we were worried about discipline but later realised that the more freedom that is given, the more the children do it the right way. For instance, children who disturb the class repeatedly are spoken to and told that it is so unfortunate that they do not like company and like to be alone so they are free to go to the bath room and take time out they are also free to go out and do any thing they like as long as they do not disturb the class. The children soon decide to be peaceful and attentive in class rather than lonely and noisy in the play ground.
That too this year, we suddenly shot up from 90 or so children to 150 and we thought that this is the end of all the freedom and we will have to be bringing in systems and such to control the children. But we were so surprised that in a month and a half all the children have settled in comfortably and peacefully without external pressures. They are taking the freedom in the right spirit. Like in the above case of a child disturbing the class while a lesson is on, we have the concept of ‘Time-outs” for the children. After a few time-outs they would rather be interestedly engaged with whatever is happening with the group, rather than being alone.
When the children fight or there are such instances of tussles among the children, then we call a meeting and ask them to resolve it by discussing amongst themselves. We do not do anything but observe most of the time. Then during the course of the discussion, almost all the time the children come to the conclusion that it is the sequence of events that lead to the issue. Which means no one is to be blamed. So then they kiss and say sorry to each other. This way then, we don’t have to get into any punishment-giving that is counter productive. Even very small children understand others and their motives. The same process is followed for complaints too. So, nowadays children have their own discussions even without approaching us! This means lesser and lesser conflict-sorting work for the teachers. I think that this works for all age groups in all environments.
Once, a boy came to us from Bangalore. His mother was totally distraught because this boy used to get into knife fights and had got a deep gash on his thigh. I was a little concerned as to what would happen to our environment if such an influence came into the hostel. So it was no surprise that one night around 8 pm there was a call from the hostel that the boy was beating everyone and many of the children were crying loudly. I went to the hostel not knowing what I was going to do. I only went to see what I could do. As soon as I saw the boy, somehow all I could say was “I am so sorry for you” and that “I do understand that you have this terrible need to hit people and somebody has got to take the pain”. I was very sweet to him and all the other children were so surprised that they stopped crying. Then I explained to the children, we as humans act according to our needs. When we feel hunger we eat, when we feel thirsty we drink and so on. Similarly this boy has a hunger for hurting people and he will go on hurting others so it is best to satisfy his need. So come on let’s stand in a line and let him beat as many of us as much as he wants till his hunger to hurt others is fulfilled. To my surprise all the children quickly formed a straight line and began to request this boy, “Anna, please hit me, Anna please hit me”. This boy was already under shock that I had not scolded him, now he was paralyzed! He looked at all the children and then said gruffly “I don’t have any hunger to hurt anybody” and walked off. The next time he turned violent, imagine my surprise when I heard that the children lined up by themselves to take his hits! He soon changed into a very loving and caring person. He is especially good with the little children and they are all his fans and the older ones his pals. For me, dealing with him in this way on that first instance was not a strategy or deep thinking, it was a spontaneous reaction of sympathy with him.
As far as subject teaching goes, and other things are like any of the alternative schools around, but for us the main reason for our success we would say is the faith that we have in the children. I remember, initially we had so many meetings because we were actually apprehensive whether this is all going to work well. But ultimately we have learnt that love and freedom – they turn around the worst and they bring out the best. We don’t have to do much. That’s all I can say. Thank you.
Questions
Q: A question had been raised by an email sent to the organisers from a Gandhian institution saying that these kind of experiments will not give solutions for scaling up and will only end up being reclusive and remote and that organic farming also cannot be a solution for the hungry.
Mrs. Meenakshi: As far as I have understood, Gandhiji spoke of small scale and reaching every individual. As far as being ‘reclusive’, we are responding to the need of a particular area and eventually the people in that area will take it forward and scale it up if they wish to do so, in a much more realistic natural way. There will be no trickle down effect anywhere. There will gardens everywhere that such ventures come up. I am a Gandhian though don’t talk about it, but I think that I have learnt my concepts of non violence from him. Also, organic farming can definitely feed the millions, if the millions are people, but it cannot feed the factories and companies. Organic farming is like taking one golden egg from the goose every day, we cannot take all of them in one day.
Agriculture or education, we do it in the natural way. How to impact the natural creativity of the children? Creativity is already there, we don’t have to imbibe it in them. For instance, for art, we do give material, but we also create opportunities where children create their own material. Or organic farming, 4th std upwards, each child is given a plot which they plan, design and take care of. We give them no patterns or instructions.
Q: There was a question on the fees charged and the fee structure and how they take care of their costs.
Mrs. Meenakshi: We must take a fee, only this will increase our accountability to the people. If they pay, they will come up with questions and keenly note the progress of their children. If the father’s income is Rs. 50 per day, then we charge them Rs. 50 for a month of a boy’s education. This is halved in the case of a second child or a girl child. For single mothers, if it is a boy we take Rs. 5, and it is free for girls. Since it is a small area and we know the situation, and according to the social conditions, it is flexible. We also do obviously have donations, for the most part it is run by these. There are several individuals helping us. Also, there is the “foster care programme” to help support children.
Q: What do you do for testing?
Mrs. Meenakshi: We do not follow any testing for the child. At least till the age of 11, the child will go through no testing, only worksheets which are not marked. Not even oral exams are conducted. There are only discussions where they share what they have learnt.
Q: What goals do you have for the children then?
Mrs. Meenakshi: I cannot have goals for a child! I can only work with my self, similarly the child will have goals for himself or herself.
Q: How do they cope with the mainstream? Mainstream aspirations, exams, attitudes so on…
Mrs. Meenakshi: If the children are brought in touch with themselves then they can cope with mainstream or anything else. They are taught to cope and do well in the real world, and this means adjusting and getting the best in any situation, mainstream or otherwise.
Q: How do you handle parental expectations and take them along?
Mrs. Meenakshi: I will give you an instance for this. In the beginning, we were learning in our house itself with just my children and a few others. The son of one of our labourers used to keep watching us. He had not wanted to go to school and was helping out his father. He asked us what we were doing and when we said we were learning, he was flabbergasted that this was a school. With each day his interest increased until eventually he joined us. So, the first time, anybody comes out of their own interest and need.
The other thing is, at school, we do all the work ourselves. There is no separate person for cleaning and so on. The teachers and the children together help with maintaining the place. This they take back home and the children start helping their parents at home where previously they would mostly not have been lending a hand. So the feedback we get from most parents is this: “if they go here, they are disciplined and good, even if they don’t study well it is ok, at least they are not becoming bad people.”
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After the straight-from-the-heart freedom talk by Mrs. Meenakshi and the involved discussions that the audiences got into, Prof. (Dr) Sundari gave the concluding speech. She spoke briefly about the involvement of the PR department with Samanvaya and that their course is very unique in that it has a specific social awareness and community work component built into it. She cited a tradition called “samavarthan” which was welcoming the child back from Gurukulam, henceforth his only test was to go out into the community and perform. She also spoke about the Indian community and how freedom and resilience are important qualities of communities in India. She further added that what she appreciated most in Mrs. Meenakshi’s speech was that an important part of the latter’s attitude and work is also a very important part of Indian tradition – “Adikara Beda” i.e. “catering to the difference”. “Every one of my students is a distinct personality and nurturing this is very important”.
The Vote of Thanks was given by Ram, Chief, Samanvaya.
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Mrs. Meenakshi, is an architect from J.J. College, Mumbai and her husband, Mr. Umesh, an engineer from IIT-Madras. When they decided to pursue the common interest of farming, they considered purchasing some land. “We had about Rs.50,000 and could only look for land in areas that people had given up on” recalls Ms. Meenakshi. It was in the early 90s. The area that looked dry and discouraging then has gradually acquired a promising shade of green in these 16 years, thanks to the persistent efforts of the couple and their team.
They had initially started with promotion of organic farming in the area, but found that the adults were already too set and molded in their attitudes and values. After repeatedly getting snubbed by adults in promoting organic farming methods, they decided they should work with the children. So as to evolve a new society that can think freely on its own terms, which can build certain values and attitudes to life and to the earth. And thus were born the Puvidham Nursery and Primary School, and the Puvidham Learning Centre. For them, building a school meant everything from conceiving an institution in concept to giving it physical shape. The school structure too was built with their design and methods. The school which started with three children today has over 100 students and offers education till Class VIII in English and Tamil medium. Working with the adults continues too. "Working with the kids is like sowing new seeds, working with the adults is like pruning a tree", opines Meenakshi.