http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hva

WATER - Modern Marvels (full documentary) (+playlist)

ఒక ప్రసిద్ధ సాహిత్య కారునిగా, నోబుల్ బహుమతి గ్రహీతగా రవీంద్రనాధ్ ఠాగూర్  మనందరికి పరిచయమే.  అయితే ఆయన సాహిత్యకారునికంటే గొప్ప విద్యావేత్త.  అందుకు నిదర్సనం ఆయన స్థాపించిన శాంతినికేతనే.  మన విద్యా వ్యవస్థమీద ఆయన వెలిబుచ్చిన అభిప్రాయాలు అప్పటికి, ఇప్పటికి వర్తిస్థాయి.  ఎందుకంటె అప్పటికి, ఇప్పటికి మన విద్యావ్యవస్థలో మార్పు లేదు కాబట్టి.  మన విద్యావ్యవస్థ మీద ఆయన వెలిబుచ్చిన అభిప్రాయాలను కొన్నింటిని ఇక్కడ పరిశీలిద్దాం. 

·                     దేశవాసులను బాల్యం నుండి మనుషులుగా తయారు చేసే అవకాశాన్ని వెతికి దాని నుండి లాభం పొందక పోతే అన్ని విధాలా మనం సర్వనాశనమై పోతామన్న విషయాన్ని బాగా గుర్తించాలి.  ఆకలితో చనిపోతాం, ఆరోగ్యం కోల్పోయి చనిపోతాం, మన బుధ్ధిని, చైతన్యాన్ని పోగొట్టుకొని చనిపోతాం.  ఇందులో ఎంతమాత్రం సందేహం లేదు.    

·                     పరిపూర్ణమైన మానవుని రూపొదించడం విద్య ఉద్దెశం అనుకొంటె – విద్య ద్వారా తమ భాద్యత గుర్తించే సౌశీల్యవంతులను తయారు చేయడం అభిమతమైతే – ఆ విద్య ఇంటి దగ్గరగాని లేదా కేవలం పాఠశాలలోగాని లభించదు.

·                     మన శీలంమీద, మన వ్యహారిక జీవిత మీద ఎటువంటి ప్రభావం ఈ చదువు కలగచేయడం లేదు.  ఈ రకమైన అసంపూర్నమైన జీవితం వల్ల భారతీయుల జీవితం ఒక నాటకంలా – అనుకరణ మాత్రంగా తయారౌతోంది.

·                     ఏ చదువు నేర్వడానికి జీవితమంతా వెచ్చిస్తున్నామో అది కేవలం గుమాస్తాగాగాని లేదా మరొక నౌకరీ చేసుకోవటానికి మాత్రం యోగ్యులుగా తయారు చేస్తోంది.  అంతకంటె మేలు దీనివల్ల జరగటం లేదు.  ఈ చదువు నిత్య జీవితంలో ఏ మాత్రం ఉపయోగ పడడం లెదు.  ఇదంతా మన విద్యా ప్రనాళిక పెట్టిన భిక్ష.

·                     మనం విద్యను ఎంత నిర్లక్ష్యం చేస్తామో మన విశ్వాసం అంతగా పెరిగి పోతుంది. 

·                     మన పిల్లలు పాఠశాలలో బెంచీల  మీద కూ్ర్చొని తమ బలహీనమైన కాళ్ళను ఊపుతూ గురువుగారి ఖటువైన తప్ప మరో మనోరంజకమైన మసాలా లేని బెత్తపు దెబ్బలు తింటూ ఉంటారు.  

·                     నీటిలో ఉండి దాహం తీరలేదు అన్నట్లుగా వుంది మన (విద్యావ్యవస్థ) పరిస్థితి.

·                     బాల్యనుండే రాయడం, చదవటంఅనే గానుగెద్దు పని ప్రారంభమవుతుంది.  ఈ విధమైన చదువుతో మానసిక సబంధం చాలా తక్కువ.  నిజం చెప్పలంటే ఈ చదువులో ఆనందం లేదు. 

·                     పిల్లల మనసు గ్రహించగల్గినంత విద్య అది ఎంత తక్కువైనా సరే అది నిజమైన విద్య.  ఏ పనికిరాని విద్య వారి మనసులను కప్పివేస్తుందో దాన్ని కేవలం చదవడం అనవచ్చు గానీ విద్య మాత్రంకాదు.

·                     మన శిక్షణా ప్రణాళిక ఎంత వ్యర్ధమైనది అంటే దానిచే ప్రభివితమైన మానసికవికాసంసజీవంగా ఉండదు.  కొంత మదికి ఈ విషయం తెలుసు.  కాని నమ్మరు.  చాలా మంది అర్ధం చేసుకొటారు.  ఒప్పుకోరు.  కాని ఆచరనలోకి వచ్చే సరికి  మొదట్నుంచి ఏ పధ్ధతి జరుగుంతుందో అదే పధ్ధతి లో నడవడం ఉచితం అనుకొంటారు.  ఎక్కడ ఉన్నావే గొంగళి అంటే వేసినచోటే ఉన్నట్లుగా ఉంటారు.

                                                                                   టి. వి. రామకృష్ణ

Living Stories: Storytelling Traditions of India

నా పాఠశాలలో కుదరదు

                                               -గిజుభాయి

1.         భోధనా విధానాలపై రాసిన పుస్తకాలతో పెద్ద పుస్తకాలయం నా పాఠశాలలో లేకున్నా ఫరవాలెదు, కాని ఉన్నపుస్తకాలను అడిగి తిసుకుని చదవక పొవటం మాత్రం కుదరదు.

2.         నా పాఠశాలలొ భవన గోడలకి  అందంగా రంగులు వేయకపోయినా ఫరవాలేదు కాని ఒక్క సాలెగూడు గాని బూజు, ధూళిగాని ఉంటే కుదరదు.

3.         నాపాఠశాలలో అందమైన తివాచీలు పరచకపోయినా ఫరవాలేదు,  కాని నేలమీద, కాళ్ళకు ఎక్కాడైనా దుమ్ము, చెత్త అంటుకుంటె  కుదరదు.

4.         నా పాఠశాలలో శిక్షనకు అవసరమైన పరికరాలు తగినన్ని లేకపోయినా ఫరవలేదు, కాని ఉన్న కొన్ని పరికరాలను సరిగా ఉపయోగించకపోతె  కుదరదు.

5.         నా పాఠశాలలో బాలసాహిత్యంతో పెద్ద గ్రంధాలయం లేకున్నా ఫరవాలెదు కాని చేతితో రాసిన పుస్తకమైతేనేం పిల్లలు ఉత్సాహంగా ఆసక్తిగా చదివేది  లేకపోతే కుదరదు.

6.         బాగ చదివిన ఉద్దంద పందితులు నా పా్ఠశాలలొ లేకపోయినా ఫరవాలెదు కాని పిల్లలను ఆదరించి  వారి వ్యక్తిత్వ వికాఅసానికి తగిన కృషి చేయని వాళ్ళు ఉంటే కుదరదు.

7.     ప్రతినిమిషం పిల్లలను చదివిస్తూనో, వారి జ్నానాన్ని పెంచాలనో నేను

            పరుగెత్తకపోయినా ఫరవాలెదు కానీ నాపాఠశాలలో పిల్లల పనికి ఆటంకాలు 

             కల్పించి, వాళ్ళని భయపెట్టి, తిట్టి, కొట్టి చదవమని కుర్చోబెట్టడం కుదరదు               .  

8.          నా పాఠశాలలో పిల్లలు కొంతసేపు ఆదుకొని మరికొంతసేపు చదువుకొన్నా ఫరవాలేదు కాని కార్మాగారంలో్ కార్మికులలాగా రోజంతా పనిచేస్తూ ఉంటే నేను వారిని కనిపెట్టుకుని ఉండడం కుదరదు.

9.          నా పాఠశాలలో పిల్లలు నా మెడపట్టుకొని ఊగకపోయినా, నా స్నేహితుల్లగా నంచుట్టు తిరగకపోయినా ఫరవాలేదు కాని నన్ను చూసి భయపడటొ కుదరదు.

10.     నా పాఠశాలలో పిల్లలు సమాయానికి పని పు్ర్తి చేయలేకపోతే నా దగ్గరకు వచ్చి చెపినా , నెమ్మదిగా అది పూర్తి చేసినా, ఫరవాలెదు కాని నేను కొడతానని హడావుడిగా వారా పని పూర్తి చేయటంకుదరదు

11.          .

THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION
Arvind Gupta
A recent survey conducted by Educational Initiatives – a prestigious testing-house in the
elite, English medium schools in our major metros of New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai,
Bangalore and Chennai revealed some shocking results. The students were from class 4,
6 and 8 and the sample size was reasonably large - 32,000 students. The children were
administered a test to evaluate their understanding of mathematics, science and English.
The test papers consisted of “intelligent” questions. Some of the questions were
application orientated and they tested the child’s ability not just to reproduce the textbook
answer but to apply it in a real situation. The children were able to answer standard
text-book questions based on recall. But if the question varied even slightly from the textbook,
and involved an element of thinking then the children were in a fix. The evaluators
wanted to give a practical test too, but the impossibility of administering a “practical
exam” to thousands of children ruled out its possibility.
For instance, an open umbrella was shown and the children were asked the function of
the thin metal rods in the umbrella? Which organ system in the human body did the thin
metal ribs represent – muscular, skeletal, and respiratory or the digestive system?
Another clever question was
What is the chemical formula of pure steam? There were four choices
1. CO
2. H2O
3. O2
4. Pure Steam does not have a chemical formula.
The survey revealed that schools – even with good infrastructure, qualified teachers and
high charging fees failed miserably in helping children make sense of the world. All the
chalk-and-talk method, rote learning dulls the mind and does not help critical thinking so
essential for living.
In the past few decades many progressive schools have shifted to “integrated” learning –
where subjects are not divided into artificial compartments. Buckminster Fuller – the
famous American designer was very fond of this pithy saying, “Whenever nature designs
something it never calls a meeting of heads of departments of Chemistry, Physics and
Mathematics.”
The natural world as well as the social world is not divided into compartments. They
form an integrated whole – an interrelated web of life. Looking at the parts to understand
the whole is a modern phenomenon. But it has its limitations. Often the whole is more
than the sum of the parts. For, reality is far more complex then what it appears on the face
of it. At the very basic level there is only a continuum of knowledge, and in the ultimate
all artificial categorizations must meld together.
Mirambika
It is difficult to describe an integrated approach in abstract terms. So, I will try to capture
its essence through an example. Fifteen years back I taught for a couple of years in an
experimental school. Mirambika – the school was situated in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
New Delhi. At that time the school subscribed to no curriculum. The class teacher along
with the children decided on the curriculum. The children chose a “topic” of their interest
and worked on it. The role of the teacher was to help the children. Having decided on the
topic of “birds” the first thing the children did was to make a bee line for the library. Here
they pulled out all the books on birds and brought them into their classroom. These would
be their text books for the next two weeks. Now everything centered on “birds”. The first
thing the children did early morning was to go bird watching in the lovely Ashram
Campus. They made a checklist of birds. With the help of the teacher they tried to record
some bird calls. What were the local Hindi names of these birds? They folded paper
birds, wrote their daily “bird” diary, composed poems on birds and drew them in all their
glory. They collected bird feathers; fallen and abandoned nests. They made lists of
resident and migratory birds. Where do these small yellow and white wagtails come
from? The children actually looked at their migratory routes on the globe. For two weeks
school life for these children was centered on the study of birds. It involved writing,
drawing, making models, composing poems, counting, imitating bird calls and many
other skills. At the request of the teacher two parents piled up all the children in their
vans and took them for a day long bird watching spree to the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary
located on the outskirts of Delhi.
Children learn best not in the confines of a classroom but in places brimming with human
activity - happening places. Like the vegetable market – scores of vendors, haggling,
weighing, stuff being loaded / unloaded, different smells are fascinating for children.
Places where things of daily consumption are being made, manufactured, transformed
hold great interest to children. The atta chakki (alas very few left), rice being puffed, the
baking of bread, a saw mill, a visit to a potter. Education is slowly distancing itself from
real life activities.
Inclusive Education
A good school should also ably mirror the society we live in – its varied people, regions,
castes, classes. A homogenous school meant for just one community or sex is bad to start
with. Of late, a few progressive schools have embraced children with differently abilities.
The St. Mary’s School in Delhi and the Rewa Chand Bhojwani School in Pune, are such
wonderful schools. Despite being mainstream almost 15% of their students are differently
abled – on crutches, wheelchairs, wearing hearing aids. These children are a source not of
impediment but deep humility and inspiration to “normal’ children. Instead of preaching
tolerance, these schools practice it. Here rich and poor, normal and differently abled,
boys and girls from different backgrounds study together to form a rich context for social
learning. Compassion and tolerance are a part of living. They need not be taught as
desirable “values” in moral science lessons.
Home Schooling
Dissatisfied with existing schools many sensitive parents are shifting to home-schooling.
This option is open only to a very small section which has the resources – time, ability
and money for home-schooling. The basic thrust behind this movement was aptly
summed up by John Holt a great proponent of home-schooling: “We have given birth to
our children and have the highest stake in their education. We don’t trust schools whether
government or private. So we will teach our own children.” Often it becomes very
difficult for parents to home-school their children all by themselves. Sometimes when
groups of parents – pool their time, skills and abilities then home-schooling becomes less
arduous. One critique of home-schooling is that it becomes an impediment to the
socialization of children. Normal schools – despite their authoritarianism, at least allow
children to meet other children. Children learn a great deal from their peers. In our
country, with a large unschooled population and many first generation learners, the
home-schooling option can be exercised by only a few.
The International Baccalaureate
My city of Pune has four International Baccalaureate (IB) schools. The famous Mahindra
World College (MWC) is just a 40 minutes drive from the city. The IB curriculum is
more flexibile and responsive to social needs. There is a strong emphasis on Community
Development. Children from 80 different countries study in the MWC. After completing
their 12th around 60-70 of these students spend what is called as a “gap year”. They spend
a year in India or in their own country working with a NGO or the local community.
Most of the IB schools in Pune charge between Rs 3 to Rs 5 lakhs per year – depending
on the age and class of the child.
There are several good aspect of the IB curriculum. Our own CBSE is highly
bureaucratic and too slow to respond to changing times. According to one estimate to
date the CBSE has given affiliation to only 8,000 schools. 20,000 new applications still
await recognition. The real power of the sick CBSE stems from “accrediting” schools.
The board is excruciatingly slow on “exam reforms”.
Common School System
In our country the poor children attend Municipal schools. These schools are in a bad
shape and for good reasons. The Municipal Corporations can be squarely blamed for this
state of affairs but that would only be a half-truth. The real reasons why our Municipal
Schools are in such a shoddy state is because the rich, even the middle-class don’t send
their children to these schools. They build exclusive enclaves for their children and let the
others stink.
In a country like ours where society is divided into so many layers it is most imperative
to prevent “ghetto” schools – schools which are exclusive preserves of one particular
economic class or single communities. A pluralistic society must be reflected in the
schools richness. In the long run, reviving the “common school” system appears to be
the only way to ensure inclusive growth for our children.

WHY ARE SCHOOLS SO BORING?
Arvind Gupta
“What a dangerous activity reading is, teaching is. All this plastering on of foreign stuff.
Why plaster on at all when there’s so much inside already? So much locked in? If only I
could get it out and use it as working material. And not draw it out either. If I had a light
enough touch it will just come out under its own volcanic power.” Spinster (Sylvia
Ashton Warner)
“Children WALK to school, Children RUN away from school,” this British Telecom
advertisement perhaps sums up the reality of today’s schools.
What do children do in schools? They wear a uniform and carry a heavy bag. The school
gong ushers everyone for an assembly, sermon and a prayer. Then children tiptoe to their
classes, often with a finger on their lips. The class starts. The teacher speaks; the children
listen, take notes, and mug them up to regurgitate them in future tests and exams. The
school is cut off from life. The classroom is a world of silence, of immobility. The pupils
keep quiet, listen, obey and are judged. The teacher knows, gives orders, decides, judges,
notes, punishes. The school is a world of uniformity, of artificial communication and of
punishments.
Schools are opposed to natural learning. At home children learn from their parents,
grandparents and other adults. In turn, they also teach their younger siblings. School is
the direct opposite of natural learning. Here, all children of a certain age are segregated
and put into separate classes. The only adult they come into contact with is the class
teacher – who has a paper degree but is usually devoid of any demonstrable skills. He
/she can do little else but teach. Pitted with one single adult the children are deprived of
wider adult experience and company. The result is not diversity but homogeneity of
experience.
Many teachers, principals and even parents think that when a child enters schools he / she
is a clean slate, on which any alien state sponsored curricula can be written. Rather, the
child is a malleable lump of clay which can be wilfully moulded by the school. That the
child is young and impressionable is certain. But when children come to school they
bring with them hordes of experiences. Any child-centred pedagogy, instead of negating
the child’s own experiences, should build upon what the child already knows.
Instead, the children are drilled into doing the most boring exercises. Text books have
become synonyms with learning. Very few schools have good libraries with
supplementary books. Most school libraries are locked and inaccessible to children. Rare
is a school which encourages children to visit book shops and Book Fairs to choose and
select books of their liking for the library. The Centre for Learning (CFL) in Bangalore
has done this for a long time. And this is reflected in the fine collection of books and the
Open Library they have.
Children singing a nursery rhyme like ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill,’ or ‘Ring-a, ring-a
roses,’ is a common sight. Why are our children made to suffer these rhymes which have
no relationship to their lives or their reality? Well, one may say that this is part of our
colonial heritage. The British gave us the English language and along with it a bagful of
their cultural icons.
“Rain, Rain go away, Little Johnny wants to play,” is another such nursery howler which
totally negates the Indian child’s own experience. In overcast, drizzly London, a child
wanting to go outside to play might like to shoo away the clouds and stop the rain. But it
is just the opposite in India. After the arid summer and the monstrous blasts of hot air,
people all over India pray for the rains to relieve them from hell’s inferno. All our
regional languages are rich in folk songs which welcome and embrace the rain. For
despite all its technological progress, one rain deficient year can spell disaster and
starvation in India. Rain is so important to us. How can we ever shoo it away?
The first words, songs, stories have intense meaning in a child’s real life. They should be
part of the child’s cultural milieu. The alien stuff taught in schools – which have no
bearing to the learner’s experience soon becomes boring and a chore. State produced text
books are often didactic, sermonizing and they tend to talk down to children. Soon
children loose interest in studies.
This is a true story of an American School. It was located in a poor area with a
preponderance of African Americans. These children evinced no interest in reading.
Despite several remedial programmes the school made little progress. Soon a young
trainee teacher was assigned to the school. She had little experience, but was bright and
sensitive. She soon realized the incongruity of state sponsored textbook which did not
reflect the lives of her learners. She could also feel that African Americans were steeped
in music. Music was their life. So, she put up chart sheet on all the walls of her
classroom, and asked the children for their popular songs. As soon as she wrote the
popular songs on the charts, the children were reading them (as they knew them by
heart). Thus these deprived children got immersed into the written words through their
own songs.
How about art?
If you ask a primary school child in Delhi to draw an outdoor scene it will most likely be
two isosceles triangles side-by-side connected with an arc. The triangles represent hills
and the curved piece the peeping sun. Such hills are not part of the Delhi landscape. This
is no fault of the child. This is what she was taught in the class.
If you ask children to draw a house they invariably will draw houses with inverted “V”
pitched roofs. In reality, it might be difficult to spot such houses in Delhi. Probably they
had seen such pictures in some book, or were merely reproducing what the teacher
normally drew on the blackboard.
The un-contextualised rote-learning is evidenced in the kids' representation of houses
with pitched roof. No one talks about the need for developing creativity in the kids. This
is possible only if the teachers themselves had been brought up to think and learn in such
an enlightened mode. One thing is for sure, kids need to be made conscious of their own
surroundings. Contextualisation needs to be encouraged in our educational system. But
first, what's needed is the realisation that creativity is critical to any liberal educational
system!
The greatest sin we can commit against our children is to make them sit still on a chair
for long hours. Most schools just do that. Children’s life is motion and activities and most
learning should be by doing. Rote learning and parroting out definitions and formulae can
numb the mind. Before the children can understand a thing, they need to experience:
seeing, touching, hearing, tasting, smelling, choosing, arranging, putting things together,
and taking things apart. In short, they must experience real life and experiment with real
things.
Fifteen years back I used to teach in Mirambika – an experimental school run by the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram. The school is located in Delhi on a large, green campus, opposite the
NCERT. I used to often take the children for tree walks. Soon the children become very
good at recognizing and identifying trees. Unlike birds, which fly from place-to-place,
trees are rooted on a spot and one can observe them in their pristine beauty with the
changing season. Soon the class decided to put name plates on the trees. We found that
the cheapest ways of making name plates was to take old FROOTI packets (Tetrapaks)
open them up and write on them with a ball pen. While making name plates every single
child first made a name plate of their names and pinned them to their shirts! Then each
child made a name plate for a tree and tied it like a rakhi to the tree. In the process the
emotive bond between the children and trees strengthened. Later we put name plates on
all the trees in an adjoining park and public street. This, apart from being good public
education was also good learning for the children.
Today majority of the schools fail to capture the imagination of children. They have
become dens of boredom. Children go to school because they are forced to do so by their
parents. There are some schools which have shown sensitivity towards children and cut
down on authoritarianism and bureaucracy. I earnestly hope that there will be other
schools who will take a cue from this.
Arvind Gupta works in a Children’s Science Centre.

Children's book story that is engaging with beautiful illustrations

ENCOURAGEMENT IS BETTER THAN PRAISE

                                                                              T.V.Ramakrishna

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                         

                        While going through the article first let us clarify ourselves “What is praise and what is encouragement?”  “Praise usually given to a child when a task or deed is well done or when a task is completed”.  “Encouragement on the other hand refers to a positive acknowledgement that focuses on children efforts or specific qualities of work completed.

Why Teachers Praise young Children?

                        If we ask why young children praise, most of the teachers might respond that they want to help children feel good about themselves.  In addition, some teachers might say that their praise is a classroom management strategy to promote appropriate behavior of one child or a group of children.  Every primary class teacher knows that young children need to receive positive comment.  No doubt, that primary class teacher or a kindergarten teacher must praise the children in different occasions.  However, question may arise that whether teacher is praising at the appropriate time or whether their praising is giving any positive effect on children.  Of-course positive comments will in the end be much more helpful to children than negative ones. Some researchers say that some praise statements may have the potential to lower children’s confidence in themselves.  If the praise is a routine process of practice in the classroom children frequently try to read or check the teacher’s eyes for sign of approval or disapproval.  Then question may arise to the teacher that “If I can’t praise, what else can I do”?  It doesn’t mean that should avoid praising children.  However, the teacher must note that there are effective and ineffective ways of praising.

Does praise motive young Children?

                        According to Ginott, “Ineffective praise creates anxiety, invites dependency and evokes defensiveness.” The teacher must note that no child can always be good, nice, or smart. It is no doubt that a positive praise or encouragement gives lot of motivation to children in learning or in other tasks. Encouragement of the child in any activity praise is basic instrument for the teacher. Most of the creative and talented teachers know that fact and they will try the same in appropriate time and occasion.   “Good job, nice girl- oh!  How nicely you are doing, keep- it- up” are some of the common expressions usually we hear in the classroom environment. The phrases nice, good, or terrific will not workout always. Praise may have differential effects depending upon the type of achievement being measured. In addition, praise varies with different factors such as socio economic status of a child, their ability levels, their age and their personality. If the praise is not carefully worded, that can place the child on the defensive, negative image and they may lead to over dependence on others.

         Fake praise is recognized as such by children. Therefore, teachers must avoid speaking in a sing- song voice. Sometimes praise may be ineffective due to many teachers lack of sophistication in timing its use, assessing student response and understanding differential appropriateness for varied behaviors.  Some studies revealed that teachers give more praise to children from whom they expect high achievement than to children from whom they expect low achievement

Encouragement is specific:

                        Instead of praise, the primary teachers can use the statements of encouragement.  Encouragement is specific.  For example if a boy or girl painted well, usually the teacher says that “Oh! You are your painting is good.  Instead of that, the teacher can comment on real observation of the painting.  “You painted well, but you took more time isn’t it?”  ; “Your painting is good, see you applied more blue.”  “See here you have not applied right color.” Such comments will provide specific information regarding his painting.  Further, more such statements of encouragement avoid labeling or interpreting about the painting or any other task.  Encouragement focuses on improvement of specific quality or behavior.  Suppose a child is not good at handwriting and in due course, if he improved his handwriting, the teacher can comment like this, “Good, you have improved your hand writing a little bit, you have to improve it a lot.”  Sincere and direct comments of a teacher with natural voice give a lot of encouragement to the child.  Encouragement helps child to develop an appreciation of its own behavior and achievement.  Especially with slow learners, a small encouragement gives a lot of improvement in their specific task.  However, teacher must note that statements of encouragement must be offered with honest feeling.  The must be credible and varied to suit the circumstances.  Suppose a child offered to share the blocks with other child, the teacher can comment like this, “That’s good you have shared blocks with Rakesh”.  This type of comments will encourage the child to evaluate his behavior.  In addition, on other hand encouragement avoids comparison or competition.

            Praise can only serve to motivate the child.  Where as encouragement fasters autonomy, positive self esteem, a willingness to explore and acceptance of self and others.  Let us examine some of the examples of encouragement.

“Good today you heared the story very carefully”; 

“Good today you are very attentive in the class.”

“Very nice, both of you played well for long time.”

“Very nice, you helped your friend Renu at the science corner.”

Encouragement avoids comparison and competition:

Encouraging statements will not compare one child to another Dinkmeyer, describes encouragement as “having faith, giving hope, and reducing competition, eliminating unreasonably high standards and double standards.  Encouragement means accepting children as they are and separating their work from their worth.  Children thrive for the free and fearless environment.  In addition, they have intrinsic desire to learn.  Here they can make mistakes and learn from them.  Hence, the teachers must make their statements of praise more effective and consistent with specific goals; that are positive self-concept, autonomy, self-reliance, and motivation for learning.

                               

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