BOOK WORM
Beyond the classroom walls
PAROMITA PAIN
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Take a look at how other kids go to school. From tongas to wheel chairs it's a big adventure that leads to learning.
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It's about going to school. Every
morning so many young people
hoist bags on shoulders, polish
shoes and gear up to face another
day of friends, classwork and fun.
Do all of them go the same way?
School in a country like India is as
varied as its culture and language.
Would you have guessed that
maybe even going there could be
just as diverse? Celebrate school
and the many exciting ways
young people the country over
enjoy school with Going to school
in India.
Author Lisa Heydlauff has
travelled all over India to collect
the story of how children go to
and feel about school.These certainly
are important stories.
Learn about the rickshaws of Calcutta,
the chackras of Gujarat and
the tongas of Mysore. The friendly
soldiers along the Kargil roads
give children a ride. Bridges are
an integral part of the journey in
states like Nagaland and Assam.
Trust the cool folks in Ladakh to
get adventurous and swing from a
rope bridge. Some schools are
spread over acres and some are
just a tent.
Think differently
Some children walk miles
while others like Haider Ali aged
10, go on a wheelchair. Thought
only grown ups could teach at
school? Read about 13 year-old
Devki who does her best to ensure
more night schools in Rajasthan.
Children are innovative
and this is what makes school interesting.
Meera Kumari might
only be nine but she is an important
member of the Mango Tree
Parliament. Some of us are lucky
there are classrooms, but for
some children in Orissa, the station
with the chugging trains
form the perfect backdrop to
learning. Have a problem going to
school? Check out the Door-step
School and School on Wheels
concept.
If the reading gets tedious,
then simply browse the pictures.
Each page is nothing short of a
celebration with colours, photographs
that smile up at you from
the colourfully bordered pages.
It's a bit like Holi with school
bags, uniforms and means of
transport that we so take for
granted.
An excerpt :
Anita's piggy banks could not be opened umless they were broken,
and so she knew her money was safe until she had decided to break
the clay pots.
However, not everyone in the village was very happy that Anita was
teaching : Anita was so good at teaching children that she was taking
business away from the older tutors, who were all men. The village
children preferred to learn from Anita; she explained ideas simply
and she could understand what they found difficult. While the other
tutors were not happy about Anita's teaching talent, they had to
grumpily agree that Anita did understand children better then they
did. Perhaps it was because she was only fifteen years old.
GOING TO SCHOOL IN INDIA by Lisa Heydlauff,
Rs 450, Random house India
www.goingtoschool.com
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