I had signed up for a workshop a couple of months ago, “Aspiring Homeschoolers Forum”, just on a whim. I am not currently homeschooling my children in the original sense (almost the whole world is ‘homeschooling’ now, thanks to Covid!), and neither am I aspiring to. I did homeschool and un-school my kids for about 3-4 years, but I signed up for this workshop to learn the ways in which the different speakers have observed children and their understanding of how learning happens. One of the speakers was Mr. Jinan KB. His speech was phenomenal! I was glued to the screen the entire time he spoke. There were so many things he said that stuck with me & resonated on such a deep level:
- Fragmented mind & body: He says that what we do in schools and just generally learning is fragmented. He says what the child actually learns in a classroom is to be a teacher (since mind is occupied with what the teacher is saying, but the body is experiencing what the teacher is). We are fragmenting holistic knowledge into subjects like language, mathematics, etc.
- Toys are more dangerous than schools: He says readymade toys are so detrimental to the natural cognitive act of play & playfulness. Children like to explore their world & are curious and they will use the objects around them to create things. A small hardcover book can be used as a phone, a calculator or a tab, or even turned upside down to make a “tent”. We don’t need to give them a toy phone!
- Illiterate learn the world, Literate learn the word– I so loved this as this is so true. Schools and learning these days have shifted the focus from learning the world to learning the words. Our whole worldview has changed because of this.
- We are not creating knowledge anymore, just distributing or transferring it – Again, this is very true of the current education system, especially in our country.
- Adults are physically present but mentally absent in many ways. He quotes an example of asking adults what color the sky is & most of us say blue. But when he asks children the same question, many question him back as to what time of the day he is referring to!
After the workshop ended, I watched a lot of Jinan Sir’s talks on his website & on youtube, and I decided to write to him. I wrote him a rather long email about the challenges I face in bringing about essential changes at our school, and he responded right away with his number to call. I had a lovely conversation with him and I had yet another conversation yesterday morning which prompted me to write this blog now. We discussed about how schools are ‘messed’ up in general and what we can do to reduce the damage and make the learning process more meaningful & joyful! He beautifully shared with me the natural sequence by which children build their cognitive foundation:
- Senses: through physical engagement with the world
- Senses + Language: how sensorial experience is named using language
- Senses + Language + Concepts: colors, shapes, sounds, numbers, etc are understood through this natural progression.
However in many schools I have observed here, when kids enter kindergarten, they are given a bag full of books. These books have pictures of a big ball & a small ball, a tall giraffe and a short donkey, etc and children learn these “concepts”. So we teach them the concepts first, then give them the language to label these concepts and then if they’re lucky, they get to experience these concepts through their senses. It is the exact reverse of what sir said! This is how we block any form of experiential learning and suck the joy out of learning, as we limit our students’ learning & experiences to textbooks from about the age of three.
Jinan Sir has been working with children & learning since 1991. Listening to him will shake you. He speaks the truth from his heart and it may be bitter, so brace yourself! As we listen to him, we may start to feel restless, defensive, and even realize that we are not as “fine” as we think we are! So much of our thoughts, behavior & attitudes are conditioned by this modern paradigm that we don’t even realize or question what is right & what is wrong for us and for our children. So we need someone like Jinan sir to come knock on our doors every now & then.
I am so thankful to Durgesh Nandhini for bringing this beautiful person to my door!
Jinan sir has done some wonderful work on reimagining schools and he has agreed to work with our school & our teachers also. I am so excited for our team to listen to him and propel our dismantling and restructuring process that we began a few years ago. Our school has made so many changes and we have just begun! With the guidance of people like Jinan sir, we can definitely reimagine schools to be the place where knowledge is created by providing the right conditions for our children’s natural intelligence & curiosity to flourish!
Recent Comments