Written by Naived
George EapenAssignment for Creative Empowerment Course, 2021
Theme: What makes an Effective Life (A Life well-lived)
How can it be possible? Can anybody be literate and
well educated without having learned the alphabets or rather the letters at all?
Yes indeed; by educational theories. The very fundamental principles of the educational transaction are as follows:
● From concrete to abstract.
● From simple to complex.
● From known to unknown.
● From near to remote.
● From whole to parts.
The fifth principle works here. You understand or
learn an elephant, understanding it part by part, say the big ears, big
pillar-like legs, the trunk, the big head, the small eyes, the tail etc., and
assembling them all in the mind into one big animal? No. You first see the
whole animal ‘elephant’ and then recognize its big ears, big pillar-like legs,
the trunk, the big head, the small eyes, the tail etc. The very same principle
can be seen in the elementary picture book, in the form of, “A for Apple, B for
Ball…”. It is not presented as Apple constructed of A, Ball constructed of B
and so on. No; it is the other way round; ‘A’ is ‘of’ or ‘for’ Apple, ‘B’ is
‘of’ or ‘for’ Ball…
But alas! Principles are all very good. But in
Practice, what do schools make the kids do?
Give an exercise to fill in the Blanks like,
A B
C D E F
A B
C D E F
… …
… … … …
… …
… … … …
… …
… … … …
… …
… … … …
… …
… … … …
Even books are made for the purpose of giving a ‘very
serious’ assignment!
It was this boring, monotonous and tiresome practice
of learning letters in an imposed drilling way, which is senseless too, that
broke by our Kochammachi, an
affectionate way in which we all call my grand aunt, aunt of my father. Kochammachi in Malayalam means, ‘small
grandma’ which was a very befitting salutation for that loving grand aunty who
was small in bodily size. She has been unmarried all life and was dedicated to
the education of small children. In fact, she is a very pious person,
surrendered her whole life to God, did her educational mission also as in
service of God. She was born in 1919, a year historic in many ways as the year
next to that of the termination of the First World War, or as the year of the
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, and the like. She died in 2010 at the age of 91, and
when I was finishing my sixth standard, after leading a meritorious long life
that imparted to generations the light of wisdom. She continued her mission
till she was 89, that is one or two years before her death as she was too weak
to continue it.
She was Nursery trained in the kindergarten line
introduced by Mary Montessori. She was fortunate enough to be trained directly
by Montessori as her training was at Miss. Baker’s Training School, Kottayam,
Kerala and Mary Montessori visited the institution at that time and got
involved in the training process there. Therefore, Kochammachi could conduct her kindergarten program without any
‘transmission loss’ of the envisaged methodology, in theory, or in practice. She
had also been trained in Elementary School (then term for Primary School)
teaching- the Basic Teacher Training (BTT).
She was the sixth of seven siblings and she had four
brothers and two sisters. My grandfather, the father of my father, was the
seventh of that chain, younger brother of Kochammachi.
She had been in charge of schooling all young ones of this big joint family,
and children of the surrounding community, an assignment she voluntarily took
up. She taught from the eldest son of her eldest brother, that is the eldest
first cousin of my father, who has been thirty-five years older than my father, up to myself. None of us learned alphabets in the mechanical, drilling way. We
had plenty of educational toys. We would sing, laugh, play games, act in small
dramas or role plays and see what we sing displayed on a blackboard written
neatly by colour chalks or stuck on a flannel board in bright and attractive
colours, without being compelled to understand or learn what is displayed.
After such a joyful session of art, we would sing the same song once again,
then the pointer in the hands of Kochammachi
touching each word we sing. Then a natural urge and competition among the
learners would follow to imitate Kochammachi
in touching the words sung. If a misplacement of the stick is made, the
learners themselves would somehow know to correct it and a joyful, combined act
of learning would go on unknowingly. Afterwards, there would be plenty of cards
with words of the same song. Those words would be identified by the learner
kids and parallelly or not much later, letters of those words would also be
available in the form of cards. Then there comes the game of word-making using
letter cards and making sentences using word cards. Cards are only a part of
the total set of apparatus.
Mathematical games and apparatus also were in plenty.
In short, we had been provided the opportunity for joyful learning, even
without being conscious that we were undergoing a task of learning. My grand
aunty is fully creditable for this.
Immediately after completing her training studies, she
was called by the women’s organization of the Mar Thoma Church, the Sevika Sanghom, to start a primary
school. She, in consultation with Miss. Kelleve, a European missionary, founded
the school and stayed at the headquarters of the organization as a member of
the sisterhood and was in full charge of the school.
Apart from her educational contributions, she was a
very loving and dedicated person. Her mother, who was the grandmother of my
father, had undergone a stroke and had been bedridden being paralysed for a
continuous period of seventeen years. She could not even turn without the help
of a second person. She had died long years before I was born, but what I have
heard is that great-grandma of mine did not have even a single occasion
for grumbling or irritation, as of the brilliant care and assistance Kochammachi had given her. Kochammachi was so committed to that
service as well. To take care of her mother, she quit the school she started
and came home. Thereafter only she started imparting primary education to
children around the home along with taking care of her mother. She also became a
social worker of the locality and gave leadership for Balajanasakhyam, a children’s forum of weekly gathering for
cultural expressions and leadership training, and initiated many charitable
works. She could manage all these simultaneously.
We at home have several occasions day by day to
remember Kochammachi, her affection,
her contributions etc. and the scientific uprightness of her methods. That is
how even I have become able to present the educational principles as done at
the opening part of this note. What makes a life effective and fruitful?
Riches, high positions, success in materialistic walks of life or fame? None of
these things. Kochammachi proved the
effectiveness of life not to lie in these things, but in making contributions
of service wherever needed and wherever one is placed. Having contacts to
persons of very high profile such as Mary Montessori, Miss Kelleve and the
like, she could have become a very famous and renowned person, especially in
those days when such qualified persons of different caliber were rare. However,
she opted for service in her own locality which has been a remote village and
within her family. The result was that she could produce hundreds of enlightened
persons and generations, and she kept herself behind the curtain. Now, as one
of those beneficiaries, it is my obligation to give her a manifestation at
least in a humble note like this. We cannot but remember her with great
affection and admiration. As I have been preparing this note, once again Kochammachi has become alive in my
memories in her full animated form as my teacher and guardian.
