I would like to begin with a true story, an episode of a few decades ago. A young woman had come to her parental home during her first pregnancy. Her father was a reputed doctor in a small temple town called Srivilliputtur. The delivery was normal and the baby was healthy. Baths and diets were all taken care of in traditional style. When the baby was five months old, travel arrangements were made for the mother and baby. New clothes for her husband’s family, and loads of the customary sweets and snacks, personal effects of the young mother and the infant’s silver cup and spoon — all were packed. Every detail was checked and they reached the station in the doctor’s car followed by a jutka (horse-cart) with the luggage. When they reached the station, each asked the other, “Who is holding the baby”? No one was. They rushed back to find the baby fast asleep in his crib, where he had been forgotten. They managed to get back to the railway station in time, catch the train, with the baby safe in the mother’s arms. A happy ending! You might wonder how this anecdote is connected to the theme of focusing on young children. Well, it’s a metaphor for what often happens in schools and particularly in preschools. There is a curriculum, neatly typed on every table, daily time tables up on the wall, age-appropriate play materials, colourful furniture, the loud school bell, well-turned out and often well-trained teachers, and airy classrooms. The focus is on the setting. In the process of organising everything, the child is often neglected. And such diffusion of focus is not only in schools. I have attended seminars and conferences on early childhood, where one would hear three or four learned presentations in a session, with no specific mention of the words “child” or “children”. Of course, the child’s presence was implicit, but I am keen to make that presence explicit and remind this audience of the wonderful talent children have for creativity and spontaneity. Odi vilayadu paappa is the first line of a well-known song by freedom fighter and patriot-poet Subramania Bharati. It’s addressed to a young girl, urging her to run and play with her friends and be joyful. It celebrates childhood and the spontaneous play of young children. The play experiences of children form the first source of their education. As teachers, through our interventions we should guide and stimulate, nurture them through play, assisting them to enhance their observations, allowing each child to make joyful discoveries of nature. We should promote their talent for forming natural friendships, provide settings where they can develop confidence and sense of self. Singing, dancing, miming, story-telling, painting and clay modeling are activities in which every child can participate and experience delight and empowerment. Most parents focus on cognitive learning or the development of specific physical skills, which result when children play. What adults often miss is the emotional development inherent in play activities. Starting…
