Teach Smart with Rhyming Bananas
Iknow what kind of schools we've been taught in. We were educated in the schools where we were taught rhyme in nursery like prose, made to sit motionless on a bench and cram. We could never understand that there's music in poetry. Why? Because most of us were taught Urdu or English poetry just like prose.The teacher did not sing, or gesture, not at all. They just narrated and that battered our poems. We learnt them, not knowing, they could be enjoyed by singing. We were taught poems, made to cram the meaning and were tested on the “central” idea of it in the examination. That's all.
If you can't relate with what I say, imagine if Iqbal Bano would not have sung Faiz Ahmad Faiz's "Hum Dekhenge”'. It did not add any meaning to it but has contributed to its wide appeal. Imagine if national anthems like India’s “Jana Gana'' or Pakistan's "Pak Sar Zameen” were not sung. Jana Gana Mana not put to rhyme, just imagine!
Language has music in it, this music will only be heard when we are made receptive by making us, as children (not necessarily as anxious adults), to enjoy it by rhyming it as much as we can. This brings the banana training, that many people seem to be critical about, into context.
If you say that there is nothing in a banana for it to be put to rhyme and said with gesturing, that's a problem for which the reasons have been already, at the beginning. Since you were taught your rhymes like prose and were grilled and tested in examination, what could have given you enjoyment turned into pain for you. That's why, if a teacher trainer tries to show how you could let children joyfully imagine a banana without seeing it in a class, how to peel it in your mind and how to shake or drink it with enjoyment; you cannot tolerate it. You can never imagine that bananas could rhyme this way and they could also be enjoyed without eating. This incomprehensible concept is intolerable to you. So, you begin to troll.
It's not about bananas. The best teachers are the ones who by way of their teachings can bring to life an apple, a mango, a fig, a car or anything in the minds of children, by rhyme and rhythm. The teacher trainer in question was not teaching hard science, hairsplitting philosophy, he was just trying to show how a banana could be brought to the live imagination of the child. Some other trainer could do it differently, or better. But the point is that a resourceful teacher can create a rhyme for apple or pear or any vegetable or anything if they are really resourceful. If I was a toddler's teacher I would ask them what if bananas were apples with very thin peels and would taste like mangoes. "What if", is something children love. We as adults forget the potential of “What Ifs”.
This is what it takes to teach toddlers. It's very difficult and very different from teaching university or college students. Teaching toddlers takes real imagination and creativity, not just knowledge. Just check what nursery teachers do in Finnish or European schools. Our nursery schools are a disaster and if in this condition some teacher trainer takes initiative, why should it bother someone?. Some mistakes may be made but people must be given a chance to initiate change. On the one hand, we criticise Government teachers for not doing enough and on the other hand we troll someone who is just trying to do his best.
It's not about bananas. The best teachers are the ones who by way of their teachings can bring to life an apple, a mango, a fig, a car or anything in the minds of children, by rhyme and rhythm
The article was originally the facebook of the author and is being reproduced here with minor edits. Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir