When does a child begin to write?

My son was admitted to school when he was 4-. He had to go to school about a year sooner than he would have had it not been for the Ganguly Committee report and recommendations. He was placed with the children who were atleast six months older than him.

His teacher's constant refrain to me," Mrs.XYZ, please treat this seriously! Your son is easily the most intelligent child in my class. But he is so moody! When he refuses to write- he simply refuses. I can sit with him for an hour or two or three... he will not write! Please make him write!" This is coming from a teacher teaching ( AND trained to do so) nursery children. I reply, quite nonchallantly," Yes, ABC, he is intelligent and understands far more than you would expect from a child his age. However, motor development proceeds along certain predefined milestones. He does not even know how to hold a pencil! Teach him that before you expect him to write." I teach him precisely that. I do not worry that there are children in the class ( who are incidently 6 to twelve months older than him!) who can and do write.

Have you seen a child attending normal school who is not able to form the lettering by the time he is in class 1 or 2? In this case we are not even talking about the ability to spell correctly- only form the letters.

Language aquisition must follow milestones. Each has to be achieved before the journey can go further. There may be some overlap, but the milestones cannot be sequenced differently. A child has to first and foremost LISTEN. Then he/ she begins to experiment with sounds and starts to SPEAK. When parents and care-givers talk in baby-talk, the child develops faulty speech. Typical of many Indian families," Ale Mela Beta!" We are setting the child up for a 'r'/ 'l' substitution. 'r' sound, in any case, is a sound that is difficult and gets established as late as 4 or 5. After having the LISTEN-SPEAK in place, the child begins LETTER RECOGNITION or PRE-READING. It is only after beginning to recognise lettering can a child logically move on to WRITING.

Preschool and nursery should logically prepare a child for the task ahead- writing readiness. This means the child must be taught how to hold the pencil. This has to be taught with love and patience. The little one must be given crayons to play with and have a splash of colours on their sheet. Once the grip of the colours is well-established, the little hands may be given the stylus. Even so, finger tapping exercises, thumb- to middle-finger-dance and even the simple wave help the child develop motor-readiness to hold the pencil and rush headlong into the world of the written word.

At this point, the product of this effort is NOT important. The only thing important at this time is the grip AND the motivation of putting the pencil to paper.

Some of the good schools in Delhi 'teach' children without having any plans or programmes in place. Sad. This could affect the tender children adversely- very adversely.

A few years ago, the competitive world opened its jaws to swallow the parents who wanted to boast of children who could do this, that and everything else. The only problem with the situation was that the parents were holding on tight to their children's tiny hands. The world swallowed the children, too!

From nursery, the children came down to pre-nursery and play-school began when they had barely begun to find their feet. Some children began preschool before they even turned two! However, was it really play?

Some of the good playschools, fortunately, were working according to the play-way and teaching with fun and games. In these schools, letter recognition preceded letter formation. Letter formation was taught in a sequence that helped the child develop fine motor skills. These children wrote first a 'c', followed it with an 'o' and then an 'a'. It was only after they were comfortable with these that they moved on to 'b' and 'd'.

All the while the children sang and danced and used their hands and fingers in little gestures to promote development of motor control required to write. My daughter was lucky to be in such a school. Thank you, 'The Study'!

This is much better than and much more than what I am seeing in formal schools. I wish I could make a difference to other children. I feel saddened by the pressure other mothers feel when the teachers begin complaining. I only want to say, "Hold on, Mums! They will all get there. Follow your heart. Do what feels right for you and for the child."

And if you cannot understand all this- think- and watch- Taare Zameen par! Not for dyslexia. Not for acting. Not for story line. Only to see how a child- any child MUST be allowed to flower and grow without being smothered!

Happy Mothering!

Rights of Admission Reserved ...

It is that time of the year again! The parents of two and three somethings are tense- nursery school admissions are a hot topic.

There are those that have a son, a first born. They thanked the God above for a healthy child when he was born.He hears well, enjoys music, is entire in limb and sight- no disability. Or may be their elder child is a daughter who is in a girls' only convent school. They score ZERO for being a HEALTHY... ABLE... BOY... whose sibling is not in the same school. They are out of the race even before it started! They lose 40+ marks based on these 'transparent' criteria. And there would be quite a few like these. Where can these parents and these children go?

Many good schools are displaying notices- No seats available for nursery admissions. "House Full!" When you go for a rave movie and find this sign, you are disappointed but end up buying a ticket for the next available show. Or... you give in to that agent who is selling the tickets at a premium ( Black is a great movie but a politically incorrect word!). The current scenario of school admissions leaves the parents with little choice. They make the politically incorrect decision. Or would they much rather wait for the next show? Next year?

Has the number of children grown so dramatically that with the seats full in most good and medium grade schools, there still are a lot of children left high and dry without a seat to sit on? Where are the children who are filling the 'filled' seats?

There has to be an explanation. It has to be logical.

I am fortunate. I decided that my children MUST go to a school that is close to my house. It should be a reasonable school. Notice here that I am not saying reasonably good. Only reasonable. It should prepare my children for their life. I chose to send them to a school that is 5 minutes drive from our home. The children take about 15 minutes in the bus. I did not choose my own alma mater only because it was farther than this institution.

There are parents who want the school to be an announcement of their status. Agreed there would be schools that justify the snob value attached to their names. Is it this snob value or our own commitment as parents that is going to prepare our children for their future?

While the Ganguly Committee tried to put some sense into the system, it only ended up making the whole process more chaotic than ever before. The siblings should study together when possible. It makes sense to allocate additional marks for that. Where do, however, the first borns go? The differentiation between a girl and boy child is not an issue in a city like Delhi. It may still be important in villages. Allocating additional marks for a girl child seems very inappropriate. Where do boys go?

Special needs children have traditionally been educated by Special Educators in a few very good schools, including my own alma mater- Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan. What is more the department worked extra hard to include these special children in the mainstream. Unless a school has specially trained special educators allocating marks for special needs children will only set them back further. It will not promote inclusive education... only further alienation. Where do 'ordinary' children go?

Are there any solutions that can be just set out for babus to follow? Can we not lay down criteria which are fair and inclusive? Rather tahn exclusive and questionable?

We need to strengthen our system to INCLUDE more and more children to be educated... not EXCLUDE deserving children from the system. This might even promote a 'parallel' 'economy' and will seep into our system blackening the very water we spray the tiny saplings with.