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A
TEACHER’S PERSONAL MINI LIBRARY
Most
school teachers in India do not have access to good books on
education. The reasons are many. They do not know the existence of
these books, and when they do, they do not know where to buy them and
finally they cannot afford to buy these books. Here, an attempt is
made to select a mini library for them, which hopefully covers the
field of education as a whole. Of course this list is by no means
exhaustive. The criteria, while putting together this list, were that
the number of books was not many, that each book was small and easy
to read and finally that the cost of the entire library was not more
than Rs. 500. (Newer editions may cost more, but even then the cost
of all these books together will not be more than Rs. 1000).
Politics
of education
- Letter to a Teacher by School of Barbiana
- Danger: School! by IDAC (OIBS, Goa)
- On Education by Mulk Raj Anand (Sahitya Chayana, New Delhi)
- Compulsory Education and Child Labour by Myron Weiner
5. The Teacher and
the Child Labour by T. Vijayendra (Manchi Pustakam, Hyderabad)
Education
philosophers
6. Tagore - Pioneer in
Education by Elmhurst (Sahitya Chayana, New Delhi)
7. Sriniketan by Sandip
Bandopadhyay (Earthcare, Kolkata) 8. The Story of Nai Talim by
Marjorie Sykes (Nai Talim Samiti, Wardha)
Great
schools
9. Divaswapna by Gijubhai
(NBT, New Delhi) 10. Tottochan by T. Kuroyangi (NBT, New
Delhi) 11. Duishen by Chingez Aitmatov (NBT, New Delhi)
Classroom
transactions
12.
Preparation for Understanding by Keith Warren
13. Child’s Language and the
Teacher by Krishna Kumar (NBT, New Delhi)
Where
to get them
‘Resources’
at the end of this article will tell you where you can get these
books in English, Hindi, Telugu and Gujarati. All the books may not
be available. But if an organization gives
a large
order some
of the publishers
may be
able to
reprint them.
In English
all these books are available as
e_copies on Arvind Gupta's site, http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/.
Readers are welcome to add resources in other languages as well as
new titles on this site.
A
description of the books
The books have been classified in
4 categories - Politics, Philosophers, Great schools and Classroom
transactions. Evidently the contents of these books will not strictly
follow these divisions. Tagore, for example, was a visionary and a
philosopher, deeply aware of the politics of education and
contributed significantly to child-centered education. All the same,
the broad division is indicative of the content.
Politics
of education
In
each section there is an attempt to order the list in terms of easy
access to the reader. Thus in the section, ‘Politics of Education’,
the first book Letter to a
Teacher is actually written by eight Italian poor children
who failed and later studied in a school for dropouts. The first
paragraph of the book announces the angry and eloquent tone of the
remainder of the text:
“Dear Miss,
You don’t remember me or my
name. You have failed so many of us. On the other hand, I have often
had thoughts about you, and the other teachers, and about the
institution which you call ‘school’ and about the kids that you
fail. You fail us right out into the fields and factories and there
you forget us.”
The
book is a powerful critique of the mainstream school system and is
written in a straightforward simple style. In fact, it can be a model
of how to write and handle statistics!
Danger
School is an illustrated book and is a critique on the
school system in North America. This document was prepared for
parents, teachers and pupils by members of IDAC (a non-profit
collective), Geneva. IDAC was set up by Paulo Friere. The book deals
with school— the ever-present institution of modern industrial
society. The analysis is based on examples taken from the Western
European context in which the authors live. Nevertheless, the
questions raised here have a broader reach, since they also concern
the educational systems in other parts of the world, which have been
influenced by the Western European model.
On education
by Mulk Raj Anand originally published in 1947 and reprinted in 2010
by Sahitya Chayana, New Delhi remains the most readable,
comprehensive and yet concise (58 pages) book on Indian education. It
is practically the first Indian book that puts the idea of freedom
and creative energy of the child at the centre of education. The book
gives a brief history of modern education in India beginning with
Macaulay. It gives a good description and a critique of Gandhi's Nai
Taleem. It advocates the synthesis of Nai Taleem
with Tagore's idea of education through fine arts. There are a few
plates of children's drawing that illustrate the concepts. There is
also a very good appendix on Child Art by Pulinbihari Dutt.
Myron
Weiner’s writings have influenced most child labour eradication
endeavours. They make a powerful case for state run compulsory
education system. Compulsory Education and
Child Labour by Myron Weiner is a lecture
and hence small and easy to read. The book gives historical
experience of other countries in making elementary education
compulsory. It also helped in the advocacy for a Right to Education
Bill in India.
While almost all authors agree on
discrimination against the poor that exists in the school system,
they do not agree on a solution. As a rule, the libertarians or
anarchists believe in running their own schools, with the ideas of
freedom and creativity of the child as a core value, whereas others
believe in demanding from the welfare state equal rights. This debate
runs right through in all the writings on education. The
Teacher and the child
labour by T. Vijayendra is a series of essays on
this problem. The essay, 'Pedagogy of Poor' tries to give a
synthesis of the two views with practical examples.
Education Philosophers
The books in this section
basically deal with the works of Tagore and Gandhi. Tagore as an
author contributed to world literature in a big way and especially to
children’s literature. But he also thought that education was the
most significant aspect of his work. Gandhi on the other hand had a
moral and economic programme in education.
Tagore - Pioneer
in Education by Elmhurst is an
eyewitness account of Tagore's school for rural children. Elmhurst,
in fact, was in charge of the school and the book describes the
development of the school and Tagore's ideas. Sriniketan by
Sandip Bandopadhyay is a more recent book and gives a contemporary
and critical account of the Tagore's school.
The Story of
Nai Talim by Marjorie Sykes is “an
accurate but informal narrative” of fifty years of Nai Talim
(1937–1987). Marjorie Sykes, who worked initially with Tagore,
later came to be in charge of training Nai Talim teachers. It is ‘a
record and reflections' of her experience, and she is quite critical
in her narrative. One of her criticisms is that these schools were
very anthropocentric and did not care about nature!
Great schools
In
this section, the list begins with a fictional but very charming
account of a school— Divaswapna by Gijubhai, the pioneer of
Montessori education in India. The next book is an equally charming
account of a school, Tottochan by Tetsuko Kuroyangi, in Japan.
Duishen
by Chingez Artamatov is again a fictional account of a village
school in remote Soviet Central Asia. Soon after the revolution in
1917, the Communist Party sends a message to its member in the
village to start a school. It also sends a primer. The party member
is illiterate, but nevertheless starts the school. The narrative is
by one of the students who becomes an important educationist. The
story brings out the fact that in education one of the basic issues
is to create learning situations and love between the teacher and the
students.
Classroom transactions
Preparation for
Understanding by Keith Warren is based on a book written
by Richard B. Gregg, a Gandhian economist, who ran a school in
Himachal Pradesh. It is a very useful compendium of teaching tools
using material available in the village. Child’s
Language and the Teacher
by Krishna Kumar brings out the best in language teaching in the
world for an average interested reader. Krishna Kumar is a fine
scholar of education in India and his books have educated all of us
about the Indian education scene. In simple chapters titled Talking,
Reading and Writing, the book brings out the subject of teaching
language very clearly.
Resources
English
- Bookshops:
Earthcare
Books, 10, Middleton Street, Kolkata 700 071.
Phone:
033 2229 6551
Other India Bookstore, Above
Mapusa Clinic, Mapusa 403 507, Goa.
Phone: 0832 226 3306
Hindi
1.
Sahitya Chayana
6,
Saraswati Camp, R. K. Puram, Sector 3, (Opposite JNU Old Campus)
New
Delhi 110 022
2.
Eklavya
Pitara
c/o
Eklavya
E-10,
Shankar Nagar BDA Colony
Shivaji
Nagar, Bhopal - 462 016
Ph:
0755 - 2671017, 2551109
Contact
Manoj Nigam,
Telugu
Manchi
Pustakam
12-13-439,
Street No. 1, Tarnaka,
Secunderabad
500 017, A. P.
Cell:
+91 73822 97430
Gujarati
Shishu
Milap
1.
Shrihari Apartments, Behind Express Hotel, Alkapuri, Baroda 390 007
Published
with the title 'On my own bookshelf', in 'Teacher Plus',
Secunderabad, August 2012
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