A-for Apple
B-for Ball
C-for Cat and
D-for Dog………………
 
This is what most of us recall when we think back to our childhood days and wonder how it was that we learnt to spell, read and write. After the alphabet was memorized from A to Z then three letter words were introduced. This involved the teacher writing the word out on the board, then getting the class to repeat it like a chorus three times (C-A-T cat,
C-A-T cat, C-A-T cat) and then finally copying down the word into our notebooks three times.
 
Thinking back about this learning experience I am bewildered. What was the reason for this magical number three that every thing had to be repeated thrice - possibly something to do with the number three being auspicious as it symbolized the trinity? It wasn’t until I was reintroduced to pre primary and primary education as it is today that I realized that there are more fun and child friendly ways to learn.
 
After school most of us put away everything we had learnt or rather the method in which we had learnt it into a closet in our minds and throw away the key. In fact, we sometimes say gleefully to ourselves that we are glad to be rid of the constant learning. However, sooner or later you can be sure it will come back to haunt you.
 
In all probability, the time that it resurfaces would coincide with your children going to preschool and primary school. It will most likely be when you ask them how their day was at school.
 
My first experience of this phenomenon was when I registered my child in a Montessori pre primary. My query on what was done in school would receive replies like – “I played with a puzzle; I made rotis, I swept my classroom; I wrote in the sand…” My apprehensions on whether my child was learning anything were soon dispelled when I visited the school on the open day and discovered that the puzzles were actually apparatus for sorting shapes, the roti making was a method of improving hand eye coordination, the sweeping a bid to inculcate the importance of cleanliness of surroundings, and the writing in the sand a unique way of introducing children to the alphabet.
 
After this I was introduced to the concept of phonics. I was a little disturbed at first when I noticed my child would make the sound of the alphabet while trying to read a word – Kuh Aa Tuh-Cat. A little research and I heaved a sigh of relief to find that this was the new method of learning to read.
 
Pre School soon drew to a close, but the alien concepts didn’t end. One day in Grade-I my child came home and said, “Mama, could you please help me make a chart on Rebus?” I tried to appear outwardly calm and knowledgeable while internally battling embarrassment and swallowing my parental pride to ask at first “How do you spell that?” followed by “Can you give me an example for it”? So you can imagine how sheepish I felt on realizing that it just meant a letter or a word represented by a picture (like the picture of an eye representing the
word I). I helped with the homework with enthusiasm and new found wisdom and realized that this would be the first of many such learning experiences.
 
Most of us assume that we know and remember everything we learnt in school until we are reminded that there are still newer things to learn and newer ways to learn old things. Sooner or later we all go back to school.