Notes on Education

T he first ten years of a human life are the most influential ones in shaping character. Utmost care is therefore required in providing the best possible education to a child at the youngest age. One may wonder what the best age is to begin in an elementary school for an average child. Although, there is no uniform consensus on this, my own experience suggests that an age between five and six is the right age to begin education at grade 1 level. Thereby a child will be about eighteen years old when he has finished twelve years of primary, middle and high school education. He or she would then be an adult and ready to enter university. That appears to be the right practice because then a person is ready to move out of a closely supervised school education as a minor to a university where greater freedom is available and necessary for intellectual development as an adult. It is appropriate that a child be provided at the most one year of preschool education beginning at an age bet...

The most essential requirement to develop a schoolis that of land . Buildings and other facilities can develop over a period of time but the allotted land remains fixed. In present day India, land is available at a premium near centers of population. Away from towns and cities abundant land a reasonable rates may be found more easily, however it is of little use for children who are not expected to spend more than fifteen minutes or half an hour to commute to school. In present day India many kindergartens are located on small lots of crowded localities. Such schools do not have room for even a small garden leave alone a play field. The Froebel Education Trust does not support this concept. It recommends that a kindergarten lot must be at least half an acre that includes a garden play area under the shade of trees; a kindergarten cum primary school lot at least one acre and a school that has the potential to develop into a high school must be at least five acres. Larger lots have the s...

The picture posted at the top and bottom of this post is due to the kind courtesy of the Japanese website putiya-en.com Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel, 1782 -1852, (or Froebel since the 'o' is with an umlaut) invented the concept of the kindergarten and laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. The singing of Nursery Rhymes is often a part of Kinder Garten curiculum. Some modern psychologists are unsure of the effect of some hidden violence that exists in some of the classical English Nursery Rhymes. The present author has composed new versions to eliminate this violence. These new versions along with an excellent introduction to the English Alphabet for preschoolers can be found in the book - Magical Alphabet. This book is the basis of the first recorded video episodes of the Reading Lady that has been aired widely on Public Access TV in more than twenty five states of the US. For more ...

A possible concept for a primary school building to house grade first and second along with a teacher's and Principal's room is illustrated here. The grade three and grade four rooms are not visible in this picture as they extend at right angles to this block behind the building. The grade three and four block may be reached by a paasage through this main block or an external path behind this block mainly for use of grade three and grade four pupils.The photograph here is from the Internet and was described as in the public domain. If anyone has any objection to its adaptation here please let me know and I shall remove it immediately.

Although I have been involved primarily with higher education, recently my mind is occupied with children's education. Therefore I am launching this blog to record and develop my thoughts in this direction.