Hi friends,
Now the child is sent to school at the age of 2 or 3. There is Nursery, pre-KG, LKG, UKG, etc. before 1st standard. The situation back in 1950 was different. I was admitted directly to 1st standard when I was 5. I did not carry loads of books on my back. I took only a slate made of thin Cuddappah stone. Later it was changed to a tin plate to avoid breakage.
The school was between 9 AM to 12 noon. We had only 3 periods. We went to the school only with the slate and a chalk pencil. There were no notebooks, books, lead pencil, pen, eraser, water bottle, shoe/socks, uniform, tiffin-box, etc. There were only 3 subjects, English, Tamil, and Maths. There was only one teacher for all the subjects. There was only one class per standard and one teacher took control of 2-3 classes.
The teacher would write alphabets and numbers on a blackboard, which I re-wrote on the slate. He would put a tick mark which I proudly showed to my grandparents. They told everyone how intelligent I was. I played in the evening. We had two cows. The Konar milked the cows. My grandmother gave me fresh milk. We used only kerosene lamps at night. After the sunset, we had our dinner.
After dinner, I sat on the lap of my grandparents on the lawn under the moonlight in a cot made of coir rope. There was no mosquito then. My grandmother told me stories from Mahabharata, and Ramayana and taught me Sanskrit Slokas. My grandfather taught me Maths and Tamil. It was always an oral and memorizing type. The morals they taught me are of immense value even now.
He started from the easy one and moved on to the difficult one. He taught Numbers 1 to 100. Then Tables from one to ten. I had to repeat it again and again so that it got into my memory. Once a Table is over, I had to repeat it every day so that I did not forget. He would then move on to the next table until we reached 16. Then he taught me 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 tables. The present generation does not know anything about these tables and they use the calculator.
He would then take up Tamil. He taught 7 days of the week, 12 English months, 12 Tamil months with its Sanskrit equivalent, [eg. chithirai-mesham], then 60 years and 27 stars in Sanskrit. There was no writing. I had to repeat whatever he said and memorize it. This coaching was about an hour every day. While studying, usually I fell into sleep on my grandparents' lap. They would put me onto the pillow and covered me with a blanket.
By the time I reached the 2nd standard, I was thorough with all the above lessons and knew them by heart. Even now I know them which the present-day children miss. That was the role played by the grandparents then. They are not given their due place in the family and are ignored now. MAY GOD BLESS YOU.
Now the child is sent to school at the age of 2 or 3. There is Nursery, pre-KG, LKG, UKG, etc. before 1st standard. The situation back in 1950 was different. I was admitted directly to 1st standard when I was 5. I did not carry loads of books on my back. I took only a slate made of thin Cuddappah stone. Later it was changed to a tin plate to avoid breakage.
The school was between 9 AM to 12 noon. We had only 3 periods. We went to the school only with the slate and a chalk pencil. There were no notebooks, books, lead pencil, pen, eraser, water bottle, shoe/socks, uniform, tiffin-box, etc. There were only 3 subjects, English, Tamil, and Maths. There was only one teacher for all the subjects. There was only one class per standard and one teacher took control of 2-3 classes.
The teacher would write alphabets and numbers on a blackboard, which I re-wrote on the slate. He would put a tick mark which I proudly showed to my grandparents. They told everyone how intelligent I was. I played in the evening. We had two cows. The Konar milked the cows. My grandmother gave me fresh milk. We used only kerosene lamps at night. After the sunset, we had our dinner.
After dinner, I sat on the lap of my grandparents on the lawn under the moonlight in a cot made of coir rope. There was no mosquito then. My grandmother told me stories from Mahabharata, and Ramayana and taught me Sanskrit Slokas. My grandfather taught me Maths and Tamil. It was always an oral and memorizing type. The morals they taught me are of immense value even now.
He started from the easy one and moved on to the difficult one. He taught Numbers 1 to 100. Then Tables from one to ten. I had to repeat it again and again so that it got into my memory. Once a Table is over, I had to repeat it every day so that I did not forget. He would then move on to the next table until we reached 16. Then he taught me 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 tables. The present generation does not know anything about these tables and they use the calculator.
He would then take up Tamil. He taught 7 days of the week, 12 English months, 12 Tamil months with its Sanskrit equivalent, [eg. chithirai-mesham], then 60 years and 27 stars in Sanskrit. There was no writing. I had to repeat whatever he said and memorize it. This coaching was about an hour every day. While studying, usually I fell into sleep on my grandparents' lap. They would put me onto the pillow and covered me with a blanket.
By the time I reached the 2nd standard, I was thorough with all the above lessons and knew them by heart. Even now I know them which the present-day children miss. That was the role played by the grandparents then. They are not given their due place in the family and are ignored now. MAY GOD BLESS YOU.
ReplyDeleteGowri Ramkumar
12:31 AM (5 hours ago)
to me
Dear Mama,
I read all the articles -
What the present gen missed - Totally right - I missed learning all that. I know only a few things in that list. Super useful. Will refer to that in the future whenever I need