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Simantini
began by briefly described the kit which she
used during the session. The material used, traces history
from the time of homo-sapiens up to 1950 A.D.
Activity 1
She started
with a drawing activity. A chart was split into 3 parts
and 3 teachers were asked to volunteer. The first teacher
was asked to imagine any living being and draw only its
head. While
the first person was drawing the two other
teachers were sent outside the room. This was then
covered
and the second teacher called. She was to imagine any
living being and draw only the
torso and similarly the
third teacher was to draw only the legs. When the chart
was opened,
one got a very different kind of animal,
something that mostly does not exist. The teachers then
commented on why this happened that there are so many
possibilities, that the 3 teachers had
not communicated
with each other what to draw, each imagined an animal that
was closest to
their heart and most importantly, that they
did not have any clue of what had happened before
they
started to draw. This highlighted the necessity to know
and understand history for our
present living.
While
teaching history it is also important to provide a sense
of totality of the world. That the
events that happened in
history were not isolated in space and time. A world map
is useful in
a classroom while teaching history to talk
about an event that happened in a place, and what
effects
it had in other places (near it, far away from it).
History is
chronological, but we do not have evidence for all parts
of the chronology. So when
looking at history, one has to
start with resources that are available from different
historic
stages/events and place them in context to the
present understanding. This also means that
as new
evidence is found one may have to change the understanding
and the context of what happened, how it happened etc.
Activity 2
3 teachers
were asked to stay outside the room while Simantini did a
series of actions depicting washing of an elephant. One of
teachers was called back in and she repeated this series
of actions. This teacher then enacted this series of
actions to the second teacher who was called back inside.
The second teacher then enacted the series of actions
(whatever she could make out) to the third teacher who was
then called back inside. The third teacher finally enacted
it to everybody. Each of
the teachers then told what they
thought they were enacting the third teacher said
she was enacting washing something, the second teacher
said she was enacting washing windows, the
first
teacher said she was washing a car. So the actual action
of washing an elephant ended up in washing something.
What
happened here was while reproducing a certain action,
there was partial interpretation,
certain events stayed in
mind, while minor details got lost. So it is with history,
while re-creating
past events from the evidence collected
by the historian and archeologist, the story of the past
can have details missing, prone to different
interpretations and distortions. It then becomes
important
to encourage children to understand how history is made,
from where, by whom and
question assumptions, to read and
look at multiple interpretations/stories of the same
event.
She then
related a story from one of the modules where Kabir and
his sister are asking their grandfather why it is
important to learn history, why it is so boring and how
grandfather explains
to them through examples that the
knowledge of the past is important for us to make
decisions
in our present and future.
Activity 3
She read out
a story from one of the modules of the kit. The story of
Kabir and his nanaji.
This is the story of how religion,
philosophy and science could have emerged from the same
basic need that man had to understand nature/natural
events and how each one of us is
influenced strongly by
one of them and believe in the explanations provided for
various natural
events. This story is then followed by
activities that the children take back home, asking their
parents, neighbors etc what influences them most and
why religion, philosophy or science.
Activity 4
We are all detectives
This is
another activity with kabir, his sister and grandfather.
One day after his walk, nanaji finds
a bag of household
garbage from one particular which has various items
like a spindle, needle,
ID card etc. Nanaji asks kabir and
his sister to look at the things in the bag and answer a
few questions like who live in the house, their age,
what they do etc. The teachers formed groups
of 5 and also
tried to answer the same questions. Each group made some
assumptions and
came up with some different
interpretations. The activity also helped understand that
interpretations and assumptions are based on the
social-economic background, experiences.
So historians
when they interpret a historic event or are piecing
together evidence are also
influenced by their prejudices
and experience. For eg. one group said that lady in the
house
was a widow, while another said information
about husband not available. In other places
where this
activity was done, some groups said she is a single mother
etc.
Activity 5
Simantini
ended with one of the modules that talks about wars
there are 3 wars that are
taken up to show that how
wars are unjust and how those who win the war have a
technological, economical and cultural advantage over
those who have lost it. That the
story of who loses and
who wins is being repeated in our present world.
Questions
There were
questions on where one can buy the module, see the module
in greater detail,
how much it costs and what the other
kits are about. A one page brief about the Sangati kits
is
available here. Sangati kits
will also be made available for teachers to take a look at
Goodbooks teachers Centre, 39, Fourth Street,
Abhiramapuram, Chennai 600018.
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