(Following essay is compiled without any pre – proper
– plan; without collecting much data, reading available secondary sources, literature
available on the subject, so pardon me for if you find no particular order in
the way I presented it.)
“Children are the most
important assets of any country”
-
Nelson
Mandela
So these children, one day, become an adult; an important
‘resource’ and knowledge or otherwise investor to the same country they are
born to and to the world they live, if they are tenderly accurately handled and
guided
“Children”, says the grey - haired lady as she looks at us with her kind
eyes. ‘A’ is the first letter of the Armenian alphabet. “Repeat altogether. ‘A’”
Letters how fascinating they are! You put them side by side, and they begin
to talk to you. And that is not all. Most fascinating of all is that you can put
something down on paper and in a thousand years’ time it can be read by someone
else who will then discover you as a person.
“This is – hill”
We all repeat together: Hill
“Aram say after me: hill”
My father is also called Aram. On snow – white clean sheet of paper I can
write: Aram say after me: hill, and my father can read what I have written and
cry out: what a good thing that my son can write ‘hill’ instead of some other
word’
- ‘When my father didn’t come back’ by
Ruben Marukhyan, page 08, Soviet Literature - 1988
I think to understand inner or deepest sides of
the people of any country, it is at least little necessary to understand its cultures,
values and demands. Above lines says not only about ‘how important it is for a
child to learn their alphabets but also how it helps them to morally
communicate with their parents live outside to their communities, and how it,
in the past helped them to hold their breaths until their fathers return from
war fronts, from the middle East’s, foreign employments, from the parents
departed from their nuclear families etc.
Most often, we analyze ‘ones abilities to read and
write’ as a useful tool / instrument that in the future, help individuals to ‘earn
their living’, getting a job at the right stage of life.
I feel whether some / any think that ‘learning the
alphabet’ as the first step of ones ‘journey that he / she goes hunting jobs or
earning jobs’ at a certain stage of their life. What we forget here is that ‘how
it helps individuals to deal with their apolitical lives.
An article published on internet under the title
of ‘International Literacy Data 2013’ revels;
‘…………… 774 million adults (15 years and older)
still cannot read or write – two-thirds of them (493 million) are women. Among
youth, 123 million are illiterate of which 76 million are female. Even though
the size of the global illiterate population is shrinking, the female
proportion has remained virtually steady at 63% to 64%’.
(http://www.uis.unesco.org/literacy/Pages/data-release-map-2013.aspx)
I do not know whether the mentioned situation at
least to certain extent changed by now.
What does the above proves?
Do you think that the role of world educationists;
then has accomplished, achieved their targets, educational missions and full
fill their tasks?
From where this number 774 millions have come from?
From another universe, planet where there were no education facilities, and no
modern strategies to learn read and write invented, implemented, where there are
/ were no ‘education forums held worldwide, no world organizations were setup
to look after the ‘education of any age levels, lets say ‘formal or informal
education, where there are / were non governmental, non profit organizations ,
world pulses set up, layered foundations to address tiny or massive issues of
the world as pointed in the article.
It is not 1 million, 2 million or five million it
says 774 millions of adults.
It is amazing to know that how slower the process
of ‘establishing informal or formal education systems that exist in this globe is
with regard to enhancing, uplifting the lives of men and women who are unable
to read and write in this ‘knowledge-ful’, educationists theories , theorists,
benefactorial organizations that you get in thousands or in millions worldwide exists.
Does it mean that the funds raised or gained were
not accurately invested or not gone to the ‘right set’?
As we all very well know, thanks to the abilities /
skills we have improved that ‘literacy’ can make a huge difference not only in people’s
lives but also in the lives that they associate and deal with as adults at
present or in the future.
The children that belong to the category of ‘pre-school’
are not taught letters in their little formal school but the teachers (they are
advised to) help them to draw what ever patterns they like and through that
teachers are advised to guide the children to identify letters and learn to
write them methodically.
This world is full of literature and knowledge ,
so if the child or any adult unable to read, lets forget to write for a moment they
miss everything they can learn through books, what ever printed and available
Compared to the very distanced history the
situation has changed to a certain level, which is also true but to come to
that stage many benefactors, other than parents, responsible authorities,
tender teachers had to struggle and sacrifice other than the self sacrifices and
battles face personally or alone by individuals, now and then.
In the history lanes you could find ‘the fifth graders’,
the main female character like men and women (The Pirith House, written by Mrs.
Sunethra Rajakauranayake) ; how they tried and struggle to understand the lives
of others with no ability to read and what difference it shows them when they
learn to read letter by letter, slowly and slowly
How important it is to learn to read and write
when you’ll have to deal with complex societies, organizations with various
objectives and aims, vision and missions, to gain or achieve what you are deserved
or to enjoy the ‘rights’ of human.
Take primary societies, certain Tribes, here and
there for instance. How did they gain what they wanted? Easily? For instance,
to protect their cultures, resources, ownerships of values and demands when the
outsiders sometimes claim the ownership of certain things as described above
Even though we can see that people hold various
perceptions with regard to the letter written by the chief of Seattle to the
President of Washington in 1800’s (?) we can see how important it is for every
citizen of this world to learn to read and write. I do not know the literacy
level of the chief of the Seattle at that time but it revels the importance of ‘better
communication’ with no intervening parties. Any human creature should learn to
communicate literarily, very independently to meet or achieve their what ever
targets in life. Ones ability to read and write, for sure, weaken the wills or habits of any individuals
that mostly depend on others in what ever they do; carrier or otherwise.
If you take any existing community with people
unable to read and write they fail to communicate effectively with who ever
outside to their communities. To achieve its social or political, economical needs.
Some leaders of various groups of history, that we
now assume totally eradicated, aimed at various political or social wills had
to depend on the advices of the ‘theorists’. I do not know whether that was
because the net work of the group so widely spreaded globally then (not now?)
or the so called leader was not carried the skill to read and write, or was it
because it was / is the tradition of well established group to follow or to have
such a system, admin
Let me comeback to previous paragraph for a
moment, Other than the native languages the tribal or any local community
people speak what some outsiders do not understand mostly is the real languages
they speak. It is little difficult to understand the apolitical systems of any society,
specially for an outsider. In this case the literature would help them to
understand their ‘wills and desires, needs of the societies, communities.
I do not know how you literary describe the term
or the asset ‘child’ what ever meaning or explanation you give; Children should
learn to communicate accurately. That is the base of earning or gaining better ‘education’.
To achieve that ‘learning to read and write’ is highly important.
The governments worldwide are spending or
allocating some percentages of money from their budgetary readings for the development
of its fields, formal education. How they make use of them is another thing to
analyze
I think if you take ‘a child’s education; learning
to read and write; better ‘home based system is essential’, that is before
pre-school’, and then within better pre-school’ establishment, and from their
to the ‘better primary school system etc’
What is the role of a Home Based School System?
Who are the principals and teachers of this system?
The parents, grand parents, and other than them any
other kin that stays with them, care givers, care takers, nannies
Who are the class mates of these children of this school?
Their Siblings, cousins perhaps, perhaps the small
peers that they meet during their play times
What is the duty of the parent / grand parent teacher
of this school?
‘Prepare them accurately to the pre-school’
I have not been to any pre-school but it is not
the system now. Thanks to the eye awaken
research and findings of the Voice of children; Maria Montessori ‘formal and
informal systems of education of most the countries pay attention to pre-school
education and they make sure that the child join the pre-school before ‘formal primary
school’ (Grade 1 onwards)
Through the things that the kids write the adults
can understand the ‘inner side of their children’
To minimize any obstacles that the child or the
global citizen face‘ improve the abilities of reading and writing without
giving it a second thought.
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