Kidding along in Karnataka

THE state syllabus in India’s Silicon Valley of Karnataka will, from now on, strive to develop more thoughtful children in school. Kids from class one to class nine will be asked to make daily entries in their diaries, and will even be given marks for doing so, says a newspaper report. Whether institutionalising as personal a habit as maintaining a diary is the right way to go about it is a moot point. Asking children to make daily entries in their diaries and then scrutinising them could encourage not so much freedom of expression as pontification as kids are encouraged by their parents to say the right things, especially when marks are to be had! Instead of entries where the children write about how much fun it is to play in the rain, they could be encouraged by their parents to say positive things about their school and class teachers! Diary writing is, to quote the educational authorities, “a cultural practice, involving reflection and expression and is yet a peculiarly hybrid act of communication”. But that presupposes that there is no one peering over the child’s shoulder to make the diary entry yet another assignment to be completed before the kids can do what they really want to, even if it is just watching monsoon clouds drift in a darkening Karnataka June sky.
As if to leave the kids with even less leisure to let their minds roam free, the authorities have also programmed the group-singing of inspirational works like Kodagana Kodi Nungitta by Santa Shishunala Sharif and poems like Manku Thimmanna Kagga by D V Gundappa. That is to be followed by visits to local hospitals and old-age homes to make the students understand physical and emotional pain so that they can become more responsive and humane. All of which could be Karnataka’s way of ensuring that the kids achieve enlightenment even before they leave the creche!

-- The Economic Times Editorial