Let Textbooks Inspire Students

M.N.G. Mani

Principal

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Education,

Coimbatore _ 641 020

Impact of books on human life:

Indian way of life is based on eternal values. The country remains united in spite of multifarious diversities in terms of culture, caste system, religion, languages, etc. The unity in India is possible because of the value based life system of the country. Values can be defined as socially acceptable virtues of individuals. An ideal educational system is expected to develop knowledge, skills, and values in children. Mere academic knowledge will develop the capacities of the brain but the internal human possibilities can be understood only through the heart. The cultivation of the mind develops the faith system of the individual, which is a basic ingredient for a harmonious development. In cultivating the minds of young children, teachers, parents, textbooks, community, and public servants too have equal responsibility. Books played a significant role in the ancient India in fostering values leading to harmonious and total personality development of people. Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharatha became sources of inspiration to millions of people who followed the path of righteousness. The story on Harichandra made great leaders like Mahatma Gandhiji to follow the path of truth. Therefore, good books have their own effect on the personality development of individuals.

Emphasis on Value Education:

Review of the policy documents over the years reveals that value development was not given the thrust it deserved in the school system though value statements appeared in such documents. The Sargent Committee in 1944 made a statement that "Religion in the widest sense should inspire all education and that a curriculum devoid of an ethical basis will prove barren at the end." The famous Kothari Commission (1964-66) emphatically stresses that moral education and inculcation of a sense of social responsibility must be stressed in educational system and schools should reorganise their responsibility in facilitating the transition of youth from the world of schools to the world of work and life.

Far-reaching effects of textbooks:

At the beginning of the present century, everyone is realising the blunders committed by the society at large in the last few decades, particularly the erosion of value system among the citizens of the country. Time has come to revamp the entire life system, which is based on human values. In doing so, many entities are important. The school has its own role; parents have their share; and teachers assume a significant place in fostering value education. However, print materials, particularly textbooks can contribute substantially towards value education at all levels. The saying "the pen of the writer is mightier than the sword of the soldier" indicates the far-reaching effects of textbooks. It is, therefore, essential that textbooks portray the right knowledge, develop skills and values that make the life of the individual and the nation meaningful, purposeful, and productive. Textbooks should facilitate students to introspect and reflect on individual, social, and eternal values.

The recent report of UNESCO on Education for 21 century is featuring the headlines of any professional gathering on education today. The four pillars of education _ learning

to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be are stated as the sole objectives of any progressive educational system of the present. The question is to what extent the textbooks achieve these objectives of education. These four objectives do not stop with school. They are relevant for the society too. In a world, which is presenting so much of diversities, how the people are learning to live together. Can the textbook develop the values of living together, love, harmony, respecting every culture, tolerance, national integration, international understanding, etc?

Incorporation of value-based content in textbooks:

It is a general belief that the stakeholders of value education are mostly teachers, parents, community, religious organisations, public servants etc., but the text book issue is not treated as one of the main sources for the development of value education. Young children often state that they believe in a concept because the text said it. When there is doubt on concept clarity, children tend to refer the textbook to a large extent. Sometimes it has more effect than the teacher himself does in the classroom. Therefore, textbooks have a great role to play in fostering values.

Value development concepts should be interwoven with the syllabi. Instead of teaching value development as a separate subject, the concept can be effectively integrated through textbooks. The `added values' of `multiplication' effect, `diminishing values' of values of `division effect', etc., can be taught through mathematics. Transformation of one form of energy to another can be taught through thermodynamic systems in chemistry, and so on. Textbook writers should bear in mind that they are trying to penetrate the young minds through their powerful writing. Now that distance education concept is becoming popular, text books become the most important tools for learning and therefore, text books writers have a vital role to play in the value development among the readers.

Textbook _ A reservoir of information:

Though many stakeholders have contributions to the overall learning of the child, the importance of textbook as a reservoir of information cannot be ruled out. In the rural India, textbook is the only source of information for many children. Though effective learning methods include use of multi-media instruction, television, guide books etc., besides the actual teaching done by the teachers, the children in many rural villages don't have any access to the above gadgets and materials. When the parents are illiterates, the condition becomes complicated. Children may not be able to get help from the parents too in such cases. Therefore, textbook plays a vital role in the education of such children. A properly written textbook with a focus on value development may be of help for such children.

It is not an exaggeration to treat textbook as an assistant teacher for the child. Even today, the dependence of the child on textbook is as important as that of the teacher. Therefore, quality textbooks can provide the needed support for the children in all dimensions of learning. The Kothari Commission (1964-1966) highlighted the role of the textbook and indicated how a good textbook should be. It states: "A good text book written by a qualified and competent specialist in the subject, and produced with due regard to quality of printing, illustrations and general get-up, stimulates the pupils' interest and helps the teacher, considerably in his work." The statement of the commission should not be treated as a mere rhetoric. The spirit of the statement should be seriously looked into in the teaching-learning process of children. It states that the textbook should stimulate the interest

of the children. Therefore, the content as well as presentation should be thoughtfully planned to provide the needed information to children. Textbooks with inspiring stories and unbiased content may provide more values than anything else.

Presentation of text materials:

Textbook provides a sense of security and self-confidence to the students. Values, which are widely stated, can be developed through the lessons also. For example, the values of self-confidence, self-restraint, self-independence, self-control etc., can be narrated through stories to make a profound impact on the personality of the students. Therefore, the text material should be graded properly and the sequence of presentation should be appropriate. As the role of the textbook is to facilitate the student for reviewing and reorganising his knowledge, they should provide opportunities for self-learning also. The presentation of information in the textbook should be made from simple to complex, familiar to unfamiliar and concrete to abstract.

Textbooks add further values to the students if they have untrained teachers or poorly trained teachers. For example, children often find the illustrations of the textbook, the sequence of presentation etc. as compensatory methods to learn when the information given by the untrained teacher is inadequate. Therefore, textbooks can act as a substitute when there is a poorly trained teacher.

Textbooks are expected to provide latest information. However, it is quite impossible to keep on changing text books, especially when the production cost is high. Therefore, the textbooks can focus on values and the span of textbook should be fairly reasonable. On any account the textbook may not able to provide the upto date information, the newspaper may provide. Nevertheless, the universal values may find place in a good textbook.

Guidelines for textbook writers:

In textbook writing, the following aspects may be taken into consideration.

* Textbook writers should keep in mind that the writing style would also influence development of some values. Instead of providing simply the content, some values can be described. For example, the subject dealing with environmental education normally talks about the positive and negative aspects of environment. At the end of the lesson, a section dealing with introspection questions such as "what would happen if the student didn't take care of the environmental issues" can be included. Through this introspection, the realisation of the particular value would start from the self. Therefore, textbooks should focus on such self-introspective questions.

* Secondly, textbook questions should not try to analyse the factual information only. For example, the questions given at the end of the text is usually knowledge-based questions, which require simple recall of the information by the learner. Though the student acquires the knowledge, lack of stimulating questions rather retard the divergent thinking process of the child. Analytic and application type questions will make the person to think and thinking leads to reasoning which makes the individual to see the problem in the right perspective. Seeing the problem in the right perspective has an impact on value development of the individual. Therefore, the level of reasoning and questioning also has an impact on value development. Textbook writers should focus this aspect too.

* The content provided in the textbook should not develop wrong concepts in children. For example, a text in history prescribed for children of primary levels, while distinguishing

between villages and cities, makes a statement that village is a place where a person gets peace. This kind of direction oriented statements develop wrong concepts about cities and villages as well in the minds of children. Such conceptual confusions should be avoided.

* The textbooks should not present biased ideas. For example, there are pictures in textbooks which portray women whenever it comes to household activities and men when it comes to administration, planning, etc. This kind of discrimination on the basis of gender should be avoided in textbooks so that children develop the value of non-discrimination on the basis of gender.

* Similarly, disability is also another issue. Textbooks should not project a person with disability as an object of "pity". Some concepts regarding disabilities are wrongly portrayed in textbooks. For example, there is a picture showing a sighted man guiding a blind person to cross the road by holding the white cane or by pushing the blind person. This provides a wrong concept to the reader about the principles of helping people with disabilities. Such misconceptions should also be avoided in textbooks.

Therefore, textbook writers should realise that they are interacting with millions of young minds through their writing skills. They should write books in a straightforward and simple language, which is understood by the reader whether he comes into contact with a teacher or one who learns independently through distance mode of learning.

Value development in children is like growing a plant. In this process, the society, parents, public servants, textbooks, media, and teachers play their respective roles. Among various entities, the teacher becomes the facilitator to ensure that the value development takes place as per norms. The teacher should always play a proactive role in cultivating the minds of children and developing strong values in them. In this process, let textbooks provide the needed support to the teachers to inspire the young children.

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