UNIT - 2
UNDERSTANDING THE VARIOUS SUBJECTS
Understanding the subject of English.
Let us now understand what basically at root, is the subject of English. Is English only a language? What role does literature play in shaping / educating a student?
These are the questions we answer in the following.
Like any language, English is development of LSRW skills.
And LSRW skills start from sounds (syllables), ‘letters’ and the spoken and written form, the basic vocabulary sets, and grasping the content in listening and reading.
The structure of English, the way the words are ordered and manipulated to express meaning is of course grammar.
Seen this way, grammar matters. It is good to know parts of speech, tenses, modals and methods of combining sentences etc.
In fact, English has a remarkably simple structure and can be easily learned. This point should be kept in mind when teaching EFL (English as a foreign language) students.
Thus a holistic approach of practicing grammar with vocabulary (basic sets), a significant amount of reading and listening (with 100% comprehension), practice of speaking and writing gives us the core, basic power of LSRW skills.
But English as a subject begins with basic LSRW skills NOT ends with them. English as a subject is mainly literature, which means reading and appreciating deeply many samples of poetry, short stories, novels and essays written by great masters. These masters express the common human condition but in a manner that has the power to reach deep into us, and make us very sensitive and actually fully human. This is the real, actual, profound function of literature in education.
Understanding the subject of Physical Science & Natural Sciences
Science is a wondrous subject but difficult to understand ESPECIALLY WITH THE KIND OF INPUT WE OURSELVES got in childhood.
Physical science needs us to observe the data from which we can see patterns and laws. The data is the world out there.
But that is not how Physical science is being taught. The laws and discoveries are stated logically but authoritatively. The student does not understand from what observations the laws have come. So it becomes strange and unbelievable. If you simply say that everything is made up of atoms, what does it really mean? True, everything is made of atoms, but do you feel it, do you see it? Is it real to you? It would be, if some observations/experiments were done, the same that the scientists had done then, to arrive at the laws!!
Even the experiments are taught as theory. But the Dalton’s law, for example, came from numerous experiments that showed clearly that 2 substances combine in definite ratios. Now, why must this be so, wondered the scientists.
And then Dalton realized, that there must be something very small combining with something small in the other substance!! And this small one and that small one had fixed masses and hence each small one from substance one combined with a small one from substance 2 and hence the fixed ratios as a whole!! The small particles, internally existing were called ATOMS.
Then so many more experiments were done and the whole Atomic structure was revealed and with that so many doors were opened!!
We understood what is light, sound, heat, chemical reactions, strength of materials, liquids and gases all at once, deeply!!
So, as we see, the observations have to come first, then the thinking and then the thrilling discovery. And then when we teach like that, it feels like a rediscovery. The same freshness is there, the same power and beauty!!
The best thing about the good textbooks, written by eminent educators and scientists, is that this same approach explained above has been followed and very well. So the teacher can himself engage in learning and teaching both at the same time.
This has to be strictly followed and we have explained the monitoring process later in a section.
Understanding the subject of social sciences
Social science, especially history, is about the world of men, and how we live socially, politically, economically and even the geography.
History in that sense is the most important subject because it teaches us from where we have all come so far!! The present world is the result of the past, and hence to know the past is to know really the roots of everything!!
We can know the roots of science and technology, religions, the traditional rules, the systems of governance, and even the existence of countries. It is a great power to have that information, and social science does that!!
In the textbooks too, within the limitations of space, the whole story of man does unfold!!
And hence, here too, textbook reading as a base and the first step, is a must.
Understanding the subject of Math
Math is not at all a subject of mechanical rules. Math is a powerful tool by which we handle large measurements and convey exactly, the relationships among various quantities. This is the reason why math is a part of almost every subject. All the tools that math has were created by geniuses that has transformed the world today. We did not go to the moon by using Physics alone, we needed lots of mathematical tools by which we could design a spaceship and project its trajectory. This example can be multiplied in so many situations in practical life. Math thus is a direct power and understanding of math in such a way would lead you to a great global career.