Sitting all alone in the jungle
My mind roams in darkness,
Even an ant looks like a Tiger
Amidst the stalks of wild sunflower.
So writes a teenager of TVS
school, Hosur who was put through an activity called Lone in the Jungle. With a
general instruction to stay alone by themselves without any communication with
anyone was the task. Every boy and girl was given a specific location in the
forest; -a shade under a bush, a rocky ledge, a ravine or a stream bed. Every one chose to be where they felt
convenient. Most boys selected a rock ledge as they probably wanted to be at a
good vantage point. Girls found it convenient to sit in the shade of a bush and
very few of them went up a rock. Some wanted to be out in the sun, visible to
others. There were 37 students and were kept on guard for safety by five
teachers. The idea was that teachers kept an eye on them but never showed up or
communicated with any.
Even for the teachers the hour was
long and lasted-for-ever. They could observe several new behaviors in their
students. Simply sitting through for an hour was the greatest challenge for
most students. They pelted stones at bushes; some never even settled down at
one place but kept walking around to see what the others were up to. A boy ran
back to the dorm with an excuse to use the wash room. While a couple of them
huddled under a bush and kept talking most of the time a very few of them did
what was said to be done. One of them slept in a shade and dozed off.
School educator
and curriculum advisor Diana Senechal of New York Public School observes the
behavioral inconsistencies and inability to focus on a subject is a consequence
of too many distractions at a given time in the environment we have made for
them. In her book, “The Republic of Noise,” she reasons for such problem is the
students’ loss of solitude: the ability to think and reflect independently on a
given topic. Schools have become more concerned with the business of keeping
students busy in a flawed attempt to ensure engagement of the student. Compelling
to memorize phrases and passages and repeatedly writing to learn are activities
which do not enhance the spirit of learning in the child. In some schools
children at a very young age are subjected to imposition writing in the name of
punishing, learning spellings or improving handwriting. Such students at a
later date will lack the ability to express independently and look for others
standpoint, feeling that it would be more acceptable.
At the end of the hour all the students were
made to share their experience of being alone in an unknown environment. Most
students explained why they chose that place and how bravely they had managed
to be isolated from their friends. Of course every single one of them who had
not accomplished the task blamed upon a growling leopard or a grunting wild
boar which probably they imagined for not accomplishing their task. One girl
had engaged herself in making a stone tool by chiseling and polishing a piece
of rock to resemble a caveman’s axe.
Many students
across different age groups who I have subjected to this activity have
involuntarily shed tears. Not because of some kind of grief but with joy which
they could not put in words! It must probably be the joy of being free for
first the time or experiencing their strength and courage to take on for
themselves.
In most schools,
students are not given the time and space to devote for themselves or to completely
study and understand of one specific thing. It’s a need Senechal finds
reflected in our culture as a whole: We are a generation glued to smart phones
and computer screens checking email and twitter in our need to stay in some
loop by reading and responding to rolling updates.
This observation is not advocating that we give
up our iPhones or unplug from social media, but rather that we think more
slowly, give ourselves time for reflection — as such practice would only serve
to enhance the very conversations new media and technology is making possible.
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