English Vinglish

Read out the poem aloud, my mother-in-law instructed sternly to my nephew Appu. He reluctantly started reading “A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by one after one.” It was the poem “To Sleep” by William Wordsworth. The boy was visibly unhappy for being forced to study on a fine afternoon with cousins around. To lighten the mood, I asked him “Appu, why is the poet mentioning sheep here?”. He looked at me with a blank face wondering what has gotten into me now. At the moment, it was quite clear that he did not care about sheep or any other farm animal the poet might have used there. This is just another example of why or how we start hating poems in our lives.

Appreciating poems is an art which unfortunately is not taught much in childhood. If you are lucky to have positive influences around – avid readers or people with an inclination for words, then you might learn the art. Unlike prose, poems leave room for interpretation which in the hands of a good teacher can be a great tool to ignite minds. However, in our rigid classrooms which are always in a hurry to finish the portions, learning poems are mostly reduced to by hearting few lines and parroting few answers. Appreciation is one level above understanding and needs time and attention which is understandably a scarce commodity these days.

One might believe that love for poems or literature isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. That only few are blessed with the power of words. I do not subscribe to that thought. Poems or any work of literature is just another way of storytelling. And everyone loves storytelling. Story telling is one of the oldest artforms that has played a huge role in our collective progress as human civilisation igniting imagination. While everyone loves to hear a good story, our inherent preference for laziness makes us choose things that are readily consumable without taxing our brains and hence the popular preference for artforms like movies to books or stories to poems.

However, its worth investing on the subtleties of the written word whether poems or stories coz it provides a huge opportunity to think, understand perspectives, explore possibilities, open your mind, make you more empathetic and there by more humane. Then why doesn’t it happen?

In schools “English” or any other language is just another subject that you are mandated to study. Only passionate teachers with innovative methods can do magic with the subject. If you are lucky to have such teachers then you surely will enjoy the subject. We had a trainee teacher in 8th grade who came to teach us English. In her first class, she walked in with a picture of tiger in hand and passed it around. I remember we all giggling and waiting eagerly to get our turn to look at the picture and curious about what is going to happen next. She just wanted to introduce the word “ferocious” which was the look of the tiger. Ferocious was just another word in the prose that we were going to read that day. With that small but effective technique the teacher managed to capture the attention of a sleepy class which immediately got charged and paid attention through the period. It has been years since then and I still remember the teacher who taught us only for few weeks being a trainee teacher. That is the power of good teaching methods.

A small word of appreciation or gesture of encouragement goes a long way in determining the child’s journey for the love of the subject. I remember being appreciated by my Malayalam teacher Rajamani in 8th grade for interpreting two lines in a poem beyond the surface level. It was a poem named “Aavanipaadam” where the poet mentions about birds flying from the oil fields which I equated to the Malayalis in the Gulf countries. The pride I felt at the moment extended as my love for the subject.

But even good teachers are often struggling with lack of time to help children reach a level to appreciate the content. For instance, “In time of silver rain” is a poem by Langston Hughes that was in my son’s 7th grade English textbook. The poem was about rain and how earth puts forth new life in rain. I wondered if the poem was too simple for 12-year-olds. But I got my answer in the appreciation section where there was an assignment to write a short story with the central character as a farmer in a drought prone village. What better way to make the children understand the importance of rain in someone’s life and what a beautiful way to teach them empathy. Sadly, the children never did the assignment but stuck to the question answer section of the chapter as the focus was to complete the portion and help children prepare for the next exam. Such a huge waste of opportunity!!

Another reason for the disinterest is due to our old-fashioned evaluation methods. I never understood the rational of the creative writing section in question paper which needs to be completed in a stipulated time during the exam. I wonder if Arundhathi Roy or Ruskin Bond themselves can do justice if they are asked to write a story or article within twenty minutes knowing that they are going to be graded on the output. I find the idea pretty absurd and outdated.

Why don’t we cut the quantity and focus on quality. Let us not teach 10 stories and 10 poems, but 5 stories and 5 poems and do justice to that. I say let us make some radical changes to help generate interest in the subject. How about including a poem by Taylor Swift in the syllabus. A good poem is a good poem whether it is by Tagore or Taylor Swift. Remember, Bob Dylan won Nobel prize for literature in 2016 after all. How about moving with the times and asking them to make a rap song as one of the creative assignments. Or a role play changing the narrative of the story making the villain the hero.

While the education system needs a rehaul on what we teach, how we teach, how much we teach, how we evaluate, there might be a thing or two that we as parents can do to help the cause.

The best way to inspire children to read stories or poems will be to pick a book yourself and start reading. “Show” than “tell” works best with children. Also, you might want to change your story telling approach - use them for conversations to discuss their thoughts. Next time you tell the hare and tortoise story to your child, ask them what is the moral of the story and be ready to hear some surprising answers. For me the moral of the story never was “slow and steady wins the race”, but “never under estimate your opponents”. Point being whether it is moral of the story, stereotypes or counter narratives, stories and poems gives a huge opportunity to discuss and debate thereby enhance many other life skills that help them become a better human being.

How we inspire children to love literature remain a challenge in these attention deficient times where reels and shorts are robbing our time and ChatGPT and the likes are threatening to endanger creative writers from the face of the earth. Any conscious step towards corrections in ways we teach, evaluate, encourage children to learn literature will be a step towards building a more humane generation. We do not just need “Satya Nadellas”, but also “Satyajit Rays”, don’t we?