{"id":873,"date":"2012-12-13T10:37:16","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T10:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/?p=873"},"modified":"2018-05-17T14:44:51","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T14:44:51","slug":"peaceworks-literature-curriculum-vidyanjali-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/?p=873","title":{"rendered":"PeaceWorks Literature Curriculum\u2014Vidyanjali 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 25%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-873 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0848.jpg'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0848-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0848-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0848-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_08471.jpg'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_08471-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_08471-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_08471-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0845.jpg'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0845-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0845-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0845-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0846.jpg'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0846-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0846-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0846-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_4221-e1355394920198.jpg'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_4221-e1355394920198-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0839.jpg'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0839-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0839-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IMG_0839-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Neither a free period nor an English class<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When I began my sessions on the PeaceWorks School Curriculum at Vidyanjali School, the students had asked if they should consider my sessions as free periods where they could have fun or as a \u2018regular English class\u2019.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Neither, I told them, trying hard not to laugh. They were certainly not \u2018free\u2019 periods (I am quite a taskmaster) nor were they the kind of \u2018English\u2019 classes that the students were used to. The aim of the sessions wasn\u2019t a mere appreciation of good literature but something else altogether.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I wrote my name on the blackboard and a few of theirs. Then I asked them to tell me a little about the individuals whose names had been written on the board but their deductions had to be based entirely on the cues received from the name. They came up with categories such as Gujarati, Hindu, and so on but my name proved to be a bit of a puzzle. \u2018You have a <em>z<\/em> in your name so you must be a Muslim but then why is your surname Rai?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>They looked at me quizzically and asked if I was a Hindu or a Muslim.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I asked them if it was possible for me to be both. Or none.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2018You could have a Muslim mother and a Hindu father but how can you be none?\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u2018Oh, you could be an atheist!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Or married someone from another religion?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018So?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018None of the above,\u2019 I replied, not yet ready to dispel their confusion.<\/p>\n<p>We began by reading Elias Canetti\u2019s \u2018Loser\u2019 and \u2018Syllable Pure Woman\u2019 and Jerry Pinto\u2019s \u2018A Question of Identity\u2019. The readings were followed by discussions and heated debates as prejudices and presumptions were brought into the open and then defended or reluctantly abandoned.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018Loser\u2019forced us to spend a few moments contemplating the full impact of that word. About how some people are labelled \u2018losers\u2019 and forced to spend the rest of their days straining under its burden. As if to demonstrate this point, a shy girl was called a \u2018loser\u2019 right in middle of my session. I didn\u2019t want to <em>scold <\/em>and be a <em>teacher<\/em>,nor did I want to entirely overlook this incident. So I asked both the \u2018bully\u2019 and the \u2018bullied\u2019 about being a loser. The girl, painfully shy, broke down and mumbled that it referred to her being fat. The bully, on the other hand, said it referred to someone who cried at every available opportunity. Now, like a \u2018loser\u2019, a \u2018bully\u2019 has problems too. This mischievous boy apparently didn\u2019t fare too well in class and was regularly punished at home for his poor marks! So, who were we really? The way others saw us? The way others thought of us? The way we thought of ourselves? And how exactly did we think of our ourselves?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Question of Identity\u2019 allowed me to address the possibility of multiple selves. Many of the students confessed that they were <em>forced<\/em> to be one person or another. Some spoke about the prejudices they faced in the classroom or at home. The bullies, it turned out, had other parts to their personalities; but once they were \u2018blacklisted\u2019 as \u2018bully\u2019, they had to \u2018fit the bill\u2019. Not studying, not being courteous to the others, making fun of the quieter ones\u2014all this was \u2018part of the deal\u2019 I was told. One of the girls, from the Northeast, said her classmates called her\u2018<em>Chinese<\/em>\u2019 but since it was all in jest no one took it seriously. Which brought us to our next question: \u2018Is laughter always the best medicine? Is humour always fun for everyone?\u2019<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No answer, no person, no mentality, was entirely right or wrong. But, as a perceptive young girl said, \u2018We are all responsible for what we say or do.\u2019 \u2018Syllable Pure Woman\u2019 gave me an occasion to discuss the value of one\u2019s voice and the power of the word. Diplomacy, censorship, freedom of expression and honesty were not long in entering our discussions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Similarly, the sessions on human rights and gender, helped along by the Ben Okri\u2019s poem \u2018Dream Children\u2019 and Aishwarya Subramanyam\u2019s \u2018Lotus\u2019, threw up an assortment of discriminations practiced at home and at school.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Every day, every session, we read, we faced a barrage of questions, and together we set out on a quest for answers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If literature doesn\u2019t make you think and squirm\u2014yes, squirm at your preconceived notions, at your unquestioned acceptance of things round you, at your ignorance of the larger world and its peoples, if literature doesn\u2019t make your head spin with unanswered questions then it\u2019s just not good enough.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is this precisely this aspect of literature\u2014this ability of great writing to give birth to myriad questions\u2014that inspires the PeaceWorks School Curriculum. PeaceWorks wishes to introduce contemporary issues of note\u2014of identity, of rights, of gender\u2014to the school students without obscuring them with jargon or heavy-handed academic language. PeaceWorks wishes to use literature, to use human stories, to use great writing through the ages in order to open up young minds to the world outside the classroom and outside the home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Schoolchildren tend to passively absorb ideas from their immediate environments\u2014their families, their friends, their teachers\u2014without question, without weighing the pros and cons, without considering the alternatives. This is why these sessions have proved to be so gratifying.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the end of our six-day trek through the forests of literature, we arrived at a clearing hacked free of the overgrowth of inherited attitudes and assumptions and warmed ourselves by the fires of a new understanding.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Shailza Rai<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Neither a free period nor an English class When I began my sessions on the PeaceWorks School Curriculum at Vidyanjali School, the students had asked if they should consider my sessions as free periods where they could have fun or as a \u2018regular English class\u2019. Neither, I told them, trying hard not to&hellip;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/?p=873\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,7],"tags":[57,53],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3239,"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/3239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/0318da2.netsolhost.com\/pwarchive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}