Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/43

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cannot understand properly the methods of measuring volume in a measuring cylinder. If at this stage, we pressurize the child, it will adopt a self-defense mechanism of reproducing to us what we wish to hear, without really understanding it. This is the beginning of rote learning. If this pressure teaching continues long enough, the child (and then the adolescent and adult) adopts this unthinking "learning" as the standard method of formal learning. This is what we have achieved in our learning system. The same child however continues to learn by the natural and scientific method in its real life outside the classroom. One can see this approach in the solving of simple problems such as untying a knot, or repairing small gadgets or devices. Here one always uses one's own observation and previous experience and makes a hypothesis about what has gone wrong and what needs to be done. Let us come back to our problem of children who have abandoned the natural method of learning. Can we correct the ill effects of education, by improving the learning environment so that a child learns without tension and wants to use that acquired knowledge in its everyday life? We have experimented with a course designed for rural areas with the above objectives. The course is called as Rural Technology course. * This will be learnt as a separate subject from 8th to 10th standard. The course will be an integrated part of the overall syllabus. The basic Principles of the Rural Technology (RT) system 1. Multi-skill training. 2. Using the acquired skills in real life conditions, by giving services to the community. < Rural Development Through Education System 38
 * Presently this course is clled as Introduction to Basic Technology (IBT)