| ஒத்திசைவு | प्रत्याह्वय | resonance |

Subsequent to ‘assessment tests for children considered harmful,’ there have been quite a few requests (am surprised about this, I admit) for my list of ‘bibles’ (in my humble opinion) on that beast called education. So, here is the annotated list – for whatever it is worth.

On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 11:18 PM, [name redacted] <[email id redacted]> wrote:
> Could you please send the list of books on how children learn which you had
> mentioned in your latest entry.

Hellos from another world. :-) Am really glad that you asked. But, you really asked for it! ;-)

• Gandhi – all his Nai Taleem related writings (best thing is to buy his collected works on CD / DVD and then grep for education and then read / digest; there are also books written by others on Nai Taleem)
• Maria Montessori – From Childhood to Adolescence (in fact, all her books are very good & important reads and Divaswapna is also a moving book, though the name of the Author beats me!)
• Dharampal – The Beautiful Tree (and his all other books – in fact ifyou want to really appreciate the desi education scene, this is a must read)
• John Abbott et al  — The Unfinished Revolution: Learning, Human Behavior, Community, and Political Paradox, Overschooled but Undereducated: How the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents (and his other important books on apprenticeship – I think, a combination of Gandhi, Montessori and Abbot will set India and us free)
• Haim Ginott – Between parent and child, teacher and child and other books (Ginott’s students went onto write pop stuff such as ‘how to talk so children will listen’ kind of books)
• Jean Piaget – Psychology of the Child. Play  dreams and imitation in Childhood (very difficult to read tomes, but at least Singer’s Piaget Primer could be read? May be Elkinde’s intro to Piaget?)
• Penelope Leach – very readable and deep books on Child and Development
• Joseph Chilton Pearce – Magical child, Magical Child Matures
• William Kilpatrick – Why johnny can’t tell Right from Wrong (and his other books)
• Rudolf Steiner – all his books and lectures on waldorf, child development and education.
• Krishnakumar – What is worth teaching? (In fact ALL his books)
• Vasily Sukhomlinsky – On Education (a fine read and he has other books too!)

See, I do not know where you folks are coming from – as parents OR as educators OR as folks who want to really understand this beast and then to act OR as interested bystanders OR some other category… In all these cases, I feel that a strong grounding is a must and these books are kind of ‘starters’ – may be you have gone through them already…

Do you find this mail/listing useful? If not, were you looking for something specific? Please do give me your feedback. :-)

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