Leena Sarabhai is the sister of Vikram Sarabhai and no less an illustrious person herself, co-founder (along with Madame Maria Montessori) of the finest school for children of the age group 2.5 to 5.5 years - Shreyas, Madame Maria Montessori stayed here for a year.
Leenaben was born in 1914 and is now old. She likes me a lot and I like her a lot. She loves to talk, about many things : her experiences, her life, many things. Many of the things she says I have heard often - repeated maybe as many times as I have met her - yet these stories and the experience of meeting her have touched me deeply.
J Krishnamurthy once spent a month in the home of the Sarabhai's when Leenaben was 14 years old. Later she wrote a booklet recollecting that month. She gave me a copy to read. I read it and went back to her wanting to ask her a question. I had folded the top-of-the-page which was related to my question. As I asked her my question she took the book and lovingly unfolded that fold and with a lot of pain in her voice asked me, "You do this to books, do you?"
"Yes", I replied. (It did not hit me then.)
"It must be hurting the paper, isn't it?" she said.
I just gaped at her !
Hundreds of times she has asked me, "Sunilbhai, how can a teacher shout at her students asking them to keep quiet?" And I have seen this happening in hundreds of schools and hundreds of classrooms ! And everytime I remember Leenaben!
Once I was visiting Shreyas with her and saw a wooden-board about 2 ft x 3 ft in a corner. On the board were written numbers vertically from 1 to 10 and then 11 to 20 and so on upto 91 to 100. The board was dusty since out of use. I asked her - "Why don't you use it?"
"Don't you see? It is not a square, it is a rectangle." said Leenaben.
I did not quite realise until lightening struck! When you are teaching 1 to 10 and 11 to 20 and so on, the board needs to be a square matrix. Or else you are telling the students that 1 to 10 horizontally is different from that vertically or vice versa.
source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html
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