An exciting journey of self-discovery
As I began to write this review of Teaching
with Love by Monica Kochar, the only regret I felt was that I waited so
many months to do this…. Yes, of course, there was work. But when I finally
made the time to go through it, it helped me grow as a person and a facilitator
– just through the act of reading from cover to endpage. The sheer poetry of
Monica’s writing echoed longingly even as I clicked to the last page, riveted
to each word, my mind seething with ideas to use in my own work with children
and adults.
Monica’s journey, and indeed her “backpack
of strategies” are no strangers to me. Seven years ago, I watched my daughter
transform under her particular brand of magic. Equally importantly, I knew her
as a colleague with whom I had the privilege of working closely on cross-curricular
projects. At some point of time, the word “colleague” changed to “friend” and I
have continued to follow her journey with keen interest. However, if you assume
that Teaching
with Love is a book about how to teach math, you would be severely
mistaken. Whether or not she intended to, Monica has written a book that every
educator should keep on his/her bedside table and refer to at least three times
a week, if not first thing every morning. Through its succinctly crafted
chapters, she brings out the crux of what it means to be a
teacher-educator-facilitator-mentor… of the present and of the future.
To quote Monica, “[Relationships with
students] have been the space in which I have come face to face with the best
and worst in my nature.” It is in this same space, she writes, in the place
where a connection is made between the mentor and the mentee, that learning can
take place. Where the relationship provides the undeniable possibility for the
learner to reach out to learning, the same relationship urges the facilitator
to grow and transform. At the end of each chapter, there are some questions
that make the reader pause; a pause that is pregnant with possibilities because
the author is asking us to soul-search in the same manner in which she
obviously approaches her life and her life’s work.
So, what did I learn, other than how to
make a clinometer? For starters, that a clinometer and its construction are
important, very important, but this importance is subsidiary to the teamwork
that goes into its construction. Why is the teamwork aspect more important?
Simply because, and here we come to the central theme or philosophy of Monica’s
work, teamwork is an aspect that addresses the complete child. This is nothing
short of a revolutionary thought in a world in which everyone is encouraged to
get more and more marks, accumulate more and more assets, and in short be
judged for what one has rather than what one is. Repeatedly in this book, one
meets the thought that scoring well in math is just not as important as feeling
confident and being a person with high levels of self-esteem. In articulating
this wondrous thought, Monica stands at variance from a system which would
rather have you spend hours and hours on math in order to score a C and neglect
all those other things that you enjoy and are good at. Throughout the book,
Monica seems to be asking us to think about the second cosmic question: How
much math does a person really need?
If at this point you have begun to wonder
whether or not, as a math teacher, this book will be of any use to you, I would
like to pause and say, “Go buy two copies of it – one for yourself and the
other for your favourite colleague.” There are enough and more practical ideas
that any teacher could easily implement. What is more, many of these ideas are
cross-curricular projects that teachers of languages, drama, art and design,
special education needs facilitators… can all easily take up in their own
subject areas. But please do not mistake the wood for the trees – the wealth
and wisdom of the pages will be lost if you miss the basic point of the work,
which is: children are precious and we need to understand them, love them and
respect them – yes, all of that at all points of time – in order for them to
trust us and make the most of the learning spaces we create for them.
With disarming honesty and a lot of humour,
Monica describes not just her “success” stories but those that were embarrassing
for her – both types of experiences ultimately led her to the place she is now:
still growing as a facilitator and as a human being.
If you love your children, your students, and want the best for them, and more importantly, if you feel the need to grow, this book is a journey you need to undertake.
