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January 28, 2021 By Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert

Why Schools Should Encourage Students To Read [Indian] Classics

In October last year, Penguin and the Runnymede Trust announced they would join forces to diversify the English curriculum in schools. They claim that they want  all students to ‘develop a sense of belonging, identity and social cohesion’ in books (https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/october/lit-in-colour-students-belonging-books.html). This is a very tall, instrumental order for books and teachers – social cohesion isn’t something directly teachable via choosing ‘the right’ books.  By contrast, Saisudha Acharya, a teacher in India, values great literature, Western or Indian, for its own special qualities. She understands that broadening horizons  means something different to just adding books by ‘Black authors’:

Reading classics in a classroom gives students an opportunity to not just read but also discuss these works. Listening to a variety of perspectives on the same set of words broadens our horizons and provides a deeper understanding. Listening to a teacher or a peer talk excitedly about something they gained from a piece of prose or poetry can open an uninterested reader’s eyes to a new way of exploring the same text.

Photo credit: stanislav-kondratiev-6pO3QFkk7hQ-, Unsplash

Read more here:
https://www.thecuriousreader.in/essays/reading-indian-classics-in-school/

Filed Under: Blogpost, Featured

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