A School-on-Legs Celebrates

(2 min read)

A rather unusual school. Most un-school-like. No building, no walls, no black-board, books, notebooks, pens, or pencils. No lesson, no lecture; yet learning happens. A very small school with only five pairs of legs including the teacher’s. It meets on a road.

Learning-Teaching is oral and unselfconscious, never a burden and always fun. Even the periodic oral tests – mental math, spelling, general knowledge, etc.- are fun. For each right answer, a kid awards herself 10 Marks and announces with much delight her cumulative score from time to time.

The kids ask, and the teacher attempts the most lucid answer that Shilpi, the youngest and in KG II, can also understand. They take turns to tell new stories they have learned, or such stories as they have made themselves. Occasionally, the teacher is amazed to find a kid creating an impromptu story, a story-on-legs as it were, adding bit and pieces as the walk and the story proceeds.

The School-on-Legs is the flextime school that meets mostly on the road when the four students, each of them in a different class in their regular school, join uncle, an ad hoc, untrained ‘teacher’. It usually meets for a brief period of about 20 minutes, twice a day in the morning and in the evening, seven days a week; and surprisingly, the students join in running. The one who joins in the earliest and greets uncle declares ‘I’m First,’ and the others call their respective order of appearance. That is the Roll Call the kids have devised on their own.

Their annual exams had just finished. While others were still at sleep or busy with their parents’ mobile phones, Shilpi joined uncle a little after 6.00AM.

Uncle, do you know, I will be First in my Class?

How do you know? Your school will announce the results only after a week.

‘Ma’am told me. She knows I am always First in my Class.’

Shilpi is in KG II in a neighborhood English Medium Public (i.e., Private) School, the same school where the other kids are also enrolled.

What prize will you give me, she asked?

Haven’t thought about it, but of course I would give a prize, said uncle.

The other students joined in, all rather relaxed since the week-long exam was over. No study at home, and the school would remain closed for a week after which the results would be announced.

Any of you come First in your Class, I will gift a cake, announced uncle. The kids were thrilled at the prospect of enjoying a cake even when there was no birthday party.

Who will cut the cake, uncle, asked Shilpi?

Whoever comes First, who else?

Shilpi was not done yet. ‘Do mala or teen mala?’ she asked.

‘What’s ‘mala,’ asked Sheetal?

Uncle explained. Would you buy a two-storied or a three-storied cake, Shilpi had asked?

I’ll decide when I go to the cake shop, said uncle.

The kids came back from school yesterday and couldn’t wait to share the results. Shilpi, Sheetal, and Satyam have topped their respective classes. Lakki was a little crestfallen since he has got 86% and is not among the toppers in his class. Uncle cheered him up. You’ll do a lot better next year, he said.

As promised, uncle bought a cake. Come over in ten minutes, we’ll have a Party, he said. They assembled at rocket speed wearing their party dresses.  When uncle brought out the cake and placed it on the table, the kids shrieked with joy. 

Shilpi, the youngest, cut the cake first, and the others thereafter; all of them enjoyed the little Party, and sang Happy Birthday to You, though it was for no one in particular. All of them, including uncle, had a Happy Day!

Shilpi cutting the cake; (clock-wise) Satyam, Lakki, and Sheetal.

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