Sangati

KIT 1: MYSELF, MY BODY, OUR NEEDS

Knowing about MYSELF means understanding that I am unique and yet share many things with every other human being. It means understanding the potential and limitations of MY BODY, and realizing that regardless of our differences all human beings have the same NEEDS.

This module begins by getting each child to understand the idea of ‘Myself’ starting with the physical and emotional self, and explores the various influences on a child - family, school, friends, the media, and the place in which he / she lives.

Throughout these sessions, some fundamental values are underlined: namely, that every human being is a unique individual who must be respected and valued, no matter how different from us; that it is a variety of individuals living together that make up a society; that this diversity makes our society richer and is therefore worth protecting and preserving; that in spite of these differences, there are several similarities that unite all human beings.

Extract - Session 4 – Feelings and temperament

The ‘Body’ is the most obvious part of the self. Which is why, after exploring the self, we move on to understanding different aspects of the human body - the different systems of the body, the role of the mind and emotions, the changes that take place as part of the process of growing up and the importance of taking care of the body in order to keep it in goodhealth.

Extract – Session 22 – Good Health

Though ‘Our needs’ is a short section, it is important because it helps children understand a simple but very important idea – that all human beings have the same basic needs, though people have different ways of fulfilling them. This variety in ways of living enriches human life. Besides, since all human beings share these needs, everyone should have the right to fulfill them. Another important value emphasized is that the work of many different people helps fulfill our needs; hence human labour must be respected.

Extract: Session 4 – Feelings and temperament
Extract: Session 22 – Good Health
Extract: Session 24 - Fulfilling our needs

KIT 2: OUR EARTH AND THE WEB OF LIFE

It is OUR EARTH that provides the resources that make it possible for us to fulfill our needs. All life on earth, including human life, has evolved in a complex and continuing process. This makes all of us part of the WEB OF LIFE.

The 12 sessions in this kit tell the fascinating and complex story of the birth of the Earth and the evolution of life on it, in a manner that is appropriate for our young audience. We have focused only on the most crucial milestones in this story spanning more than 450 crore years.

Session 1 introduces the topic ‘Our Earth’. Themes such as how the earth came into being, mythical and scientific ideas of how life began on Earth, the evolution of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, the impact of human activity on the planet, and how the Earth has changed over centuries, are explored in the following sessions.

The sessions also unravel the complex variety of life on our planet today and the interconnections that exist between all living and non-living things, thus explaining the ‘Web of Life’. Games, stories, activities and illustrated flipcharts are used throughout the sessions in order to convey various complex concepts. This module also deals with the concept of the time – the attempt is to help children concretize time, to appreciate the immense time taken for our world to be what is today and to understand our place in it.

We hope that these sessions will help children to recognize and respect the wonder of life, to develop an attitude of responsibility while using the resources of the Earth and to understand that our beautiful Earth is a miracle worth preserving and protecting.

Extract: Session 6 – Evolution of amphibians, reptiles and birds

KIT 3: HOW SOCIETIES DEVELOPED

Over thousands of years, people have learned to use the earth's resources and to live together in societies. Understanding HOW SOCIETIES DEVELOPED all over the world will help us realize how the interaction between humans and nature shaped our collective human history over the centuries.

In this kit, the focus shifts to the history of human society – ‘How societies have developed’ in different parts of the world to make us what we are today. This kit attempts to provide glimpses into the past, to focus on some important events and developments that have shaped the course of history, and on current historical evidence that is crucial for an understanding of our world today. Themes that are fundamental to the Sangati series - such as an appreciation of the richness and diversity of human life, the futility of war and violence and the need to work for a more egalitarian society - have been chosen deliberately.

This module begins by talking about the need to study history and the methods used by historians to do so (thus establishing that there are multiple ways of reading the past) and then goes on to more specific issues – for example, the way in which agriculture and settlement changed human life forever. Four sessions focus on four different aspects of life between 2000 BC and AD 1200, and highlight some significant developments in different parts of the world in this period. Sessions 8 to 10 deal with developments over the next 500 years, to show how Europe became powerful and began to establish control over the rest of the world. Sessions 11 to 14 are devoted to the period marked by the Industrial Revolution and its impact on our part of the world bringing the story up to the middle of the 20th century, to the Age of Freedom. The concluding session provides a summary of the main ideas and values explored in this kit.

In order to make the content easy to relate to and to provide a link between sessions, three fictional characters - Kabir, Saeeda and Nanaji – have been introduced to ask questions and act as commentators in most of the sessions. In addition to the flipcharts, many sessions also call for the use of a world map. This not only helps the class to 'locate' the story or event being discussed, but also develops their skills of reading and interpreting maps.

Lastly, a device called Calendar of the Past is used to sum up every session. The calendar is gradually built up using the main ideas of each session, so that by the time the last session is reached, the class will know about the main developments over the last 10,000 years of human history.

Extract: Session 10 – Voyages of conquest

KIT 4: THE WAY WE LIVE

Continuing changes in technology and different social, economic, political and cultural institutions influence THE WAY WE LIVE today.

The fourth kit shines a spotlight on contemporary Indian society - ‘The way we live’ today. Whether we are aware of it or not, the problems of our society - from pollution to unemployment to communalism to corruption - affect all of us, including our children. In fact children are often confused by the conflicts and contradictions they see around them. The information that they have or the points of view that they get to hear may often be incomplete or one-sided. In this context, we must provide our children the opportunity to explore these issues with open minds, aided by validated information. It is only when they understand what the problems are, and cultivate the habit of looking at them critically, that they will develop the attitudes and the skills necessary to resolve them. Such a process will also make education more meaningful by bringing the realities of the outside world into the classroom.

Session 1 reiterates the idea that human beings always live in groups and that our society is in fact made up of a complex web of relationships. Sessions 2 to 18 explore different facets of our society today - institutions like the family and caste, problems such as gender inequality and communalism, the strength and weakness of our democratic institutions, the wide gaps between rich and poor that are not just persisting but also increasing, the problem of war and violence, the increasingly aggressive ideas of nationalism that threaten to tear the nation apart, the growing influence of the mass media - each of these facets is discussed in sets of one or two sessions. Session 19 concludes the kit by reinforcing the need for all of us to come together to address these problems and create the kind of society where everybody will have a fair share of resources and the right to decision-making.

The topics explored in this kit are either ignored by the regular curriculum or merely referred to in passing. But for education to be relevant, we need to talk about what is happening around us, and how it is affecting our lives every day.

The issues are complex and it is impossible to include every dimension within these sessions; but it is possible to make young people aware that these problems must be faced, and that all of us as individuals can be part of the solution.

Extract: Session 15 - War - Where there is no winner

KIT 5: UNDERSTANDING CHANGE

There has been a great deal of change in human society and in the relationships that human beings have developed - with one another, with other forms of life, and with the natural environment. It is only by UNDERSTANDING these CHANGES and their impact that we can learn to deal with them and to create the kind of society that we want.

A recurring motif in all Sangati kits is the idea that things have kept changing – whether it is the Earth that changed from a mass of gases to a planet supporting and sustaining millions of life forms, or human society that changed from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to the industrialized societies of today. In fact things are changing at an even faster pace today; the theme for kit 5 is, therefore, ‘Understanding Change’.

This module attempts to help learners understand some important concepts about change - that change may be of different kinds, that one change often leads to many more, that a change we bring about may have unanticipated consequences, etc. - and explores some of the most important changes affecting the learners and the world around them at present - the changes related to growing up, changing social realities, our changing attitudes today, etc. These changes are explored at three levels – at the individual or family level; changes in society; and changes in the natural environment.

Having explored these different facets of change, two sessions are devoted to the assessment of the changes that have happened in our country since Independence. The idea of progress is also introduced, leading to the question: Has India really progressed? When can we be sure that change is truly progress?

The last few sessions reinforce the message that all of us need to be aware of change and learn to deal with it positively – not just in the sense of coping with changing circumstances but also by becoming initiators of changes that will benefit everyone for generations to come.

A special feature of this kit is the Kites of Change made by children as part of a craft activity. Since each session unravels a different facet of the concept of change, a card describing that aspect is added to the appropriate kite. Thus at the end of the sessions a collectively created visual aid for summing up is constructed.

Extract: Session 8 - Life in the city

KIT 6: PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE means building and enhancing the skills, attitudes and values that will ensure a better future for ourselves as individuals as well as for our society and our Earth.

This, the sixth and last module in the Sangati series attempts to provide an opportunity for children to put together all the things learnt earlier and apply them in preparing for their lives ahead. The first module began with an attempt to discover the self. The journey then moved outward – into the distant past, from the time our earth was born, through the millions of years of evolution, and then the history of human societies and the challenges and changes in society today. With this kit, the journey comes full circle as the focus shifts once again to the self.

As the title reveals, the attempt here is to equip children with some of the important skills for living together, for building a better future for all. Regardless of what careers they take up, this exposure will help them grow up to be concerned individuals, learning to live together, being aware about the world around and making informed choices. The earlier kits talk about the past, the present and the changes that we see around us. This kit is a ‘Preparation for the future’.

The sessions in this kit deal with self-image; the need to understand oneself, to develop a positive self-image, to discover one’s talents and potential, to explore and develop a set of values that define one’s personality. Certain skills-sets are also taken up for discussion. These skills include communication, dealing with conflict, problem solving, thinking creatively, being able to proactively plan for the future and developing a strategy to achieve one’s goals.

A special feature of this kit is the personal diary. Some of the activities have been created especially for entry into the diary so that children get used to the concept and use this device for reflection and to hone their ability to organize and express their thoughts.

Extract: Session 10 - Should I ? Shouldn’t I ?