Jodo Gyan!!

So, here is the background. Just a few weeks back, we chanced upon a lot of magicians inside a classroom. They had coem to show us how they are porposing to teach Mathematics to the next lot of production, they said. They said they are from JODO GYAN, which is THIS. 

And then, when asked, they asked us in reply to follow their instructions as they’d take us through the day. 

So we did!

So, they divided us - a roomfull of middle age parents agitated to have to come out of home in the first place of a fine Saturday morning - into small groups of 5 or six in each. For our first exercise, they told us to "go as you like". Is that like what you tell us on annual day functions, and - back in our days - most of our parents find nothing else to dress us up like than a scare crow with Daddy's old button down shirt and a broom stick in hand faced skywards. No, this was not as challenging as that, we found out. But this was more intriguing, indeed. They asked us to do that with pieces of something that textured between thermocol and rubber,  sized between one inch and twenty, and shaped among circles, hemispheres, squares, rectangles, and triangles. The colors were of the rainbow, many and varied. They called that a bag of Rangometry!

So we did "go as you like" in groups, making sun (three suns in three groups), sun flower, Christmas tree, houses (cottages, really. Have you ever made or sketched a house that look like plain houses? Think.) The father's group made a single malt bottle and said that it will fetch the stars when put to use. For about fifteen minutes, all we thought of was what can be made of things that come in different shapes, sizes and colors such as those harmless little nothing things. Together we relearned how you can learn shapes, colours, sizes, sorting, counting and constructing. That is what they do, to the subconscious of the tiny minds, they said.

Now, if that doesn't already sound wonderful, then here's the next step. We had to dismantle all that we had made. If you ask, it was tough! And then we had to "go as you like" again but this time with a twist. Two shapes and ten blocks, in total, could be used. That was funnier to play, and more interesting. We made a pizza that had all veggies cut into triangles atop it! The daddies made a solar system, which we envied. But then when we noticed they were color blind, it was solace. Think within limited resources, find a way. Solve... problems!!

After that there we some bear and elephant stories which needed us to make stair cases to climb up to a house they've made themselves to stay in. It was easy, you just had to put the rectangular blocks one after another, largest first and tiniest the last.

Finally, the teacher brought out Ammu!

Now, who is Ammu? Well, there is a story to go with it. There was this little girl who wanted a doll, for which her Mom took her to the toy store. But, you see, this girl was so smart! She dismissed the dolls one after another, and here are her reasons. One doll was blind, and another with pointed heels. One wore her hair yellow and another orange. Their lips were pink and shiny, and their eye brows shaped as bows. Their eyes had blue pupils, and eye lashes were long and curly.  Look, their bodies are way too curvy! So this girl simply turned to her Mom and said, i want a "real" something, mummy!

The mummy was nice so she stayed awake overnight and made her a doll. This mummy writing this piece of useless thing on her blog isn't so nice, so instead ask she could is buy a "real" one such from the tuck shop these magical people had set up for the day.

The same magical people who just taught us shapes and sizes, colors and counting, ordering in ascending or descending, and a lesson or two tougher than that too! Like, having toys which look like us, without exaggerated eye lashes and deeper carved curves? Whoa, indeed!

The game was still on. This doll called Ammu who had come to see us wanted a return gift, and so we the parents had to make her necklaces with beads. We had preconditions - like she wanted her necklace red and yellow, and short or long. So there we went again, with counting and color coordination, patterns and fine motor skills. And then, we played some more games of racing animals and luring carrot farms. We learned, all day long.

All in all, "jodo gyan" which is the name by which this team of magicians are known were… well, you know by now what they are. And then, they do all of this on no-profits!

It is not for nothing that i called them magicians. They've just found the key to a better world, don't you think so?