tottochan

Recently reread Tottochan Japanese bestseller written by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi and translated in Marathi by Chetana sardeshmukh Gosavi. It’s a must read for all the parents who want their child to be brought up well, educated well , want their children to excel in their careers and believe in overall growth of their child . I am especially frustrated the way school education and college education is going on being a faculty myself. There is a lot of pressure on students to score good marks, be a topper and more stress is given to rote learning. There is no time for physical training, exercise, imbibing moral and ethical values through storytelling, reading stories from epics. No time for students to come out with new ideas, innovations and insights.
Coming back to the book ‘tottochan’: It’s a real story narrated as is by the author. It is the story of her school “TOMOI” established and run by “SOSAKU KOBAYASHI”.It was established in 1937 and was burnt down in 1945 because of wrath of world war.
SOSAKU KOBAYASHI, who was a music teacher himself, used novel ideas to make even eating in the lunch break a very interesting affair. The routine of the school was as followed:
The classes were not conducted in classrooms; instead there were six train bogeys for each classroom.
The first period was like: “open the book and subject of your choice, start studying, ask doubts”
The second period: “go play in the ground till you are tired”
Lunch Break: “open your lunch boxes and show whether you brought food from sea ( sea related-fish, crab etc) and mountains( green leafy vegetables).
Last Period: “you are tired now so let us visit the botanical garden today” and in the garden live botany class is conducted”
In between: “tour and camp @ nearby sea, swim there etc.”
I feel those who attended tomoi were lucky.They still meet every year on 3rd November.

Coming back to India: My sister, who lives in pune, joined her twin sons in a Marathi school by name “AKSHARNANDAN”. We found the concept very much similar to TOMOI and my sister never regretted her decision.