what works more?

The other day my niece was doing her homework when she came to me for help. She wanted me to tell her a story - of a Lion and a rabbit. The thing was - she was given some keywords with a picture in her workbook and she had to make a story out of those keywords and by interpreting the picture. Well, obviously the hints which are provided are usually of well known childhood stories. So kids might not know but people like me and you would be well aware of the story.

The story was simple - There was a lion in a jungle and he was the king of that jungle. It used to kill other animals for food. Other animals were worried about it and they decided , after a meeting with the Lion, that everyday one animal will go to sacrifice itself before the king. And every animal was allotted a day when its turn will come. Then there was a day when it was a rabbit's turn - intelligent turn. He played a trick. He told the king that there's another lion in the jungle who claims itself to be the king and is ready to challenge you. It hurt the prestige of Lion and he said he wants to meet the "new king". The rabbit takes him to a well far off and asks the lion to look inside it. The foolish lion saw his image in the water and though there's another lion sitting inside. The lion jumps into the well to give it a fight and dies. Happy ending!
So, what's the big deal with that. No big deal. Its just a sweet and simple kids' story. No, i am not going to talk about the story either here.
Well, when I told this story to her and took care that i used those keywords as given in her workbook. And also stressed on them as I narrated trying to make her understand how to use those words.
She looked quite satisfied and went back to her room and started writing the story. She had only ten lines to write and i was very sure that she has understood the story well.(Expand\Collapse...)

I went to her after half an hour to check what is she doing. I expected her to finish the story by that time and start with the next exercise. I was unpleasantly surprised when i discovered that she had merely completed her third line. I was kinda angry but didn't say anything. I politely told her to write fast else you'll have problems in exams with this speed.
I went to her after another half an hour and checked the status. She was still a long way to go before she could complete it. I thought she didn't understand the story well and narrated it twice again. I also asked her to narrate it herself and she did pretty well. After another 20 mins, i checked her and found no improvement.
Now this time I got angry. It made me believe that she's not taking it seriously or may be just playing more and doing her homework less.
My elder bro was watching all these. So he came to us. First even he was a bit irritated but then he went closer to my cute niece and asked her to write the next sentence as he watched. She did. And when she did we realized what the problem was.

So, it was basically like - There is a picture at the top of the page. Below that there is a row where all the keywords are written. Now she writes, say, her first sentence. And when she starts with the second sentence she loses track of what all keywords she has used. So she goes back to the row of keywords and starts searching each of them in her first sentence. When she finds that a keyword has not been used anywhere she forms the next sentence based on that. She repeats this process for every keyword and every new sentence she writes takes more time than the previous one because in all she would have more keywords to search and more sentences to search from to find the next keyword she's supposed to use.

There's no sin in doing this mistake. She's just a kid. She knows the right answer but she doesn't know the tactics or the strategy to perform with her knowledge. One simple tip - that underline or strike-off the keyword you have already used, and don't look at it again - helped her to a great extent. Now she doesn't have to do the iterative process she did earlier. The technique is complex enough for a kid.

So, where's the problem? or rather who's the problem?
Problem is ME. Problem is YOU. Problem is WE. Problem is EVERYONE except that kid.

My brother later confessed that probably he too would have scolded her if he would not have seen the movie "taare zameen par" two days back.
If you have seen this movie, i don't need to explain what the movie is about. But in case you've missed it (which could be the worst thing you could have done) then let me tell you - All it tries to convey that rather than imposing your ideas on a child, try to understand how a child tries to implement his or her own idea. Every child is special, so every child has got his\her way to do a thing. If a child is not doing well, then go deep inside his mind and heart and understand what goes on with him or her when he or she is asked to do something and he\she doesn't live up to your expectations.

Movie has done it job pretty well. Much better than anyone would expect it to.
But I was so so and so irritate just a day after the above incident while i was having my morning breakfast before coming to office and my brother tuned into the so-called-news-channel "AAJ TAK" (is it really a news channel?). I never found AAJ TAK ever talking about this movie in real sense. When I say "in real sense", then i mean talking about this movie other than the usual bollywood masala stuff. The movie has the potential to create more buzz than the masala which any movie or show can do with rakhi sawant exposing her vital body parts in an item dance. But right at that time when I was watching it, all it was talking of "darshil says he deserves a best actor award and not a 'best child actor' award". If you don't know - darshill is the kid who peforms in the movie. I wanted to spit at Aaj Tak at that moment but only to realize that only thing it will do is spoil my TV screen. And this was yet another breaking news for them, like we have every other moment these days. The statement of darshill was written at the top of the screen with kinda 72 Pt font size.
"Bull Shit!" All I had to say at that moment was that. Those bastards never talked of the goodness of the movie. They never tried to spread the essence of the movie. They never tried to do anything meaningful. And they thing darshill demanding a best actor award was interesting more people?

What the movie had tried to preach was something i realized myself along with my bro when the incident i just described happened with us. It would have been much better if things like these get highlighted more in TV channels rather than the debate like 'Kanshiram deserves a bharat ratna' or 'Should sachin tendulkar retire?'. It is the former which affects our lives much more than sachin tendulkar retiring or kanshiram getting the bharat ratna.