Happy Independence Day, India!

So, it being the 15th of August, we did a lesson on India’s Independence and the rest of the day was free!

I was inspired by Renu, who the day before had done an overview on India’s history and had her children make flags.  After our lesson we did the same.  We cut up pieces of fabric and used our fabric markers to draw in the chakra (the wheel of law and justice in the center) and fill in the colors.  It was fun.  They appreciated Ashoka’s chakra since we had previously done a lesson about one of India’s greatest emperors who ruled around 273 BC.   We also listened to Jawahar Lal Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny…Freedom at Midnight” speech.

I found this neat little movie on youtube.  It brought back many school memories.  The flag, the anthem, the joy of no lessons and cricket played religiously in the streets.  What I appreciated most was the focus on education.  Yes, I am a home schooling mother, but I have a profound respect for the institution of education and that includes institutionalized schools as well.

I prefer to home school my children but at the end of the day every parent is a homeschooler (of sorts) by default.  Homework, lesson prep, school projects and the founding and shaping of ideas mostly takes place at home.  Unfortunately, most formal schools have crystalized into dry factories of knowledge.  But I’m sure most of us will remember the one teacher who broke the mould and made learning fun!

I showed my children the video because I wanted them to appreciate the opportunity they have to be educated, to learn, to be instructed and to also have a sense of compassion for those who are bound by poverty and ignorance and so denied the right to education.

Also it’s pretty amazing that India is the one country, under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership, to have achieved Independence without a war.

We read Prime Minster Manmohan Singh’s  Speech as published in the Times of India and with that my Indo-American children ran off down to play waving their homemade flags!

After all, who doesn’t love a holiday?!