“Look at how a child learns the language naturally. Even if the child does not understand what we are saying, we will continue to talk to the child. But soon, with the help of the environment, the child starts understanding the words we speak. Slowly, the child begins to speak a word or two. Then, word by word, the child gets introduced. Then, finally, the child learns the letters of the words and begins to write. But, look at the language teaching method in the classroom – first we learn the alphabet and then we get into words. Isn’t this the opposite of the child’s nature? Shouldn’t we think about why this is so?”
These are the words of educationist Vishwanath. C.P. Viswanath is a prominent educationist, musician, and pedagogical expert in India. As an international business expert, he worked for 13 years in India, Russia and the African business market. But today, it is his initiative called ‘Karadi Tales‘ that has made him known throughout the country. He is the co-founder of Karadi Tales, a story publishing company that is loved by children in India today. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Karadi Path, an organization that specializes in teaching the language to children.
C.P. Viswanath comes across as a person who effortlessly dons many roles – as an educator, an entrepreneur, and a musician. He is the co-founder of both ‘Karadi Tales Company Pvt. Ltd.’ and ‘Karadi Path Education Company Pvt. Ltd.’
Giving a little insight about Karadi Tales. It was started in the year 1996 (23 years & counting) with an intent to create a space for Indian culture in the world of children’s publishing. It was started by a group of writers, educators and musicians.
What resonated the most with their journey was the fact that in spite of all the hardships they went through, there was never a thought of exiting from what they were doing.
And most importantly, in his own words (From an excerpt)……
“At no point in time was the thought process entrepreneurial. It was always the belief that what we were doing was of value, and we enjoyed what we were doing. The intent was to continue deriving the joy we were, personally.
His initiative introduced the process of providing proficiency, to teach a language directly without learning meanings and grammar, across the country. It has been proven to have 11 times the impact of conventional language teaching procedures. He has been actively involved in the design and implementation of educational programs in schools run by rural NGOs.
He says that on one hand, every child by four or five years can naturally speak at least two or three languages, and on the other hand, we are trying to teach them English in a classroom environment. This comes from our obsession with English as a country! It was this realisation that led him to reconstruct the ‘natural language-speaking process’ for the classroom with several basic principles.
Educationist Vishwanath participated in the Cuckoo Live Conversation on 27.04.2020. Through the life experiences of a good teacher, we have come to know about the language learning of children, musical sensibility, story form in teaching and a heart-to-heart conversation related to children’s education.
“Language is not learnt in classrooms” – C.P. Viswanath.