ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

For the preparation of this SLM covering the Unit-1 and Unit-2 of AECC-2 in
accordance with the Model Syllabus, we have borrowed the content from the
book “THE WIDENING ARC”, edited by Dr. Asima Ranjan Parhi, Dr. S.
Deepika and Mr Pulastya Jani, printed at ‘Kitab Bhavan, Bhubaneswar’.
Odisha State Open University acknowledges the authors, editors and the
publishers with heartfelt thanks for extending their support.
 ABILITY ENHANCEMENT
COMPULSORY COURSE (AECC)

AECC-2
Alternative English

BLOCK-2
PROSE
UNIT 1 THE WAY TO EQUAL DISTRIBUTION
UNIT 2 A CALL TO YOUTH
UNIT 3 WATER- THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
UNIT 4 AN EDUCATED PERSON
UNIT 5 NO LEARNING WITHOUT FEELING
UNIT 1 : THE WAY TO EQUAL DISTRIBUTION
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 About the author
1.3 The text, The way to Equal Distribution
1.4 Glossary of Difficult terms
1.5 Check your Progress
1.6 Let us Sum up

1.0 OBJECTIVE
After going through this unit, you’ll be able to:

 Know about the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

 Analyse the necessity of equal distribution in this country.
 Have a knowledge of community feeling.
 Analyse what it takes to create a harmonious society.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Gandhi visualizes an India free from poverty. For him the key to eradication of
poverty is equal distribution of people’s wealth. He does not however, approve of the
socialist method of abolition of personal property. He was wise enough to advocate
for trusteeship. This can be achieved by honest trustees who are wealthy and
interested to share their wealth for the nation and its deprived multitude through
respectable means. He puts equal emphasis on the means of achieving social justice,
which is non-violence. The world has since woken up to the sublime significance of
non-violence.

1.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), known as the father of the nation was
the pioneer of our freedom movement. His courageous leadership and selfless acts
transformed the people of India and unified the country even though it was
undergoing serious communal strife during the time of independence. Rabindranath
Tagore fondly called him ‘Mahatma’. To say in brief, Mahatma Gandhi brought
Indian independence through his patented methods of non-violence and Satyagraha.
His My Experiments with Truth is considered to be a moral and spiritual guide book
by many till date. In this text, he has put light on the idea of Community Feeling and

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how does the society function in a peaceful manner. He also focusses on the
necessity of equal distribution amongst all the citizen.

Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Gujarat, India.[3] Several

members of his family worked for the government of the state. When Gandhi was 18
years old, he went to study law in England.[4] After he became a lawyer, he went to
the British colony of South Africa where he experienced laws that said people with
dark skin had fewer rights than people with light skin. In 1897, Gandhi was attacked
by a group of people in Durban Harbour, South Africa when he was going to work.
He went to South Africa because he could not find work in India. When traveling
through South Africa, Gandhi was also kicked out of a first class train because of his
skin colour. Then Gandhi started protesting against segregation. He decided then to
become a political activist, so he could help change these unfair laws. He created a
powerful, non-violent movement. During Gandhi's life, India was a colony of
the United Kingdom, but wanted independence. He was a huge leader during that era
and his thoughts helped catalyse the Indian independence movement.

In 1915, when Gandhi returned to India, he decided to again lead a march against a
law called the Rowlatt Act. But then the protest turned violent and people started to
kill the protesters.[6]
In 1930, Gandhi led the Salt March.
When he returned to India, he helped cause India's independence from British rule,
inspiring other colonial people to work for their own independence, break up
the British Empire, and replace it with the Commonwealth.
People of many different religions and ethnic groups lived in British India. Many
people thought that the country should break into separate countries so that different
groups could have their own countries. In particular, many people thought
that Hindus and Muslims should have separate countries. Gandhi was a Hindu, but he
liked ideas from many religions including Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and he
thought that people of all religions should have the same rights, and could live
together peacefully in the same country.
In 1938, Gandhi resigned from Congress. He said that he was no longer able to work
through Congress to unite the divisions in caste and religion. He also felt that he had
little to offer to the political process.[7]
In 1947, British Indian Empire became independent, breaking India in two, India
and Pakistan. Gandhi wanted independence, but did not want to split into two
different countries. Instead of celebrating on Independence Day, he was crying over
the division of India.
Gandhi's principle of satyagraha, often translated as "way of truth" or "pursuit of
truth", has inspired other democratic and anti-racist activists like Martin Luther King,
Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Gandhi often said that his values were simple, based upon
traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (satya), and non-violence (ahimsa).

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1.3 THE TEXT, THE WAY TO EQUAL DISTRIBUTION
The real implication of equal distribution is that each man shall have the wherewithal
to’ supply all his natural needs and no more. For example, if one man has a weak
digestion and requires only a quarter of a pound of flour for his bread and another
needs a pound, both should be in a position to satisfy their wants. To bring this ideal
into being the entire social order has got to be reconstructed. A society based on non-
violence cannot nurture any other ideal. We may not perhaps be able to realize the
goal, but we must bear it in mind and work unceasingly to near it. To the same’
extent as we progress towards our goal we shall find contentment and happiness, and
to that extent too shall we have contributed towards the bringing into being of a non-
violent society.

It is perfectly possible for an individual to adopt this way of life without having to
wait for others to do so. And if an individual can observe a certain rule of conduct, it
follows that a group of individuals can do likewise. It is necessary for me to
emphasize the fact that no one need wait for anyone else in order to adopt a right
course. Men generally hesitate to make a beginning if they feel that the objective
cannot be had in its entirety. Such an attitude of mind is in reality a bar to progress.

Now let us consider how equal distribution can be brought about through non-
violence. The first step towards it is for him who has made this ideal part of his
personal life. He would reduce his wants to a minimum, bearing in mind the poverty
of India. His earnings would be free of dishonesty. The desire for speculation would
be renounced. His habitation would be in keeping with the new mode of life. When
he has done all that is possible in his own life, then only will he be in a position to
preach this ideal among his associates and neighbours.

Indeed at the root of this doctrine of equal distribution must lie that of the trusteeship
of the wealthy for the superfluous wealth possessed by them; for according to the
doctrine they may not possess a rupee more than their neighbours. How is this to be
brought about? Non-violently? Or should the wealthy be dispossessed of their
possessions? To do this we would naturally have to resort to violence. This violent
action cannot benefit society. Society will be the poorer, for it will lose the gifts of a
man who knows how to accumulate wealth. Therefore the non-violent way is
evidently superior. The rich man will be left in possession of his wealth, of which he
will use what he reasonably requires for his personal needs and will act as trustee for
the remainder to be used for the society. In this argument honesty on the part of the
trustee is assumed.

As soon as a man looks upon himself as a servant of society, earns for its sake,
spends for its benefit, then purity enters into his earnings and there is ahimsa in his
venture. Moreover, if men’s minds turns towards this way of life, there will come
about a peaceful revolution in society, and that without any bitterness.

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It may be asked whether history at any time records such a change in human nature.
Such changes have certainly taken place in individuals. One may not perhaps be able
to point to them in a whole society. But this only means that up till now there has
never been an experiment on a large scale in non-violence. Somehow or other the
wrong belief has taken possession ‘of us that ahimsa is pre-eminently a weapon for
individuals and its use should, therefore, be limited to that sphere. In fact this is not
the case. Ahimsa is definitely an attribute of society. To convince people of this truth
is at once my effort and my experiment. In this age of wonders no one will say that a
thing or idea is worthless because it is new. To say it is impossible because it is
difficult is again not in consonance with the spirit of the age. Things undreamt of are
daily being seen, the impossible because is ever becoming possible. We are
constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of
violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt seemingly impossible discoveries
will be made in the field of non-violence. The history of religion is full of such
examples. To try to root out religion itself from the society is a wild goose chase.
And were such an attempt to succeed, it would mean the destruction of society.
Superstition, evil customs and other imperfections creep in from age to age and mar
religion for the time being. They come and go. But religion itself remains, because
the existence of the world in a broad sense depends on religion. The ultimate
definition of religion may be said to be obedience to the law of God. God and His
law are synonymous terms. Therefore God signifies an unchanging and living law.
No one has really found Him. But avatars and prophets have, by means of their
tapasya, given to mankind a faint glimpse of the eternal law.

If, however, in spite of the utmost effort, the rich do not become guardians of the
poor in the true sense of the term and the latter are more crushed and die of hunger,
what is to be? In trying to find the solution to this riddle I have lighted non-violent
non-cooperation and civil disobedience as the right and infallible means. The rich
cannot accumulate wealth without the co-operation of the poor in society. Man has
been conversant with violence from the beginning, for he has inherited this strength
from the animal in his nature. It was only when he rose from the state of a quadruped
(animal) to that of a biped (man) that the knowledge has grown within him slowly
but surely. If this knowledge were to penetrate to and spread amongst the poor, they
would become strong and would learn hoe free themselves by means of non-violence
from the crushing inequalities which have brought them to the verge of starvation.

1.4 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS

 Wherewithal: Ways.
 Renounce: To leave out, to part from a desirable material gain.
 Trusteeship: a method in which wealthy people constitute a group, put their
wealth for the use of the poor and the deprived.
 Pre-eminent: Highest or the most important.
 Resort to: To follow or to apply.

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  Infallible: Without any faults/faultless.
 Wild-goose chase: an unsuccessful chase.
 Mar: to destroy.

1.5 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. What do you know about non-violence?

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2. How can we apply Gandhian ideals in today’s world? Write with suitable
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3. Does non-violence serve any positive goal? Give appropriate reasons and
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4. What is your opinion on Gandhi’s idea of Satyagraha?
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5. Write a short-note on non-violence. How does it help a nation grow politically
and economically?
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6. Respond to Gandhi’s idea of the integral nature of religion in a multi-lingual and
multi-cultural nation.
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1.6 LET US SUM UP

Who doesn’t know about the father of the nation? Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,
the first name that crosses our mind when we think about the independence of the
then British reigned India. The second thing that Gandhiji wanted to change in this
country was the disparity between the rich and the poor or the haves and the have
nots. Gandhiji always believed in the idea of an ‘inclusive India’, an India where
there won’t be any discrepancy between the rich and the poor. The disparity between
the rich and the poor is still a persisting threat in the nation. This essay makes us
aware of the demerits of accumulation of health without check and balance.

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UNIT 2 : A CALL TO YOUTH
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 About the author, S.Radhakrishnan
2.3 The text, ‘A call to Youth’
2.4 Glossary of Difficult terms
2.5 Check your progress
2.6 Let Us Sum up

2.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:

 Know about the second President of this country, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

 Analyse the message that the author wants to convey through this narrative.
 Know the basic responsibilities that one should know being a responsible
youth citizen of this nation.
 Know how the affiliation of the youth to political parties can any way
contribute towards nation building.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
‘A Call to Youth’ is S. Radhakrishnan’s convocation address to Karnataka
University on 26th October 1953. His address emphasizes the need to build a strong
character that can nourish the health of a nation and its citizens. He sketches a vision
of India where the youth by their hard work, integrity of character and positive
thinking can bring and contribute to a prosperous and developed the society. This
ceremonial address was meant to inspire the youth generation and the generations to
come because the youth generation is the potential resource of energy for the
country.

2.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, S.RADHAKRISHNAN

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) was our second President and lifelong
teacher, he was not only an erudite scholar, philosopher and educationist but was the
prime instrument in shaping the course of higher education in this country. Being a
visionary scholar, he converted the Rashtrapati Niwas (summer capital of the British
in Shimla before Indian Indolence) to the Indian Institute of Advance Study known
for advanced research in humanities. His major works are Indian Philosophy, An

7
Ideal View of Life, Eastern Religion and Western Thought, Freedom and Culture and
so on…

One of India's most distinguished twentieth-century scholars of comparative

religion and philosophy, after completing his education at Madras Christian
College in 1911, he became Assistant Professor and later Professor of Philosophy at
Madras Presidency College then subsequently Professor of Philosophy at
the University of Mysore (1918-1921); the King George V Chair of Mental and
Moral Science at the University of Calcutta (1921–1932) and Spalding Professor of
Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford (1936–1952) by which he
became the first Indian to hold a professorial chair at the University of Oxford. He
was Upton Lecturer at Manchester College, Oxford in 1926, 1929, and 1930. In 1930
he was appointed Haskell lecturer in Comparative Religion at the University of
Chicago.
His philosophy was grounded in Advaita Vedanta, reinterpreting this tradition for a
contemporary understanding. He defended Hinduism against what he called
"uninformed Western criticism", contributing to the formation of contemporary
Hindu identity. He has been influential in shaping the understanding of Hinduism, in
both India and the west, and earned a reputation as a bridge-builder between India
and the West.
Radhakrishnan was awarded several high awards during his life, including a
knighthood in 1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in 1954,
and honorary membership of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963. He was also
one of the founders of Help age India, a non-profit organisation for elderly
underprivileged in India. Radhakrishnan believed that "teachers should be the best
minds in the country". Since 1962, his birthday has been celebrated in India
as Teachers' Day on 5 September every year.

2.3 THE TEXT, A CALL TO YOUTH

My first duty is to congratulate those who by hard and disciplined effort obtained
their degrees today. I should like to tell them that the very same qualities which they
exhibited during their University careers must continue in future and I hope that they
will continue.

I will be unfair to myself and to you if I should promise you glittering prizes or
comfortable positions. The times ahead of us are’ of a very difficult character. The
movements which took place in other countries during a span of centuries have all
occurred here more or less simultaneously. What answer to the Renaissance, the
Reformation, the Industrial Revolution or the Political Revolution-all these things
have been telescoped so to say in these few years in our country. We have won
political independence. But it is not to be regarded as giving us complete freedom.
There are ever so many other things which require to be fulfilled if this first step is to

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be’ regarded as a preparation for the liberation of this great land. If we wish to follow
up political revolution by a social and economic one, our universities must send out
batches of scientists, technicians, engineers, agriculturalists etc. These are essential
for changing the face of our country, the economic character of our society.

But we should not believe that science and technology alone are enough. There are
other countries, much advanced countries in the world, which have achieved
marvellous progress in the scientific and technological side, yet they are torn by
strife and they are unable to bring about peace, safety and security of their own
people. It only shows that other qualities are also necessary besides those developed
by science and technology.

Just now a student was introduced for his Degree and he was called Doctor of
Philosophy in Science. In other words science is also regarded as a branch of
philosophy. The function of the universities is not merely to send out technically
skilled and professionally competent men, but it is their duty to produce in them the
quality of compassion, the quality which enables the individuals to treat one another
in a truly democratic spirit. Our religions have proclaimed from the very beginning
that each human individual is to be regarded as a spark of the Divine. Tat tvam asi,
that art thou, is the teaching of the Upanishads. The Buddhists declare that each
individual has in him a spark of the Divine and could become a Bodhisattva. These
proclamations by themselves are not enough. So long as these’ principles are merely
clauses in the Constitution, and not functioning realities in the daily life of the
people, we are far from the ideals which we have set before ourselves. Minds and
hearts of the people require to be altered. We must strive to become democratic not
merely in the political sense of the term but also in the social and economic sense. It
is essential to bring about this democratic change, this democratic temper, this kind
of outlook by proper study of the humanities including philosophy and religion.
There is a great verse which says that in this poison tree of samsara are two fruits of
incomparable value. They are the enjoyment of great books and the company of good
souls. If you want to absorb the fruits of great literature, well, you must read them
not as we do cricket stories but read them with concentration. Our generation in its
rapid travel has lost the habit of being influenced by the great classics of our country.
If these principles of democracy in our Constitution are to become habits of mind
and patterns of behaviour, principles which change the very character of the
individual and the nature of the society, it can be done only by the study of great
literature, of philosophy and religion. That is why even though our country needs
great scientists, great technologies, great engineers, we should not neglect to make
them humanists. While we retain science and technology we must remember that
science and technology are not all. We must note the famous statement that merely
by becoming literate without the development of compassion we become demoniac.
So no university can regard itself as a true university unless it sends out young men
and women who are not only learned but whose hearts are full of compassion for
suffering humanity. Useless that is there, the university education must be regarded
as incomplete.

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I have been a teacher for nearly all my adult life, for over forty years, I have lived
with students and it hurts me very deeply when I find that the precious years during
which a student has to live in the university are wasted by some of them. I do not say
by all of them. Teachers and students form a family and in a family you cannot have
the spirit of the trade union. Such thing should be inconceivable in a university.
University life is a co-operative enterprise between teachers and students and I do
hope that the students will not do a disservice to themselves by resorting to activities
which are anti-social in character.

Character is destiny. Character is that on which the destiny of a nation is built. One
cannot have a great nation with men of small character. We must have young men
and women who look upon others as the living images of themselves as our Shastras
have so often declared. But whether in public life or student life, we cannot reach
great heights if we are lacking in character. We cannot climb the mountain when the
very ground at our feet is crumbling. When the very basis of our existence is shaky,
how can we reach the heights which we have set before ourselves? We must all have
humility. Here is a country which we are interested in building up. For whatever
service we take up, we should not care for what we receive. We should know how
much we can put into that service. That should be the principle which should animate
our young men and women. Ours is a great country. We have had for centuries a
great history. The whole of the East reflects our culture. We have to represent what
India taught right from the time of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Whether in domestic
affairs or in international affairs we must adhere to certain standards. My advice to
the young men and women who are graduating today through this University is:
Mother India expects of you that your lives should be clean, noble and dedicated to
selfless work.

2.4 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS

 RENAISSANCE: Revival of classical learning, knowledge, books and

concepts in modern day Europe that resulted in translation of books, large-
scale cultural resurgence through painting, sculptures. It started in Italy.
 REFORMATION: A change in religious and political order of the day in
15th century Europe initiated by Martin Luther of Germany. The movement is
known for negating the supremacy of the church of governance.
 HUMANITIES: Arts subjects that deals with literature, painting and other
disciplines concerning human values and human nature.
 CRUMBLE: to break or to fall apart.
 INDUSTIAL REVOLUTION: A 19th Century phenomenon that resulted in
the spread of industry and ample production of goods.
 SAMSARA: The whole world.
 TAT TVAM ASI: That art thou (you share the divine spark).

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2.5 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. What is democracy? What is or what should be the spirit of Democracy?

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3. Why does the author feel that educational institutions should not be treated as
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4. Do you think there is any need of student election in our college and university
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5. What is or what should be prime responsibility of a student in an institution?
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6. How do you think integrity of a character in a student can contribute towards the
betterment of the institution?
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2.6 LET US SUM UP

This essay underscores the need for human bonding and empathy at a time when we
witness a sharp decline in these qualities, among the youth, especially the student
population. Radhakrishnan’s lucid prose style is an effective vehicle for delivering
the urgency of his moral concerns to his readers. In this world where nobody has
time to empathise with their fellow beings, this text takes the credibility to inculcate
it in the minds and hearts of Human beings.

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UNIT 3 : WATER- THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
Structure
3.0 Objective
3.1 Introduction
3.2 About the author, C.V. Raman
3.3 The text, Water- The elixir of life
3.4 Glossary of Difficult terms
3.5 Check your progress
3.6 Let us Sum up

3.0 OBJECTIVE
After going through this unit, you will be able to:

 Understand the importance of water and water bodies.

 Know about C.V. Raman and his take on social and environmental issues.
 Analyse the different reasons in which water bodies/water resources are
exploited leading to shortage of water.
 Analyse the problems that occurs due to water shortage and also find its
solutions.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay redirects our attention to the supreme value of a very basic and
fundamental natural resource namely ‘water’. C.V. Raman has highlighted the
benefits that the human civilization has received from the water bodies, there are
myriad of such benefits. He has at the same time warned us of the dangers we will
face in the event of their exhaustion. His thoughtful essay ponders over the means to
protect our rivers in order to save our civilization. It comprehensively explains how
the river flows from its primary source and how on the way its silt and sand form a
whole bed of fertile ground fit for agriculture and even for industry. He cites river
Nile as the source of the Egyptian (Mesopotamian) civilization and goes on to show
how every small source of water is a treasured and cherished piece of bliss of blue
gold and it should be preserved at all possible cost.

3.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, C.V. RAMAN

Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman (1888-1970) is memorable for his phenomenal
scientific research in the field of Physics. As a matter of fact, we all know that he
was awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1930 He was educated in Madras and served as

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a Professor at Calcutta University. The molecular scattering of light he discovered
has now become famous as ‘Raman effect’. He has delivered a number of talks on
‘All India Radio’ with the aim of raising awareness of our immediate neutral
environment emphasizing the need of its conservation.

In 1907 after passing a civil service competitive examination, he became the Deputy
Accountant General in Calcutta. In 1915, he met Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the
Secretary of the Indian Science Association. Raman joined this Association as a
member, and started his research work. In the year 1917, he resigned from his post
and became the Professor of Physics at Calcutta University.

During a sea voyage to Europe in 1921, he observed with wonder, the brilliant blue
colour of the Mediterranean, and later the blue colour of glaciers. After returning to
India, he experimented on the diffusion of sunlight during its passage through water,
transparent blocks of ice and other materials. He then explained the reason for the
blue colour of the ocean. His studies on scattering of light led him to the discovery of
‘Raman Effect’ in 1928. ‘Rama Effect’ describes the change in the frequency of light
passing through transparent mediums. He used monochromatic light from a mercury
arc and the spectroscope to study the nature of diffused radiations emerging from the
material under examination. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in
1930.

In 1933, he became the Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He

held this post for 10 years. In 1934, he sponsored the foundation of the Indian
Academy of Sciences, of which he became President. In 1943, the Raman Research
Institute was set up by him. Then he conducted research work for the rest of his life.
He died on 21st November, 1970 at Bangalore.

3.3 THE TEXT, WATER- THE ELIXIR OF LIFE

Man has through the ages sought in vain for an imaginary elixir of life, the divine
Amrita. A draught of which was thought to confer immortality. But the true elixir of
life lies near to our hands. For it is the commonest of all liquids, plain water! I
remember one day standing on the line which separates the Libyan Desert from the
Valley of the Nile in Egypt. On one side was visible a sea of billowing sand without
a speck of green or a single living thing anywhere on the earth, teeming with life and
vegetation. What made this wonderful difference? Why, it is the water of the River
Nile flowing down to the Mediterranean from its sources a couple of thousands of
miles away. Geologists tell us that the entire soil of the Nile valley is the creation of
the river itself, brought pawn as the finest silt in its flood waters, from the highlands
of Abyssinia and from remote Central Africa, and laid down through the ages in the
trough through which the Nile flows into the sea. Egypt, in fact, was made by its
river. Its ancient civilization was created and is sustained by the life-giving waters
which come down year after year with unfailing regularity.

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I give this example and could give many others to emphasize that this common
substance which we take for granted in our everyday life is the most potent and the
most wonderful thing on the face of our earth. It has played a role of vast
significance in shaping the course of the earth’s history, and continue to play the
leading role in the drama of life on the surface of our planet.

There is nothing which adds so much to the beauty of the countryside as water, be it
just a little stream trickling over the rocks or a little pond by the wayside where the
cattle quench their thirst of an evening. The rain fed tanks that are so common in
South India alas often so sadly neglected in their maintenance are a cheering sight
when they are full. They are, of course shallow but this is less evident since the water
is silt-laden and throws the light back, and the bottom does not therefore show up.
These tanks play a vital role in South Indian Agriculture. In Mysore, for example,
much of the rice grown under them. Some of these tanks are surprisingly large and it
is a beautiful sight to see the sun rise or set over one of them. Water in a large
landscape may be compared to the eyes in a human face. It reflects the mood of the
hour, being bright and gay when the sun shines, turning to dark and gloomy when the
sky is overcast.

One of the most remarkable facts about water is its power to carry silt or finely
divided soil in suspension. This is the origin of the characteristic colour of the water
in rain fed tanks. This colour varies with the nature of the earth in the catchment area
and is most vivid immediately after a fresh inflow following rain. Swiftly flowing
water van carry fairly large and heavy particles. The finest particles, however remain
floating within the liquid in spite of their greater density and are carried to great
distances. Such particles are, of course, extremely small, but their number is also
great, and incredibly large amounts of solid matter can be transported in this way.
When silt-laden water mixes with the salt water of the sea, there is a rapid
precipitation of the suspended matter. This can be readily seen when one travels by
steamer down a great river to the deep sea. The colour of the water changes
successively from the muddy red or brown silt through varying shades of yellow and
green finally to the deep sea. That great tracts of land have been formed by silt thus
deposited is evident on an examination of the soil on alluvial areas. Such land,
consisting as it does of finely divided matter, is usually very fertile.

The flow of water has undoubtedly played a great part and a beneficent one ill the
geological processes by which the soil on the earth’s surface has been formed from
the rocks of its crust. The same agency however, under appropriate conditions, can
also play a destructive part and wash away the soil which is the foundation of all
agriculture, and if allowed to proceed unchecked can have the most disastrous effects
on the life of the country. The problem of soil erosion is one of serious import in
various countries and especially in many parts of India. The conditions under which
it occurs and the measures by which it can be checked are deserving of the closest
study.

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Soil erosion occurs in successive steps, the earliest of which may easily pass
unnoticed. In the later stages, the cutting up and washing away of earth is only too
painfully apparent in the formation of deep gullies and ravines which make all
agriculture impossible. Sudden bursts of excessively heavy rain resulting in a large
run-off surplus water are the principal factors in causing soil erosion, Contributory
causes are the slope of the land, removal of the natural protective coat of vegetation,
the existence of ruts along which the water can flow with, rapidly gathering
momentum, and the absence of any checks to such flow. Incredibly large quantities
of precious soil can be washed away if such conditions exist, as is unhappily too
often the case.

The menace which soil erosion presents to the continuance of successful agriculture
is an alarming one in many parts of India, calling urgently for attention and
preventive action. The terracing of the land, the construction of bunds to check the
flow of water, the practice of contour cultivation and the plating of appropriate types
of vegetation are amongst the measures that have been suggested. It is obvious that
the aim should be to check the flow of water at the earliest possible stage before it
has acquired any appreciable momentum and correspondingly large destructive
power.

Water is the basis of all life. Every animal and every plant contains a substantial
proportion of free or combined water in its body, and no kind of physiological
activity is possible in which the fluid does not play and essential part. Water is, of
course necessary for animal life, while moisture in the soil is equally imperative for
the life and growth of plants and trees, though the quantity necessary varies
enormously with species. The conservation and utilisation of water is thus
fundamental for human welfare. Apart from artesian water the ultimate source in all
cases is rain or snowfall. Much of Indian agriculture depends on seasonal rainfall and
is therefore very sensitive to any failure or irregularity of the same. The problems of
soil erosion and of inadequate or irregular rainfall are closely connected with each
other. It is clear that the adoption of techniques preventing soil erosion would also
help to conserve and keep the water where it is wanted, in other words, on and in the
soil, and such techniques therefore serve a double purpose thus lost to the country.
The harnessing of our rivers, the waters of which now mostly run to waste, is a great
national problem which must be considered and dealt with on national lines. Vast
areas of land which at present are mere scrub jungle could be turned into fertile and
prosperous country by courageous and well-planned action.

Closely connected with the conservation of water supplies is the problem of

afforestation. The systematic planting of suitable trees in every possible or even in
impossible areas, and the development of what one can call civilized forests, as
distinguished from wild and untamed jungle, is one of the most urgent needs of
India. Such plantation would directly and indirectly prove a source of untold wealth
to the country. They would check soil erosion and conserve the rainfall of the
country from flowing away to waste, and would provide the necessary supplies of

16
cheap fuel, and thus render unnecessary the wasteful conversion of farmyard manure
into a form of fuel.

The measures necessary to control the movement of water and conserve the supplies
of it can also serve subsidiary purposes of value to the life of the countryside. By far
the cheapest for of internal transport in a country is by boats and barges through
canals and rivers. We hear much about programmes of rails and road construction,
but far too little about the development of internal waterways in India. Then, again
the harnessing of water supplies usually also makes possible the development of
hydro-electric power. The availability of electric power would make a tremendous
difference to the life of the country-side and enable underground water to be tapped
to a greater extent that at present, and thus help to overcome the difficulties arising
from irregularity or inadequacy of other sources of supply.

In one sense, water is the commonest of liquids. In another sense, it is the most
uncommon of liquids with amazing properties which are responsible for its unique
power of maintaining animal and plant life. The investigation of the nature and
properties of water is. Therefore, of the highest scientific interest and is far from an
exhausted field of research.

3.4 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS

 ELIXIR: An imaginary substance of immortality.

 AMRITA: Sanskrit word, known as God’s Holy drink (referred to water).
 IMMORTAL: The one who cannot die.
 NILE: The longest river of Africa.
 GEOLOGICAL: The study of the earth’s surface and beneath the rocks, fossils
etc.
 ARTESIAN WATER: Dug well water.

3.5 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. State the different functions of water that makes it the most precious liquid on
earth.
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2. What are the ancient civilizations that develop along the banks of rivers? Write
on any two.
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3. Write a note on the ill effects of industrial waste on water.
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4. Do you think reckless expansion of cities affects the health of a civilization?
Write a report on the steps you might want to take as an urban planner in your
locality.
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5. What steps can be taken to preserve the water bodies of the country in order to
save humanity from the ravages of floods, droughts and earthquakes?
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3.6 LET US SUM UP

The most pertinent issue that has spread like wildfire in every nook and corner of this
world is the magnanimous reduction of water bodies and water resources. ‘Global
Warming’ comes forward as the root cause for this devastating scenario. We don’t
see a lot of positive change in the scenario even now. Though very few of us are now
aware of the scenario, there are still a lot of people who are still unaware of the dire
consequences that may result due to shortage of water on the surface of the earth.

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UNIT 4 : AN EDUCATED PERSON
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 About the author, Harold Nicolson
4.3 The text, ‘An Educated Person’
4.4 Glossary of Difficult Terms
4.5 Check Your Progress
4.6 Let us Sum up

4.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:

 Analyse who was Harold Nicolson and know about his writings.
 Know what education is and what its true and justified meaning is.
 Analyse how education is being commercialised in this present scenario and
how the quality of education is dismantled and broken.
 Analyse the difference between Education and Common Sense and evaluate
whether the present day education inculcates values enough to make an
individual sensible?

4.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay is notable for its attempt to give an unconventional definition to
education, providing accurate information about the disciplines of knowledge and
striking the right note on what education is or what an educated person actually
needs to know. It chips away all the usual notions that link education with classes,
degrees and mere book learning. Nicolson explains how education also dwindles
between class and status. True education, as the essay suggest, is not simply
compartmentalized, scholarly, specialized knowledge but is a perpetual stream of
fresh ideas. Education is a continuous process, a lifelong eagerness to know and
explore. It reveals itself in the flexibility of the mind in inviting new information and
an ever widening interest in the quality and beauty of life.

4.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR, HAROLD NICOLSON

Harold Nicolson (1886-1968), a British Government Diplomat and scholar, who
wrote several pieces in the British magazine ‘The Spectator’. He is the author of

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biographies of the English poet Alfred Tennyson and Viceroy Lord Curzon. His
famous work is ‘Diplomacy (1939)’.

He was born in Iran while his father, the famous diplomat Arthur Nicolson , held the
position of ambassador. After studying at Wellington College and at the University
of Oxford , Harold decided in 1909 to follow in his father's diplomatic footsteps,
representing the British Crown during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference .
In the work dedicated to his father, published in 1930 , he offered a documented
panorama of diplomacy in the period before the First World War . In 1952 he was
commissioned to write the official biography of King George V , whom he had
personally known.
Nationalist but politically deployed on the left, in the ( 1931 ) Nicolson joined
initially to the New Party of Oswald Mosley , but when the movement was
renamed British Union of Fascists , he preferred to go to the party Nazional Labor ,
born of a split from the Labour , with which he was a member of parliament
from 1935 to 1945 for the college of Leicester West . During the Second World War
he collaborated with the national coalition government led by Winston Churchill
becoming secretary of the Ministry of Information, but in the national elections
of 1945 the re-election in the House of Commons failed . In 1948 he ran again with
the Labour Party, but lost and retired permanently from politics.

4.3 THE TEXT, AN EDUCATED PERSON

I received this week a postcard from some reader of the Spectator, suggesting that I
should devote my next essay on this page to defining what exactly I meant by “an
educated person”. I was pleased by this communication, partly because it is a warm
surprise to receive an anonymous postcard which is amicably intended, and partly
because I thought this suggestion was an excellent idea. What could be easier or
more interesting that to set down on paper the many definitions, both varied and
precise, which I had either heard applied to education by other people or which, in
the course of prolonged concern with the subject, I had evolved myself? Yet when I
drew my pad towards me and began to note down the several headings under which
any such definition should be grouped, I came to the conclusion that when I spoke or
wrote of “an educated person” I had in fact no clear idea at all of what sort of a
person I had in mind. I recognized in the first place that the phrase, in certain
contexts and circumstances, was now often used, not to designate any degree of
erudition or schooling, but as a synonym for what used to be called “a person of
quality”. We have all today become so extremely class-conscious that we hesitate to
employ such expressions as “upper-class”, “middle-class” or “lower-class” and take
refuge in elegant euphemism such as “person belonging to the lower income group”.
Since I happen to dislike verbal elegance and to detest euphemism, I may have
slipped into the compromise of saying “an educated person” when I really meant a
person who appertains to the now vestigial (and shortly to be extinct) species which
was once known as “the rich”. This assuredly is a lamentable confession and one

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which, as I write it, brings an ingenuous blush to my cheek. But even Mr. Bernard
Shaw who possesses such undaunted verbal probity, would not when fighting an
election in any interest, dare to use upon his platform the fine old English phrase
“lower-classes”. To indicate that income group or its opposite one may often be
inclined to use a less precise, ans as such a less provocative, term.

Yet, although there may have been occasions when my tact or my timidity has
induced me to use the expression “an educated person” as a definition of those who
belong to the upper and upper-middle classes, there must have been many other
occasions on which I employed the phrase to imply a certain level of education. And
although my anonymous mentor did not quote the context in which the words had
attracted his attention, and possibly his disapproval, it was evidently in his mind that
I should explain what level of education I thought a person should have reached
before he could be justly described as ‘educated’. Such a proposal throws open to me
the whole range of learning from alphabets to Aristotle and obliges me therefore
exclude from my inquiry all the lower levels of schooling and shall not consider
those persons who are able to read and write English, who can do simple sums in
arithmetic, and who possess an average School Certificate knowledge of history and
geography. I shall also exclude the specialists, the lepidopterists, the conchologists
and all those whose knowledge, although formidable within its own range, is
confined, within the limits of any particular or technical branch of learning. I shall
further leave aside those persons whose education is due to purely fortuitous
circumstances, or who are able to convey the impression of erudition owing to the
chance that they had a Russian mother or worked in Alinari’s from the age of ten.

The expression ‘an educated person’ might be taken to apply to an individual who,
being possessed of average intelligence, application and memory, has devoted
several years of his or her life to the acquisition of general knowledge. It would not
be within such, narrow confines that I should use the expression, since a moment’s
examination of this definition proves it to be wholly unsatisfactory. What, for
instance, is meant by ‘several years’? Does it mean the years between the ages of
five and fourteen, or the years between the ages of five and twenty-one? Assuredly it
means nothing of the sort, since a person who ceases to educate himself at any age is
not, in my sense of the world, an educated person. Only those can lay claim to that
resounding title who continue to learn and learn until they are nailed in their coffins.
What, again, is meant by “general knowledge”? The pendants have assured us that
the aim of all higher education is to know something about everything and
everything about something. Much as I envy and admire those rare people who are in
fact capable of these extremes of erudition, I should regard them, not so much as
persons of exceptional education but rather as sports or freaks, akin to lightning
calculators, who have been endowed by nature with extraordinary minds. No normal
person can possibly know something about everything, and even those who know
everything about something become incapable of elastic thought and are contorted
into unnatural shapes which recall the masterpieces of the topiarist’s art. The normal
human being who aspires to be educated should concentrate upon those areas of

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learning which are attuned to his individual capacities, and should enlarge those
areas by becoming acquainted with the wider areas, which surround his own nucleus
of knowledge.

It would be absurd and wasteful, for instance, for a man who by temperament is
fitted to understand music, to force himself to study engineering. Yet if such a man
were strictly to confine his education to music alone, he would fail to qualify as an
inspiring musical critic. His aim should be to extend the range of his sensibilities by
learning about things which are cognate to his own special capacities; he should
study the plastic arts, spend much time in reading the biographies of musicians and
the history of their times, and endeavour to acquire an area of thought, feeling and
experience wider that that possessed by the musicians whom he studies. The person
again who is endowed with literary tastes, but who does not possess the creative
energy which enables him to write books, should seek to equip himself by studying,
not literature merely, but also the arts, history and language so literary man can call
himself educated unless he has a sound knowledge of at least one literature other
than his own. It will be said that, in giving these instances, I disclose that I am not
really thinking about education, but only about culture. It is, I admit, an unfortunate
circumstance that the poverty of our native tongue has not provided us with a word
less offensive than, ‘culture’ to describe the level of learning which is reached by
those who have forgotten most of what they have been taught. Yet I do think that it is
so disgraceful to admit that when I speak of ‘an educated person’ I do not merely
mean someone who has passed his exams, but a person who has ‘acquired a trained,
elastic and cultivated mind. The value of a liberal education, the value of a liberal
education, the value above all of the humanities, is that it enables those who have
been so fortunate as to enjoy these graceful benefits to apply the machinery of their
mind to areas beyond the confines of their own schooling.

4.4 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS

 ANONYMOUS: Without identity/someone who is unknown.

 EVOLVED: Grow in terms of quality.
 EUPHEMISM: The device by which crude term is replaced by a more
respectable one.
 SPECTATOR: Viewers (‘The Spectator’- a weekly English magazine).
 TOPIARIST: The one who works in a garden in clipping plants.
 PROBITY: Insights or Integrity.
 LEPIDOTERIST: The one who scientifically studies butterflies.
 CONCOLOGIST: The one who studies mollusc shells.
 ALINARY: Of museums and archives.
 ANALPHABETS: A person who can’t read.
 TOPIARIST: One who works in a garden in clipping plants.

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  FORTUITOUS: Chancy or Unanticipated.
 ERUDITION: Scholarly exercise.
 COGANTE: Of equal nature.
 PEDANTS: Mechanical scholars stressing on detailed book learning.
 INTERSET: Accurate detection of a threat or so.
 FREAK: Abnormal or unusual.
 AMICABLE: Friendly or sociable.

4.5 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. What means and methods do you think one has to adopt in order to be educated
truly?
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2. How does Nicolson explain the idea of liberal education, general knowledge and
the notion of literary men?
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3. What according to you is the difference between quantity and quality? Give
suitable examples.
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4. Do you think that the traditional education system was more effective that the
present one? Elaborate your reasons.
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5. What contribution does ‘Humanities’ as a discipline serves the society?
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4.6 LET US SUM UP

The current trend of commercialisation of educational institutions calls for a serious

review and questions the nature and aim of education. The habit of equipping youths
only with skills and excluding the inculcation of values has resulted in a
mechanization of the society. Nicolson’s essay is a grim reminder of this naked truth.
Education has merely become a mode of business/money making for more of the so-
called educational institutions to such an extent that sometimes even a vendor on the
streets, a worker in a factory and a peasant in the fields appear to be more sensible
and knowledgeable. There is no second in the fact that education in the modern era
definitely includes skills and abilities that is needed to get instant job, no single
individual with a minimum degree shall remain unemployed, but is that enough? Can
a job help us in being a sensible and responsible individual?

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UNIT 5 : NO LEARNING WITHOUT FEELING
Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 About the writer, Claire Needell Hollander
5.3 The text, No Learning without feeling
5.4 Glossary of Difficult Terms
5.5 Check Your Progress
5.6 Glossary of Difficult Terms

5.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you’ll be able to:

 Analyse the writer, Claire Needell Hollander, his works and his perception of
education.
 Learn the new terms attached with education (especially English) in the
present day scenario.
 Analyse the slogan ‘Skilling India or Odisha’ and get a zest of this phrase.
 Analyse and perhaps challenge the change in the ‘skilling approach’ of skill-
based education in the country and also in the state.

5.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay is about the pivotal importance of feeling as the gateway to learning. As
such it presents a passionate argument for a literature –based curriculum in schools.
Both these things should be home truths, but the emphasis is being lost or eclipsed in
today’s world which is promoting learning language skills and critical thinking skills
in the absence of reading matter which moves the students emotionally by speaking
to their deepest concerns.

Hollander targets a particular curricular development in the United States of America

that has recently been much in news and has been adopted in as many as 45 of its
states. This goes by the name of Common Core State Standards. The aim of this
comprehensive set or series of recommendations is to stress only hard subjects and to
discourage any subjectivity in the learning process. That is how the balance is tipped
in favour of skills that are measurable and quantifiable and away from feelings,
emotions and thoughts which are non-measurable and hence unusable.
The negative outcome of this, as Hollander argues is that, content-rich and emotion-
drenched material of the kind we find in literature is edged out in favour of a set of

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technical and formal language drills. The Common Core actually discourages the
reading of literary texts and recommends its replacement by neutral or what
Hollander calls ‘agnostic texts’. The latter are supposed to serve only as occasions
for doing language exercises. The more emotionally dried up they are, the better their
suitability for a skill-based learning is.

For Hollander, this is a severe limitation of the Common Core philosophy of

education, which if unthinkingly applied, will result in the ‘dumbing down’ of the
minds. She therefore, calls or the emotionally charged literary texts to oust the
‘agnostic’ texts. Literature, she says, will be far from being a barrier in the path of
the development of critical thinking skills.

5.2 ABOUT THE WRITER, CLAIRE NEEDELL HOLLANDER

Claire Needell Hollander is an English teacher in a public middle school at
Manhattan, New York. It will be nearer to the mark to describe her, as she does
herself as a ‘reading enrichment teacher’. She is a spirited crusader for the arts in a
world that is dominated by what is called the STEM subjects (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics). She writes in the opened pages of New York Times
newspaper against the ‘culture of dumbing down’ where the rewards for switching
off the intelligence are many. This essay was published in New York Times on 9th
June 2013. Hollander is also the author of the young adult novel ‘Something Right
behind her’.

5.3 THE TEXT, NO LEARNING WITHOUT FEELING

‘It’s sad,’ the kid at the far table told me, ‘but it’s my favourite poem we worked
on.’ He was talking about ‘The Weary Blues.’ By Langston Hughes, and although
his emotional language was rudimentary, his response was authentic. ‘So we should
read literature that makes us sad?’ I asked. ‘Well, sadness, Ms, Hollander, is
something people pretty much feel every day.’ He looked up at me and smiled
incredulously. The connection was obvious to him.

I like it when my students cry, when they read with solemnity and purpose, when the
project of making meaning becomes personal. My middle school students turn again
and again to highly charged young adult novels. The poems and stories they receive
enthusiastically are the ones that pack the most emotional punch. Just as teens like to
take physical risks, they are driven to take emotional risks. For teachers, emotion is
our stone.

Put another way, emotion is the English teacher’s entry point for literary exploration
and for the development of the high-level skills outlined in the Common Core State
Standards, which have been not particularly interested in emotional risk taking rather
in the avoidance of political risk taking but rather in the avoidance of political risk. It
is a rather bloodless effort.

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Agreement on the skills American school children need to learn to read and write is
much easier to arrive at than agreement on what they should read and write. For this
reason, the Common Core’s list of text exemplars for English at each grade level is
slender, a few lines in an appendix, and centres on safe choices, like ‘Little Women,’
a novel dismissed as ‘moral pap’ by its author more than a century ago. The authors
of the Common Core standards have, however, exhaustively itemized skills required
for reading and writing at each grade level. There is so much fine print that even the
young teachers I know now need reading glasses.

I spend hours with my teacher-geek colleagues poring over distinctions between

Common Core grade-level skills that have little practical import in the classroom. As
one of my colleagues pointed out, it is more of a challenge to avoid teaching the
skills enumerated in the standards than it is to be certain you are covering them all.

Language skills as we define them are useful fictions. Many types of knowledge and
cognitive functioning are embedded in every skill area, and many, if not all, of the
standards merely translate the obvious requirements of English work into wordy
abstractions. What does it really mean to ‘analyse the impact of the author’s
choices’? What else is there? A real checklist of all that is involved in the act of
reading would border on the absurd.

The truth is that high-stakes standardized tests, in combination with the skills-based
orientation of the Common Core State Standards, are de-emphasizing literature in the
English classroom in favour of “agnostic texts” of the sort familiar from test
preparation materials. These are neutral texts created to be “agnostic” with regard to
student interest so that outside variables won’t interfere when teachers assess and
analyse data related to verbal ability. In other words, they are texts no child would
choose to read on her own.

There are already hundreds of for-profit and non-profit providers of “agnostic texts”
sorted by grade level being used in English classrooms across the country. There is
also a lot of discussion among teachers over whether lessons align well with the new
standards, but far less discussion regarding which texts are being chosen for students
to read and why. In a sense the students, with their curiosity, sadness, confusion and
knowledge deficits, are left out of the equation. They are on the receiving end of
lessons planned for a language-skills learning abstraction.

The writers of the Common Core had no intention of killing literature in the
classroom. But the convenient fiction that yearly language learning can be precisely
measured by various “metrics” is supplanting the importance of literary experience.
The Common Core remains neutral on the question of whether my students should
read Shakespeare, Salinger or a Ford owner’s manual, so long as the text remains
“complex”.

New teachers may feel so overwhelmed by the itemization of skills in the Common
Core that they will depend on prepared materials to ensure their students are getting
the proper allotment of practice in answering “common core-aligned” questions like

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“analyse hoe drama’s or poem’s form or structure … contributes to its meaning.”
Does good literary analysis even answer such questions or does it pose them? Does it
matter whether a question like this is tackled while reading an actual play, or will a
short excerpt do the trick so long as the “skill” is practiced?

Language may compose who we are as much as we compose it. Language teaching,
therefore, is unlike other content areas. Text selection is the most critical component
of any English curriculum, but our educational leaders have avoided the discussion
of what works of literature a national canon might include in favour of a curriculum
that treats the study of literature as though it were a communication system unrelated
to who we are as people.

My fear is that we cannot reckon with the difficult truths of real works of art, that the
disturbance we feel when reading Alice Walker’s “Colour Purple” is rated too
disruptive to the analysis of student yearly progress to be read for a test. My
suspicion is that the Common Core enumerates skills and not books because as a
country we still feel that real work of art are too divisive. It is more comfortable to
remain agnostic, to permit our teens to remain an education-product consumer group,
fed skills-building exercises that help adults to avoid the hard truths our children
have no choice but to face.

There are no agnostic texts on college campuses, but texts dense with philosophical,
psychological and moral meaning. There are no state tests for college students. It is
time to align our education system with college demands by opening a real
discussion about what teens should read in middle school and high school. Tests
given to adolescents need to be based on books students read in school.

Put this way it sounds obvious, but it isn’t what we’re doing. Skills-based standards
ignore the basic fact that language learning must occur in a meaningful context. The
basis for higher-level learning---for philosophy, psychology, literature, even political
science---is the emotions and impulses people feel every day. If we leave them out of
the picture, reading is bled of much of its purpose.

5.4 GLOSSARY OF DIFFICULT TERMS

 RUDIMENTARY: Fairly basic or at a starting stage.

 AUTHENTIC: Genuine/true/original.
 LANGSTON HUGHES: (Full name: James Mercer Langston Hughes), was
an African American poet, social activist, columnist, song writer and
playwright. He was well known for his most acclaimed play ‘Raisin in the
Sun’.
 INCREDULOUS: Someone who is quick to believe what he/she is told and
runs the risk of being cheated. Such a person can also be termed as ‘Gullible’.
 LITTLE WOMAN: A novel by the 19th century American writer Louisa
May Alcott (1832-1888) published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. She
was from Concord Massachusetts.

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  MORAL PAP: Worthless or trivial reading matter.
 TEEN MIND IS OUR STONE: A figurative way of saying that just as a
sculptor works on stone and makes it elastic enough to give expression to a
form or a shape, a teacher treats the teen ager’s mind as a raw material to
carve a shape out of it.
 PACK OF THE MOST EMOTIONAL PUNCH: An idiomatic way to say
that something conveys a strong emotion or that something is emotionally
powerful or compelling.
 AGNOSTIC TEXTS: In a literal manner ‘Agnostic’ refers to a person who
is indifferent to the idea of the existence of God, although he/she is not an
atheist who denies the existence of God. An agnostic text, therefore, is a text
which doesn’t affect a reader at a personal level. It has also been prescribed
as a neutral act.
 ALICE WALKER: A 20th century African American writer whose novel
‘Color Purple’ portrayed race relations existing in the American Society and
showed women as the worst victims of a racist and male-dominated society.

5.5 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. What according to Hollander should determine an English teacher’s choice of

suitable reading for adolescents?
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3. How does Hollander describe the fate of reading which is divorced from our
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4. What is the difference between teaching language through literature and
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5. Why does Hollander want the English curriculum in school to follow the college
English Curriculum?
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6. Why does Hollander see de-emphasising literature in the school curriculum as a
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7. What are the uses of having emotion or feeling as an entry point into teaching
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5.6 LET US SUM UP

What Hollander says about the pitfalls of the Common Core’s standardizing
approach rings true of the communication skill-cantered approach being emphasized
in the Indian context at the moment. Literature is de-emphasized to an even greater
degree in the English curriculum of the technical and professional colleges, leading
to that emotional poverty and illiteracy that Hollander has sharply criticised. There
can indeed be no learning without feeling and that implies for all the countries of the
world, be it America or India. This established the topicality and the relevance of
Hollander’s essay.

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