Children on Pitara Kids Network

Peru's Barefoot Librarians

Thu, 05 Jul 2001 19:45:20 +0000

Twelve year-old Leonardo Herrera had never seen a book in his life although he knew how to read. He and his friends used to carve letters and numbers on cactus leaves after seeing their teacher do the same on small blackboards.

He belongs to poor peasant family in Bambamarca in Peru. His family grows maize and potatoes in a place which is 12,000 feet above sea-level.

But Leonardo wanted to see what a book looks like. So he asked the new priest in his parish to give him one. But there was no electricity in his village. So Leonardo borrowed candles from the church and sat up all night reading it. By dawn, he was at the door of the priest asking for another book to read.

The Bright Ones

Wed, 26 Jun 2002 01:48:37 +0000

September 9: Five-year-old Krishna and four-year-old Rama are two very bright brothers. They are too young to join school but they know by heart all the textbooks of the primary school.

The little geniuses, however, are not Indian! Their names are the only thing Indian about these kids. For they are Russians in every other way.

The two boys, sons of Ariy Radogar, were allowed to take the test for primary school admissions after their father insisted that they could clear them. At first the headmaster of the school refused to admit the children. In Russia, as in the rest of the world, the age of the child for entry in primary school is six.

Chattering Kids and Teacher's Tape

Fri, 08 Dec 2000 19:38:32 +0000

July 8: It happened in a primary school in the city of La Plata, Argentina. There were 70 bright-eyed children in one class. Seventy chattering children, all seven years old. A school rehearsal was on for Argentina’s Independence Day celebrations. And the teacher tried her best to see that they kept quiet during the rehearsal. But, the children did not.

Chattering Kids and Teacher’s Tape [Illustration by Sudheer Nath]

The teacher lost her cool. She stuck tape over their mouths to make sure they did not talk. Indeed, they could not. We do not know whether the rehearsal went on after that. What we do know is that the teacher is facing charges of cruelty to children for taking such an extreme step.

Say Cheese!

Sat, 08 Dec 2001 20:40:57 +0000

My nephew was six when he received the first whiff of a peachy odour, later identified to him as Parmesan cheese. A gift from a “foreign returned” relative, the cheese by the time it came home had got slightly rancid. But all the same, he gobbled it up with relish.

There was never a dull moment thereafter and he started ferreting out large chunks of cheese and butter from sundry fridges without as much as a whey and what-for. Unlike Miss Tuffet he squirreled off some to his room and hid in various closets, under the stairs, in the attic and satisfied his desires.