Tamil Nadu: School headmaster shelves textbooks, teaches students lessons for life

SIVAGANGA: It is not unusual that people rue their academic years that were spent over the puzzling Sin theta and Cos theta formulae. What if the schools had helped them pursue life skills and become streetwise? Or what if the teachers taught them to observe the happenings outside of our textbooks? Very few would have had teachers who defined their lives and instilled in them the courage and compassion to face each day.

This story is of one such endearing teacher, L Chokkalingam. At the Chairman Manicka Vasagam Middle School in Devakottai, scores of students have assembled unmindful of the scorching sun with a sense of urgency. After years of watching their favourite cinema heroes don the khaki, and bash up goons, these children are finally going to visit a police station.

However, their headmaster Chokkalingam knows all too well that no stunt scene with mass dialogues awaits the children at the station. But, that’s not the point. This is only one among the many public places that Chokkalingam takes them so that they become acquainted with real-life issues. At police stations, post offices, banks and other places, these kids are taught to fill forms, shown whom to approach for what, and sundry chores.

The 46-year-old headmaster believes in the holistic development of each student. There is no stone this man will leave unturned for achieving that. During elections, he urges his students to write letters to their families to exhort their parents to exercise their franchise. He invites personalities like Dr V Irai Anbu IAS and ISRO scientist Mayilsamy Annadurai to speak to the students. He takes them to colleges and universities and sows seeds of ambition in their germinal minds.

One of the school’s alumni, C Sornaambiga (20), who now pursues M.Sc Biotechnology course at JJ Arts and Science College in Pudukkottai, says Chokkalingam is concerned about the learning curve of each student. “He encourages everyone to take part in competitions. Only later in life, we will understand the importance of those initial visits to banks and police stations. The visits actually give us so much confidence to deal with crises,” she adds. Concurring, M Divyasri, a Class 8 student from the school, notes that the headmaster’s beyond-the-textbook approach to teaching is inspiring. 

After a few stints in other schools, Chokkalingam joined the middle school in Devakottai in 2013. “My father was a journalist attached to a Tamil daily. So, I have learnt to focus on social issues from a young age,” the headmaster says.

This way of preparing students for the cut-throat attitude of the world not only grooms them, but also occupies their minds and ensures that they don’t fall into the clutches of drugs, says M Muthulakshmi, another teacher at the school. Chokkalingam goes beyond what the American author Margaret Mead once said: “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” Back home, the Devakottai-native believes that children must be shown the whole world. “Let them learn what they want from it.”