Two Meters of Thread

Education is a real beauty of a person but if education is practical, life becomes even more precious.

There was a chapter on measurements in the 6th Grade Math Class. When preparing for this class, I put a lot of thought into how a child could measure things if they didn't have a measuring tape. So I thought, why not use the child's hands and fingers to measure the distance? When the day of class came,  I used a measuring tape to measure a one-foot for each child using their hand span and fingers. For some children that meant that 1 foot equaled two hands and 4 fingers, and for others that meant two hands and 2 fingers.

Now each child had learned how much distance is in one foot without a measuring tape. I made groups of three children each and asked them to measure the length and width of their classroom with their hands and fingers. Excitedly they got to work.

The next day the children asked, "Sir, if we have to measure by meter then how will we do it?" This time I measured the distance of one meter with their hands and fingers in the same way as before. All of the children were even more happy after learning this. Now they could measure in two different ways! 

One day, another teacher asked the children to bring some thread the next day for a class activity. Every child brought the thread from the shop but one girl named Naitik told me about her experience.

She explained, "Sir, when I went to buy the thread the shopkeeper gave me the thread without measuring it. He said, 'Look beta (daughter), this is two meters.' So I measured it with my hand and it was only one and a half meters. So I told the Uncle in the shop that it was less than two meters. He didn't believe me, so I explained how I had learned to measure in school. I told him this thread is about one and a half meters long. Please measure it again. When the shopkeeper measured it again, he saw that in reality, it was only one and a half meters long. He said sorry to me and took out another thread, measured 2 meters, and gave it to me. I took the thread and brought it with me today!"     

She was so happy telling me how this lesson in class became practical in life. It made me so proud to know that one of our lessons had helped her in practical life. 

Written by Teacher Shankar