Plants and Trees of HBCSE

The emphasis is on students learning by observation. Children are introduced to the environment, body, food, etc, by kindling their curiosity, promoting what I would call selective observation and making them think. There is no question that this is the 'right' teaching method. The Soviet Union had tried this method even at the high school level, with considerable success. It is needless to say that the books are modestly priced. Perhaps there is no way prescriptive teaching can be TOTALLY replaced by the observational. But this fact does not need to be stressed in the Indian context where rote learning is the norm.

Professor S. Ramanan Chennai Mathematical Institute, 2008