Unequal games

Sir — The film, Chak De! India, brings to the fore the disgraceful manner in which hockey, our national sport, has been rendered completely insignificant. It is terribly unfortunate that cricket has managed to eclipse the relevance of all other sports in India. Those individuals who have made their name in other sports have done so by dint of sheer excellence and without any aid from the Sports Authority of India. It is time we started according equal importance to sports like hockey and encouraged their rising stars by investing both money and enthusiasm into these games.

Yours faithfully,
Yasmin Banu, Abu Dhabi

Montessori madness

Sir — In Vishnupriya Sengupta’s “Ways to catch them young” (Aug 14), La Martiniere for Girls is one of the schools named among those which admit two-year olds. The implication is that we “catch them young” because it is “lucrative business”.

Journalistic ethics demands that the reporter visit the school or talk to its principal before making this claim. The La Martiniere Nursery has large airy rooms, with qualified teachers, helper teachers and support staff for each section. The equipment is appropriate, the hours at school adequate and the activities so organized that the children under our care are nurtured in a correct and congenial atmosphere.

With more and more parents at work, children at nursery schools are safer and better cared for than being left at home with unreliable domestic helps. I am aware that there are several ‘Montessori schools’ in the city where children are left in the care of untrained staff in dark and dingy rooms with almost no equipment where children are taught to read and write using an outdated methodology. Let me assure you that La Martiniere School is not one of these.

It pained me that Sengupta has accused us of being in a business without either checking our accounts or the ethos of our school. It seems to have become very fashionable for the press to indulge in ‘institution-bashing’ or character-assassination without first verifying the facts.

Yours faithfully,
H. Peacock, Principal, La Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta

Sir — Although the Montessori method of schooling may not be the last word in primary education, there are points to be acknowledged in its favour. The Montessori-school environment is far more intimate than that of its equivalent in a high school. The strength of a class in a Montessori school makes it possible for the teacher to devote more time to each student. Given the tender age at which children are put into primary school, it is the individual attention and guidance of skilled teachers that they require most. Besides, it is easier to keep a tab on one’s ward’s progress or to voice grievances in a small Montessori school than in a reputed school where parents think twice before questioning authority for fear of putting their children in the teachers’ bad books.

Yours faithfully,
Rinku Mitra, Calcutta

Parting shot

Sir — In India, filmstars prefer to join politics once their popularity wanes. Naomi Campbell seems to be treading the same path (“Black models sidelined at Vogue: Naomi”, Aug 22). Now that Campbell’s career as a supermodel is on the decline, she wants to set up a modelling agency in Kenya to scout for African faces and is campaigning for the inclusion of more black models in the Western fashion industry. Of course, her mission is irrelevant in India, where, barring a few insomniacs like the I&B minister, P.R. Das Munshi, not many are aware of, or interested in, the foreign fashion industry.

Yours faithfully,
Tapan Pal, Calcutta