Learning with the Mother

TABLE OF MERITS & DEMERITS

For deciding upon the awards, along with the attendance we were also encouraged to award daily marks out of 10 for discipline, for which a table of merits and demerits was made with Pranab Da’s help.

I then typed out the list and several copies were sent to the Mother for distributing to the captains of all the Groups. I have two sheets of Merits and Demerits with the Mother’s added handwritten instructions at the end of two of my copies. I do not know what She wrote on the copies of the other captains.

At the end of one sheet She wrote,

A facsimile with the mother’s message from the Table of Demerits

“Each child will be provided with a copy of ‘What a child should always remember’.”

“Any successful attempt to act according to the ideal therein expressed will be reported to me and I shall grant the deserved points. These will be additional to the daily 10 points.”

At the end of the other sheet She wrote,

A facsimile of Table of Demerits with the Mother’s message in French

“Organisation and discipline are the necessary foundation for all realisation. To know how to command well, you must first know how to obey well.”

A copy of the booklet, What a Child should always remember, was distributed to young and old in the Playground by the Mother.

In retrospect, some of these rules may seem amusing today for their language or their content. The point to remember is that we put these together when we were barely fourteen or fifteen years old and Mother always encouraged us in our efforts.