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extracted text: rivers, the hills or the valley. Both sectors of the teaching profession thus find rest from their toil and the satisfaction of their desires through this interest ing and quite natural exchange. One of the principal aspirations of the Bolivian school teacher is to achieve mastery in the true skill of teaching, to “practice intuition” as the expression goes. He will wear himself out in the attempt and stop at no economic sacrifice to obtain the necessary books and materials. While fully appreciative of any balanced theoretical doctrine, he remains eminently practical. He is not fond of theorizing, pedagogic chatterors and is more interested in seeing and learn ing “how it’s done” than in hearing merely “what ought to be done”. He tends to be skeptical the kind of pedagogic literature in which teaching is made to appear as one uninterrupted succession of achieve ments, successes and triumphs, and sometimes won ders whether the school-teachers, children ànd young people overseas are not as human as those of his own country. He is no longer much impressed by the well meaning theories of missions or by any verbal form of cooperations. For forty-seven years he has seen and is still seeing the development of a technical work that speaks for itself, that is its own practical proof. The work of the National Teachers’ Training School as it is known today, and of the other teaching centers of the country. Primary and secondary teachers have made con siderable contribution to the cultural development of the country by publishing books for th« use of teach ers. Today the fervent wish of a Bolivian school teacher is to obtain practical aid in the attempt to revise and improve his techniques, and to broaden his essentially balanced and pragmatic culture. _ The teaching profession in Bolivia is grouped into two large unions: the Syndicate of Fundamental Ed ucation Teachers and the Syndicate of Urban Teach ers. Each has a central committee presided over by a government official, and both together form part of the National Confederation of School teachers, with the leadership of the Central Executive Committee which sits at the headquarters of each in turn. If the latter Committee fails to serve the interest and wish es of the profession adequately, it may be deprived of its authority. The district unions agree tp pass a vote of censure, and control of the Unions is taken over by a Provisional Committee. Every two years a School Teachers’ Congress dis-' cusses all Union matters concerning the profession as well as those connected with the organization of the schools and the economic structure of education. These Congresses have been highly influential in building up a unified teaching staff. They have eliminate all barriers between the different types of education, and have even done away with political differences. I hope this modest effort will go someway towards providing you with the information you wanted about the education system and activities of school teachers in my country. Three B’s of Assamese Culture By Naranjan Singh Uppal 'T'HREE “B” ’s dominate the cultural life of the peo ple of Assam, an Indian state sandwiched be tween East Pakistan and Burma. They are Bhaona (drama), Bhaoria (the lyrical poet) and Bahua (the jester). Bhaona may not come within the full definition of drama as it is understood in the West, but it con veys events and characters with great dramatic ef fect, and uses dance and music in the presentation. The Bhaoria is a lyrical poet who composes verses extempore. These verses are sung, mostly on relig ious and social occasions, either solo or in chorus with others. After a day’s hard work, the Assamese en joy an evening’s rollicking and dancing to the Bhaoria songs and, for a moment, they forget all the worries of life. The Bahua, in his jester’s garb, regales the audi ence with his pokes and comic acting his “turn” is generally interspaced between acrobatic feats by other performers. Early dramatic expression in Assamese took the form of naratives accompanied by singing and danc ing. Tales from the Puranas, the Hindu sacred book, were presented occasionally with the help of “mudres” or gestures. Later, the Ankiya-Natas,’one-act plays, came into being. The oldest form of Assamese drama is called Ojapali. It is performed in the open space with the peo ple forming a ring. The principal actor narrates mythological stories in verse. Occasionally he dances and holds dialogues in prose with another actor, and the whole company joins in singing and dancing. Once or twice during the play, a muste female char acter called Deodhani dances to please the Goddess Manasa. PAGE 56 THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR There is much vigour in these dances, which vary from place to place. The Mudras or stylised gestures are exquisite, the whole basis being the footwork, the timing and the rhyming of the verses. The theme is narrated with great emotion and pathos. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Assamese drama came into its own. The main guiding force was a saint and reformer, Shankerdev (1449-1568). lie cultivated the art of dance and music and propa gated his themes through the Ojapali: It was his disciple, Madhavdev (1489-1596), who introduced the Ankiya-Natas (one-act plays) to spread his master’s religious message. With their music, dance and metre, these plays were rich and original in their technique, though their main basis was the Sanskrit drama. The actual play is prefaced by chorus singing to the accompaniment of khols and cymbals. This is followed by a concert of khols called Guru Ghat. Then the Sutradhar, who serves as the main link between the "audience and the drama, comes on the stage to give an elaborate dance and sings a devotional song. Only after these preliminaries does the actual play begin with the appearance of actors on the stage. At the end of the play, come the Mukti Mangal and Bhattima, songs in praise of the Lord by the entire troupe of artists. These plays, inspired by religious fervour, were colourful and appealed to popular sentiment. The scenes were descriptive and replete with romance and chivalry. There were no women-actors, female roles being taken by men. In some of the plays, where demons like Baka Sur (Religious Mighty Power) and Kali Nag (Black Dragon) appeared, huge masks were used to represent them. This glory lasted for nearly 150 years, but the decline came when local kings withdrew their pat ronage. New life, however, was again instilled into the drama toward the end of the 18th century when Lambodar Bora translated the famous Sanskrit dra ma, Sakuntala, into Assamese. And the real renaissance of Assamese drama was brought about in the 19th century by Makhinath Bernarua. He wrote many plays such as Litikai and Chikarpati Nikarpati, introducing mirth and humour into the theatre. This period also marked the advent of« modern Asamese drama with the appearance of about a dozen prominent playwrights. Plays nowadays have varied themes. Some centre round patriotic scenes of India’s struggle for freedom and the country’s ef fort in the social and economic field. Others depict village life. Social dramas, written by Hemchandra Barua for instance, concentrate on the defects of society. But general pattern of their presentation continues to be modelled on the Ojapali and the oneact plays, the Ankiya-Natas. Many plays still depend on music and dance for their appeal. The main exponent of such plays is Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla, author of Sonit Kunwari and Larenger Ligiri, who has a natural aptitude for blending different kinds of tunes. Songs based on these tunes have created a world of romance and beauty. Even today there are no commercial theatres or professional actors in Assam. Dramatic activities are confined primarily to amateurs in towns and villages which have stages and halls. In other places, plays are stage under specially-erected canopies. And now adays women have also taken to acting, meeting with a good measure of success. The wave of drama seems to have caught the As samese people and it is assured of a promising fu ture. (UNESCO) ROYAL BLUE WASHABLE ¿vasft&s tight out The only ink containing Solv-X Soap and water wash out every trace of Parker’s Royal Blue Washable Quink from clothing and fingers For safety, use Washable Quink For permanence, use Permanent Quink. All Quink contains Solv-X..< which cleans and protects any pen. Factory Sales Representatives: Carbonnel & Company, Inc., 606 Trade & Commerce Bldg., Manila Tel. 0-97-75 FEBRUARY, 1958 PAGE 57
Date: 1958
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