THIS is in response to the letter by Yahya Khan (March 21). The series referred to is the New Oxford Modern English by Nicholas Horsburgh.

‘The old man and the goat’ is the first lesson in Book 2. This story is on the same lines as a famous Persian fable about an old man, his son, and their donkey; the two men meet with so much criticism that they end up carrying the donkey instead of leading it to the town.

Similarly, the idea in the story in Book 2 is the same that simple and honest people are often harassed by others; the moral is: be smart and do not give in to others’ opinions, but to think and act sensibly.

Besides, there is also an element of higher order thinking as the last exercise asks students to write about what the man tells his wife when he goes home.

The Sting in Book 3 is in the same vein as the story in Book 2 — that one should not be gullible but sensible; it also teaches us not to take things at face value.

In the story of the three tortoises, it is more about the baby tortoise than its parents — it is a simple story that illustrates the problem spending too much time on small issues. It is certainly not meant to create family issues!

All three passages that have been highlighted are meant to explain and explore different human emotions. The text can be taken further into role-playing and dialogue delivery to encourage class participation and later on to forward thinking.

Apart from that, they are also meant to create awareness in children and help them differentiate between right and wrong. It is totally up to the teacher/reader to extract the positivity from a given text.

It is not necessary that everything one reads has to have a moral in it. We cannot deny the idea of reading for pleasure. Nevertheless, the passages will be reviewed by our team of experts, and amendments will be made, if need be.

Ameena Saiyid
Managing Director
Oxford University Press
Karachi