FOREWORD
Professor N. Subbu Reddiar has done much more than merely put out one more book on the pedagogy of Tamil. Most of the books on the teaching of Tamil appear to present techniques and procedures ill-suited to the teaching of the mother-tongue, based on ideas appropriate to the teaching of foreign languages. Professor Reddiar has furnished almost the first book on Tamil teaching based on principies most appropriate to it. I know that he has developed many of these principles from his careful studies of Tamil grammar and prosody. It is a pity that most previous writers have ignored the basic material contained in the Tolkappiam, which, incidentally, is a mine of information on the pedagogy of Tamil. Professor Reddiar has broken new ground by resisting the temptation to which most earlier writers have succumbed, and resuscitated those educational principles and procedures outlined in Classical Tamil Literature that are still valid according to the criteria of what goes by the name of Progressive Education. The Principles handled in the book are illustrated by apt examples from Tamil literature. As Professor Reddiar has given me a carte blanche in respect of the length of the Foreword, I am permitting myself to attempt an analysis of the original contribution he has made to the teaching of Tamil, chiefly by way of helping teachers of other Indian languages to perceive the possibility of new dynamic approaches to the teaching of their own languages.
