A School for Elephants

Class 5 · English · Chapter 13

Chapter banner (picture coming soon): a Thai village stall, an old female elephant, two teenage boys and a young elephant eating bananas.

Image Prompt: Friendly cartoon for children aged 10, wide banner, Asian village clearing with a small wooden stall, a calm old female elephant, two teenage boys offering bananas and sugarcane to a young elephant, dark navy sky with stars, gold and teal colours, no text on the picture.

1. Describe how a young elephant is brought to a training stall in Thailand.
2. Explain how a mahout uses voice commands and touch signals.
3. Compare the harsh old way of training with the kind modern way.
4. Use prepositions, conjunctions and correlative conjunctions correctly.
5. Write clear answers on why we must treat animals with kindness.

1. In what ways are elephants like human beings? Talk about it with a friend or parent.
2. Have you seen an elephant at a zoo, a temple or in a park? What was it doing?
3. Do you learn faster when someone is kind to you or when someone scolds you?

• Stall – a small shed for one animal
• Mahout (say muh-HOUT) – a person who rides and trains an elephant
• Cajoling – coaxing someone gently with kind words and treats
• Spurred on – urged to go ahead
• Captivity – living under human care, not in the wild

An elephant learns quickly when it is handled with gentleness, patience and many treats. Elephants born among humans are already familiar with people, so they can be trained by persuasion and rewards.

A baby elephant takes almost 15 to 18 years to grow up. Elephants can live up to 70 to 80 years. That is why a mahout and his elephant can stay together for life!

Play “mahout and elephant” with a friend. The “elephant” closes his or her ears to words. The “mahout” uses only gentle touch signals, such as a tap on the shoulder, to say go slow or stop. Walk slowly and stay safe.

• Do not think an elephant learns only from words. Mostly it learns touch signals.
• Say muh-HOUT, not “ma-hoot”.
• A mahout is a rider and trainer. He is not the elephant’s owner or its teacher in a classroom.

• Herd – a large group of animals that live together
• Tusk – a long pointed tooth that sticks out of an elephant’s mouth
• Captured – caught and taken away from the wild
• Civilisation – a very old, well-organised way of life, such as the Indus Valley
• Illegal – against the law

Asian elephants are gentler than African elephants. That is why most elephants working with humans are Asian elephants.

Elephants were tamed about 4000 years ago, long before cars, trains or tractors were invented.

Open a map of Asia. Find India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Where would a wild herd live?

• Do not write that elephants have many enemies. They have few natural enemies, except humans.
• Write gentler, not “more gentler”.
• The law is the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, not 1927 or 2072.

• Humane (say hyoo-MAIN) – kind and caring
• Ill-treatment – cruel or unkind treatment
• Punishment – pain or a hard penalty for doing wrong
• Encouragement – praise or support that makes someone want to try
• Docile (say DOH-sile) – quiet, gentle and easy to teach

Kindness, patience and praise teach better than force. Humane training avoids punishment.

Some zoo elephants are trained to lift a foot on request, so that the doctor can look at it safely.

Think about this with your family: tigers and elephants can harm people and crops, yet we must protect them. How can both people and animals stay safe?

• Do not mix up human and humane. Humane means kind.
• Do not write that the harsh method is still used everywhere. It is being replaced.
• Humane methods take more time, but they are kinder.

• Preposition – a word that shows place, time or direction
• Conjunction – a word that joins words or sentences
• Correlative conjunction – a pair of words that work together, like both/and
• Parallel – equal in form, like two nouns or two adjectives

Each pair has fixed partners: both goes with and, either with or, neither with nor.

Tiny words change the meaning. “On the elephant” and “under the elephant” are very different places to be!

Write three sentences about an animal near your home. Use one preposition of place, one of time and one of direction.

• ✗ Both the mahout or the boy came. ✓ Both the mahout and the boy came.
• ✗ Asian elephants are more gentler. ✓ Asian elephants are gentler.
• Do not use neither with or. Say neither/nor.

Card 1: Working elephant at a tourist spot

Tourists sit on a wooden seat tied to the elephant’s back.

Key idea: many gentle working elephants were once wild.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of a calm elephant with a wooden seat at a park, smiling tourists, Asian setting, no text.

Card 2: The little one-room stall

A small stall in a Thai village holds one young elephant at a time.

Key idea: stalls are used to train captured young elephants.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of a small wooden one-room stall in a village clearing with a young elephant near the door, no text.

Card 3: Teenage boys bring the youngster

A crowd of teenage boys leads a five-year-old elephant to the stall.

Key idea: the older female elephant, urged by her mahout, pushes him in.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of two teenage boys and an old female elephant guiding a young elephant toward a stall, no text.

Card 4: Bananas and sugarcane

The scared young elephant struggles, but the boys offer bananas and sweet sugarcane.

Key idea: treats help him calm down and accept the stall.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of a young elephant eating bananas and sugarcane from a boy’s hands, gentle mood, no text.

Card 5: Touch signals

The rider leans forward or backward or touches the elephant’s ear.

Key idea: mostly the elephant learns touch signals, not words.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of a boy sitting on an elephant’s head gently touching its ear, arrows showing lean forward and back, no text.

Card 6: A wild herd

Old female elephants, mothers, babies and young elephants walk together in the forest.

Key idea: wild Asian elephants live in herds.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of a forest herd with old females, mothers and babies walking together, Asian forest, no text.

Card 7: Elephants at work

Long ago elephants hauled timber and joined temple ceremonies.

Key idea: humans have used elephants for about 4000 years.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of a decorated elephant at a temple festival and another pulling a log in a forest, Indian setting, no text.

Card 8: A kind check-up at the zoo

The elephant lifts its foot so the doctor can look for wounds.

Key idea: humane training uses food, a plaything and praise.

Image Prompt: Cartoon of a zoo doctor checking a lifted elephant foot while a zookeeper holds a banana, friendly mood, no text.

Mind map picture (coming soon).

Image Prompt: Colourful mind map for children with an elephant in the centre and six branches: Elephant school, Commands and signals, Wild herds, Work through history, Harsh training, Kind training. Navy background, gold and teal lines, clear spelling.

Thai village · one-room stall · five-year-old elephant · older female elephant · teenage boys · bananas and sugarcane

Sit down · Stand up · Stop · lean forward or backward · touch the ear · mostly touch signals

Forests of Asia · old females, mothers, babies, young · few enemies except humans · tusks are valuable

4000 years · Indus Valley · timber · circuses · temples · wars · tourist rides

Tied tightly · cannot move even the head · break the spirit · ill-treatment

Raise feet for doctors · stand still for baths · food, plaything, praise · Wildlife Protection Act 1972

Ganesh is eleven and lives in a village in Kerala. His uncle is a mahout. Every morning his uncle gives Lakshmi, the elephant, a bath and some sweet sugarcane. He never shouts. When he wants Lakshmi to kneel, he touches her ear in a special way, and she kneels at once. “Elephants listen to kindness,” his uncle says. “She has been with me for many years.” Ganesh wants to be a mahout too. His uncle smiles and says, “First learn to be patient.”

At a city zoo near Mumbai, a young doctor named Dr. Meera visits Champa, the elephant, every week. Champa raises her foot when the zookeeper says a soft word. Dr. Meera looks under the foot for wounds. Then Champa stands still while the keepers give her a bath. There is no stick and no shouting. After each check-up, Champa gets a banana, a ball to play with and a kind word. Dr. Meera says, “Champa trusts us, so she cooperates.”

In a village in Assam, a herd of wild elephants walked into the rice fields at night. They were looking for food. In the morning the farmers were angry because their crops were eaten. Some people wanted to hurt the elephants. A forest officer said, “Please do not fight them.” He helped the villagers put up fences with beehives around the fields. Elephants do not like bees. Slowly, the elephants stopped coming to the fields, and the crops stayed safe for the whole season. The farmers thanked the officer.

Aarav studies in Class 5 in Pune. His teacher gave the class a project on wild animals. Aarav learned that in India the capture of wild elephants was made illegal by the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. He drew a poster with a big elephant and wrote, “Be kind. Do not capture wild elephants.” He put it up in the school corridor. Many children stopped to read it. One girl said, “Now I know why the law matters.” Aarav felt proud that his poster taught others.

Riya went with her family to a tourist park. She saw an elephant carrying a wooden seat for visitors. “Was this elephant always tame?” she asked the guide. The guide said many working elephants were once wild and were captured and trained. Riya remembered her English lesson. She asked, “Was he trained gently?” The guide did not know. Riya told her parents, “I want to visit places that use kind methods.” Her father said, “Good idea. Let us find out first.”