The School of Life Pratyush Das08:12 1 comments

(From the book THE RISING SUN - a collection of stories  by Purnendu Ghosh)

Friends, I have been a teacher of your school since its inception. For the past fifteen years I am also the Principal of your school. Today is my last day at the school.

I have so many fond memories associated with this school. It is not the time to recount them. But now I will have enough time. Whenever you have time, you can call me. I will come and share with you some of my fond remembrances. The school I studied had special section for the good students. This ‘special section’ supposedly had ‘better’ teachers. The idea perhaps was that only good students deserve the guidance of good teachers. Maybe mine was a case of sour grapes as I was not a part of this elite section. Friends, I must tell you today that I am happy that the school of which I became a teacher has no elite section reserved specially for the gifted students. The school I have been associated with works on the premise that all students are good students.

My experience tells me that a teacher who knows his subject very well but doesn’t know his students can’t be a good teacher. Good teachers are compassionate and caring. I very strongly feel that a teacher’s performance evaluation by his students helps a teacher greatly. Getting rid of incompetent students is easy. It is time to recognize the need of getting rid of incompetent teachers.

If I am ever asked, what is the most flattering description of a teacher—a hero or a role model—I would say a hero. A role model impacts our life for a shorter period. Once his role is over, he disappears from the scene. Heroes have much longer half-life. They remain with us for a very long time. We say a hero of the century. Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, two of our greatest teachers, are our heroes.

I remember a young colleague of mine. He was a very good student. Since he was an exceptionally good student, he did not understand why some students take so much time to understand even simple things. He always tried to move faster in the class. Some students could not keep pace with his speed. The students wanted the young teacher to reduce his speed. The senior teachers advised him to move a bit slow. He agreed, though reluctantly. Effective teachers ensure that students are really learning and understanding what they are teaching. My experience tells me that students can’t learn unless the teachers succeed in capturing their attention. Effective and successful teachers know that all learners are different. They thus address their needs by differential instruction.

Coming back to my young colleague, he gradually learnt to move with the class. He understood that some students need time to understand even simple things. He learnt to be patient. I will now tell you about my other colleague. He was an average student, but he was one of the most popular teachers of the school. Naturally, all students were very fond of him. This raises the question—can a mediocre ever excel? Can a mediocre overcome the sense of mediocrity?

I believe it is possible to overcome the sense of mediocrity. As you all know that climbing is difficult for those who are at the base line. For those who are at the top maintaining their position is quite a challenge. Those who are at the middle of the ladder are the most vulnerable and confused. They have equal opportunity of moving up as well as chance of sliding down. These are the people who are likely to face the most formidable challenge. I suppose it is the opportunity well utilized that is important to take an ordinary to an extraordinary level. One suddenly doesn't get transformed into a talented one. Talent doesn't change overnight, but opportunity does. The seizure of opportunity transforms one from the ordinary to extraordinary.

Friends, a mediocre tale may not appeal, but I believe the tale of a mediocre can be inspiring. Mediocrity may not excel, but a mediocre can. Another question comes to my mind—should one follow someone else’s footsteps or chart his own course? I believe, it is our approach that is the decider. We know that drawing is different from tracing. When we draw, we encounter discontinuities. These discontinuities disappear when we trace. But many of us like to live with a few discontinuities. These discontinuities form our driving force to move forward on our own terms.

My profession has taught me another lesson. It is that everything is not for sale. Many things are available for free, but that doesn't mean we should have them. If someone pays your bill, it doesn't mean you should overspend. I have learnt that education is something that should be understood by these yardsticks and valued accordingly.

We all know that the possibility of being caught and the magnitude of punishment are the two things that deter us from going the wrong way. There is another perspective. This perspective tells us that our internal reward mechanisms are very powerful. Often they guide us to take the right path. They help us to overcome dishonesty.

Friends, we act selfishly if the act maximizes our own payoffs. But it is also true that we are sensitive to the costs that our dishonest ways impose on others. Our dishonesty has a rider. We behave dishonestly enough to profit, but honestly enough to delude ourselves of our own integrity. We are careful that our positive self-view doesn't get spoil.

I shall always remember what my mother once told me. She said I am not a bad student. She said this when I informed her that I failed in my exam. When I told her that I failed, she was more upset than I was, but did not explicitly show her disappointment. She said I failed because I did not study. She said she knows that I can do much better but only if I want to. I wondered what Ma has seen in me that I have not seen in myself. I asked Ma how she knows me more than I know myself. She kept quiet. She did not say anything.

I appeared for the same exam next year. This time I believed in what Ma believed about me. I became more confident about my abilities. I did pretty well in the exam this time. The course of my life changed. The convictions of Ma created in me a will to excel. She knew that her conviction was not enough. No one can be rescued or guided by someone else’s beliefs. She knew nothing would be possible if I was not convinced about my abilities. Ma knew convictions, and confidence can’t be forced upon but come through self-realization. Conviction is not enough. One needs a matching intellect to do well. A mismatch between will and intellect results in discontent. A mother’s conviction can create the will. The intellect is not an extension of someone’s beliefs. It comes imprinted on the grey slate we are born with. Intellect is inborn and can be chiseled and polished. Here too Ma played a role. Perhaps failure awakened my dormant intellect.Ma saw imminent danger in my failure. She would not have succeeded had she enforced her ‘will’ upon me. She opted to use restraint. She had faith in ordinary people. She knew ordinary people are better learners.

It gives me great satisfaction that I am a teacher. I have known that teacher’s commitments to his student and student’s obligations to his teacher extend well beyond the classroom and formal schooling. I will always remember you my young friends as you are the ones who so patiently prepared and shaped me for what I am today.

The teacher-student relationship, like all other relationships, is a tricky matter. It depends on how well responsibilities are defined and understood and ultimately met by both the sides. I am grateful to you my young friends that you have understood this responsibility so well, and that has helped me to understand my responsibilities better. The good thing is that it was not automatic. We both have earned it.

Once a university professor was asked—What will change everything? The professor said he wants the end of conventional centralized, age-stratified schools. He wants to see some schools opened where each child follows his personal learning track at his individual level and rate. He wants all the children to do playtime and gym-type activities together. I know opening such a school needs another level of determination and resources, but, my dear friends, I wish to start such a school—The school of life.

In this school of life, knowledge will not be a burden. In this school no problem will be trivial. In this school learning will not be dictation. In this school incoherence will be heard. In this school the mutants will co-exist with the clones. In this school there will be hope that dreams can become reality. In this school mirrors will turn into windows. I shall end my talk with a hopeful note. With your permission I would like to tell you one of my favourite stories that I have already told some of my colleagues.

You might have noticed a framed photograph of a most beautiful person in my office. If you have seen the picture, you can’t miss the calm confidence on the person’s face. She is my mother. Ma got married when she was eighteen years old and had just completed her Intermediate exam. The year I failed Ma decided that she should continue her studies. She wanted to be a graduate. After the marriage, there was a big gap, but that did not deter her. My mother did not want to teach me wisdom because she believed wisdom can’t be taught. She knew wisdom is not knowledge. Wisdom requires experiential demonstration, and that is exactly what my mother did.

She completed her graduation as a private student. Once I asked Ma why did she decide to continue her studies after such a long gap. She said she wanted to get photographed wearing the graduation robe. The photograph you have seen in my room is that photograph. After so many years I know why my mother continued her studies. Why did she go for graduation? She wanted to give me company as a student, as a friend. She wanted to give me courage and conviction that if she can do it at this age, why can’t her son who is so much better than her can do it at such a young age. Friends, I am proud of my mother. I am proud that my mother is proud of her son. My family celebrated my success. I am still celebrating my mother’s success as a mother as a teacher in the school of life.

When I failed in the exam, my mother must have been disturbed seeing me a bitter and angry man. She must also have seen in me the potential, the potential to do well in life. She did not parrot me. But she gave me the courage to say that ‘I can root out my insecurities and self-doubts’. She gave me the confidence, that ‘I can do it’. Friends, the gown tells me that I was so fortunate that I got the tutelage of a rule-breaker mother and the best teacher.I thank you for your patience and wish you all the very best.

Author: Purnendu Ghosh
              (Director, Birla Auditorium Jaipur
              Former Professor, IIT Delhi )

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Education transforming Lives Pratyush Das03:09 0 comments

Education lights every stage of the journey to a better life, especially for the poor and the most vulnerable. Education’s unique power to act as a catalyst for wider development goals can only be fully realized, however, if it is equitable. That means making special efforts to ensure that all children and young people - regardless of their family income, where they live, their gender, their ethnicity, whether they are disabled - can benefit equally from its transformative power. Education empowers girls and young women, in particular, by increasing their chances of getting jobs, staying healthy and participating fully in society - and it boosts their children’s chances of leading healthy lives. To unlock the wider benefits of education, all children need the chance to complete not only primary school but also lower secondary school. And access to schooling is not enough on its own: education needs to be of good quality so that children actually learn. Given education’s transformative power, it needs to be a central part of any post-2015 global development framework.

It is a well-known fact that a skilled person is always better off than unskilled person in all arenas of life. Educating a person does not mean to make him read or write and mug up everything he does not want to do; it means to provide all possible knowledge to a person in area of his or her interest and not according to the norms of society. This would be pretty helpful for everyone- for the nation as well as for the person. The GDP per capita of the country will increase as well as the salary of the person.

In India, people are increasingly trying to get their children educated. The results are reduced infant mortality rate, increase in the GDP as well as wholesome increment in the standard of living of the people. This can further be increased if the education is not only restricted to Maths and Science but expanded to give a person some vocational skills so that he can choose between all things that he wants to do and has an interest in.

This is evident that education is so powerful that it can transform the life of an ordinary person. For example the two brothers in a small town in U.P. used the power of education to transform the fortune of their family as well as themselves by cracking the prestigious JEE Advanced exam. It is the perfect example for all to get motivated to give their children quality education as well as for the students to receive and accept the power of education and not let it waste.

Author: Sarisht Wadhwa

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Stable childhood is the most unique gift of the parents Pratyush Das08:22 0 comments

One of the purposes of education is to produce ‘employable’ graduates. To fulfill this objective of education, our colleges are offering a variety of courses. They look interesting, on the paper, but when one goes near them, one finds a big disconnect between what was promised and what is available. There are two recourses for the students: complete the course for the sake of a degree, or drop out and look for something that is more fulfilling. The second option is not easy to follow. One may drift endlessly in search of fulfillment. In most cases, we don’t know what our life’s purpose is. That is where the role of schools comes. Our schools are supposed to help us in identifying our talents, often hidden.

The other purpose of education is to give us, as Rabindranath Tagore said, “freedom from ignorance about the laws of the universe, and freedom from passion and prejudice in our communication with the human world”. The integral part of Tagore’s model of education was to build an intimate relationship with one’s culture, nature and teachers. Steve Jobs, another drop-out, was not sure how a college can help him to find out what he is looking for. “I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure that out," Jobs recounted. Jobs was curious to know more about things that he found interesting. Although, Jobs dropped out of regular courses, he decided to take on something (calligraphy) he found interesting and fascinating.

William Damon, author of The Path to Purpose, says that persistent curiosity is essential for entrepreneurial achievement. If our schools can fulfill this much needed gap, it has achieved one of its greatest purposes. To fill the gap, there is a need to introduce and integrate subjects such as art, music, or emerging media technology in our curriculum. The problem is that our curriculum is so ‘structured’ and ‘filled’ that there is no scope for introducing anything. The irony is that the very subjects that are being marginalized, says Damon, are the ones that are foundation for promising opportunities in today's economy.

Making someone ‘employable’ is not the sole purpose of education and schools. Writes Alison Gopnik, author of The Philosophical Baby,  that there is nothing in human life as important and urgent as to raise the next generation. Most parents want their child to shape in a particular way, so that they become smarter and successful than others. But they generally forget that, as Gopnik says, there is no magic formula that makes the child smarter or happier or more successful as an adult than another.

We, the humans, are a privileged lot. We spend much longer childhood than any other primate. Our extended childhood has helped us in our evolutionary emergence, and has given us an opportunity to be more adaptable to our unpredictable environments. Our long protected childhood allows distinctive human cognitive achievements, says Gopnik. “I worry more and more about what will happen to the generations of children who don't have the uniquely human gift of a long, protected, stable childhood,” writes Gopnik.

The role of parents in shaping the future of their child can’t be overlooked. They are the most natural teachers. They are the safest caregivers. Care plays a significant role in one’s life. The most important thing the caregivers provide to the child is the assurance that they are safe in their custody. The feeling of safety gives the child courage to venture into the outside world. They learn to act in unpredictable and variable environments. They learn to create new environments.

Author: Purnendu Ghosh

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A Healthy body for a Healthy mind Pratyush Das00:03 0 comments

In this fast paced competitive world, one finds himself always short of time and mugging up things. This way a student is able to get good grades. But are good grades enough to succeed in life? I feel that they play an important role but they are not enough. We miss something that we need in our life and that is learning. Learning in today’s world is rare. If we try and analyse the reasons behind it we find stress, lack of confidence, negativities, distractive activities and much more. If we need to search for a simple yet effective solution to all of these problems we get just one answer- Yoga! This indeed is true. Yoga is and has been one of the most sought after methods to improve the learning. 

Many people think that yoga is just a way of achieving physical fitness and wastes a lot of time which we can use to study. Well, studies have shown that an average person who gives one hour daily to yoga needed to study for half the time a person who does not perform yoga to achieve better results. Yoga is a mis-conceptualised term as one feels it is attaining the pose, but in fact yoga is much broader term whose small part is performing asanas. Yoga consists of eight components that target the complete development- physical, mental as well as emotional. We are all aware that yoga helps in physical fitness. But how does it affect mental and the emotional fitness of a person?

Yama is the component of yoga that deals with one’s ethical standards and sense of integrity. This helps in overcoming the distractions and the negativities in life. Niyama, the second component, has to do with self-discipline. Self-discipline is very important to succeed in life. Overall Yoga makes us calm and confident. It helps in increasing the brains capacity to think. A confident person is likely to do much better in life than an under-confident person.

Coming back to the enhanced thinking part, we know that yoga helps us remove negativities from our memory and thus enhancing our memory. Like in a computer if you have 100's of useless files and apps they consume memory and our computer works slowly. Similarly our brain works much slower than normal if it has all junk memories and negative feelings in it. Yoga helps to clear this junk.

It is a well-known fact that achievements enhance the spirit of a person to do better. But some people are unable to get the sense of achievement even after making huge progress. This is because they have lost their ability to think positively. Yoga helps in finding inner peace and thus helps us sense achievements however small they may be.

Yoga helps keep a body in its physical best. We all know that for a healthy mind, a healthy body is a must. And thus yoga contributes in mental fitness by physical fitness. Yoga helps us over our horrors of the past and makes us emotionally strong.

Thus Yoga is a perfect practice for anyone who wishes to learn in today’s modern life. It makes time for itself and doubles the efficiency of our work so that we are able to change the present mugging up concept, which the students have adopted. Learning will make them successful and will contribute towards the betterment of individual as well as the community. Thus, on this International Yoga Day, make a pledge to spare one hour daily for yoga. You will relish the step taken by you forever.


Author: Sarisht Wadhwa

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What makes classroom learning effective? Pratyush Das06:52 0 comments

We’d all like to think our classrooms as “intellectually active” places - progressive learning environments consistent with the 21st century model that are highly effective and conducive to student-centered learning. The present picture of our classrooms sure is far from this fantasy. But what does it really mean and more importantly, how can we make it attainable? If we give it a little thought, we’d all come up with a variety of different ideas. Inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, peer-to-peer learning, e-Learning, and on and on—the possibilities are endless. But there is hard evidence on one unique  aspect which most definitely improves the efficiency of transmission of knowledge from teacher to student - classroom talk. Talk is ephemeral - here one instant, gone the next, but it is at the heart of education. The amount and quality of talk that children experience in the early years is a good predictor of how well they will do. Yet teachers’ effective use of talk isn't a high profile topic - and schools aren't doing enough to develop children’s skills in using it. We know that most classroom talks look like it always has done: teachers asking ‘closed’ questions to try to prompt specific ‘right answers’ from children. This way, accurate response might be generated from the students’ side from the examination point of view but it goes in vain in improving learning. What is needed is for the teacher to explore students’ ideas through using ‘open’ questions and pressing the students to elaborate and justify their views by asking the 'hows' and 'whys'. To make the discussion both-sided, questions from students’ side should be equally valued and encouraged. The discussion should not be restricted to the textbook content. In fact, in a highly-effective learning environment, learning doesn't need to be radically repackaged to make sense in the “real world”, but starts and ends there. The creative minds of students should be allowed to wander. 

Knowledge becomes meaningful only when a learner can apply it. Hence the tendency to "teach for the test" is most definitely futile.  Instead, innovative ideas should be used to put forward the concept in a more easy-to-grab fashion like experimental illustrations, striking analogies, model-based teaching, etc. Collaborative group work can be a powerful aid to learning in all subjects, and for the development of reasoning and communication skills and other soft skills which improve their overall personalities. Hence, activity-based teaching should be adopted every now and then to help students see where their study of a topic is coming from and where it is going. Students should be encouraged to exhibit better not just in the test but also in co-curricular areas, social, personal and ethical qualities, ethical values. Grading should not be on the basis of how close the answer is to the textbook theory, or the number of answer sheets filled in the test, but on how clear the student is about the concept and how actively he/she participates in class activities and discussions.

School students nurtured by srJna 

This is indeed the whole idea behind SrJna - making classroom learning more effective. It aims at shifting from mugging up to learning with innovation and concept clarity. SrJna provides physical models and methodologies for experimental illustration which are innovative, feasible and portable as well as subject and curriculum oriented to promote a practical approach towards school education which in itself is a giant leap from the ongoing obsolete textbook oriented teaching. It may not be the ultimate terminus in improving the classroom teaching but it sure does mark a good start!

Author: Akanksha Puwar

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Learning over Education Pratyush Das01:12 0 comments

“Education is something that is done to you. Learning is something that you do for yourself.”

The everlasting cut-throat competition prevalent in our society has forced parents to worry about their child’s education the moment he takes his first breath. And in this rat race to get their ward admitted to the best school, they push their child into rot-learning even before he steps his feet in school, so much so that they do not care to give him an opportunity to learn. As he grows up, his intelligence is judged by his maths score, his accuracy in the biology diagrams, his grammar in the english passages, his spellings in hindi, and his knowledge by the marks he could fetch in sciences. If he keeps scoring well enough, the gates to higher education keep opening, and one day he finally walks out of the college - "educated" or maybe just as a literate. But we need to pause here for a question - what did he learn in the whole process, and is it worthwhile?

To combat this issue, the Indian government proposed a very well thought scheme - Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation. The CCE was aimed to provide the students with various opportunities for overall development. It was meant to take care of psychological aspects, involve diagnostic teaching and learning, create fear free environment and promote learning. It did change the marking system to grading but that’s nearly all it could achieve. But what about the underlying idea to make the child learn in varied fields, the decentralization of attitude and mentality towards the education system? It aimed to witness the unfolding of each child’s mind minute by minute. Alas, little has been achieved in that direction. The problem is still the same - the rat race, and the solution - realization. The need of the hour is not to accept the system as a burden but to make it contextually and locally relevant to the needs of the children - to realize that it’s not the grade on the child’s report card which makes the child able enough, but what he has actually learnt. And why just academically? A child must get an opportunity to score through their talents in other areas such as arts, sports, music, dramatics, etc. The basic purpose is to enable children acquire knowledge, and develop understanding skills, positive attitudes and values which are conducive for all round development of personality. Learning makes the child exhibit better not just in the test but also in co-curricular areas, social personal qualities, secular values and attitudes, and emotional stability. A child must not be subjected to failure if he cannot recall the facts stated by the teacher, but instead be taken to slow but progressive growth. And for this, the child must be encouraged to learn what he is taught, not memorize it. The aim of teaching must not be to make the child learn 2+2=4, but to make him understand that if he had 2 chocolates and is given 2 more, he’d be having 4 chocolates. Completing syllabus in the class is meaningless until a child acquires some basic competencies in that subject and realizes what significance the topics hold in his life.

It is learning which makes him able enough to sustain himself in the world, and not just education. Unless and until the child begins to learn, and not just be educated, he would be little more than a speaking parrot. But who are we to blame for this system of rot learning? the parents that pressurize their children or the teachers that are pressurized by the schools for better results?

On practical grounds, school or the school teachers are not the only ones to be blamed. What is the basic aim of educating our children today? it is not making them a sensible and intellectual person, which ideally, it should be. It is getting him into a good college, hence find a good job and earn relentlessly. Who imbibed this shift? Nevertheless, whoever did, the point is, and it exists. Recently, comedian Vir Das posted a video, to boost the confidence of students who had appeared in board exams. In the video he talks about how a sheet of paper (board mark sheet) is irrelevant and cannot decide the future of a person.  Ideally, it shouldn't, but the poignant reality of our nation is, that this “sheet of paper” decides the future of a student. My question is, is it fair?

The change does not have to be only in schools, but also in colleges and hiring companies, who have the passing criteria of just mere marks. How do marks mark the qualities of a person anyway? The change we all aspire, as to be instilled in roots of our education system, not just schools. One school alone, also, cannot change anything.

Education is not being able to write Julius Caesar’s speech, or solve algebraic equations. Education knows what to speak when, realizing that everyone is different and judging needs a background, distinguish between self respect and ego, recognize need and want, identify the fact that our purpose of being is not to be rich, but to be humans filled with compassion, and most importantly, strive towards a peaceful and meaningful living.

Authors: Akanksha Puwar and Malvika Kala

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