MATH 'n' ME!

I woke up one morning and saw the morning rays,

They were so bright that on the bed I could no more lay...

I stood on my feet and said a silent prayer..

"Dear God", I said "let my day be full of fun..

...and please make all my friends come to school today!"

I reached school in an ironed uniform,

With a bag on my back and starry eyes..

I took my seat in the front...

Because Mohan, my friend, sits at the back and only cries.

The teacher came and gave a big, warm smile,

Dressed in a lovely red saree, 

And a book pile in hand. 

She wished us good morning and began a lesson in Math.

Year after year, I had the same mornings,

The same school and grew up along with the same friends,

 The teachers changed and so did their attire,

But Math, for me, remained the same.

I was still starry-eyed and the square boxes in my book left me terrified!

Today, I look back at those days of mine..

When I was so full of hope and had so much time,

I wished I had paid a little more attention and asked more questions, 

I wish I had been told how important it was,

To know algebra, trigonometry and all that jazz!

Lingo tricks!!!

(Source: http://www.indianmirror.com)

One session on language and I can see what a funny thing it is. Well, I thought I spoke English very well. Until I realized that I did not remember what a consonant was. I still have difficulty in remembering what an adverb is. But then, I can speak well..so who cares, right? Wrong! It just goes to show that not everything I was taught in school got registered in my mind. So during the session, not only did I try to get the hang of what was being said, but I was also making random memory trips back to my school.

The session on language also confirmed my belief that the English language is a rather useful one. The Roman script turned out to be quite useful in providing a common channel to more or less understand many languages. So basically, कुर्सी in Hindi was written as kursi, ಬಾಗಿಲು in Kannada was written as baagilu and so on. So whether we spoke Gujarati, Marathi or Malayalam, we all could read each other's languages. It is a different thing that we had to look around for their meanings.

I'm sure we all think that Indian languages are all as different from each other as the people who speak them. However, another insight I got from the session is that every Indian language is really structured in a similar fashion. We were given an exercise to see that for ourselves. Basic sentence structures like making a negative sentence or making a question are almost the same in all the languages. Question words like 'what' came either in the beginning or in the end of a phrase. For example, काय खात आहात  तुम्ही ? (Marathi) and What are you eating? both have the question word in the beginning. The same applies for a negative sentence. The negative word - 'not' - usually is just before or after the verb in a sentence. For example, ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗು ಬೇಡ (Kannada) and its English translation Do not go there both have the word 'not' immediately before or after the verb 'go'.

For a beginner's lesson to how language can be tricky, I have learned quite a lot. It is important to understand a language, and in order to do that, it is important to un-learn the things we have been taught. I am not sure if children aged 3-5 can naturally learn sounds on their own as was said at the session. But I do know that sounds help. We teach them the important of sounds in pronunciation. But let us also teach them their importance in spellings and plural words. Hence, going by the sound of it, that 'closiz' this post for me.

Teacher, Teacher...!

  

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you,

 who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth."  

~Dan Rather

While discussing the teaching-learning process, a very important and relevant topic for education, I couldn't help but reflect on what effect the process had on me when I was in college. The environment was very conducive for learning, there was a teacher and there were students. So what was missing? Because I remember sleeping...sleeping and some more sleeping. 

The missing piece here was the the whole 'involvement' factor. True that there was very good infrastructure but the teacher was not interested in teaching nor were the students interested in learning. So then, how can you have effective teaching-learning in the classroom? 

Can the teacher bring about a change by creating a rapport with her/his students? Is it important to know them, to understand them? Or is it enough just to teach? There are other ways being looked into to improve the teaching-learning process..like better learning materials, teacher trainings and a lively curriculum. These factors are very important. But can they succeed merely on their own? So what role does 'understanding' play?

I believe it is necessary to know one's students, to be able to relate to their situation, understand their sensitive minds and empathize with their lives and make it bright and colourful. I have never been to a rural school before, but I have a naive hope in me, that when I finally do visit one, I see the kind of teacher I envisioned..!

The endless debate.....

We all know that in our lives, regardless of what age group we belong to, there are several topics that have no conclusion, several questions that have no concrete answers, several issues that can be debated for - forever! One such topic was discussed today. This little post here will not do any justice to whatever was said during the discussion, but after a chat with a friend, this is just an attempt to share what I have understood..

Role of Genetics in the Learning process of a Child

Let us assume that a child is born into a family of doctors/scientist. There will be two ways to look at the child's development.

a) The child has INHERITED his/her parents' genes and hence shows great capability right from the start. He has a sharp memory and great learning abilities as he is growing up. He eventually ends up just as intellectually superior as his parents because of his GENETIC make-up.

b) The child is EXPOSED to an environment that is rich with knowledge, because his/her parents are highly educated. During his important growth years, he/she is introduced to various activities that could possibly lead to honing of his skills. As the child is growing up, he/she keeps learning from his/her EXPERIENCES that lead to, perhaps, a superior intelligence. 

Which of the above two reasons seem more convincing? There might be again two sets of opinions, each of them supporting either of the scenarios. However, there just might be a third set that considers both genetics as well as experiences to play a role in the learning process of that child. 

Let us now assume that the same child was born into a completely different family - uneducated parents in a remote village with no access to any facilities whatsoever. Again, we can have two ways to look at this situation.

a) The child is BORN DULL because his/her parents are uneducated. The genetic make-up of this child does not help his ability to learn, but instead makes him slow and less intelligent. 

b) The child is MADE DULL because the parents do not realize the need to nurture his/her potential. The child is not provided those social factors that could have possibly helped him learn better. He/she is surrounded by people of the same socio-economic background and thus does not learn much even through interacting with others. 

I have not gone deeper into the topic because I believe it is really a matter of which reason convinces you the best. It might just seem way too simple to explain a process that is being so closely studied by researchers for many years now. However, with this I think I have made a tiny effort at understanding this entire debate.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS CARTOON? (source:www.cartoonstock.com)

"Qualiquity"!!!

There are times when we take not more than five minutes to understand something that is told to us. And there are other times, when there are five people trying to explain a concept, but it just refuses to settle down in our minds. My first post on this blog is all about how I tried to understand the concept of quality and equity in education and how they are both important. They should essentially co-exist in an education system.

If we cannot have both at the same time, then what is more important - quality or equity? Can we have 'quality' education without being fair and just? Or can we afford to be fair and just, and compromise on quality? To these questions, the answer was one that we all knew. They both should go hand-in-hand. There were no two ways about it.
But what do we mean by quality in education? And equity?

My understanding of quality is very simple - something that has a specifically good standard, is long-lasting and which creates an impact. Bring it into education and we have a system that is reliable and efficient in all ways - from planning the process to executing it. Equity, as per my comprehension, is when there is fairness, justice and equality in all aspects. I believe that an indicator of quality education is the inclusive factor of it. If a school can operate while successfully bringing together children from diverse backgrounds, then I consider it to be imparting quality education. It is, however, according to me, just one of the parameters in forming an opinion about the system.

But how much of it do we witness in government schools? India is such a large and complex country that several years of work have to go into achieving acceptable results. Huge drop-out rates and insufficient infrastructure still are a characteristic of a government school. And they are NOT the features of quality education. Socially, caste and gender still play a deciding role in who goes to school and who doesn't. Economically, resources of the land go the rich and powerful, while the under-privileged remain so forever. No fairness. No justice. And definitely no equality. 

But there is hope. Because there are children who want to attend schools. There are parents who will go to any lengths to educate their children. And there are teachers who take their jobs seriously. There is a lot to look forward to.