tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603207951047240442011-09-16T08:36:43.801-07:00A blade of grasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12334472628161294459noreply@blogger.comBlogger381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360320795104724044.post-91396419851614652732010-09-07T22:34:00.000-07:002010-09-07T22:43:17.932-07:00

This is the first decade of the 21 C - many things around the world are changing / have changed. Global power shift are happening. China and India have stood up. In India - upheavals, Kashmir, Maoists, SEZs, nuclear energy and also movement in education. Flexibility in approach, a thrust towards engagement rather than accomplishment, schooling as an experience rather than meant mainly for

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Thus spoke an ex PresidentAnd the press reported it faithfully!It has been said before!Glory to the teacher,who shapes against all oddsa person, a personality, a leader!But, May I differ? I a teacher of 20 years!May I speak, and break the conspiracy of tame silence?When showered with such words,It is churlish to protest,But protest I mustLofty words hide truthsand shameful facts, alwaysAnd this

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If a child is unable to pass despite having been in school for years, who has to take the responsibility? School and teachers, unless the child is very badly off. Assuming that child is bad academically, failing the child is acceptable, with some provisos, if the teachers can guarantee, not just a pass, but high improvement. Can the teachers guarantee this? Failing a child without taking

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http://mediavigil.blogspot.com/2010/05/civil-societys-response-to-chidambaram.html

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http://multiageinfo.dnswh.com/thesis.htm

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Take Back Your Education By John Taylor Gatto Posted using ShareThis

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AT THE HEART OF A FACTWhat  is fact and what is not fact? What  is real and what is  the  gossamer mirage  of  an imagination?When  I look out of the window  and see  a  tree there springs a question. I see the leaves and branches with the vocabulary of fragments. I name the tree in words. Neither  the idiom of fragments nor the words really get me to be in touch  with the fact - the fact of what

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These are timeless questions. And I heard them again the other day. Not from a young student, directly. But from one old enough to be his great grandmother. Patti: "What should he do? What line of engineering should he choose? He is a good boy and has finished school. He will surely get good marks. But he is confused, Which line should he choose? Shall I send him to you? WIll you please speak to

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or Can good education happen only in large schools with small classrooms? Preamble Much of educational practice seems to suggest that good education, of a high quality, happens in classrooms where there is the possibility of good relatedness between students and teacher. Relatedness is directly connected to listening to each other, which creates an atmosphere conducive to learning. Classroom

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If a 14 year old has enough money to buy a car can he buy the car? Legally he can buy the car, is he allowed to drive it? He can sit in the car, he can pretend he is driving he can sit by the side of somebody who is driving. But he can't drive the car. Under law he is not eligible to drive the car because he's not an adult and mature enough to make his decisions. The common road, laid by the

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and THE SENTINELS AT GATES, PROTECTORS, DECIDERS OF ACCESS.. India is seeing a rapid transformation of its cities, towns, roads, buildings and the morphology of things. One key element of this transformation is access. In simple terms the rules of access have been always direct and raw. Power, strength, money can one get more money, speed and more power. In short privileges continue to gather

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The Empire strikes back! This is an often heard statement. It signifies that when small chieftains rebel and disobey the dictates of the empire, the larger ruling body, sooner or later, strikes back. This is an act of revenge, of punishment and of re-establishing who has the power. What significance is the statement to our present times? We live in an era of change, continuous change. We have

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Tolerance is considered a virtue. But is there such a thing as tolerating too much? One needs to distinguish between tolerance of human beings and their traits and tolerance of concerted collective action. Mannerisms of human beings must be tolerated, these are individual. Policies of the government, actions of individuals in the public domain must be questioned and searched for hidden motives.

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Class X exams - Schooling in India - an experience or a certificate "Specificity destorys Harmony" said a Chinese Sage.  This piece considers the much talked of attempt to do away with "pass - fail" in CBSE schools. Probably nowhere is this truer than in our assessments of each other. Fallible as we are, our assessments of each other are incomplete, poor and inadequate. We are prone to see what

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A blade of grasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12334472628161294459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360320795104724044.post-47656062429021483382009-08-21T07:30:00.000-07:002009-08-21T07:39:21.684-07:00

decisions have a short shelf life...only till the next review.prizes have a small life...overshadowed by the next winner,there is always oneprocess has long shelf life...sustained by sense of fairness,distilled wisdom and egality...

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Is leadership to lead?Does it mean leading another person or a group of people? Does leadership involve follower-ship? One person leads as he / she has the best ideas. The rest are less than...And since there are few original ideas, are we all followers?Leadership used to mean leading people, movements, organizations... does it still mean the same?

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A friend wrote..."When the senior managers I was working with hit Delhi airport many of them said, " Bloody civilization" ! A sad commentry on what we have made of our society."We were given infinity and eternitywe reduced it to centimetres and secondsMost of us scrambled to get our piece of actionbefore we passed onSome of us fretted about what we leave behindfor our children and grandchildrenA

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All we have to do, is live from moment to moment...from moment to moment..moment to moment to moment...and ...try to find out, if at all if at all, it makes any difference what we do...the guttural rumbles... from the civilizational chestlike food refusing to digest in the belly of a hearty eater,seems to say,it matters what you do, it matters what you do,and a sleepy squeak, utters in perfect

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Easy to blameEasy to feel blamedEasy to find faultTo find things wantingTough to celebrateTo enjoy the small thingsWhen we do we waitWe wait for the moment to passTo be anxious is natural and the base stateCelebrations must only be short!Can't be long and continuing,That is reserved for pain!How can it be possible?But how?For one to celebrate the touch of the sun?Or the morsel we chew and eat

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These are timeless questions. And I heard them again the other day. Not from a young student, directly. But from one old enough to be his great grandmother.Patti (Grandmother): "What should he do? What line of engineering should he choose? He is a good boy and has finished school. He will surely get good marks. But he is confused, Which line should he choose? Shall I send him to you? WIll you

A blade of grasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12334472628161294459noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360320795104724044.post-68795273407894374122009-05-19T06:27:00.000-07:002009-05-19T06:49:37.537-07:00

Suppose for a moment that your Principal, teachers and parents were to say:My child, what marks you get are not the least bit important. In a short time when you are grown up, no one will be looking at the marks you are worrying so much about. To us you are important and not what marks you get. You may think this strange, but let me tell you why we think this...http://www.hindu.com/quest/200503/

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We just need to put more of these in our common spaces.. and speak them out as well.as Krishnamurti said 'as we speak we will learn'.In fact that has been my learning and growing and tumbling.. and stumbling..the metaphor of stumbling is interesting..we stumble upon things.. they have appeal and they challenge uswe don't know what to do!we cant just repeat...But neither can it be as if we haven't

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शहरों शहरों गलियों जिस का चरचा हैThat which is discussed in all towns, all streetsवोह अफसाना तेरा भी है मेरा भीThat is the story, yours and mineमैखाने की बात न कर वा _इज मुझ सेDont talk to me of taverns..आना जाना तेरा भी है मेरा भीWe all go there, you too, and I too...Mirza GhalibThere is a wine,rich and full flavouredof a deep colour and full bodiedinviting, drawing one

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There is always a strange tussle in human life, completely beneath the surface, or if you please between the head and the heart. In any situation the head speaks the language of reason, we assume. And the heart, the more irrational language of the impressionistic non verbal. And people aware of this or otherwise, choose one. A bit like backing a horse at a race!Is this situation unavoidable?

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There are times other than the ones we inhabit together meeting, speaking to each other. In another kind of time people can meet each other across centuries. Our lives are statements and these statements can encounter others, before and after. Jesus and George Bush were bound to meet and this conversation had to happen. While this chat could have been had any time during the Bush presidency, July

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rain fallsin drops and in sheetsover land and sea andverdant forestrain falls and flowsin rivulets, streams and riversto the seain colours of the land khaki, red and greyplants grow, grasses growto ripen and witherto bear fruit and flowersto grow to huge sizewhen the winds blow the dust risesfine and not so fineto settle too in nooks and on surfacesinvisible at first, soon scattered for all to

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Three days ago i read a piece. Prime Minister spoke one of my favourite lines ... an idea whose time has come. (In school we ask often, is it a good idea or an idea whose time has come?) But he spoke about SEZs, the special economic zones being created all over the country to help large projects by pass the democratic machinery, the process of careful consideration. Also to help the process a new

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yesterday had a history lesson.. a most unlikely lesson and a most unexpected, unplanned style...yesterday 11 jul at castle hill..My host Tamas Matinovich and another Tamas Dede, (you say this as Tamash..) were sitting in the cafe, from 1829 on castle hill and filling me and radhaji on some hungarian history. it seems the Bishop of Austria, in the end of 16th century said he would make the

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Today the paper did not arrive. The main paper did not... that did not stop the supplements. There was a 4 page pullout announcing, on Tamil new years day, a new housing project - water, promenades, manicured gardens, multi storied apartments and a new concept - offices and apartments nearby, all neat and tidy, school thrown in for children's education, malls for all needs. No need to do more

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the curse of ancient trees....‘We accept our fate, we surrender,in fact we have no options.You, the mighty rulers of the land,The commissars have rights that few others have.‘We have been around for many yearsas the dusty path became a roadand later an important avenue..flanked by dark woods where animals abound still‘Unfortunately, we have been outside learninginstitutionswhere young people are

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Trees speak....................outside new institutes of learning..... IIT and CLRI, ChennaiWe hear there is a new learningbeing imparted in these institutesthat the earth is warmingand the environment needs careand protectionWe have watchedas traffic has increasedover our lifetime on this roadas fly overs have raised their headsWe have seen the city yieldto the pressure of enginesand push the

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I am sure we all would like clean bathrooms. As I used the toilet at the airport, i felt happy. The toilet was clean and dry, and odourless. A faint perfume hung in the air. There were but 2 other people using the large toilet complex. And then water started to flow.... at all the urinals in a steady cleaning flushing movement. I waited with bated breath, alarmed and thinking. Thought can cause

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The march of folly is such a wonderful book! It brings to fore one of the persistent themes in my own thinking. As mankind, as a group of teachers, as people who inhabit this planet, we often have dreams, big dreams. Over the years it seems enough if we accomplish small things. One of them being - not repeating a few of the persistent mistakes of history.One - Not assuming we understand another

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schools, teachers and salariesIt is difficult to see how things will have long term impact. But this awareness cannot stop us from making decisions that look sensible. Most decisions can always be modified in time. Very few cannot be changed. Salaries are one such and this landscape has always been navigated cautiously by private schools. However the salaries in schools have not been free of the

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Death on the roads.... people and trees... Besant Avenue Chennai "Hush be still my heart. these great trees are prayers."Rabindranath tagoreThe juggernaut is on the roll again. Roads have to be built in thesummer and contracts have to be awarded. The roads that were good tilllast year are suddenly inadequate. The traffic is a beast and snarlingfor more space. The two wheelers need wheeling space

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We are hereall togetherwe are responsible for the way things arewe may not think sobut we are.all of us are not responsible for all the thingsfullybut all things, all things we like and dislikewe are part ofin tiny measure or not so tinymostly we can be only responsible for tiny measureswe one in 6 billioneven if we count ourselves as one in 100 millionthe well to dowe are still a small part,

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