Thus spoke an ex President
And the press reported it faithfully!
It has been said before!
Glory to the teacher,
who shapes against all odds
a 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 must
Lofty words hide truths
and shameful facts, always
And this is no exception
Have you hear it said,
The most important things in life cannot be taught?
And that life teaches in strange places?
Why then the teacher,
why the good sounding words
of importance and value?
Is it because, like a kept vassal of a king
needs to be acknowledged,
his loyalty sealed again?
Is it because he handles the sorrow
of values loftily spoken
But betrayed in daily acts!
Not by a few, but many, may be most
Live by deeds
That they don’t wish for their young!
And then they send their children
to teachers to learn values
to lead a good life.
The teacher decides each day
if he will engage with the tower of corruption
and lull the minds of the young!
Or, will he stand away and point
to a way of life, unsupported by parents
who send their children?
If truth be the basis,
and there is little else,
One can bank on
Our history, our experience
and the sorrow we carry
of man’s follies on earth
Then the teacher’s dilemma stands stark,
and he stands alone
exposed and unarmed!
Does he speak to the children, the youth
a truth they do not see in their lives
and invite the wrath of society?
Does he speak the truth, a nourishing truth
of the sordidness of human greed and ambition
and invite retribution?
Does he speak and run the risk
of losing his job and becoming
an outcaste whom no one will touch?
Does he echo the values of the marketplace
the idiom of success
assured shelter, food and clothing
… There will be token respect accorded
as to toothless elders
Harmless and impotent
And eulogies will be sung
in lofty words, bestowing
a kept legitimacy, a part of the corruption!
If truly the words mean something
will the village grow the child
by example?
Do the parents love their offspring enough
to forsake gold and land and fame
for right, dignified conduct?
Does society uphold
egality for all,
including those with little resource?
Do people speak truth
and act the way
they want their children to?
If not, the words mean little!
An invitation to humiliation
and a warning!
You have to support this edifice!
Stray away and see what happens!
Beware, O teacher!
So stand away I must
from the lofty eulogization of the teacher
and speak a different truth
The real teacher will not teach,
as there is little to be taught
but individuals may learn…
If truth be told
lofty words hide much corruption, uncertainty,
bestowal conceals hollow intentions.
G.Gautama
9 Aug 2010
Jun 10, 2010
Failing children in school
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 responsibility for the circumstances is morally wrong! Failing a child without guarantee of passing is even worse.
There is one more point, possibly the biggest of all. Nothing has been of greater sorrow to human beings than being ostracised, being excommunicated, being thrown out the tribe. Even if we can guarantee a pass in the next year, what mechanisms, structures do we have for taking care of the child's sense of self esteem? If we cant deliver confidence, the least we can do is not to cause injury?
Our society creates the same age fixed membership classroom - a sense of belonging is developed. And for some silly reason a child is banished into a shameful existence. Failed, punished and cast down, is it surprising that we breathe injustice with every failure of this kind.
With RTE schooling is elevated to the status of a right and an experience. A further long awaited move by CBSE to erase the pass fail line. Education is a life long experience and cannot be easily assessed by short term digital evaluation. If I cannot ensure that child can read and write 3 cogent sentences and do simple arithmetic through years of schooling, it is not the child who needs to experience banishment! It is the system that needs reexamination for its basis, emphasis and its outmoded processes.
Today we have arrived into the Rights era and the challenge for schools is immense While most schools languish in the dark age metaphors of discipline and obedience and uniforms, the ground has shifted. Schools are required now to do justice to all children, each child! Schools cant get by with a 'by and large'.
The judgement of the court is a welcome move restoring a child to his rightful class.
But surely there have been solutions that allow children to learn at heir own pace - only these cannot coexist with a 'class' and prizes and ranks and celebrations
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 responsibility for the circumstances is morally wrong! Failing a child without guarantee of passing is even worse.
There is one more point, possibly the biggest of all. Nothing has been of greater sorrow to human beings than being ostracised, being excommunicated, being thrown out the tribe. Even if we can guarantee a pass in the next year, what mechanisms, structures do we have for taking care of the child's sense of self esteem? If we cant deliver confidence, the least we can do is not to cause injury?
Our society creates the same age fixed membership classroom - a sense of belonging is developed. And for some silly reason a child is banished into a shameful existence. Failed, punished and cast down, is it surprising that we breathe injustice with every failure of this kind.
With RTE schooling is elevated to the status of a right and an experience. A further long awaited move by CBSE to erase the pass fail line. Education is a life long experience and cannot be easily assessed by short term digital evaluation. If I cannot ensure that child can read and write 3 cogent sentences and do simple arithmetic through years of schooling, it is not the child who needs to experience banishment! It is the system that needs reexamination for its basis, emphasis and its outmoded processes.
Today we have arrived into the Rights era and the challenge for schools is immense While most schools languish in the dark age metaphors of discipline and obedience and uniforms, the ground has shifted. Schools are required now to do justice to all children, each child! Schools cant get by with a 'by and large'.
The judgement of the court is a welcome move restoring a child to his rightful class.
But surely there have been solutions that allow children to learn at heir own pace - only these cannot coexist with a 'class' and prizes and ranks and celebrations
May 22, 2010
Feb 16, 2010
Feb 15, 2010
Feb 5, 2010
AT THE HEART OF A FACT
AT THE HEART OF A FACT
What 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 is there. I then try to see without thought. What I see, what I experience is neither a description nor an image. There is something out there and that is a fact - I call it a tree. By calling it a tree I lose that something. In touch with that something I am wordless. To discover fact one has to cast away from the moorings of words and images, so affectionately engraved in our minds.
April 18, 1989
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