Since the news broke this morning, I've been watching with growing consternation views floating for and against the new change proposed by Mr Kapil Sibal, Hon'ble Minister for the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
At the outset, it seems that Mr Sibal has his heart in the right place. That he finds it "unacceptable" to put children and parents through the stress of the Board Exams for Grade 10 makes him, in my view, one of the "good" guys. I say this based on instinct; most good cooks will tell you that instinct usually plays a much larger role in creating a tasty dish than a well-measured recipe. So, really, what Mr Sibal must now do is follow his instinct that something is really rotten in the state of education - and act upon that instinct to completely revamp it.
However, what needs to be voiced, and voiced VERY STRONGLY, is that the Grade 10 Board Exams (and the stress caused by them) represent only the TIP of an iceberg just waiting to sink our ship.
The Times Now newshour debate was fascinating, especially in the representation of students who held diametrically opposite views. The principals, teachers and others who marched through the debate (for once, no one tried to interrupt and drown out the others' voices - a refreshing change) ALL seemed to be missing the main point.
Education, as a system, is only one little cog in the general wheel of the country. It plays an important part (as the ministry's name reflects) where "human resource development" comes into play. What Mr Sibal Must Ask is: What do we want to achieve through the system of education?
Those who spoke against Mr Sibal's proposed move to scrap the Grade 10 Board Exams had basically two points: 1) It maintains national standards; 2) It helps in streaming students according to their talent/ability. One vociferous echo, of course, was "why shouldn't children go through a bit of stress"?
THAT, to my mind (after having worked in education for about 20 years now), is the defining statement of the current system. We deeply believe, as 21st century Indians, that stress is something children need to learn to cope with; therefore, the earlier they begin (someone cited that this starts as early as Grade 1) the better they will be able to cope with it.
To all the promoters and believers of this philosophy I would like to point out that the human brain takes a LONG time to develop. In fact, research shows that the human brain reaches complete maturity only by approximately the age of 25. One student of Grade 11 was more accurate than all the grown-ups when she said that students of age 17 are better able to cope with stress than students of age 15. This is because the human brain is not just about cognitive ability. Emotional maturity (including stress-management) comes in as we mature and age and often this process goes on throughout life.
Another speaker spoke about E.Q. and was questioned by another whether I.Q. and E.Q. could exist separately.
They are no doubt better equipped to comment on these. What we need to keep in mind is that E.Q. is a scarcely understood term; it is usually bandied about by more progressive educators in order to be allowed to throw some parts of an unjustified curricular load out of the window.
Let us return to the main point then: What do we want to achieve through the system of education?
Every society, country, community, defines its goals and objectives and then designs its education system.
We are, in spite of 62 years of freedom, and many commissions and omissions later, still struggling to define the philosophy and objectives of our society. We talk about "competition", "equal platforms", "standard evaluation processes", and my favourite "core subjects" - without really having the long-term goals in mind.
Mr Sibal must ask whether in our rapidly changing world "competition" is more relevant than "cooperation".
He must ask whether the little guy in Teekli Village can really be on an equal platform as his more privileged compatriot in the school on top of the hill.
Having asked this, he must further question the whole idea of standards in evaluation; he must question very strongly what is being evaluated at all.
And finally, he must really think about the race for marks in the "core subjects" - and ask profoundly why there is such a rat race for some subjects and no rush in others.
In short, he must question the very foundations of the system that is no less than a serial killer.
As an educator, I have watched this system fail no less than 16,000 times in the last three years (a Times Now statistic). Indeed, I am lucky that I did not know any of these children who were killed by the Board Exams. But I have not slept easy knowing that I too am part of the system that killed them.
Somewhere, this "elimination" stinks of "Social Darwinism" (as described by Dr Krishna Kumar): all those who can, cope; those who can't...
Addressing the tip of the iceberg, Mr Sibal, is a good beginning. A great beginning. It gives someone like me hope that the rot can and will be exposed. And once exposed, we will have no option but to clean it up. I know that there are many like me just waiting for the opportunity to help revolutionize the system.
It is my observation that there are two circumstances that facilitate learning: 1) if the learner is involved and having a LOT of fun; 2) if the learner's survival depends on it.
Being products, usually, of fun-less learning environments, as educators it requires a great deal of effort to facilitate fun-based learning. So, we tie our children down in various knots which they must unravel in order to survive - we tell them that the be-all and end-all of their curricular efforts lie in the year-end exam. Dry rot in the foundation: teachers' attitudes to the teaching-learning process. The lack of awareness of alternatives. The lack of training to help children to be life-long learners. Deeply embedded convictions that are by now out-dated. And the readily available carrot-and-stick of the Board Exams.
So, some survive, some do really well; others, quite literally, perish. And that's 16,000 deaths too many. Even a country as over-populated as ours must never allow the death of a child to go unquestioned. We are, as a species, supposed to "look after" our young. As a community we must not become desensitized to the extent of not feeling great outrage each time a child takes his/her life - this is an appeal to the pro-stress corps: I'm quite certain that no one who has actually lost a child or a student in this manner will ever take up the "a little stress will train them" cause.
If we are to help children prepare for the future, we must keep one very important fact in mind: by the time the current batch of primary school children become old enough to seek jobs, many careers will have ceased to exist, and as many new career options will have emerged. What they need to know is how to learn quickly, without stress, and explore new areas with open minds.
So, please don't stop here, Mr Sibal. By all means, scrap the Grade 10 Board Exams, centralize all the Grade 12 exams, and bring everyone onto a "level playing field". But that alone is not going to cure the rot. Changing marks to grades, percentages to percentiles, scrapping some and centralizing others may only replace the old flawed system with a new, flawed, one. We have a real chance to turn our country around by helping to bring up our children to be happy, healthy, kind-hearted individuals who learn because they want to, not in order to score marks or grades.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
A Thorn In My Shoe
When I sat down to click-clack this one into the laptop, I seriously had a serious story in mind. But as I approached the desk, it turned itself on its head (as often happens), and now I'm laughing at myself.
But I jump the gun. Let me tell you about the thorn in my shoe.
Several weeks ago, on one of our Saturday morning romps on the Aravalis around PWS, I picked up a thorn in my left shoe. Well, actually, it wasn't the only one... There were many even thicker, longer, stronger and pokier (? - I've run out of epithets) than this one. What set it apart, was... its tenacity, I guess you could call it that. My eye-brow plucking device took care of all the rest - we had quite a collection - but somehow, this one just WOULDN'T come out. (For the hyper-hygiene conscious, I have two eye-brow plucking devices, one dedicated to pulling thorns out of my shoes. I mention this insignificant fact since I know that the hyper... will have stopped to regurgitate dinner, etc. during the previous sentence.)
So, not being all that persevering a thorn-puller-out (in any case the kids were becoming impatient) I left that persistent and tenacious thorn in.
Most of the time, I wasn't even aware of it. However, the second I would step on a stone, or a bump on the track, it would poke. (Did you know that most of our nerve endings are centred on the soles of our feet? Well, I found out, and how!). The place where it poked was the tender spot between my big toe and the next one, let's say half-an-inch south of that. OUCH! It would not only send shooting pain up my leg, but frissons down my spine as well (remember, nerve endings) and be partially debilitating for about 10 to 15 seconds each time. And time, as the scientist said, is relative. It seemed like HOURS!
This happened over a period of several weeks. By the time I got home on each occasion, I was too tired to have another go at it. And the next time I went out, there were always two impatient kids to contend with. Since I have quite a shoe-wardrobe a la Imelda Marcos (does anyone remember her?) it didn't hamper daily life beyond the fitness-freaking episodes.
OK. Finally, after one really painful event in the gym, I decided that it was either me or the thorn. Equipped with the Device, I planted myself squarely on the edge of the bed, told the kids to keep an arm's distance for all hell would shortly break loose, and had another go at it. As they looked on suspiciously, I tugged, pulled, pushed (got pricked on my finger), groaned, grunted and was generally being the roaring-Leo-rattled-by-a-thorn. But, Tenacity! It perversely hung on to the rubber, refusing to budge more than a millimetre at a time in either direction, not enough to give me enough purchase to tug it out.
Brainwave. It you can't pull it out, push it out. Now equipped with another device - a handy tool the nailclippers, there's a curvy attachment that otherwise opens bottles of various types (and no, I don't have two of those) - I pushed the dratted object INTO my shoe, pulling it inwards till... phew, it was out of the rubber.
A closer look revealed that I had pulled out worse ones in the past few weeks. But, and here it comes (the serious story), while I was engaging in battle with this thorn, a plethora of thoughts passed through the top bracket. Or rather, questions.
How often do I allow situations like this to exist - i.e. (for the innocent or the uninitiated) allow metaphorical thorns which periodically poke and hurt like the dickens - not dealing with them, somehow not even hoping that they will go away on their own, but just not dealing with them...
Once it was out, I pranced out of the house, such utter relief in the soles of my feet (OK, won't go into the winged feet metaphor). Actually, you need to go through this to know how very painful it is - and I have a very high pain-threshold.
That evening, the walk proved to be meditative... a mental list was made of all that I wasn't dealing with... they popped up out of hidden recesses almost like thought-bubbles in comic strips.
The very next morning, I set out and dealt with two such situations.
Life was looking more thorn-free.
So, now, why am I laughing at myself?
Good question. Because, as the intelligent will point out, isn't this the case with so many of us?
What makes me laugh (and those who know me, know how loudly I laugh) at myself, is that these metaphorical thorns were illusions caused by various perceptions... They weren't really thorns at all. Just mental constructs that made them appear to be painful. Remove the foundation, and they were just.... air?
For weeks I've been grieving over a remark made by someone in utter ignorance...
For days I've been scribing about my work - as an outlet for the pain caused by the above remark...
For hours I've debated on whether or not to write an email about the remark to various authorities...
For eons I've wanted to shout out really loudly that what I do in class has intrinsic value and that I don't need to "showcase" it...
For pages of my blog I've been ranting about how process-drama works...
SO, the cardinal sin - taking myself too seriously - had been committed. But luckily, all sins are washed away when you laugh at yourself.
By the way, is there a type of meditation called laughing meditation? If not, someone should invent it. It really works!
But I jump the gun. Let me tell you about the thorn in my shoe.
Several weeks ago, on one of our Saturday morning romps on the Aravalis around PWS, I picked up a thorn in my left shoe. Well, actually, it wasn't the only one... There were many even thicker, longer, stronger and pokier (? - I've run out of epithets) than this one. What set it apart, was... its tenacity, I guess you could call it that. My eye-brow plucking device took care of all the rest - we had quite a collection - but somehow, this one just WOULDN'T come out. (For the hyper-hygiene conscious, I have two eye-brow plucking devices, one dedicated to pulling thorns out of my shoes. I mention this insignificant fact since I know that the hyper... will have stopped to regurgitate dinner, etc. during the previous sentence.)
So, not being all that persevering a thorn-puller-out (in any case the kids were becoming impatient) I left that persistent and tenacious thorn in.
Most of the time, I wasn't even aware of it. However, the second I would step on a stone, or a bump on the track, it would poke. (Did you know that most of our nerve endings are centred on the soles of our feet? Well, I found out, and how!). The place where it poked was the tender spot between my big toe and the next one, let's say half-an-inch south of that. OUCH! It would not only send shooting pain up my leg, but frissons down my spine as well (remember, nerve endings) and be partially debilitating for about 10 to 15 seconds each time. And time, as the scientist said, is relative. It seemed like HOURS!
This happened over a period of several weeks. By the time I got home on each occasion, I was too tired to have another go at it. And the next time I went out, there were always two impatient kids to contend with. Since I have quite a shoe-wardrobe a la Imelda Marcos (does anyone remember her?) it didn't hamper daily life beyond the fitness-freaking episodes.
OK. Finally, after one really painful event in the gym, I decided that it was either me or the thorn. Equipped with the Device, I planted myself squarely on the edge of the bed, told the kids to keep an arm's distance for all hell would shortly break loose, and had another go at it. As they looked on suspiciously, I tugged, pulled, pushed (got pricked on my finger), groaned, grunted and was generally being the roaring-Leo-rattled-by-a-thorn. But, Tenacity! It perversely hung on to the rubber, refusing to budge more than a millimetre at a time in either direction, not enough to give me enough purchase to tug it out.
Brainwave. It you can't pull it out, push it out. Now equipped with another device - a handy tool the nailclippers, there's a curvy attachment that otherwise opens bottles of various types (and no, I don't have two of those) - I pushed the dratted object INTO my shoe, pulling it inwards till... phew, it was out of the rubber.
A closer look revealed that I had pulled out worse ones in the past few weeks. But, and here it comes (the serious story), while I was engaging in battle with this thorn, a plethora of thoughts passed through the top bracket. Or rather, questions.
How often do I allow situations like this to exist - i.e. (for the innocent or the uninitiated) allow metaphorical thorns which periodically poke and hurt like the dickens - not dealing with them, somehow not even hoping that they will go away on their own, but just not dealing with them...
Once it was out, I pranced out of the house, such utter relief in the soles of my feet (OK, won't go into the winged feet metaphor). Actually, you need to go through this to know how very painful it is - and I have a very high pain-threshold.
That evening, the walk proved to be meditative... a mental list was made of all that I wasn't dealing with... they popped up out of hidden recesses almost like thought-bubbles in comic strips.
The very next morning, I set out and dealt with two such situations.
Life was looking more thorn-free.
So, now, why am I laughing at myself?
Good question. Because, as the intelligent will point out, isn't this the case with so many of us?
What makes me laugh (and those who know me, know how loudly I laugh) at myself, is that these metaphorical thorns were illusions caused by various perceptions... They weren't really thorns at all. Just mental constructs that made them appear to be painful. Remove the foundation, and they were just.... air?
For weeks I've been grieving over a remark made by someone in utter ignorance...
For days I've been scribing about my work - as an outlet for the pain caused by the above remark...
For hours I've debated on whether or not to write an email about the remark to various authorities...
For eons I've wanted to shout out really loudly that what I do in class has intrinsic value and that I don't need to "showcase" it...
For pages of my blog I've been ranting about how process-drama works...
SO, the cardinal sin - taking myself too seriously - had been committed. But luckily, all sins are washed away when you laugh at yourself.
By the way, is there a type of meditation called laughing meditation? If not, someone should invent it. It really works!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Learning Through Drama
Or, How Grade 8x made sense of history… and what they learnt about RACISM
Drama as a process? Process for what, you might ask…
In the second semester, Grade 8x devised a play called “All For A Master Race”. This was based on Hitler’s well-propagated theory of the Aryan Master Race which he used to “exterminate” Jews in Europe, turning thousands of reasonably well-balanced individuals into anti-Semitic fanatics.
Here is the storyboard of the play:
Scene 1
Bar: An Aryan-Jewish couple (Ancel and Margaret) and their Jewish friends are sitting around the radio listening to Hitler’s speech about the master race. Margaret is scared, Ancel is reassuring – he promises to get her out of this situation safely. Adelheida, who sits at the bar, looks very scared.
Scene 2
Adelheida’s house: Adelheida disguises herself as an Aryan by dyeing her hair and using contact lenses to change her identity – she’s helped by her friend Margaret.
Scene 3
Bar: while listening to the radio German soldiers, including Adelheida, kill the Aryan-Jewish couple; freeze moment when Adelheida speaks her mind (inner conflict) about killing them, but goes ahead in order to save her own life.
Scene 4
Jewish house: Jews plan to revolt against Hitler and form a resistance group. One of them, Aaron, is clearly unhappy with the whole idea and tries to persuade everyone to plan an escape instead of a confrontation.
Scene 5
German army office: all the soldiers report that they have come to know about the Jewish Resistance movement; Aaron, the unhappy Jew comes in and betrays the resistance and tells the German soldiers about where they are hiding; Adelheida is there and slips out while the soldiers surround Aaron.
Scene 6
Jewish house: members of the Resistance are taking their places for an ambush; Adelheida arrives and tells them they have been betrayed; at first they don’t believe her, but anyway she’s too late as the German soldiers come in and there’s a shoot-out; Adelheida switches sides and fights alongside the Jews, is shot, all the other Jews die except one little boy; all the soldiers go away except General Himmler, who finds the little boy, David, who asks him why he is killing everyone – and is suddenly faced by the question, “Why am I killing the Jews?” As he struggles with his conscience, the lights fade out, leaving the audience with the question – will he or won’t he?
After the final performance, the students took an exam in which they were asked to respond to two questions:
A. What, according to you, was the central message of your play, “All for a Master Race”? To what extent do you think you managed to convey the message and why?
B. Imagine that you were the scriptwriter for your play – how would you improve and strengthen the message of your play (you may increase/decrease scenes and lines in any part of the play)?
The responses to the first part of question A were really to gauge what each one had learnt from the experience of devising and performing the play. They were told that there were no “right” or “wrong” answers for any part of the question; that they needed to analyze their play and present their own points of view.
Here are the responses: (the character each student played is mentioned, in case anyone can spot a correlation between the part played and the “message” each one took away from the experience)
General Himmler: German soldiers killed Jews on Hitler’s orders without knowing or understanding why, for no reason.
Ancel (the Aryan husband): Loss and gain. Everyone loses something or the other, and therefore gains importance.
Margaret (the Jewish wife): No matter how many mistakes and wrong decisions you make, it’s never too late to say sorry and realize your mistake.
Jan (a German soldier): 1) Realisation in a German general, brought on by a Jewish child, that he was killing people who had never harmed him. 2) Disguising herself as an Aryan, Adelheida tried to become “white” but in her heart, her race and her blood remained the same.
David (a Jewish child): Many Jews struggled and even died just because of the “master race”.
Georges Faruk (a journalist): Just be who you really are…
Frederik (a German soldier): There should not be such laws of marriage that Jews cannot marry Aryans.
Rabia (a Jewish woman): …to show the audience a flashback of the past, a detailed history about Hitler… We made the audience think about what would happen to the little child, David, in the end.
Erica (a Jewish woman, leader of the resistance): It is better to stand up for what you believe in than to hide away forever.
Marcus (a Jewish man): 1) …to what extent can you go, just to survive… 2) Forgiveness can help you.
Aarick (a German soldier): Will it be the end of the Jews?
Aaron (a Jewish man, betrays the Jewish resistance): The general, who could not decide whether or not to kill the Jewish child…
Sylvester (a German soldier): … not to kill people; why should innocent people die…
Leona (a Jewish woman who had lost her husband): I wanted the audience to realize how lucky they are to have a life such as theirs – look at how people suffered at that time.
Yara (a German soldier): Betrayal will only lead to hell.
Adelheida (a Jewish woman): 1) The problem of fitting in, an international problem that exists today – in high school, how you want to fit in so badly that you will do anything, leading to drugs, alcohol, even death. 2) “Be yourself” – how we all strive to be something we are not but eventually your true colours shine through.
And now for my analyses:
In the context of racism spreading like wildfire (almost as rapidly as the H1N1 Virus), here is a group of students (13-year-olds) that has experienced, in carefully controlled circumstances, what racism, prejudice and discrimination can do to individual human beings.
They have researched and represented a chunk of history, and made sense of human motivations – delving into extremes like betrayal, courage and mindless killing. Again, this was done in carefully controlled circumstances.
In creating an original play, they have gone deep into their own consciousness to find the seeds of all that they portrayed – from heroism, friendship, and betrayal to internal conflict and turmoil. And, in doing so, they have met their own strengths and weaknesses and have more self-awareness now than when they began.
And finally, without a breath of hesitation, I can say with great confidence that these seventeen children have learnt the lessons offered by this part of history.
Drama as a process? Process for what, you might ask…
In the second semester, Grade 8x devised a play called “All For A Master Race”. This was based on Hitler’s well-propagated theory of the Aryan Master Race which he used to “exterminate” Jews in Europe, turning thousands of reasonably well-balanced individuals into anti-Semitic fanatics.
Here is the storyboard of the play:
Scene 1
Bar: An Aryan-Jewish couple (Ancel and Margaret) and their Jewish friends are sitting around the radio listening to Hitler’s speech about the master race. Margaret is scared, Ancel is reassuring – he promises to get her out of this situation safely. Adelheida, who sits at the bar, looks very scared.
Scene 2
Adelheida’s house: Adelheida disguises herself as an Aryan by dyeing her hair and using contact lenses to change her identity – she’s helped by her friend Margaret.
Scene 3
Bar: while listening to the radio German soldiers, including Adelheida, kill the Aryan-Jewish couple; freeze moment when Adelheida speaks her mind (inner conflict) about killing them, but goes ahead in order to save her own life.
Scene 4
Jewish house: Jews plan to revolt against Hitler and form a resistance group. One of them, Aaron, is clearly unhappy with the whole idea and tries to persuade everyone to plan an escape instead of a confrontation.
Scene 5
German army office: all the soldiers report that they have come to know about the Jewish Resistance movement; Aaron, the unhappy Jew comes in and betrays the resistance and tells the German soldiers about where they are hiding; Adelheida is there and slips out while the soldiers surround Aaron.
Scene 6
Jewish house: members of the Resistance are taking their places for an ambush; Adelheida arrives and tells them they have been betrayed; at first they don’t believe her, but anyway she’s too late as the German soldiers come in and there’s a shoot-out; Adelheida switches sides and fights alongside the Jews, is shot, all the other Jews die except one little boy; all the soldiers go away except General Himmler, who finds the little boy, David, who asks him why he is killing everyone – and is suddenly faced by the question, “Why am I killing the Jews?” As he struggles with his conscience, the lights fade out, leaving the audience with the question – will he or won’t he?
After the final performance, the students took an exam in which they were asked to respond to two questions:
A. What, according to you, was the central message of your play, “All for a Master Race”? To what extent do you think you managed to convey the message and why?
B. Imagine that you were the scriptwriter for your play – how would you improve and strengthen the message of your play (you may increase/decrease scenes and lines in any part of the play)?
The responses to the first part of question A were really to gauge what each one had learnt from the experience of devising and performing the play. They were told that there were no “right” or “wrong” answers for any part of the question; that they needed to analyze their play and present their own points of view.
Here are the responses: (the character each student played is mentioned, in case anyone can spot a correlation between the part played and the “message” each one took away from the experience)
General Himmler: German soldiers killed Jews on Hitler’s orders without knowing or understanding why, for no reason.
Ancel (the Aryan husband): Loss and gain. Everyone loses something or the other, and therefore gains importance.
Margaret (the Jewish wife): No matter how many mistakes and wrong decisions you make, it’s never too late to say sorry and realize your mistake.
Jan (a German soldier): 1) Realisation in a German general, brought on by a Jewish child, that he was killing people who had never harmed him. 2) Disguising herself as an Aryan, Adelheida tried to become “white” but in her heart, her race and her blood remained the same.
David (a Jewish child): Many Jews struggled and even died just because of the “master race”.
Georges Faruk (a journalist): Just be who you really are…
Frederik (a German soldier): There should not be such laws of marriage that Jews cannot marry Aryans.
Rabia (a Jewish woman): …to show the audience a flashback of the past, a detailed history about Hitler… We made the audience think about what would happen to the little child, David, in the end.
Erica (a Jewish woman, leader of the resistance): It is better to stand up for what you believe in than to hide away forever.
Marcus (a Jewish man): 1) …to what extent can you go, just to survive… 2) Forgiveness can help you.
Aarick (a German soldier): Will it be the end of the Jews?
Aaron (a Jewish man, betrays the Jewish resistance): The general, who could not decide whether or not to kill the Jewish child…
Sylvester (a German soldier): … not to kill people; why should innocent people die…
Leona (a Jewish woman who had lost her husband): I wanted the audience to realize how lucky they are to have a life such as theirs – look at how people suffered at that time.
Yara (a German soldier): Betrayal will only lead to hell.
Adelheida (a Jewish woman): 1) The problem of fitting in, an international problem that exists today – in high school, how you want to fit in so badly that you will do anything, leading to drugs, alcohol, even death. 2) “Be yourself” – how we all strive to be something we are not but eventually your true colours shine through.
And now for my analyses:
In the context of racism spreading like wildfire (almost as rapidly as the H1N1 Virus), here is a group of students (13-year-olds) that has experienced, in carefully controlled circumstances, what racism, prejudice and discrimination can do to individual human beings.
They have researched and represented a chunk of history, and made sense of human motivations – delving into extremes like betrayal, courage and mindless killing. Again, this was done in carefully controlled circumstances.
In creating an original play, they have gone deep into their own consciousness to find the seeds of all that they portrayed – from heroism, friendship, and betrayal to internal conflict and turmoil. And, in doing so, they have met their own strengths and weaknesses and have more self-awareness now than when they began.
And finally, without a breath of hesitation, I can say with great confidence that these seventeen children have learnt the lessons offered by this part of history.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)