my thoughts

The children who are able to take decisions for themselves are able to own the consequences of the same so well and in the other case when they are asked  to perform a task by others specially the elders, they feel depressed if they do not get the desired results. In the second case, the result was not necessarily desired by the kids but the adults and in the first case the children had thought of the result themselves.What does it mean ? The simple answer is that the children should be allowed to take their own decisions and not always be forced the desire and the will of the parents and the teachers. The self esteem of the child is very important but the psychologist are of the opinion that self- efficacy is equally important.They say that the self-efficacy is the belief that we can successfully impact our world.Unlike self -esteem which is concerned with the knowing of self worth. Self-efficacy is the judgements of personal capabilities.Though most of the times self-efficac...

Last few days had been quite stressful but at the same time productive and useful also.The days spent in front the TV and watching how the people of the country responded to the call of Sh. Annaji.As everybody else, I was also concerned about the health of this great man.We used to pray to the Almighty that nothing wrong should happen to him otherwise the country would lose somebody who has reminded us the way our freedom fighters and the people at that time would have fought and suffered for the cause of their country. Not only it would have been a loss but the country would have been in deep trouble because of the repercussions in such eventuality.We respect and appreciate the government and other political parties which ensured the faith of the people in democracy. Though the response was a  bit late but rightly said by somebody that it is better late than never or in hindi-" Der Aaye Durust Aaye". The people of the country specially the youth has made very clear to all th...

It has been such a relief to everyone in the country once Sh. Annaji informed the nation that he will call of his fast on Sunday(28th June 2011).The whole nation had seen the replay of what would have been done by our father of nation : Bapu Mahatma Gandhiji  for the freedom of our country.The most important aspect of this movement has been the voluntary participation of the citizens and that too without causing any disruption to the daily systems.This is first time in the history of post independence era that no disturbance or violence took place anywhere.This was the magic of the thoughts of Sh. Annaji and other members who had worked tirelessly to awaken the people of the country for the cause of all and not an individual or the group of individuals.Though as usual the people in the government tried to give this agitation different colours but the citizens of the country did not pay any heed to that and the reason for the same is nobody else but the government itself because the...

While going through the book written by Madeline Levine on the topic the price of privilege,I came across some disturbing but very true incidents which forced me to think about the article I wrote few days back on concerted parenting. Everybody expects that the material gains will make the people happier than what they were before.But the reality is not the same.This is true that fulfillment of the basic needs is very important and when these needs are met the people do feel happy. But once this is done the material gains do not make people more happy in the same proportion rather it has been found that the happiness become constant at one particular point of the material gain and if the person still tries to possess or achieve more, it will reverse the graph.When I say that the graph will be reversed that means that the material gains will have negative impact on the happiness quotient. Now the question which arises is how does this problem affect the children from the affluent fa...

The role of a teacher is not only to teach the children but motivate them to learn so that they become independent learners.We all have been students in a school and experienced certain things while being taught by different teachers.If you sit back and try to analyse your experience and behavior there will be some teachers who will come to your mind instantly and for some you will require to think a lot.A teacher who can make a positive impact on his/her students is remembered with a lot of respect and many actions of him/her have indirect or direct influence on the overall performance and achievements of the students in later life.The learning does not take place in the classroom only but  it seems to be one important place for the teacher and taught to be together and learn. Another observation is that there are some teachers for whom the students wait eagerly  in the class and the children do not realise when the class gets over and they like to co...

Some people of an organisation were entrusted the responsibility of finding and analyse the cause behind the airplane crashes which had taken place in China, Korea and in some other countries.The team of the many people including the psychologist studied the data received from the black box voice recorder and specially the conversation which took place between the crew members and the ATC at different airports because most of the incidents took place near the airports while landing or before that.The results of the study of different crashes were an eye opener and had the link with the kind of the culture and the association the people managing the flight (captain,pilot, first officer, flight engineer etc.) and the people responsible for the air traffic control.In case of the air crash of Korean airline plane near the New York airport gave some clue to the people. While analysing the case , they found that long hours of work was one of the main causes, but the most important w...

The last few days have seen a different India in which the people of the country expressed their concern in certain ways.With non-violent demonstrations and silent rallies, they protested against corruption that is plaguing the country and appear to be really worried about the future of the country. This is one movement which has stirred everybody and there seem a unity of purpose to fight corruption. Social activist Sh.Anna Hazareji became a crusader and people followed him without questioning him when they came to know about his purpose.For the last three days (and also during his previous hunger strike in the month of April 2011) it is pleasing to note that no incident of violence took place. No inconvenience to the public has been reported from anywhere in spite of thousands of the people demonstrating on the roads.This is the virtue of the people of this country and also a tradition that they would follow a  person whom they re...

The general perception as on today is that the children are exposed to a lot of hard work and they are not able to cope up with the same.There was a report in which it was mentioned that because of the knowledge explosion most of the children and young adults are filled with a lot of information all the time.The researchers have even warned that this may cause problems and the structure of the brain might also get changed and that we do not know will be beneficial or harmful.The reason of taking up this matter is that sometimes people misinterpret information with knowledge and learning which is not the case in reality.The information available and learning are different issues because information is something which is learnt from  external sources but the real learning takes place within and that is so well depicted in the statement by Swami Vivekananda in context of education that education is the manifestation of the potential within an individual. Learning can not take pla...

It was in the month of December 2010, when  one of my very dear students suggested me to write my thoughts as and when possible,I hesitated a little.In the beginning, I never thought that it would be possible to do so on regular basis but without the support of some people and as I often say, my expressions were given a direction and I discovered the pleasure of writing. God has always been by my side to extend His support in different ways. I would like to very humbly thank all those people who encouraged and helped me to improve upon the quality of the subject matter or the topic chosen.But all this would not have been possible without the constant support and timely help of one very important person in my life.If I try to look at my journey in life , it has not been so smooth as it appears to be but has been full of surprisingly difficult situations and episodes which occurred at regular intervals.As I mentioned earlier too that I was lucky to have been born in a famil...

The central board of secondary education introduced the concept of continuous and comprehensive evaluation two years back in classes IX and X and from the last year in classes VI to VIII as well.During the parent teacher meetings and also while talking to the parents many of them have a feeling that the children do not pay much attention towards their studies as they used to do before.This is a natural response to something which has been introduced recently and everybody will take some time before understanding the importance of the new system of evaluation.But there are certain issues that need to be tackled at the earliest otherwise the children who are passing through this transitional phase will have difficulty in future.The university system in the country is following the same old pattern of admission and evaluation. Everyone is aware of the hundred percent cut off syndrome of one of the most sought after colleges of the country.Now  who should be blamed ...

Times have changed and so has the mindset.This mindset gives rise to an indifferent behaviour.In the last few years a number of cases of bullying or dominance or any kind of violence have been reported so often by the parents, teachers and the children who suffer this menace.Has this number increased so fast or the reporting of these cases is making us believe that such incidents have increased as felt by most of us? We all know that it was almost the same in the past also but the number of cases reported were probably less.Earlier the parents would leave it to the discretion of teachers and the school to take care of such problems and would not at all support the child who might have been at fault. Bullying or any other kind of indiscipline was neither approved earlier nor is approved at present.The concern in the past and now too, is how to take care of such  children who are not very well behaved. Though the number in comparison to th...

It has been heard so many times that the youth of the country is not that much concerned as is expected but if everybody looks at the thinking and the desire of the youth, despite all odds around they do have a lot of respect for the nation and are really concerned for the welfare and the progress of the country.Few examples can be quoted which came to our notice very recently(and when thought and analysed seriously it was found that it was the same earlier also). The case is that whenever the children of even the age group of 13 to 16 years were given an opportunity to do something which would involve the people around them or help to solve the problem of pollution or save water or any other community service task, they come forward with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Very recently children were told about the concept of helping those who are in need, in terms of providing them the notebooks etc; by recycling the paper waste like the used newspapers,...

While reading about the the people who have been very successful in their life , I came across many factors which contributed in their doing better than others. Different people had different IQ level and also the area of interest.Some were into games and sports ,some entrepreneurs,some computer professionals,some lawyers and various other fields.If observed carefully, it would be found that they had something exceptional in them but this is also true that all people are born with some talent, then the question is what makes some people successful than the others? As mentioned earlier, there are many factors responsible for that and a few basic ones are; the opportunity,the appropriate age,the will to achieve,the circumstances at local and global level and the other one which is important is parenting. It has been observed that many successful personalities about whom people are curious to know seem to the ones from an ordinary family background. But if stu...

When I wrote about ten thousand hours concept ,many friends  shared it with me that this is the same as  practising for as many hours as mentioned for becoming better than others.This is true, but at the same time one more thing should be analysed and understood that practice is not  necessarily to compete with others or trying to be better than them but making oneself better than before. When we talk of outliers( the ones who have extraordinary things which others could not do) than again it should be clear that anyone who has done extraordinarily well did not really to do better than others but because he/she had a desire and will to achieve that for self satisfaction or happiness.There might be some exceptional cases which might prove otherwise and the one which I remember is that of the great Acharya Chanakya who made Chandragupta to work that hard so that the Guru could take the revenge of the insult he had been subjected to.The other case may be of Guru Dronacharya ...

I happened to read a short but a real story in one of the magazines and that was related to a child who faced a few family problems.When the girl was in class IV, the parents got separated, the mother left the home and during this period only the elder sister was admitted to some college hence this girl and the father were left at home alone. The father was working as a librarian in one of the schools.When the mother and the elder sister were not around,  this girl and the father used to have a lot of time.This girl felt a monotony seeping into her life. The father could realise the problem of the child and he decided to start reading books for her and also encourage her to read, but it was not an easy task to start with. The father being the librarian knew how to motivate the children to read books and help them overcome the initial inertia. He told the daughter that he would read for her first and if she liked it then she could do read independently. The ...

When one of the friends read the article on the topic age appropriate achievements, he asked a question, if it was the only way to success or there are other factors also which contributes to it. I had to think about the same and as believed and talked about, by many great people, this is true that age cannot be the only reason for success. It made me to realise that consistent hard work is another very important factor contributing in the success of a person.This can be proved by taking many examples including the case of the hockey players,football players or any other successful personality. If the hockey players had not practised for long number of hours everyday then whatever was the age or the talent of an individual player they would not have achieved what they achieved in the long run.Here the rule of practicing for ten thousand hours comes into play.People have found that the ones who spend around ten thousand hours honing their professional or vocational skills,...

While reading a book, I came across interesting studies and research done by some people and one of them was regarding the people who had migrated from Italy to United State of America. The process started with four- five people from Italy moving first and others followed them and they settled in different parts of USA.One particular group/locality was studied by one of the doctors for the reason that the natives of America and migrants from other countries were suffering from heart diseases and it was one of the major causes of their death. But in this particular locality, this was not the case whereas they used to eat the same kind of food and the genetics also could not be assessed as the factor for not having heart disease because the other group of the people who also came from the same locality of Italy did have the problems of a similar nature as anybody else in America had. The doctor then involved psychologists and other people to find the cause of...

It is a great relief to the children, parents and the schools to see that the strike by the bus operators has been called off and as it usually happens in such cases it did not continue for long .All concerned behaved and acted with maturity and the misconceptions which were in the mind of the bus operators are now clear and we hope that such situation will not be allowed to come in future.This should be a lesson to be learnt by everyone.Non availability of transport to the children for merely a day created a kind of mess and most of the parents and the schools found it difficult to manage it . One person asked me a very important question a day prior about, what alternate arrangement was made by the school and for a  moment I could not respond to the question because we never thought of any such arrangement. When I told him that no such arrangement could be made by the school, that person was not very happy with the answer. Since then I have been thinking what can be done by ...