my thoughts

The wave of tech magic has swept each and every individual and has also broken down all the communication barriers.Computers,mobiles,cameras and other intelligent gizmos have influenced human beings more than anything else.They are designed to be so immersive and interactive that this generation does not need anything else around them except these gizmos.Moreover, the impact of these gadgets is certainly stricking and ultimate for the youngsters. Some people think that technology is good for the children but look at the result of the same and it will be realized that it is not so. We have discussed about the reason of the same. Controlled and appropriate use of the technology might be good, but the way it has influenced the life of our children is not doing any good to them. I am given to understand that the social networking site like the facebook has a condition that the user should be minimum eighteen years old. If this is true then no child studying in the school should be able to...

A great educationist was asked to express his views on the new policy of promotion of the students according to which no child shall be declared fail. This is done keeping in mind the stigma which is created in the mind of the children when declared fail. The thinking behind the policy seems to be very genuine but one question being asked by many people is to be answered. In the last ten to fifteen years, CBSE has taken initiative to reduce the stress of the studies on the children. The pattern of the question papers and the evaluation system has been changed so that all the children could pass irrespective of their learning capabilities. But have these steps reduced the stress level of the children? Are the numbers of cases in which the children take extreme steps reduced or have risen in number? Has the quality of education improved or deteriorated?  Now a dangerous trend is coming into picture and that is, the children are prepared in such a manner that they...

We have been talking about the factors which affect the children during their childhood and subsequently when they grow as adults. While thinking about this, one issue came to in my mind. Are these the children only who are affected by the external environment or the adults too are sailing in the same boat? I could not get a proper answer of the same, but one thing which I found common in both the cases is that the material gains or the facilities do not give happiness to people. When I say happiness, the reference is to the real happiness. There are many cases in which the aged parents live with their children who might be doing very well in their profession or the business. These old parents had been through a difficult life during their childhood as well as adults while working hard for the better and secure future. Now when they are old and alone and if their children have moved to some place which is different than the one in which they had been living, they fi...

Since the time the joint family structure has lost its existence and in many cases both the parents are working there have been problems of different nature. The parents of the newly born children acquire information about the parenting from different sources like the magazines, books and the television etc. Many a times the information may not be correct and might have been in different context which proves counterproductive to the growth of the children. Many parents share it with the teachers that they spend a lot of time with their kids and try to do everything possible for them but still the children do not perform as per their expectations. When we talk of the performance what does it really mean? Most of the people particularly in our country equate it with the academic achievement. The same was the case with other countries as well and that is the reason many people did extensive research in this field and came out with wonderful results. Nowadays the children are bei...

Our school celebrates grandparents’ day in which the grandparents of a particular class are invited. This is an annual event and the day is dedicated to the grandparents and they are remembered for their contribution and the sacrifice towards their own children and grandchildren. The concept behind the celebrations is to give them opportunity to see their grandchildren performing well in front of their grandparents who do not otherwise get opportunity to come to the school.The children of the age group five to seven years are able to do all that which the parents and grandparents cannot expect from them. In addition to this the children learn so many things when they practice for the show. They become better on their vocabulary and do make some improvement in their language because there are so many words which they speak a number of times during the rehearsal. They also learn many things related to the history,environment,importance of books etc; depending upon the theme of the progr...

The topic of the day may seem to be surprising to some of you but this is an important question to be discussed. One learned person told me yesterday that he may not punish a child for a bigger mistakes but the small mistakes would not be allowed to get away without telling the child about the same. The reason for this was that it was easy to take care of small mistakes and if not checked on time will become bigger which are really difficult to be handled. Here the teachers play a significant role in moulding the future of the society for the good of the country.This made to think about a question which is often asked while a perspective teacher is interviewed for the appointment in a school. The question is, why do you want to be a teacher? I shall not discuss about the numerous answers which are given by the candidates but the most common of them is that he/she loves teaching the children. This may be true in many cases but that is not reflected in the day-to-day behavior of many of...

Yesterday I came across a difficult case which has made me to think about why some parents find themselves in difficulty while handling the unexpected behavior of their children. It may not be appropriate to discuss the case here but let us try to understand the possible ways of parenting and you can decide yourself which style might prove to be good for you and your child. There are some factors which cannot be controlled by the parents, like genetics and the impact of external factors including media and the society in which the child is growing, but one factor which I feel influences the children most can be controlled and modified if need be, and that is the parenting style. A research psychologist at the University of California, Dr. Baumrind has studied different parenting styles for about forty years. Many researchers used the findings of Dr. Baumrind and refined them further. Her focus had been to identify the parenting styles which can turnout autonomous children who...

There always are pillars to strengthen and support a building,likewise,when we discuss about the school going children,then the parents, teachers and society are automatically perceived as the building blocks or the pillars to support the children and make them stand upright and firmly grounded. The children are considered to be an integral part of the life of  parents and teachers. In this triangle of pious and important relationship children are given the maximum attention. The life of the parents and the teachers revolve around them.  Once the children reach the school they are to be paid maximum attention and that makes the role of the teachers very important. This has also been observed that the teachers and students are taught about the life skills and the role they have to play to exploit their potential to the optimum of their ability. For this purpose many activities are held and they are exposed to a variety of problems and the opportun...

While watching a TV serial based on Mohammed Gaznavi of Afganistan who invaded India a number of times to ransack the Somnath temple.This one episode made me to think about the stress somebody can create for self. When he was defeated for the first time and came to know that one girl child was responsible for his defeat, he decided not to let the wound that was inflicted on his neck get healed and made sure that it remains as it is so that he does not forget the pain of the defeat and keep trying to win. This made me to realize that in day to day life also many of us do not allow ourselves to come out of the problems which might have come our way either by chance or created by somebody knowingly or unknowingly. This happens so many times in our life. If we analyze it seriously then it will be found that most of the times  stress is self created and the person keeps on hurting self without realizing the repercussions of the same. I have been sharing it with the teac...

I read an article in one of the Hindi newspapers in which the writer talks about the problem of distrust and hatred among the people in Pakistan.The other information shared by her is regarding the percentage of the people speaking different languages.She mentions that the official language of the country is English and the national language is Urdu.Interestingly Sindhi language is spoken by about forty five percent people  and only ten percent of Pakistani speak Urdu and there are some more languages spoken by the people.In addition to this, there are many dialects which change at a distance of about eight kilometers.Her contention was to know, why should there be divide amidst people of the country based on language or the dialects in which they communicate?If we see the situation in our country the number of languages spoken or the dialects used by the people to communicate is more than what it is in Pakistan.Though we are two different countries but the roots are the ...

The moment the word teacher comes to your mind, the picture of someone like Guru Dronacharya, Prof.S Radhakrishnan,Guru Vashisth,Shri Bandhuji and many more like them come to the mind of many of us.The status of the teacher in our country has been bigger than any other person.Even Kabirji also mentioned that teacher is to be remembered before you remember God and the reason given by him for the same was that this is the teacher who gave the disciple knowledge about God.This has been the tradition and the culture in our country that the parents would believe the teacher first than their own child.The teachers also lived up to that reputation.I remember my own example.During my graduation, I had some problems in one of the topics in mathematics.I approached the teacher and he told me, if possible I should go to his house at five in the morning, which I did and my respected teacher was so kind that within a week the doubts were cleared.The most important thing was that it was all...

While going through the magazine of a reputed school which was sent by the principal,I was really impressed by the quality of the photographs which motivated me to scan through the whole magazine and read it carefully.It was good to see that it did not have many articles but the reports related to the activities held in the school during the year.The achievements of the students in different fields including academics were shared with all readers.All those involved in the publishing of this quality magazine deserve compliments.At the same time, I read another school magazine and the newsletter which also had detailed information regarding the achievements of the teachers and the students.Twelfth issue of our school magazine was also published recently and I read that also carefully. It is good to share the accomplishments of the children because it encourages them to perform better and the other people including their parents feel good.While I was happy with all what I read and did wri...

It is a well known fact that man is the social animal and he cannot live without communicating his feelings and expressions to the people around.Whether it be a child or an adult,there are gestures used by all to convey their piece of mind.An infant uses his mewling to get the attention of people around,a child expresses through language and emotions so as the adults.The awareness of life and understanding all its nuances is communicated through verbal interactions.Though there is always a purpose of communication but at times the informal communication may not have a specific purpose.Generally, verbal communication is aimed to elicit immediate and desired response whereas written communication aims to facilitate decisions and actions.Communication is such a genre that requires power to persuade and convince the person with whom you are talking.It takes place at home between father-son,mother-daughter,sister-brother,husband-wife and at the work place between employee-admi...

School is a place where everybody learns including the children and the teachers.This is the place which evolves every day and those who are keen to know more find themselves feeling hungry for more knowledge and every morning is new and different than the previous one.If it is not so then school does not attract the people to it becomes a kind of compulsion for many to go through the rituals of the day to day life.The school should be a happening and dynamic place where children and the teachers do something different and more enduring every day.For this there are certain important steps to be followed by the management and the administrators.The curriculum of the studies should be interesting and challenging for all concerned.The activities planned should involve cognitive,affective and psycho motor skills depending upon the age group of the children.The facilities available should be appropriate .These should be age appropriate and requirement based and not for a show off to the...

Every year we celebrate 14th September as Hindi Diwas(Hindi Day) and various programmes are organised in the schools,colleges and other organisations.So many promising things are said and claims made for the upliftment of the language which was declared as the Rashtra Bhasha(the official language of the nation) in our constitution.There will be articles in the newspapers and all shall be told about the origin of the language and a few things related to why should we promote Hindi.When people talk of the constitution of the country they usually miss about the status given to Hindi by the great leaders of our country who framed the constitution.The problem is that language in India has been synonymous to English language and the people who are well versed in English are considered better than the ones knowing Hindi .Nobody disputes the fact that English is necessary to communicate with the people when you are living in a global world.But how does that make us to give a...

During an interaction with the parents of our students we discussed many aspects of parenting which are important for healthy upbringing of the children.The parents were very keen to understand the role to be played by them so that their children are supported in the best possible manner.Some of them were more concerned about the academics and many others regarding the behavior of the children.The general feeling was that in the last few decades academics had taken over everything due to which many important aspects of the child`s personality were ignored unknowingly having a negative impact.The marks had become very important because quality had been taken over by the quantity.Now all concerned have started feeling that the fast eroding values are doing no good and they want their children to imbibe values which in the name of being modern or advanced are being lost in the light of material gains.All understand that these values do not necessarily come by lectures and reading the arti...