Thinking of all the teachers - personal and professional

Brewing Knowledge Friday
This week, I am thinking of all the teachers who show up every Friday evening to read together. We were just a handful this week. Some of them joined us from a small village near Dehradun, and some from Delhi. Kamala Mukunda's book opens up a whole array of concepts, challenges your notions and draws you in. When some of these teachers ask and question, I like to think they care, not just about the child but themselves. Questioning is active thinking in comparison to going with the habitual form of thinking. 

Lunch outing!
At my lunch with Sandeep Sir this week, I felt inspired after our conversation about teacher agency and teacher identity. I was thinking of how this space of more teachers can be a space for all of us to find refuge in each other. In sharing our questions, we are committing the act of vulnerability in small form. It will take some time for the collegiality to build here, but the effort has started in that direction. Kamala Mukunda's book is a small gift to the community of teachers, offering a deeper understanding of the body and mind in human life. We can be informed in our pedagogies and reenact the curriculum, knowing how the child learns, instead of succumbing to old practices. 

We ended the reading session with some reflection writing and drawing. The above picture, hand-drawn by Reena (Principal at Arthur Foot Academy), captures her happiness around her students, seeing them smile and learning alongside them. Manisha, the teacher, wrote, "The smiles and nods of my students give me confidence while teaching. Their positive response motivates me to share knowledge with greater enthusiasm and dedication." 

Minakshi Prasad sent this-

All of them are people who have homes, personal lives, fears, joy, desires, dreams, and they choose to teach. Teaching involves presenting the whole person in front of a classroom, who is constantly watched, imitated, and looked up to. More support is needed for the teaching community, and they must find their own voice because it matters. This community of readers and teachers is just a small way of showing our acknowledgment.

Nilashi Mangal
The Teachers Academy
Learning Forward India Foundation

Enhancing Educational Quality through Informed Choices and Collaboration

Brewing Knowledge Friday: Book reading and helping the teacher with the nuances of running a school.

Objective of the Session

The session aimed to deepen the understanding of curriculum choices and effective education delivery, framed through a collaborative reading and discussion on 'My Good School'. The focus was on empowering educators and stakeholders to make informed decisions that shape quality schooling experiences.

Key Learnings and Insights

• Impact of Curriculum Choices:
  The choice between education boards such as CBSE and ICSE influences pedagogical focus and student outcomes. While CBSE emphasises standardised NCERT content and bilingual instruction, ICSE offers broader content flexibility and English-medium instruction. However, the quality of educators remains the most critical factor in student success.

• Building Quality Education Systems:

  • Teacher development emerged as the cornerstone of delivering meaningful education.

  • Integration of technology and IT systems enhances operational efficiency in schools.

  • Scholarship programs foster equity and inclusivity, creating a sense of belonging among students from diverse backgrounds.

  • Institutions should prioritise diversity, inclusion, and student-centric learning environments.

Educational Context and Curriculum Overview

• Historical perspective: From the ancient Gurukul system to the structured models introduced in the 1830s.

• Present-day options include: CBSE, ICSE, State Boards, IB, and Cambridge.

• Parents and educators must assess students' learning styles, interests, and challenges before selecting a suitable board.

Experiential Learning Highlight: My Good School Retreat

• Location: Arthur Foot Academy, Near Rajaji National Park

• Participation: Students from schools such as Sunbeam and Gyanoday

• Core Themes: Service, Skill, Sport, and Study

• Students documented their experiences through reflective logbooks, emphasising self-expression and experiential learning.

Collaborative Initiatives by Good School Alliance

• Regular knowledge-sharing events:

  • Music, Art, and Poetry (MAP)

  • Brewing Knowledge Fridays

  • Saturday Masterclass

  • Sunday, My Good School Sessions

• Weekly newsletter: The Good School of Information

• Encouragement for school membership in the Good School Alliance to access broader learning programs and educator development resources.

Follow-up and Continued Engagement

• Reading for Next Session: Learning is Fun chapter from My Good School

• Action Steps:

  • Subscribe to the weekly newsletter via www.gsi.in.

  • Explore the Joy of Learning Diaries blog to revisit student retreat experiences.

  • Schools are encouraged to consider joining the Good School Alliance to access enriched programs and community learning opportunities.

We'd love to hear your thoughts—please share your comments below!
Follow our weekly posts for more updates and insights. We're always happy to help!

The Challenges and Opportunities for Education Reform

Recording of the Interaction of Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education Govt. of India with CBSE Schools

#cbse #cbseboard #live #livestream

School Education Is Simply Wrecked - Soham Anand

I have completed 43 years in the school teaching profession and worked in several capacities. I can with absolute conviction say that there has been a steep decline in the school's academic standards. Honestly speaking, school education is simply wrecked, and numerous contributing factors to it.

The most significant variables are the education program (curriculum) and the instructors. Rather than being the most honourable and responsible profession, schooling professional is today thought of as despairingly and looked down upon.

The curriculum is unimaginative and doesn't encourage analysis, thinking, conceptualization, rationalization etc. It's all rote and memorizing of information. Today, most teachers are moulded and conditioned to a fixed routine without anything new or fresh. It's like just passing of data day after day, week after week, year after year, like a parroted parrot.

Educators are not concerned with integration and intelligence or the enquiry of truth or wisdom; they are more anxious and concerned about religion and creed, caste and temples, temples, churches and mosques. No teacher helps children to introspect, to look within. No teacher helps children to discover themselves. Today, educators have turned into government officials bound to shallow and ideological instructions that have nothing to do with education.

Assuming that if we need to create a new world order, each educator must be both a pupil and a master. We first need to educate ourselves before we go out to educate others. If another social and educational order has to be laid out, the individual who instructs simply to acquire compensation can clearly have no place as a teacher. Bringing in cash as an instructor amounts to exploitation for one's own benefit. Tuition and coaching classes are a pointer in that direction. For a genuine teacher, worry of his own comes last.

Parents and guardians are no less to be blamed and faulted. They say they love their children but are unwilling to change the current social circumstances and existing education order. They are not willing to bring about the necessary transformation of this horrendously violent society.

Assume, if parents genuinely love their children, they would attempt to draw a new social and educational order. Most parents and guardians couldn't care less; they neither have the time to manage or address earnest educational issues. They, however, possess enough energy to time to bring in enough cash for amusement, entertainment, clubs, parties and so on. They have no opportunity to spend just thirty minutes with their kids. They would joyfully give a couple of hundred rupees as compensation for not being able to sit with them and, of course, to suppress the resulting guilt. This is a reality that a more significant part of our guardians would rather not face, for confronting it would mean surrendering their entertainment and clubs. Most guardians have diminished themselves to a lucrative earning machine, embracing power and pleasure. They would rather not face the intricacies of bringing up the kids, little understanding that they would be leaving behind a dangerous and horrendous world profoundly risky for their children.

The world we have created today is shallow, counterfeit and horribly revolting. Still, we embellish it with flowers and draperies, trusting that the artificiality will be concealed, but for how long ......

- Soham Anand, Dehra Dun, India. Originally posted on Facebook for friends and teachers.

Brewing Knowledge Club - September Reflections

Reflections for September 2021

We are reading...My Good School Where Passion Meets Education

Price Rs 295.00 Published The English Book Depot (www.ebdbooks.com)

25th September 2021 - last Sunday of the month.

1. Choice Of Curriculum
2. Building Schools With Quality
3. Fun In Learning, Learning Is Fun
4. Life Is Parenting. 

The warm voices of Ms Brinda Ghosh, Ms Sunita Mehta, Ms Divya Agnihotri, Ms Deepti Sharma and our lovable Mr Sandeep Dutt make the reading with learning experience better. When we commenced the first chapter, 'Choice Of Curriculum', what struck us was the solutions, or we can say holistic look at which/how/when the school must be chosen for a child and how we can help parents choose a better learning experience for the child. 

Another chapter, 'Building Schools With Quality', comes up with three elements for quality delivery in a good school. First, a teacher development program because teachers must also get an update, and for healthy learning, teachers are the most critical asset. The second element is the effective use of technology; learning can be made more and with fun or more accessible and with enthusiasm. The third and the very best part that came with a pop-up during reading was The Scholarship Programme that takes out the heart with its lines that " When in uniform, all children may look the same, but a school must accept children not only on the ability to pay the fee but with a larger motive of laying the foundation of a great nation" And then We jumped into the next ' Fun in learning, Learning is Fun'  When we read this chapter we could correlate with the heading where the highlights, why fun is necessary for the excellent learning. We can pull in anyone by "fun to learn". It can work as a key to excite the mind to learn and enquire freely.

The fourth chapter- 'Life Is Parenting', shows the role of both parents and teachers and how parents also play an essential role in making better possibilities for the child's learning experience. 

Good listeners are part of our club, and they have shared their reflections: 

Ms Veena Solanki 

Fun in learning; learning is fun!!

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Learning and fun, I'm sure, have a symbiotic relationship. With fun, learning becomes effective, and since learning automatically happens with fun as the brain is less stressed, FUN perhaps shouldn't be barred from entering our classrooms. A fun-filled experience tends to stay longer and certainly keeps the learners curious and hungry for more.

Learning thus can be equated to a lasting, limpid, lucrative earning (L + earning = learning).

Fun means different things to different people. One way of having fun can be a lot of laughter. Hardwiring a deeper connection between learning and laughter has been proved beneficial many times and more so recently. A hearty chuckle, a suppressed giggle or perhaps ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) or LOL (laughing out loud), all these definitely lessens and lowers the load of stress.

A bit of fun can make all the difference in effective learning. So teaching methodologies must give a little space to fun to foster an environment of inclusion, diversity and long-lasting learning. Without a bit of fun in class, kids become dull and are often uninspired, and teachers surely lose the connection. That's where the teacher's creativity takes a back seat, and the student's creativity eventually suffers.

The latest learning technologies come to the rescue here for teachers. Gamification of modules can undoubtedly make things exciting but engaging each child in the learning process is the only key to fun-filled long-lasting learning.

Ms Deepti Sharma

*Life is Parenting* 

Young minds are like sponges that absorb what their parents are doing.

Parenting is a lifetime project for an individual. He needs to be aware of his role and responsibilities. Teachers at school can be the catalyst in unfolding the hidden potential of a child. But the parents at home are the first teachers. The individual of this generation needs to realise it. 

Creating a nurturing environment filled with love, care, empathy, kindness, and discipline will help them build a happy individual instilled with values. 

It is rightly said by Mr Sandeep Dutt that parenting is infinite, and parents grow up with their children. It is a process of promoting and supporting a child's physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development from infancy to adulthood. It's an aspect of raising aside from a biological relationship. 

In this period when most of the parents are working, they cannot give the best gift to their little ones-"the time, i.e. their presence".They should plan a schedule and maintain consistency to help children cope with daily life challenges. 

They need to help build healthy habits to make them self reliant example - pack their bags and keep the school uniform ready before going to bed, waking up on time with the sound of the alarm, making their bed, getting dressed for school, eating their breakfast besides learning to pitch in keeping the house neat and clean. The parents can do so much for the child's confidence, like helping them know themselves through art, needlework, cooking and reading.

Besides channelling their energy and thought process, a beautiful bond will emerge, building trust and mutual respect.

The connection thus made will help them to be honest with themselves and their parents. This individual will be the best parent then.

A checklist prioritising the important ones can help to keep track of and easy transactions of plans.

Parenting is a lifetime investment that rewards with peace and a sense of accomplishment of a job done right.

Our train of the Brewing Knowledge Club stopped at the stations: Choice Of Curriculum, Building Schools With Quality, Fun In Learning Learning Is Fun, and Life is Parenting; this month and our journey is a continuous learning experience. And hang on! The train just stops for a while to fill the fuel, the trip will continue the following month with exciting stations (chapters- An Eager Child Or Enthusiastic Teacher, Why Teachers Are Averse To Change...).

- Sukhpreet Kaur Ambassador Brewing Knowledge & Kunal Student Intern The Fabindia School

Slooh Student Demo

What is Slooh? - Slooh is a subscription-based internet telescope service with a patent for real-time
astronomy.

- Slooh is an online astronomy curriculum from elementary school to college.

- Slooh pioneered social astronomy and has formed a global community exploring space together.

Our mission: 

- Light pollution and the concentration of population in modern cities have blinded us to an essential aspect of our environment, one in which our ancestors had far more appreciation

- We aspire to reclaim this lost realm and with it a sense of perspective regarding the world beyond ourselves

- Rebuild our collective connection to the night sky by giving educators new ways to incorporate astronomy into the curriculum.

NEED OF THE HOUR – to sensitize students: Brinda Ghosh

Why it is relevant to include poetry as part of every curriculum 

'A Poem Is 
Words turned upside down 
And suddenly- The Window Is New.'

In 1999 UNESCO declared the 21st of March as World Poetry Day, not to popularize poetry but because of the need to revive the age-old oral tradition of recitals and, more significantly, to restore a dialogue between poetry and other disciplines. Research has revealed how poetry enables society to regain and assert its identity by enabling individuals to communicate the innermost values of diverse cultures.

Pity that this intention of UNESCO still lies dormant, and teachers of poetry continue to use a forensic approach to dissect poetry, passing on the message to the students that poetry is as difficult to fathom as the mystery of the Sphinx. As a literature teacher and a lover of poetry, I feel the urgent need to sensitize our children and gear them to develop a powerful relationship with the rhythms, forms, and sounds of poems.

Poetry goes back to the crib, and we know of the existence of poetry in ‘front of the caves’ in almost all civilizations. It is, in fact, the foremost medium of communication, a genre whereby the most complex emotions of mind can be expressed most concisely and beautifully.

Today, this world, ravaged by political skirmishes, border disputes, wars, and emotional disturbance, requires schools and homes that teach children/students to develop finer sensibilities, teach them the skill to be mindful, and appreciate and deal with issues with them equanimity of the mind.

Only the inclusion of appreciating poetry will help. Though not scientifically proven, there is evidence that poetry (the right way) to develop skills that are more necessary for living and contributing to a peaceful and vibrant 21st century.

Poems can be taught to create multisensory experiences of the surrounding world and encourage students to see patterns and connections. This is, in fact, the way to teach students with special needs. The alliterative rhythm patterns of poetry make it easy and interesting for them to retain information. So much so that today reading and reciting poetry is recommended to senior citizens as an exercise for the brain and also as a preventive for Alzheimer's disease.

Poetry is not only written by poets who follow the canons of writing-it is, in fact, the easy flow of emotions. Poets use various techniques- metaphors, alliterations, analogies, imagery, rhyme and meter- to convey meaning. Practice in identifying and analyzing these functions leads students to develop their analytical and critical skills. Having learnt to read between the lines and analyze emotions, they get the knack of transferring the skill to other areas of learning. Thus the necessity to use poems in the science, social studies and maths classes too!

From early childhood, we use rhythm to get children to communicate more quickly and effectively. As we know, preschool children learn language by picking up phrases in chunks. Poetry shapes reading and writing and create a better understanding of all texts. A healthy outlet of emotions, poetry, with its economic diction, improves expression and teaches empathy. Teachers should bring the beauty of poetry to the class by connecting it with what the children are familiar with today and then lead them to see similar patterns in classical poetry. An imaginative teacher will use the internet and explore Slam poetry, Button poetry, or even encourage students to create their own by making them see the relevancy of words. And in this era of short messages and tweets, poetry may be an ideal vehicle to entice students to learn. Teachers can use popular culture to open internet windows that bridge the disconnect between the class and the world. Shared learning experiences with our students will create poetic sensibilities that will allow children to put language to use- to make it serve a deep internal purpose, to experiment with rhyme schemes to use poetic license ( like e.e. cummings who didn't believe in using capital letters) and more than anything else to find voice, representation and impact a community perhaps!

Mrs Brinda Ghosh - Principal Gyanshree School

A teacher must be a lifelong learner, and that is what Brinda is! She further believes that a teacher needs to be an influencer and experience the joy of being a practitioner. Brinda Ghosh, an MA, BEd, CIDTT by qualification, started teaching 42 years ago at Vikaasa Madurai. Has taught at every level of school - English teacher - taught at ICSE, CBSE, & CIE Affiliated schools.

Young Rembrandts Drawing Program

Young Rembrandts Drawing Program has been running successfully in the USA & Canada for 31+ years. The question to consider while considering us for your schools is, how many people do we know who can draw? Or are they comfortable expressing themselves visually? Drawing is one of the most important elements under the art umbrella, and with the unique Young Rembrandts technique, EVERYONE CAN DRAW. The students can put whatever they see or imagine on paper without any measuring instruments. 

We teach students in the age group 4-15yrs. You can consider us an in-school/after school programme. We can work hand in hand with your curriculum to simply support it. Various kinds of collaborations are possible with us.

In addition, we also undertake after-school enrichment activities, holiday / term-break workshops/camps, teacher-bonding sessions, etc. 

Program Content & Curriculum Overview: Our aim is to enable the expression of imagination through drawing. The key concepts we look to enable our perspective, proportion, balance and placement. This is achieved through a wide variety of kid-friendly topics covering Portraits, still life, Landscapes, Realism, abstract, cartooning, art history, Graphic Design, to name a few.

We welcome you to witness any of our current classes over zoom. This will give you a glimpse into our delivery. We can also conduct a demo class for a small group of 6-8 students if required.

Young Rembrandts are offering you weekly drawing classes from the comfort of your own home! Socialize with friends in a Virtual Classroom or Register for On-Demand Lessons.

Young Rembrandts India
Ph: +91 9810307907 / +91 9833532131 

A Revolution In Education - Kiran Bir Sethi & Sandeep Dutt

Listen to the podcast

Jim and Chris connected by way of an email from Jim who was intrigued by Chris' article in GettingSmart.com about "The Superhero Schools of Philadelphia."  After a few conversations, Chris asked Jim if he would like to join him in the second series of A...

In this 2nd series of our A Revolution in Education podcast, we capture, lift up, and share the journeys and stories of revolutionaries in education – those who are devoting their life's work to making a difference in the lives of others through education.

Also available here:  arevolutionineducation.buzzsprout.com

Apple Podcast:  podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-revolution-in-education

As much as our world changes – socially, economically, politically and technologically – for the most part, our schools remain the same.  Yes, there are some minor improvements.  And good ones too.  However, most of these are still employed within an antiquated system and practices that do very little to truly impact the greater well-being and future of our youth.  To judge schools (as we have done) solely on students’ performance on standardized ELA and math assessments has unwittingly pressed most schools and their systems made accountable to these results to “double-down” on this focus at the expense of the greater well-being of our youth.

 

But what do we mean by the greater well-being of our youth?  Rather than answer that by myself, you can hear this from the voices of the dozen-plus outstanding educators who contributed to this podcast.  And not only do they speak to the need for a transformation/revolution of our schools and school system for the greater good of our youth, but in the end the greater good of our communities and our humanity.

 

Touched upon throughout is the need to give ALL of our youth the opportunity to pursue the lives they wish to live.  Touched upon is not only the need to imagine the possibilities of learning and learning communities that can contribute to the well-being of our youth, our communities, and the world, but also the NEED to pursue these possibilities, and learn as we go.  Finally, the contributors speak eloquently about the power of relationships within and across communities to transform education toward a greater purpose and to engage everyone in that transformation.  We need to co-create so that we can co-learn which can then lead us all to a shared transformation of outcomes rather than the transactional factory system we seem to be stuck in that resembles the "I Love Lucy" chocolate conveyor belt (if you are old enough to have seen this clip).

 

We need gardens that both value and support the natural growth of our youth.  And we need gardens plentiful with the resources that allow each individual and the garden to thrive and be abundant and generative.

 

These educators give us some insight as to what it takes to grow such gardens – the result of a revolution through transformation.

Role of an Educator in Student's Life - Monika Vaishnav

An educator is not only the person who teaches in the class, but he is also the one who gives shape to the future of the student and shows him the right path. He does more than just being an employee. He becomes a teacher while he teaches in the class, he becomes a parent outside the classroom as he always takes care of the children whenever they are with him and he also becomes a friend when something needs to be taught apart from the studies or curriculum. He indirectly helps the parents to make their foundation stronger for life.  He prepares his lesson to teach in the class every day. He has to think about the performance of every child.

The educator has to build trust in children for himself because without trust he can't deliver the knowledge how much he wanted. He is always ready to help and guide the children whether it's about academic or non-academic. He always wants to enter the class with a small to make children happy. 

Sometimes, he has to be strict with them or scold them but as an educator I know he would choose this only if it is the last option. He too feels bad if he does that but sometimes, he has to correct them at the right time, if he doesn't, the child may have to face more than just being scolded by the educator. He is the person who will be more than happy on their success and progress and will be proud of them. His every action in the school is always in the betterment of his students. He never expects anything in return from them. 

I would like to add a quote, " Teaching is the profession that teaches other professions". Every student has one teacher in life who taught or guided him to be what he is today. He always wants his students to achieve their goals and make everyone proud of him. The school years get over one day but the bond and trust the educator and student build remains forever.

Monika Vaishnav

The Fabindia School

Need of an hour - update the curriculum of Mathematics and club it with the Logical Reasoning according to the Grade

There seems to be general agreement that the number of students who fail to get a genuine grasp of Mathematics is much greater than it should be, there seems to be confusion about the sources of the difficulty. Some blame the situation primarily on the inadequacy of the teachers and the educators; others blame it on the inadequacy of the mathematics curriculum.

Consequently, no one is in a good position to tell those who teach mathematics what to teach or how to teach it. Most teachers appear to conduct their classes without benefit of any theory whatever their instructions is unimaginatively tied to the textbooks and their chief concern is to “cover the ground” regardless of how the students may respond to the material presented.

An encouraging aspect of the general picture recently came into existence were various groups of Educators and Teachers have become actually aware of the plight of Mathematics education and hence are taking positive actions and are looking towards a remedy. NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training) has successfully announced that the revision of the entire curriculum along with the books will be done by 2023. This is needed so as to achieve a better understanding of how children acquire mathematical concepts. 

In spite of a large number of books and material published on mathematical education, little is provided and is implemented by the students and the teachers. It is important to shed light on the ways in which mathematics actually can be taught along with keeping in mind the discrimination between the fact and fancy ways.

Many students who are apparently capable of doing well in Mathematics course fail to do so. However, there is a paucity of the experimental evidence on the cause of the student dropout and on the origins within the learner of unnecessary failures or incompetence in Mathematics. 

Teachers particularly in the elementary school, have comparatively little training in Mathematics and many of them know very little about the subject which makes it very difficult to know till what extent this deficiency is reflected in the competence of the student and hence slowly starts losing the interest. 

There is a very big question mark on the reason for the dropout, unnecessary failure and incompetence in Mathematics of the student. To deal with this, the elementary and the secondary school curriculum along with the pedagogy necessarily needs to be updated which will later help us in dealing with the dropout and failures. 

The subject matter to be taught should be decided according to the grade placement of the topics and the readiness of the learner. It should be mandatory and hence should be in-built in the new curricula to have experimental classes as well, where the teacher should teach their students how to connect Mathematics with the Real-life problems/applications. 

Mathematics whether on the elementary or the secondary level should be taught in a way that instead of dropping out, our country aims at having as many Mathematicians as possible as no field is complete without Mathematics.

The new course of study for teachers, new teaching methods and new curricula should be such so as to cover the entire syllabus of the competitive exams (Logical Reasoning) along with the syllabus of each grade.  If this could successfully be implemented and executed, the decrease in dropouts can be achieved. 

The main reason for the dropout in the elementary and the secondary level is lack of interest in Mathematics as it was never made interesting by the teachers and educators for their students. Every teacher is always caught up in completing the syllabus and evaluating the answer sheets and every student is always busy in practising the same not by the choice but due to the pressure of scoring marks.

To conclude I would like to say

If our new curriculum is designed so as to club the competitive syllabus (Olympiads like IMO, RMO, NTSE, KVPY) in the form of Logical Reasoning along with the syllabus, it would not at all be difficult for the students to crack any exam whether it would be at the school level or any high-level competitive exam as students always lack in the reasoning section and if we prepare our students for the same right from the elementary level- it won’t be difficult neither for the student to CRACK IT nor for the teacher to TEACH IT!

- Divyanshi Mehrotra <mehrotra.divyanshi@icloud.com>

Writing : Kusum Sharma

Writing is a way to organize our thoughts or even to find out what we are thinking. It is a medium of human communication that represents language with signs and symbols. For languages that utilize a writing system, inscriptions can complement spoken language by creating a durable version of speech that can be stored for future reference or transmitted across distance. 

Writing practice help you write short, simple texts about known topics and fill in forms. Texts include messages, emails and forms. Writing skills means the ability to convert thoughts into words with proper standards and punctuation, grammar and other important aspects of writing. 

Good writing skills allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face to face or telephone conversations. Being able to write well is a skill which will get you a long way in the workplace, partly because it is fairly rare in many places.

One skill that many people lack, especially in management and other professional environment is the ability to write in Plain English. That is avoiding unnecessary jargon and using very simple English. There are countless benefits to having strong writing skills, the benefit of teaching students these skills from an early age are mostly on academic success across the curriculum living in the digital age has made literacy even more important, as communicating professionally via writing is an important skill in most workplaces.

There are top five writing skills which every professional should have:-

1. Develop a unique writing style.

2. Make use of wide vocabulary.

3. Express your thoughts confidently.

4. First drafts are never perfect.

5. Get a writing partner.

This will help everyone to develop a perfect writing style.

Conclusion :- Writing is an important part of every digital marketing strategy. The way you convey the message to your readers reflects the success or failure of your campaigns. By using these simple tricks, you can improve your writing and add value to your marketing activities.

Kusum Sharma

ksa4fab@gmail.com

The Fabindia School, Bali

Soham Anand: 100% Something Wrong

Without taking anything away from the kids who worked so hard to secure 99,100, it doesn't really make sense, something is wrong somewhere. 

Are we to assume that they are perfect or near perfect, that they are masters, that they have transcended all barriers of intelligence and learning. Are we to understand that they are superior to those who may have scored less.

I have seen many a topper fall apart and break when confronted with the harsh realities of the world and their own expectations which is practically economic and financial. It's a mad rat race from which there is no coming out. They simply can't cope up.
It is no secret that our two Boards CBSE and ICSCE are highly politicised and engaged in a race to outshine each other. Both have diluted and compromised the curriculum to enable the children to score maximum marks without teaching them to think, to rationalise, to analyse, to conceptualise. Our system still encourages learning by rote and memorising. The present marks based system must come to an end. 

It teaches them to become a successful lawyer, a successful doctor, a successful engineer, without teaching them the virtues of empathy, of considerations, of scientific temper, virtues of using one's hand. It doesn't teach our children about their surroundings, they live in. It teaches our children to be robots earning machines, without a sense of equality, totally devoid of their surroundings and environment they live in, often becoming a reason for friction and discontent.
It doesn't teach graces of earning and spending money. Any society not teaching the virtues of equality is an unequal society. A society of haves and have nots. 

Whereas our system of education, to some extent, satisfy our emotional urges, it fails to stir our intellectual curiosity. For instance, our Social Science Curriculum stirs our patriotic and nationalistic instincts but does precious little in terms of scientific exploration of the subject. 

The curriculum and system are far removed from the harsh and truthful realities of the world.
Our Schools, run by industrialists and moneyed individuals, despite being in a position to put pressure on the Boards and the Govt to bring about substantial changes, are least concerned, so far they get their pounds and dollars.

Our Principals, who certainly can take a lead are too busy bending over backwards to stay in the favour of their management.

So, what then is the way out, where do we go from here, there are no easy answers, but one thing is sure, we cannot carry on like this.

Qualified Teachers Are Not Always Quality Teachers

A quality teacher doesn't mean that to have a qualified knowledge or degree. He must have a practical knowledge because bookish knowledge is not complete but practical knowledge is complete knowledge. He must be experienced because by the experience he can learn many things from his mistakes and can become a qualified teacher. He must have practice how to teach and know the method so that he can impart knowledge to his students. His teaching must be effective and should emphasis more on moral values and should work for the overall development of a child then impart only bookish knowledge and stick to the curriculum. Quality Teacher always takes his work as a craft and not a burden and he teaches from his heart and not just mind. A quality teacher is one who understands his student well and delivers knowledge equally to them. 

A quality teacher's work reflects from his/her students work. They are inspiring motivators and are the idols of their students. A qualified teacher is a teacher who comes with his bookish knowledge and sticks to the curriculum. Yes, a quality teacher can be a qualified teacher but a qualified teacher is always not a quality teacher. The definition of a quality teacher is that he is an educator who looks after the overall development of a child and makes him perfect to stand and face the world. of a child and makes him perfect to stand and face the world.

Our learning from “Can We Teach a Zebra Some Algebra “by Debashis Chatterjee

- Bharti Rao, Krishan Gopal, Usha Panwar & Gajendra Mewara - The Fabindia School

Oh! Education!

Sitting here in India at the fag end of 2017, what do I experience within myself when I think of the state of education in our country today? Do I feel elevated, excited or thrilled? No, I don't, with an emphatic 'no'. A certain dullness and boredom fills my mind resulting in a big yawn!

Keeping an allowance for my extreme views, education today means endless drudgery and slavish slogging both for students as well as teachers through the length and breadth of our country barring isolated pockets of excellence here and there. Teachers' role is limited to purveying information in various disciplines which students are supposed to mug word for word and get it out of their systems during the exam. They need not be original in their approach or show any signs of really having understood the underlying concepts or having reacted to the course content in their own individual way! The best answers are those which are a verbatim reproduction of the text. So much for the thrill of learning!

While I don't have much of an idea about the state of our professional courses, some of which charge hefty fees, the above situation prevails in most of the state and privately run primary, secondary and senior secondary schools in our country. But exceptions are always there depending on individual motivation. We humans are like animals in many ways and our lives mostly revolve around seeking creature comforts for ourselves. But since we are gifted with a brain and, more importantly, a will, we are not content with satisfying our earthly desires and basic urges. We all look for something deeper, something more thrilling, more meaningful and challenging in our everyday existence! And here is where education comes in!

Education is a quest into the unknown with its thrill of discovery, peace of understanding and awakening of realisation! It gifts us with a new vision and a new perspective on the world. Do our lessons as taught by our teachers tease or challenge us, or draw us out enough to throw and plunge ourselves headlong into the depths of the unknown and experience the thrill of exploration? I am sorry, but in most cases the teacher lays bare the entire course content and application thereof to the pupil and all that the student has to do is to commit it to memory and know it forward and backward. We leave nothing to the inquisitive genius of the pupil.

There is no thrill of discovery, or the excitement of exploration, or the fulfilment of having overcome a challenge and learnt something new through the dint of one's painstaking effort and application. Such is the state of education in a country which is not tired of drumming its old glory and tom-tomming about our ancient centres of learning like Nalanda and Taxila and our pioneering work in the field of Mathematics, medicine, surgery and astronomy! 'सा विद्या या विमुक्तये' - True knowledge is an acquisition of the mind that liberates us. Liberates us of what? True knowledge sets us free of our bondage and breaks the shackles and fetters that impede our progress. What is it that keeps us in bondage and what are our chains?

As teachers do we seek and experience comfort in following a pattern of educational learning and teaching given to us several generations ago? Do we encourage questions and queries from our students, or our lessons are mostly one way traffic where we just deliver the course content? Are our lessons interactive enough where students also contribute by offering their own inputs and comments? Do we encourage original thinking in our classes, or spurn any deviation from the established pattern? Do we treat any original thinking and questions as a sign of revolt and nip it in the bud? Are our classes vibrant sessions of give and take of ideas between the teacher and the pupils or a monotonous drone by the teacher with the best students even only passive listeners? It is here in our day to day classes where we give confidence and self assurance to our children by allowing them to think on their own, or put shackles and fetters around their minds by restricting free flow of ideas, thus stunting their growth. What goes by the name of educational instruction in most of our schools today is the dry, uninteresting and unexciting delivery of the syllabus. How can this sort of education liberate us?

'Knowledge, our light' is the beautiful motto of The Doon School, though not expressed in so many words. And how true it is! What is knowledge? What darkness does it dispel as a source of light? Can good education help us become free of our superstitions? Has our education empowered us to think on own? Has our education equipped us to think in an organised, logical and rational manner? Has it enlivened our imagination so as to enable us to step into other people's shoes, empathise with them and share in their cares and concerns? Has our education made us good citizens who understand their responsibility towards their society and their fellow citizens?

Has our education broadened our thinking and vision to step out of 'the narrow domestic walls' of the faith we were born and brought up in and acknowledge and accommodate other faiths as only different paths leading to the same destination! Besides academics which is only a narrow slice of education does our education sensitise or refine our faculties to enable us to appreciate a beautiful poem, a painting, a symphony or a 'raaga' and so on and so forth? Or after having completed fourteen years of schooling do we know little else beyond the syllabus that we mugged for our unending tests and exams? Did our school help us develop some skill of hand or eye or cultivate in us any genuine and abiding interest in our life? If it didn't it failed to impart real education and failed in its duty by us. Did our school teach us that a difference of opinion is normal and nothing to be afraid of while enforced conformity is a sign of regressive and retrograde thinking? Did our school teach us that civilised humans settle their differences through debates and discussions rather than fisticuffs? If it didn't it failed in its duty!

What is the role of a teacher or a guru? Before the teacher takes up his first lesson he should ask himself whether he likes his profession and has a genuine interest in the growth and advancement of the young learners under his charge? He has to lead them by the hand and has to have great energy and enthusiasm to be able to lead his charges by personal example. If the teacher is a learner himself he is surely going to enjoy himself and bound to succeed as a teacher. As the Vedic prayer goes- ऊँ सहनाववतु सहनौ भुनक्तु सहवीर्यं करवावहै तेजस्विना वधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै । ऊँ शान्ति: शान्ति: शान्ति: ।। (May that Brahma (ब्रम्ह) protect us both- teacher and disciple; May that Brahma nourish us both; May we work in harmony with great vigour; May our study be illuminating and fruitful; May we not hate or be envious of each other; Let peace abound everywhere!).......An ideal prayer for the teacher as well as the learner!

For those of us who have been or are in the teaching profession 'learning' should be the operative word, the prime concern and passion, for both of us, teachers as well students, are on a common quest of knowledge, knowledge that will help us overcome our ignorance and inborn prejudices and evolve as better humans. For that to happen we have to keep the windows and doors of our minds and hearts wide open and allow a constant flow of fresh ideas! 'आ नो भद्रा: क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वत:' (Let noble thoughts come to us from every side!) goes another Vedic Prayer and how appropriate for us all!

UC Pande

Principal, Great English Teacher and a wonderful Mentor! 

His email address is ucpande3@gmail.com