The Sky is the Limit

Learning has undergone a sea change in the last decade or two. From the clutches of the expectedly all-knowing fountainhead of wisdom, the Teacher in the classroom, it has been liberated! Two decades ago when I needed to gather information about Hiroshima or the Sinking of the Titanic to equip myself to handle the Class XII lessons in English of the same names, I relied heavily on encyclopaedias and reference books which were aplenty in the school library. For English comprehension passages, I took refuge in magazines Down to Earth, Readers Digest, National Geographic and the ever reliable Hindu newspaper. With the advent of the information age came Google. Everything is now available at the click of a mouse. Ouch, the mouse seems antique now with touch screens and styluses available in smartphones, tablets and net books. According to Richard Alleyne, “Every day the average person produces six newspapers worth of information compared with just two and a half pages 24 years ago – nearly a 200-fold increase.”

In the current scenario the Teacher is now meant to be just a learning facilitator, a guide, a resource provider, a curriculum and instruction specialist, a mentor, and a classroom supporter as well as manager. Everything else, but the store house of knowledge. Rightfully so. Today’s students are digital natives and even have much more knowledge than the teacher in an area of his/her interest. It is best that our young students are never underestimated. Even though I have hardly taught in the digital era (I moved up to be an administrator), and taught only in traditional classrooms, I have been enriched by the perspectives offered by my young adolescent students. They have indeed enriched me with wonderful insights into the dynamics inside and outside of the classroom.  So, it goes without saying, the teacher needs to be a life long learner. Move from a digital refugee to a digital immigrant and then transit into being a digital native. It is possible with some perseverance.

So how does one be a lifelong learner?

1. Nurture a good element of curiosity. It is this CQ – Curiosity Quotient – that enables one’s quest for continuous learning.
2. Be passionate about teaching (read: about what you do). Well, Thomas L Freidman in his paean to globalization, The World is Flat, calls this PQ – Passion Quotient – and even argues that it is more important than IQ.
3. Explore. The World Wide Web is full of opportunities to learn and hone our skills and practices. At the same time be perceptive about what is authentic and what is not.
4. Enrol. Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs and enrich your awareness about anything that interests you from History of Rock music to Volcanic eruptions. Many of these courses are offered by universities like Stanford and MIT and are mostly free of cost. You can look for courses in www.coursera.org and www.udacity.com. Edmodo also features interesting courses for professional development.
5. Find time. Time is always at a premium. You must find time for your up skilling – you owe this to yourself as a professional.
6. Persevere. Don’t give up. It might be challenging at times. It is these challenges that make or break people. 

I did some courses online. I will share my experiences of them in my next post.

Memories of Karkadakam

Today is the 1st day of Karkadakam, the last month according to the traditional Malayalam calendar. The Malayalam calendar is called Kollavarsham (Kollam Era) and accordingly we are in year 1188. Though Medom is the first month according to the astronomical calendar, the 1st of Chingam (the next month after Karkadakam) is considered as the beginning of the New Year after Kollavarsham was adopted as the regional calendar.

My childhood memories of Karkadakam are that of non-stop rains. It rained, and rained and rained. I remember, while travelling by public transport to school, the roads used to be covered with water along  with the  paddy fields on both sides. There would only be sheets of water and it was hard to distinguish what what was road and what was not! By the time we reached school, we would be dripping wet. And we remained so for the whole day. School timings were from 10.00 am – 4.00 pm and a change into real dry clothes would be possible only after reaching home by about 5.00 pm! Probably it is those tough experiences that has made us take life head on.

Karakadakom is known as Kalla Karkadakom, meaning a black month – an inauspicious one. No auspicious event would be held – the weather was never conducive for that. The month also brought in its trail copious rains, troubles and travails to the peasants who just depended on farming and agricultural produce. The incessant rains rendered them with no work. And that meant no money. The damp weather forced people to be indoors. This was also the time when people fell ill. So, Karkadakom brought in its wake poverty, illness, and hardships. It is to beat this negativity in the air that temples and homes reverberated with the chant of Ramayana. Prayers were recited to clear the cobwebs in the mind and bring clarity and serenity to the soul. Karkadakom thus also got the name, Ramayana month. It is also believed that Maharshi Valmiki completed penning that immortal epic in this month.

Another memory is that of a massive operation clean at home. This happens on the eve prior to the first day of Karkadakam. All families were into agriculture in our small village of Pallavur in Palakkad. We were no different. The cleaning operation was a tradition. Our home, including the granary, would be cleaned meticulously. This was symbolic of  removing Chetta, (Jheshta Bhagavathy) who was considered to be the presiding deity of all that is dirty and decadent. We would then put it all in bamboo winnowers called Murams. There was no trace of plastic those days! Everything from grocers came covered in newspaper. Throwing away these biodegradable materials to the uninhabited parts of the huge compounds or outside it was accompanied by chants, “Chetta go, Shibothi come” (Chetta po, Shibothi vaa). Shibothi seems to be the the truncated version for Sree Bhagavathy, a semantic change that was necessitated by the excessive length of the word. And Sree Bhagavathy was worshipped as the harbinger of everything that is good and prosperous - especially in the wake of the new year being round the corner – in Chingam, which also brings the wonderful egalitarian festival of Onam. The entire month of Karkadakam sees the worshipping of Sree Bhagavthy, the Goddess of Prosperity. Lamps are lit in the morning and evening in the Machu (household shrine).

A view of the fields behind our home

Then gradually rains became scant. This year of course has been an exception. Paddy fields are all being filled in and converted into house plots. We have sold our paddy field too as it has become very difficult to manage – with practically no labour available to do farming chores. And today as I sit here in the date-palm fringed land, I cannot but long for these renewing practices we had in the past, in my home town which is fringed with palms of a different kind – the Borassus flabellifer, the Asian Palmyra palm.

                                          The Borassus flabellifer, the Asian Palmyra palm

Today, things are very different. I really don’t know if all homes in Palakkad engage in removing Chetta and inviting Shibothi. My mom meticulously does it. I am so grateful she does it – at least our children are familiar with all the traditions we have had and she has never let it slide into a mere ritual. And it is my resolve to continue to engage in them in years to come too so that these nurturing practices don’t die a gradual death.

The Challenge of our Education System

Sir Ken Robinson in his pertinently titled Ted Talk, “Schools Kill Creativity” declares “All kids have tremendous talents — and we squander them pretty ruthlessly.” (Read - ‘in schools!’)
Seth Godin in his Stop Selling Dreams quips: “The current (educational) structure, which seeks low-cost uniformity that meets minimum standards, is killing our economy, our culture, and us.”
Godfrey Canada in his Ted Education Talk, “Our Failing schools: Enough is Enough”, asks vehemently, “Why is it that when we had rotary phones, when we were having folks being crippled by polio, that we were teaching the same way then that we're doing right now?”

Many thinkers have gone hammer and tongs about the ails of the present day education system. I think this is especially because the percentage of very passionate teachers in our educational system is miniscule. Therefore the killing of creativity.  Therefore the mediocrity. Therefore the one-size-fits-all approach. And therefore we don’t create thinkers, creators and problem solvers but create conformists in plenty.

Today while at a our corporate strategy session we were overwhelmed at the requirement of the number of passionate teachers we will need in the next ten years – a modest 320,000! We find it difficult to fine one good hand – how will we find so many inspirational teachers? This set me thinking.

When we look at schools around us, there is one thing that simply bamboozles me. In many of the Indian curriculum schools, we plan career mapping sessions for our pupils. We introduce them to people from different walks of life. Doctors and Engineers abound the list – the Indian parent clientele have not outgrown that, sadly. Computer specialists, Researchers and Scientists also are not left far behind. Some of us do have a passion to bring in those from other professions – from designers to pilots, psychologists to lawyers, and representatives from the Armed Forces and the Services – IAS, IPS, IFS and the journalists. Some of us venture a little more further and bring those from off beat professions to expose those to impressionable minds – singers, actors, dancers, forensic experts (we did this at our school) and even conservationists. However, do we ever speak about our own profession, Teaching? No wonder then that even a teeny weeny number (not even one per cent of the total number of Class XII students) ever want to try their hand at one of the noblest of professions: Teaching! Whom can we blame but ourselves???

Today Teaching is taken up not by the passionate and those who have an aptitude for facilitating learning. It is embraced eagerly by those who want to have a comfortable job.  Your children can be in the same school; you will have the same holidays as your children and (a candidate at an interview candidly put it across to me), “In which other job will I have a two month vacation in summer and nearly a month long in winter?” (That the said candidate got rejected immediately is beside the point!).

To all passionate teachers out there: Can we spell out the pleasures and joys of the teaching to our pupils? We must be advocates and advertisers for our own profession. I am ashamed to admit, I am also one to be blamed. For it is most rightly said, “Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions.” I guess I will start with my own school. Correction starts from me.

Resources and links:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf
http://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough.html
Doodle Courtesy: http://sunnibrown.com/doodlerevolution/showcase/ted-schools-kill-creativity/