Playing is an activity long forgotten by the current child generation of India. Yep, seeing kids play just like that is such a rare sight that now schools have started celebrating ‘Play Days’ only to encourage little pranksters to get back to their default settings and play!

But hey, no kid is willing to do that. Kyonki TV hai na? The growing influence of the idiot box on the progenies has been ignored for a long time by parents and the harm will be serious. Blame it on the work lives of the progenitors that they rely on leaving their kids with a TV program rather than a babysitter (who they always fear to be a paedophile). Or maybe it is the space crunch? Insufficient number of parks? Or perhaps, the kids are now just too lazy to stretch those muscles.
The lack of outdoor activity is leading to social, psychological and physiological problems in children. They are unable to pay complete attention, the flitting focus changes like the channels on the idiot box. Temper tantrums and eating troubles are also seen.

My personal problem is – Kids are not behaving like kids anymore; running around, going wild and having fun. Can anyone tell me where exactly is the play?
Via ibnlive

Schools can’t be blamed for everything wrong that a child does! So believes Susan Neuman, George W. Bush’s former assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education. As per her editorial, schools do not have the exclusive rights to a child’s education. One cannot ignore the learning supports before and after school, during the summer, family’s initiative and other social encouragements.

Very interestingly, she says, “Shaming schools has become the cure to everything but the common cold, distracting attention from the devastating effects of poverty. We need to move beyond touting school reform as the magical elixir.

It is important, but we need to mobilize other institutions to help solve this problem.” To impress her point further, she explains that a child born is likely to stay poor and live in an unsafe neighbourhood, forever threatened by the anti-social elements lurking by. As a result, the child may fail to grow and leave the heap that he grew into behind.

A school cannot be expected to wave the magic wand and bring about fairy tale like happy endings. We have to get real. More institutions need to be created to share the responsibility that has been forcefully thrust upon schools.

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Sex education in school has once again garnered interest in India. We all saw how sometime back, National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had decided to lift the talk ban on the taboo that sex is to Indians. But guess what, it was just a matter of time when the issue would be raised once again. Yesterday, NCERT on the advice of National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) decided to revise the sex education syllabus with quick effect. Apparently, some graphical representations of the human physiology and anatomy were found objectionable by seven states across India. The focus shall now be on abstinence from sex and on safe sex.

And we thought India had outgrown the stone-age mindset towards sex. Talking they are about sex but still there are just too many ifs and buts. Why call off the diagrams of the human physiology? C’mon we are talking about biology in terms of reproduction and not showing pics of the Kama sutra showing the various positions. The entire approach of NCERT is absolutely negative so how can it get positive results. On top of this, sex education classes will be held separately for boys and girls where male teachers will lecture the former while female teachers take care of the latter. So now will we not have any female biology teachers in an all boy’s school and vice versa! Almost a decade ago my class 9th teacher in a CBSE school asked us to read the chapter on HUMAN REPRODUCTION with graphical diagrams of the human anatomy on our own. Do you really think we have moved ahead from there? I have strong doubts.
Via NewsTrackIndia

Ever heard of the School Climate? No? Then you sure must have not read ASCD Executive Director Gene R. Carter’s latest column Is it Good for the Kids? The column talks about a high school in Baltimore struggling to make it to the surface as an unhealthy climate, chaotic classrooms, rowdy students and oblivious parents try and pull it down. No wonder 50 percent of the school’s 9th graders drop out by the end of their first year and the test scores are much below average. That is how Carter brings forth The School Climate Challenge by emphasizing the role of a whole school to nurture a whole child who is eager to learn, is healthy both mentally and emotionally, has a strong civic sense and is ready to face the world. According to Carter and the Center for Social and Emotional Education along with the Education Commission of the States, a whole school is one that collaborates with its community to deliberately build and sustain a positive school climate.

The column also offers suggestions to schools on creating positive climates like taking the pulse of the school’s current climate, using school climate evaluation results to develop and implement an improvement plan, incorporating school climate measures into a richer accountability system, and promoting community participation in improvement efforts. A very interesting approach, I must say, and workable too. Wotsay?

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It may be a good sign for those of us concerned about the big brain drain and indeed a great example for the coming generations. Yes you heard it right, the IIMs were not really lured by offers abroad this year thereby marking a huge shift in their social consciousness, though I don’t mean there wasn’t any before it is just that it has never been so central to the agenda of the students. Many regard the salaries being offered as a deciding factor. For instance the slow world economy has not dampened the spirits of the domestic companies who have gone out there with a hike of 30 percent in the moolah while foreign companies have upped the last year’s salaries by a mere 3 percent. Another thing that has come to notice is the fact that IIM students have become extremely picky about the job profiles, to the extent that they are accepting less salaried offers if the job profile is good.

In other words, IIM graduates have become GLOCAL they think global but remain local which apparently is the mantra for a reputed Japanese university and we all know how the progress chart of the Japanese looks like. How else do you explain Neela Nageshwar Vittal’s refusal to a salary of Rs. 1.44 crore only to open a processing unit for medicinal plants. Yeah, the Indian future does seem bright…very bright!
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Rajat, a school kid, is reminded of his English teacher each time he sees the ‘Bum Bhole’ song of ‘Taare Zameen Par’. And like in the movie, Rajat’s teacher was not liked by the school authorities because of his teaching methods.

Despite the decades that have gone by, I still remember studying…naah…enjoying a poem called ‘The Frog and the Nightingale by Vikram Seth in our textbook. The reason I remember it still is because of my teacher and the fun he added to Seth’s writing style. He enacted the poem and became the frog as well as the nightingale. Imagine, a fully grown man jumping around like a frog in the class so that his students can enjoy and understand better. His classes were always so much fun. I loved studying drama the most as his voice changed with the tenor of statement and that of the character. Yeah, there was a play with an android in it and guess what, he even spoke like a robot whenever he read the android’s lines. His classes were never boring and I remember that I always played complete attention when he was teaching. I think it’s true when they, all study and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

Via BlogBharti

How did one survive growing up in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s ?
We had no seatbelts, no airbags and sitting in the back of a rickshaw was a treat…Our baby prams had the most gorgeous lead based colors…No such thing as tamper proof bottle tops…Opening kitchen cupboards was a breeze… as safety locks were unheard off…Cycling was like a breath of fresh air…no safety helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, with plenty of cardboards between spokes to make it sound like a motorbike…

When thirsty we only drank tap water, bottled water was still a mystery…We kept busy collecting bits & pieces so we could build all sort of things … and we were fearless on our bikes even when the brakes failed going downhill…We were showing off how tough we are, by how high we could climb trees & then jumping down….It was great fun….We could stay out to play for hours, as long as we got back before dark, in time for dinner…We walked to school, or sometimes we even rode our bike. We had no mobile phones, but we always managed to find each other….How? No one knows…

We lost teeth, broke arms & legs, we got cuts and bruises and bloody noses…. nobody complained as we had so much fun, it wasn’t anybody’s fault, only ours. We ate everything in sight, cakes, bread, chocolate, ice-cream, sweet sugary drinks, yet, we stayed skinny by fooling around. And if one of us was lucky to find a 1 litre coca cola bottle we all had swag from it & guess what? Nobody picked up any germs…

We did not have Play Stations, MP3, Nintendo’s, I-Pods, Video games, 99 Cable TV channels, DVD’s, Home Cinema, Mobile phones, Home Computers, Laptops, Chat-rooms, Internet, etc … BUT, we had REAL FRIENDS!!!!

We called on friends to come out to play, never rang the doorbell, just went around the back…We loved being let loose in the big bad world…without bodyguards…We played with sticks and stones, played cowboys and Indians, doctors and nurses, hide and seek, soccer games, lover and over again…When we failed our exams we were given a second chance by simply repeating the same grade…without visiting psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors… such were the days…We had freedom, success, disappointments and responsibilities…Most of all, we learned to respect others…

Are YOU from that generation??

This is surely a relief pill though momentary, enabling you to do away with the stress that surrounds us these days….and brings a smile to your face as you recall what life was really like in the good old days……

No wonder education blogs are read with such alacrity that you end up giving them the attention of a sincere student. The policy analysis and lively debates require an attitude like that. But we must not forget the softer side of education too. Blogs are not only the source of the latest in education but are also a meeting point where educators can discuss the trials of day-to-day life. A journal called Bluebird’s Classroom caters to that sentiment. Authored by a middle school science teacher, it is full of human-interest stories found within a classroom.
A teacher shares the worst part of having students in the room. “They remind me of my own kids and how much I am missing out on their lives as I continue teaching these li’l ones here,” she shares. The teacher running a Military Support Group tells another story that strikes a cord. She along with her colleagues provides moments of relief and peace to those kids whose parents are deployed. I’m sure you’d agree Bluebird’s Classroom is indeed a very cool effort.
Via BlueBird