The Third National Learning Conference hosted by the Azim Premji Foundation in Bangalore was a meeting ground for academics, education activists, teachers and policy makers to debate issues relating to school education. The theme – Equitable Education for an Equitable Society. Presenting an overview.

Education in India, just like everything else, presents a mixture of contradictions. On the one hand, high-performing, resource rich schools with the best of equipment and well-paid teachers, ideal teacher-student ratios… and on the other hand, one-room schools into which are crowded first-generation learners with no furniture, few books and perhaps one teacher to handle multiple classes. Children with access to the best-in-class education resources and children who have no means of reaching a school due to a variety of circumstances ranging from class to caste to gender, to simple unavailability. To talk of equity, therefore, is to enter into a discussion that is like the proverbial pillar of fire – it has no beginning and no end, or it would seem so.

The Third National Learning Conference hosted by the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) campus in Bangalore between June 24 and 26, 2007 brought together academics, education activists, teachers, policy makers, teacher trainersand just plain folk interested in doing their bit to make education in India a meaningful and inclusive experience. The theme of the conference, “Equitable Education for an Equitable Society” seemed to hold within it a sense of idealism – can we, indeed, create an equitable society by making education equitable? Or is it even possible to make education equitable when society at large is defined by an entrenched system of inequity? How do we understand equity? Is it about access to schooling, about access to equal treatment within classrooms? Is it about an evenness of resources or teaching talent? Do we look at it in economic, social or intellectual terms? Or all of the above? Or perhaps, to begin with, it is, as Mr Azim Premji noted in his introductory speech, about transforming the idea of universal access to education “into a reality, in every school, in every village.”

The conference sessions reflected the wide-ranging nature of the theme, and tackled it from a variety of vantage points. Mr. Champak Chatterjee, Secretary, Elementary Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, began by looking back at the 2000 Dakar Conference, which articulated the desire to achieve Universal Education by 2015, and wondering how far we have come toward realising this goal. The direction of development in India has thrown up several additional challenges and has redefined marginalisation, rendering the issue of access to education, let alone quality education, extremely complex. Though the Central Government’s commitment to education in terms of budgetary and human resource allocation has steadily increased, it has not led to the resolution of “chronic diseases” in the system, with symptoms such as teacher absenteeism and dropouts. Mr Chatterjee emphasised the need to pay attention to micro issues such as hunger in the classroom, protein and other nutritional deficiencies among children and how these factors influence and inhibit learning.

Andre Beteille, Chairman, Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, noted that the depth of social stratification in India made it unrealistic to expect that we could develop an education system that is satisfactory and unlike the general society in which it lives. “Universal elementary education is not a sufficient condition but it is an essential condition for an equitable society,” he said, while reminding us that “school too is a social institution” and we need to understand the micro-level interactions that sustain inequity within this institution. He, like many others at the conference, exhorted those involved in setting and implementing policy to rethink the notion of community and the desirability of reproducing the values of community in education.

The idea of equity was interrogated further from socio-economic and legal viewpoints, with a consideration of how different actors (government, private sector, non-governmental organisations) contributed to increasing or decreasing access to education. As educationist Dr Sharada Jain from Jaipur-based Sandhan pointed out, ultimately, “education is an ethical engagement, where we intervene in children’s lives and the contexts within which they live.”

Discussions continued across the spectrum of thought related to school education, with Vimala Ramachandran of the Education Resource Unit, New Delhi, speaking about the “fluidity of deprivation” and the new types of marginalisation that need to be considered while planning to make education accessible to all. She spoke of the need to create strategies that are sensitive to context and to different types of vulnerability. She noted that equity would be difficult to achieve as long as the administrative structures remained the locus of privilege, and that capacities on the ground–be it teachers or school administrators–had not kept pace with growth.

Breakout sessions on the third day allowed more focused discussion on specific themes related to equity, ranging from art education and equity to the pedagogy of diversity to inclusive education and the controversial area of privatisation of education. Anchored by experts in these areas, these concurrent sessions attempted to bridge the distance between ideas and their expression on the ground, in classrooms, by teachers. Perhaps more questions were raised than answered at these sessions; perhaps more people left bemused than assured, but most were reassured, that they were all part of a process that could not be denied, that of reform in Indian primary education.

Outside the conference rooms, tightly packed groups continued debating the issues raised by speakers and panelists. Networks of action were reinforced, new alliances built, new ideas generated. From the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan functionary in Kutch to the District Primary Education Project worker in Tamil Nadu, thoughts had been set in motion that would perhaps take their long and winding road to ultimately reach a point that would begin or take forward the process of change in education. And, as Vijay Gupta of APF put it, “that’s the biggest take away from this conference.”

Aside at the NLC

Sharada Jain, Director, ‘Sandhan’, a Rajasthan-based NGO that works with marginalised communities, spoke to Teacher Plus on the kind of changes that have taken place over the years and how these have been reflected in various forums and conferences. Quoting Socrates, Dr. Jain defined justice as “an enquiry into three basic issues: What is a good human being? What kind of society do we value? And what core shared values do we value?” The Indian experience of education and its concomitant inequity is best understood in its diversity. She described diversity as India’s biggest strength and emphasised the promotion of education in a manner that makes diversity and equality converge.

Commenting on the take-home from the conference, she felt that a significant percentage of participants would definitely get excited about the issues raised while others may choose to remain cynical. The debated issues spanned minority education, socioeconomic barriers, diversity, gender and caste and universal education in the context of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

In her closing remarks, Dr. Jain defined equity as justice. “Justice”, she said, “is not a tangible thing that can be measured or seen easily. And equality is a state where we feel there is a sense of justice. All the processes that counter this sense of unfairness are an attempt at equity.”

Tomatoes are the most popular fruit. More than 60 million tons of tomatoes are produced per year, 16 million tons more than the second most popular fruit, the banana. Apples are the third most popular (36 million tons), then oranges (34 million tons) and watermelons (22 million tons).

The scientific term for the common tomato is lycopersicon lycopersicum, which means “wolf peach”. It is a cousin of the eggplant, red chilli and potato. It is said that there are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes grown across the globe. Tomatoes are native to Central, South and Southern North America from Mexico to Peru. We get the word tomato from Nahuatl (a language spoken in Central Mexico) tomatl.

In Bunol, Spain, La Tomatina, a festival is held on the last Wednesday of August every year. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world participate in throwing tomatoes at each other! In this harmless battle, one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets. This festival has been the tradition since 1944 or 1945. Although there are many stories, nobody is certain why this festival first began.

Tomatoes are also known for their nutritional value. They are a reliable source of minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin C and vitamin A. Did you know that the bright, red colour of ripe tomatoes has a lot to add to its nutritional value? Some studies have shown that tomatoes are rich in lycopene, the carotenoid. These substances are responsible for its deep red colour. Lycopene is a strong anti-oxidant, which helps the body fight cancer causing substances.

At any given point of time, a number of events are happening around us. Sporting events offer entertainment and opportunities to socialise. The commercial factor too cannot be ignored. Such events also offer platforms for learning and teachers can, with some advance planning, take advantage of them to offer out-of-the-ordinary lessons. This article presents one such lesson for Grade 8, linking with space figures and geometric solids.

During the months of June and July 2006, young people everywhere were in the grip of football fever due to the World Cup tournament. In order to relate the event to science learning, we devised an activity: to make a soccer ball with a truncated icosahedron made using paper. This was preceded by a demonstration with a chalk box being cut in a net and rejoining it to make a cuboid. It was followed by the laboratory activity of cutting out a truncated icosahedron net and folding it to make the soccer ball.

Dr. Lalit Kishore is Senior Fellow at the Center for Unfolding Learning Potentials, Jaipur. He can be reached at lalit_culp@rediffmail.com

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As more and more incidents of parents and students complaining about the exam system come to light, the worst being suicides by students (there are, of course, innumerable examples of various forms of intimidation, low esteem, lack of interest in studies, to name a few), one wonders why we have not managed to address the issue. What is wrong with our exams, really?

School-end exams are tests that have high stakes and are used in decisions related to promotion, certification, admission to college, and school accreditation. They also help to set standards and to hold students, teachers and administrators accountable, although relying on one snapshot that captures one event in one context is inappropriate and inconsistent with what we know about learning and assessment. Moreover, the negative wash back effect of such tests filters down to lower classes, even to nursery and kindergarten levels, where teaching and testing mirror what exams at higher levels demand. This is clearly dangerous as we entrench ourselves in a complex situation that involves different people: teachers, schools, administrators, coaching classes, parents, exam boards, indeed everyone concerned with education. Where should change start?

Tests tell us about what we perceive as valuable learning. A careful analysis of the content of tests at any level reveals that by and large, we expect memorised answers to closed questions; even when questions appear like open-ended, long answer types, the scoring key used to assess student answers gives credit to ready-made and rehearsed answers. It is rarely that students are required to demonstrate higher order abilities like analysis, interpretation, evaluation, critical thinking and the like. Moreover, since we teach to tests, what happens in class reflects what exams and tests demand. The study done by Educational Initiatives and Wipro, reported in India Today (November 27, 2006), showed that learning is rote based and does not focus on real knowledge. Don’t we want our children to get real knowledge?

In another study I did in some schools in Hyderabad and Delhi, tests that made students ‘think’, clearly won their favour. They wondered why all exams weren’t fun, enjoyable and a learning tool, such as those that they experienced. Students want tests that do not force them to behave like robots, but make them apply what they have learnt in new, real life situations.

The message is clear: all of us – parents, teachers, students and more importantly, exam boards – need to start making the change. The time is now.

The writer is Professor, Department of Education, Delhi University, New Delhi.

The most difficult subject at school can actually be made interesting if presented in a visual form with activity materials.

Many teachers introduce mapping by way of India or the world – both of which are very abstract for young children. After all, practically none of them will have gone up into space and how many of them have been able to see the shapes of coastlines and the whiteness of snow-covered mountains! So the best place to start making maps is the school itself – a shared environment which the children and their teachers are familiar with.

Naturally, one could never expect to find a map of one’s own school in a text book. It has to be drawn by the teacher on the board or on paper. In my view it doesn’t matter if it is not drawn exactly to scale so long as the children realise that a map is a picture of a place from above – a bird’s eye view – and that they can place known features roughly in the right place.

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The chemistry laboratory is the best place to help children develop rational thinking and a scientific temper. The myths surrounding magical feats performed by godmen can be shattered with a few experiments in the laboratory.

Someone once said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. No amount of money spent on educating the people of India can be considered too much, considering the ever-increasing popularity of the miracle men.”

In a country that is largely religious, it is easy to find tantrik babas and miracle men at every street corner, especially at temple fairs during festivals. Walking on burning coal, eating fire, juggling fire balls, flogging themselves – these and many more feats beguile innocent people who tend to believe that these men are endowed with some super powers and because they are ‘pure and pious’ they remain unhurt by the fire and the whip. Soon enough there will be people prostrating to these godmen who then exploit their insecurities to make money. The sad part is that at least half the followers are likely to be “educated”.

Is it possible that you can condition your mind into overcoming some realities of science?

Superstitions and blind faith come about when the thinking is irrational and devoid of all logic. What passes for miracles in some feats is nothing but clever chemistry at work and these godmen are the best alchemists going around.

The chemistry laboratory is a good place to help children develop rational thinking and a scientific temper. Here are some experiments that bust the magical feat performed by god men. All the experiments can be done in the laboratory. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, conduct special camps to increase scientific awareness in children. Prof. Subramniam Ranganathan, retired Professor, IICT, suggests these myth-busting experiments in the chemistry labs to instill scientific thinking in children.

“No supernatural powers are required, only some caution and commonsense,” he says.

Goddess Kali’s flaming red tongue
In Bengal many unscrupulous vigilant temple priests make the tongue of Kali appear a flaming red, so that devotees flock to their temple and the hundi collections swell.

The secret is this experiment:
10 g of potassium chlorate
10 g of icing sugar
20 g of strontium nitrate

Take these on a piece of paper and gently mix by rotating the paper. Make a heap and add a few drops of concentrated sulphuric acid. The result is an intense bright red flare.

Playing with fire
Can anyone have fireproof hands? How do these miracle men play with balls of what looks like hot fire with their bare hands? This experiment will tell you.

Carbon disulfide mixed with Carbon tetrachloride in a 2:1 ratio gives a solution that can start a cold fire. Dip a ball of cotton in this solution and set it alight. The ball of fire can be placed on the hand and passed around, as it is hardly warm.

The scientific explanation for this experiment is that CO2 will not burn and CS2 burns without generating much heat; it has a low heat of combustion. Also, Carbon disulfide has very high vapour pressure and the vapour covers the ball. CCl2 is very heavy and has a relatively low vapour pressure and is non-combustible. Therefore it settles close to the palm and prevents your hand from burning.

Whiplashes
We have all seen these fearsome men at religious festivals; ash smeared on the body and kumkum across the forehead, flogging themselves with an ugly looking rope whip, scarring their backs and drawing blood. What is the explanation? Does the man feel no pain? Here is the truth.

When ferric chloride is smeared on a whip and a paste of ammonium thiocynate is applied on a perspiring body, the touch of the whip on the body will draw what looks like blood. Ammonium thiocynate reacts with the sweat and turns blood red.

Walk on burning coal
Is it possible to walk on fire without burning your feet? Chemistry can make it possible.

Dissolve 0.5g of strontium nitrate in 50ml water. Mix it with 50 ml ethanol. Soak some pieces of coal in it. Now set the coal ablaze. Brilliant red flame will engulf the coal. The flame is self-extinguishing.

Scientists tell us that a thin layer of sweat prevents the feet from burning. This is the Leidenfrost effect or the sizzle effect. The intense heat vaporises the liquid to form a layer of steam or vapour protecting the feet.

There is no mystery. It is all in the magic of chemistry.

A dose of rational thinking
Encourage the children to try a dose of rational thinking the next time they come across some mumbo-jumbo. Ask them to go right ahead and unmask the fraud. A recent Hollywood film, “The Prestige”, would provide for interesting viewing and discussion. The film is about the intense rivalry between two magicians, and about how they go about constructing their ‘illusions’, and serves to expose not only the science underneath the ‘magic’ but also the public willingness to accept the illusions at face value.

Ignorance and gullibility has been the scourge of our society and prevented the country from progressing for centuries. Rationalism is a belief that all knowledge and truth consist in what is ascertainable by reason and thought. We need vigilant citizens who can observe, question and analyse things in order to promote an open, equal and just society. Arbitrary assumption of authority by some for personal profit has no place in such a society.

Intuitive thinking, religious and spiritual beliefs have their place in an individual’s life but when it comes to matters of society, scientific thinking and reason must rule.

Democratic Schools – Lessons from the Chalk Face, edited by Michael W. Apple and James A. Beane, is an exciting book. It is a story of teachers who refuse to give up or submit to an irrelevant curriculum or an unthinking, inflexible system and instead set out to make learning in their schools an educational and meaningful experience for their students and themselves.

Democratic Schools features stories from elementary, secondary and a vocational school where certain committed teachers strive to keep the educational process alive. Through concrete examples, we are led to understand what exciting educational projects can be taken up within schools and how education can be made meaningful. It celebrates the efforts of committed educators, within the formal system, who refused to accept defeat and believed enough in the educational process and in their students so as not to get bogged down by what a predetermined curriculum declares must be done. They struck out boldly instead to find out what ought to be done. These teachers did not accept the limitations of their situation but addressed them imaginatively and with determination.

This book comes as a refreshing change. At a time when few look at teaching as a profession worthy of choice and teachers view teaching as a punishment, the book actually makes teaching seem an exciting option. It will equally motivate teachers into transforming their classes and motivate others to view teaching as a career option. The book contains ideas that would appeal even to experienced educators.

Democratic Schools does other things. It correctly points out that if a society is really committed to the ideals of democracy then it must also realise that democratic processes can only be learnt by living them – not merely hearing about them. In which case schools that champion the cause of education must allow students to have a say in what they study and in their evaluation. Likewise, teachers must be allowed to decide the curriculum in consultation with students and not be expected to unthinkingly implement orders from above. The main justification for education is raising responsible and free citizens and this can only be learnt through an exercise of freedom. The book shows clearly what a big change this makes to education within the classroom when the students and teachers evolve the syllabus together and decide what they find relevant and meaningful.

It clarifies the difference between progressive and democratic schools. Both progressive and democratic schools believe that each individual should be recognised for his or her own abilities, interests, ideas, needs, and cultural identity – these elements of progressive education have been termed ‘child-centered’ education. The difference is that progressive schools make provisions for a child centered education while democratic schools go further in moving towards a more participative decision making regarding the educational curriculum. The other point of difference is that while progressive schools would work also towards the development of critical, socially engaged intelligence, democratic schools go further in committing and ensuring a more egalitarian access, process and outcome in their schools.

It makes a telling point against the general obsession with grades, percentages/percentiles, when quality in education is more a matter of the processes of education and the quality of experiences of the student/learner. Instead of an administrative and outsider approach demanding accountability in measurable terms, it shifts focus to an insider, i.e., learner-teacher understanding of what constitutes quality in education – that is, a shift from managerialism to letting us into an educator and learner’s perspective.

This book could not have come at a more appropriate time. Whilst most people unquestioningly follow the dominant model of education, more and more thinking people today are confused: to school or not to school their children. It is of no help to them that the educational dialogue today has broken down with people polarised into two camps: those that believe in compulsory universal elementary education and those that believe that is nothing but compulsory mis-education for all. Whilst most people in India would think it a joke if one spoke against compulsory schooling because of the current success of the universal elementary education movement, the home-schooling movement is making serious inroads and gaining momentum not just in the US and UK but in India as well.

Democratic Schools helps make sense of the debate by accepting neither side uncritically, while admitting to the valid points of both camps. On the one hand, Democratic Schools admits the point that the anti-school and/or home-schooling movement makes about mainstream schools, that they are largely places of irrelevant learning, pointless drudgery and therefore a colossal waste of time, energy, money and resources. On the other hand, through their choice of stories the authors demonstrate how schools need not be places of irrelevant and pointless learning and can provide educational experiences.

There are several concepts and issues that become clear with a thorough reading of the book. People with different interests can read the book in their own way and at different levels. It is for these reasons that Democratic Schools deserves a place amongst the must-read books of education.

It would be inappropriate to end without acknowledging the effort of Eklavya in bringing out an easily affordable Indian edition of this book. We can express our appreciation best by recommending and presenting this modestly priced book to as many parents, teachers, government officials as possible to help bring about a positive attitude change in the schools across our nation.

Gurveen Kaur works with Centre for Learning, Secunderabad.

Democratic Schools
Lessons from the chalk face
Edited by Michael W. Apple & James A. Beane
Cover illustration and design: Anita Verma
Published by: Eklavya
Pages 144, Price: Rs 110/-

The Roman calendar, attributed to Julius Caesar and therefore known as the Julian calendar, used the Egyptian concept of the solar year, but assigned the extra five days at the end of the Egyptian calendar to five of the twelve months. The months were thus made up of either 30 or 31 days, except February, which had 28 days (and 29 days every fourth year). The Julian calendar, which was in use for more than 1500 years in the Western world, beginning around AD 8, was further refined by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, when he corrected a slight mistake in the astronomical calculations it was based on. (This mistake led to almost a day being lost every hundred years). It is this Gregorian calendar that is followed in most parts of the world today.

The day, the week, the month, the year
The basic unit the calendar uses to represent time is the day. Different civilisations had different ways of measuring the day. For some the day began at dawn, for some, at sunset, and for still others, at noon. Following the Gregorian calendar, we now count days from midnight to midnight. The next calendar unit is, of course, the week. Interestingly, before we settled on a seven-day week, there was no agreement on how many days added up to a week. The number varied from four days in some parts of Africa to ten days in Egypt. The present seven-day week may have had two origins: (i) the phases of the moon, approximately seven days each phase in a four phase cycle, and (ii) the sacredness attached to the number seven by some of the ancient civilisations.

And finally, the year is the period taken by the earth to complete an orbit around the sun, about 365.24 days. The inadequacy of the lunar calendar, based on months of 29.5 days each, becomes apparent here, because the months add up to only 354.36 days, almost 11 days fewer than the solar year. That is why, beginning with the Egyptians, most civilisations switched over to a solar calendar at some point in their history.

Naming the months
January gets its name from the Roman deity Janus, who guarded the doors to heaven. Janus was double-headed, with one face looking forward and theother, backward. Appropriately named, January looks back at the year gone by and looks forward at the new year. February comes from the Latin word februo, which means ‘to purify by sacrifice’. February was the month of purification for the ancient Romans. March is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. April derives from the Latin word aperire, which means ‘to open’. April is when spring sets in and nature ‘opens’, revealing new life. May gets its name from Maia, the Roman goddess of growth and increase. This is the time of the year when there seems to be growth everywhere (in the Mediterranean region), and fruits and flowers are in plenty. June gets its name from Juno, the chief Roman goddess. July was the month Julius Caesar was born in, and is therefore, not surprisingly, named after the great Roman statesman. August honours Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar’s great-nephew, and the first Roman emperor, whose major triumphs were celebrated during the month. September, October, November and December derive their names from Latin words that identify them as the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth months of the year, as the old Roman year began in March.

The days and their names
We know that Sunday is the sun’s day, Monday is the moon’s day, and Saturday is Saturn’s day. But where do Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday get their names from? Not from Roman or Greek sources, as we might expect, but from the lesser known Norse, or ancient Scandinavian, mythology. Wednesday is named so in honour of Odin, or Woden, the supreme Norse deity. Friday is named after Frigg, or Freyja, Odin’s wife, and, of course, a goddess herself – the goddess of beauty and love. Odin’s sons, Thor, the god of thunder, and Tyr, or Tiu, the god of war, have lent their names to Thursday and Tuesday respectively.

Indigenous calendars
Although the Gregorian calendar is now widely used all over the world, some indigenous calendars have survived, and continue to be used even today. The Chinese calendar is in use in China and its neighbouring countries like Taiwan and Japan – along with the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese calendar consists of 12 months of alternately 29 and 30 days. A series of 12 animals represent the Chinese years – rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog and pig – and each animal year repeats itself every 12 years. The year 2007 is the year of the pig.

Like China, India has adopted the Gregorian calendar for all civil purposes. Its religious life, however, continues to revolve around the Hindu calendar, which has been in use since 1000 B.C. The months of this calendar are based on the phases of the moon, and, therefore, to keep the calendar in step with the solar year, an extra month is added to the calendar every 30 months.

The Islamic calendar is used throughout the Muslim world, except in Turkey. The calendar is based on the lunar year, each month beginning at the time of the new moon. The months alternately have 29 and 30 days, except the twelfth month, which is called the Dhu-al-Hijjah. The length of this month varies in a 30 year cycle, so that the calendar truly matches the phases of the moon. For 11 years of this cycle the Dhu-al-Hijjah has thirty days and for the other 19 years, it has twenty-nine.

Education was a major concern of J. Krishnamurti, a radical thinker and educator. For him, the development of the total individual was important, rather than only knowledge and skills.

J Krishnamurti is now considered to be one of the most radical thinkers and educators of recent times. Travelling the world over for a period of more than six decades, he pointed out the urgent need for a transformation of the psyche, without which the survival of humanity would be threatened. This transformation included a deep inquiry into the nature of the self.

Education, a central concern of his, is an integral part of such an inquiry. He held wide-ranging talks and discussions with thinkers, teachers and students on the significance of right education. In a world in which true morality seemed to be fast disappearing, it was of vital importance to him that educators and young minds engage with questions that were fundamental to the human psyche – the nature of fear, prejudice and violence. Educators and teachers were challenged to respond to these questions not just intellectually, but with the whole of their attention.

Educators everywhere would probably agree that one of the aims of education is to bring about an intelligent mind. However, the term ‘intelligence’ is usually synonymous with competence or excellence in a particular field – be it science, medicine, engineering or mathematics. Students in educational institutes, both school and university, are trained for extended periods of time to achieve competence or excellence in a particular field. The term ‘intelligence’ is hardly if ever applied to dealing with life, with the problems of society, or the problems of the individual. Krishnamurti made a distinction between intelligence, and the cultivation of knowledge and skills. The development of knowledge and skills helps an individual function in society. However, the development of the total individual – who thinks sanely, objectively, who is sensitive to the problems of life – the emotional, intellectual and psychological problems, has not been a central concern of education. (Life Ahead; p.10; Krishnamurti on Education, p.29)

The total development of the individual student is possible only if she can be helped to know her own deep capacities. Comparing one student with another does not bring about knowledge of the deeper capacities of the child. Comparison and competition have generally been seen as stimuli to learning, but they only breed envy, insecurity and fear. As most parents would like their children to have successful careers, this method has been used without the need to find out what the student’s deeper interests are.

“The child’s natural curiosity, the urge to learn exists from the very beginning, and surely this should be intelligently encouraged continually, so that it remains vital and without distortion, and this will gradually lead him to the study of a variety of subjects. If this eagerness to learn is encouraged in the child at all times, then his study of mathematics, geography, history, science or any other subject will not be a problem to the child or the educator. Learning is facilitated when there is an atmosphere of happy affection and thoughtful care.” (Life Ahead, p.12)

How should the teacher help a student be very sensitive? In his talks and writings to students, Krishnamurti often drew their attention to listening, looking and observation, especially while in themidst of natural surroundings. Listening very attentively to the song of the bird, looking at its shape and colour, completely, without the intrusion of thoughts and feelings; looking at the flow of the river without wanting to do anything about it, brings about freedom of observation. Consider a classroom situation, in which children are instructed to learn from books. Traditionally, a child is instructed to concentrate on her lesson; otherwise, there is no learning. However, if the child’s gaze moves to a lizard on the wall, her gaze could be allowed to rest there as she perhaps watches the shape, colour and movements of the lizard with an intensity of interest that the book cannot evoke.

Freedom, however, does not mean doing what one likes. “If you say ‘I will do what I like. I will turn up for my meals when I like; I will come to the class when I like…’ – you create disorder.” (K on Education, p.38) Taking others into consideration, being polite, and concerned about other people, is all part of order, which brings about freedom.

While this order is relatively easy for an alert young mind to grasp, Krishnamurti was concerned that the older child was increasingly drawn into a world very similar to that of the adult. This, he said, is primarily because of the process of image making that the young mind begins to get caught up in. He saw this as destructive of the child and his creativity. The child has images about himself, which grow increasingly stronger, and there is a preoccupation with oneself – what others think, what one is capable of, and so on. The image is thus a source of enriching oneself, or on comparison with others, proves to be frustrating. These images create conflict, and therefore dull the mind. (K on Education)

These questions are a small sample of the vast number of talks, dialogues and discussions that Krishnamurti held with educators, teachers and students. While he never denied the need for developing a sharp, clear and critical mind, he saw the central concern of education as the development of the whole human being, capable of looking at his own problems, and that of society and the world, with clarity and sensitivity.

Deepa Onkar has been a teacher at CFL, Bangalore, and is an editor based in Chennai. She can be reached at donks71@yahoo.co.uk.

“Rnt u comin?”
“No”
“Thn whos comin 2 de anniversary party”
“Al of de gang xpt me”

This bit of texting would have made George Bernard Shaw happy. First, the apostrophes, Shaw’s ‘uncouth bacilli’, have made their exit and then there is the absence of unnecessary letters. So it is in the language of texting, a language of what I like to call the ‘asap’ generation.

This ‘shorthand’ is the result of language adapting to the ever changing technology of our times. New technological developments such as the Internet and SMS (Short Message Service) influence the language and cause it to move in different directions. This impact on the way we now use the language is comparable to the effect of printing on language and culture.

In the 15th century, when Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith and printer perfected the movable type, Europe changed unbelievably. Until that time, Latin was the only written language of any importance. Books were laboriously handwritten, were costly and the preserve of the clergy. Print lowered the cost of production of books which were soon produced in European vernaculars. Vernacular translations of the Bible reached thousands. Affordable books in the vernaculars led to the decline of Latin and to the development of modern languages. Levels of literacy rose due to the availability of printed books. Education was revolutionised.

Over the centuries, telegraph, broadcasting technology and television have all had their effect on the way we use language, but for its sheer scale, the Internet is the most powerful. It has empowered people to communicate with great ease. As more and more people use this mode of communication, the linguistic aspect assumes importance.

A new variety of English
Where is the language going with the Internet and electronic mail (email), which is what the Net was built on? Are we moving towards a new variety of English? If so, what is it, this language of email? Professor David Crystal, one of the world’s leading experts on language and reference publishing, points out that creativity is so great that the question of intelligibility arises. And it is all happening so quickly and changing so fast.

Which salient features of ‘Netspeak’ have influenced the way we use the language every day? The most obvious effect is on vocabulary – netizen, and so on. David Crystal has interesting examples of usage: It’s my turn to download now (i.e. I’ve heard all your gossip, now hear mine)…. E you later.

One can understand why email uses colloquial language. It is, after all, a ‘write as you speak’ form of communication. What characteristics of writing and of speech does it use? There is the reduced use of capitals and punctuation. (It is interesting to note that while we do not capitalise television, radio and so on, we write Internet or Net with a capital I or a capital N). Then there is the spelling. Here, the abbreviations of texting have had their impact. Vowels get left out – plz, giv, hav as do ‘unnecessary’ consonants – realy, beter. There appears to be a good understanding of the information value of consonants, of which letters carry the required information to recognise a word.

Understandably, the Internet and SMS bring with them the fears that are associated with new communications technologies. The concerns are social as well as linguistic.

What about teachers?
Which brings us to the question, where does all this leave us, the teachers? The linguist shudders at the prescriptive approach as it ignores the realities of everyday usage. What about teachers? Can we accept the changing linguistic landscape, the casualness of language use that is common now? We find ourselves encouraging our students to develop a more formal style of writing and an awareness of the differences between spoken language and written language. Are we concerned that standards are affected?

Language use in the classroom does not yet reflect the effect of texting. Is this because our students are able to keep the two codes apart? The Scottish Qualifications Authority, Simon Jenkins tells us, hasannounced that it will accept text-messaging short forms in school examinations. How many students in India would be in a position to use this? Would examiners see it as being desirable? There are a lot of questions here.

In this context there is another reality we need to keep in mind. The number of young people wanting to learn English is growing every day. Will a special variety of English make their aspirations yet another mirage or will they learn quicker, (with the mobile phone companies having put a mobile in every hand) unimpeded by notions of ‘correctness’? Having entered the world of email and texting late, I find I always ask myself if I am code-switching effectively enough to be accepted. Codes keep the uninitiated out.

Moving on to literature… we are told that a mobile phone company is converting seven English classics into text messages. A taste of what is on offer… the concluding line of Jane Eyre will read: MadwyfsetsFyr2Haus. The arguments put forward for this travesty are that the student will learn the importance of brevity, get to the heart of the matter, and that such ‘abbreviations’ will help during examinations.

India now, as never before, is an examination-driven society. Is this what young people will use while preparing for examinations? The very soul of great writing is lost in this exercise. By and large, the new English speaking generation in our multilingual society has only a slight acquaintance with their mother tongue and a working knowledge of English. Literature served up in this form is going to affect their language and life and impoverish them further.

Text messaging restricts sentence and word length due to the size of the screen. It seems to be a special use of language good for saying hello to friends, keeping up with cricket scores, booking tickets and so on. The language of email is different. David Crystal feels it is an ‘opportunity’ not a ‘threat’ to language education. We have to address prevalent concerns regarding standards. Are we ready?

Kavita Tandon taught Phonetics at the Regional Centre of CIEFL in Shillong before teaching English at Vidyaranya High School, Hyderabad. She can be reached at kavita.tandon@hotmail.com.