The Learning Network, an eclectic mix of organisations and individuals interested in holistic learning, held its 5th Annual Conference at Chamarajanagar, Karnataka, from Jul 20-22, 2007. Teacher Plus reports…

Chamarajanagar is a little over an hour’s drive from Mysore – a bustling town with its own charm. Held on the premises of the school run by the Deenabandhu Trust, the Learning Network conference this year included over 30 discussions, presentations and workshops spread over three days. Coordinated by a group of volunteers, these discourses, however, were neither theme-bound nor dictated by any perceived need, but determined by the participants themselves: the Network is a forum for creating awareness on innovative ideas, education methods and resources; for sharing one’s own experiences, opinions and expertise; and for engaging others in discussion on matters that are of interest to oneself. An exceptional attribute of the Network is informality, which enables one to function with minimal reserve, facilitating easy exchange and assimilation of new ideas.

Among the issues that were highlighted were teaching methods and resources, teachers’ issues and school administration issues. While Gananath of Suvidya threw light on the various notions that impede the learning of mathematics and took people through various simple practices and aids that can help children understand the intricacies of this subject, the team from Navnirmiti discussed the universalisation of maths and illustrated the effectiveness of their methods and resource materials. Geetha Arvind, an interested individual, initiated a discussion on the learning of science, and Sishu Milap followed it up in another session with their experiences of teaching science through experiential methods. Rajaram and Vidya spoke about the online resources available at Vidya Online, while artist Ranjan De took others through a session on using art and craft as means of meeting the demands of the curriculum. (This in a unique space demarcated as an open space, for people to engage in further discussion on what had been presented, or to bring up subjects that were not on the agenda: a space that allowed the freedom necessary to growth, a space well utilised by participants severally or in groups!)

US-based Dr. Shelley Thomas gave an introduction to Total Physical Response Story-telling (TPRS ), a new method of teaching/learning proven to help in learning language effectively, at an unprecedented pace, and now being used at the Isha Home School in the teaching of Science and Maths as well. Sunita Rao of Kalpavriksh presented the work done in the B R Hills with children of the Soliga tribe – meeting learning objectives while showing clearly how it is imperative – and possible – to learn from our surroundings and live in harmony with nature. Saraswati and Rajalakshmi shared how activity centres within schools have made some headway in bridging the gaps in educational opportunities that children from underprivileged backgrounds experience, while Ananth Kumar of Divyadeepa Trust explored the relation between the child’s emotional health and her learning capacity.

Lata and Ashok from IDEAL presented their findings as to what children in villages know before they come to school, and how children learn up to the age of 6. The team from Pachasaale brought to the fore the need for education relevant to the situation, particularly for out of school children – the necessity of involving communities, of establishing connections between what is learned and what vocations are possible. The team from the Sanctuary Schools, Kaigal, highlighted the need for teacher enrichment as a necessary step to learning. Noted educationist Jane Sahi, in her keynote address, spoke of creating spaces for “collaboration” between the teacher and the child, and between children themselves. A team from NIAS reflected upon issues that have emerged from their experiences of working with the government primary school system: issues of quality, innovation, capacity building and systemic reforms. The well-known educationist, Prakash Burte, explored the connection between equity, equality and quality of education.

School management issues and the role of school development and management committees also came up for debate, as did a discussion on the limitations of large scale interventions. There were some hands-on workshops too – on understanding adolescents, writing by and for teachers, inclusion and appreciation of diversity, and using stories as a means of teaching/learning. Parallel discussions took place ubiquitously – over breakfast, lunch, dinner, in the shuttles that ferried us to and fro, in the rooms… the enthusiasm was unmistakable.

Exhibits and displays by various groups added flavour to the remarkable fare.

There was learning even in the arrangements that the hosts had made – learning about hospitality, from making arrangements for stay to food and travel, that happened for the staff and children of the Deenabandhu Trust will last a lifetime. Not to mention the entertainment that the hosts organised – if shepherds from the surrounding areas presented a traditional dance propitiating Siva one evening, complete with dress code, shell ornaments and bear-skin head-dresses, a dance troupe was called in another day, to present other folk dances.

Of course, issues related to education, and to the Indian education system, are numerous. At the end of the conference, one came away with some answers, certainly, but also with pertinent (and impertinent!) questions that had been planted there! The Learning Network lived up excellently to its purpose yet again – in its fertile soil, people and organisations shared their experiences and learned from each other.

Detailed information about the conference is available at http://www.learning.net-india.org/ini/data/activities/conferences/july2007/july2007-agend.php

For more information about the learning network, contact info@learningnet-india.org

Education today is a race – for marks, to get a seat, to score at any cost. In this race, the entire focus seems to be on content. Teachers are focused on covering the syllabi within a specific period and students are focused on how much of that syllabi they can learn in a given time.

Sadly, the methods adopted to teach/learn have taken a back seat. Students are equipped with the strategy to answer questions from their textbooks. Little attention is paid to the application of this knowledge. Students rarely understand the relevance of what they learn. Self-learning and the ‘skill to learn’ are concepts that schools are hardly aware of, let alone focused on.

The real objective of education is to gear students for life (not merely for examinations). However, newspaper reports of suicides among students who fear failure or poor performance, of individuals who are indifferent to the tasks they are called upon to perform (be it a civil engineer involved in building the infrastructure of the nation, or a doctor responsible for the well-being of his/her patients) – reflects what education distanced from reality can produce.

What do we mean by focus on the method of learning/teaching?

While there is quite a bit of focus on teaching, rarely do we try to decipher how students learn. All healthy individuals are inherently equipped with the urge to learn and know about things around them. It is found now that in the course of their school years a significant percentage of children lose interest in learning. Does this have something to do with the way we teach and the way in which students learn?

The teaching methods employed by schools give little or no scope for creative thinking and individual learning. Teaching, in most schools is restricted to lecturing and requires students to be only passive listeners. If you don’t allow children to create their own paths and expect them to follow an already laid path, how will they blossom?

Schools today are so caught up with pumping as much information as is possible in little minds that they hardly realise that their duty is not so much to burden students with information but to help them explore the relevance of that information in their lives. This attitude of schools and teachers is robbing the joy from learning.

‘Feed a man fish and you have equipped him for the day, teach him to fish and you have equipped him for life!’ This is something we all have to remember. Let us ask ourselves if we can transform our schools to become centres where true learning for life takes place and not just remain centres of information. This is not to diminish the importance of content but to have a more comprehensive picture of the teaching-learning process.

The writer is a paediatric counsellor and teacher trainer. She can be contacted at seethaanand@yahoo.com

The question to consider then is whether the potential harm from these emissions outweighs the huge savings in energy consumption that will result if we all move to using CFLs. First, let’s look at what we would save in terms of energy. Scientists estimate that for the same light output, CFLs use one-fifth to one-fourth of the energy of an incandescent bulb. Unlike an incandescent bulb which glows when the coil becomes hot and glows as it absorbs electrical energy, the light produced by a CFL is not a result of a heating process but due to the glow of phosphor. This is why it requires less energy to release light.

According to the Centre for Science and Environment, this means that if all households in a city like Delhi, for instance, switched to using CFLs, it would save up to 757 million units a year, translating into monetary savings of Rs 273 crore, apart from reduction in levels of several pollutants, including flyash, greenhouse gases, sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter. Indirect savings from the reduced need for energy (again, in Delhi) include a reduction in water consumption (4.052 million litres per year) and coal use (5.4 lakh tonnes). And while there would be emissions of mercury, these would actually be 4.32 percent less than that emitted by conventional bulbs. Such savings are what has prompted some countries (Australia, Canada, Brazil and Venzuela) to introduce a phased move to CFLs and in time completely eliminate the use of incandescent bulbs.

Of course, there is still a lot we do not know about how used CFLs will impact the environment. India as yet has no laws relating to disposal and recycling of CFLs, and perhaps now is the time to work out these issues in a manner that allows us to make long-term, sustainable use of an eco-friendly technology.

While bamboo is just one of the foods that we eat, it forms almost the entire diet of two species in the world – the Giant Panda and the Red Panda. Because of the lack of variety in their diet, these animals have to eat a lot of bamboo to get a day’s nutrition. The Giant Panda maybe eating for up to 12 hours a day! And it is not just the Panda, other animals too find the bamboo a delicacy. Tender bamboo shoots are fed upon by elephants and mountain gorillas.

Another use that bamboo has for man is as medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine considers bamboo to have a cooling and calming effect and therefore is used to treat ailments like fever, lung inflammation, and cough. The Ayurveda, an Indian system of medicine uses the concretion found in the culms of bamboo known as tabashir or tawashir. Also known as “bamboo manna” in English, this concretion is said to help fight respiratory diseases.

Uses: The fact that bamboo is tall and strong makes it an obvious choice for building. It is often the cheapest material available for constructing houses. Not only are bamboo houses low-cost, they are also durable, environment friendly and resistant to earthquake. There are other structures as well that are made from bamboo today – bridges, churches, restaurants, etc. Many a time bamboo is used to erect scaffolding used on the outside of new buildings that are being built. You can use bamboo not just on the outside but also inside the house. It is one of the most popular decorative items. There are bamboo blinds that can give your home a relaxed and cool look, there is bamboo furniture which can add to the elegance of your home, there are bamboo floors that spread warmth in the house and are easy to clean. There are other accessories that you can add to your home like bamboo carpets, rugs, placemats, lamps, mirrors, utensils, etc. The latest bamboo product that you can bring home is an LCD monitor!

Bamboo also lends itself to making paper, toys, musical instruments and clothes. Flutes are the most common musical instruments made from bamboo. Called Shakuhachi in Japan and Dizi in China, these flutes are used to play classic, jazz and traditional music. In Japan, the Shakuhachi is used by Buddhists as a tool for meditation. There are other musical instruments also made from bamboo like the Angklung, which is a musical instrument made out of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. There is also the didgeridoo from Australia. It’s a wind instrument, which is cylindrical or conical in shape measuring anywhere between one and two meters in length. It is also known as the wooden trumpet. Then there are saxophones, drums, and bamboo wind chimes sometimes used as Feng Shui applications in many homes in the East.

Wear Bamboo: If you are looking for clothes to suit both the hot and cold climates then turn your attention to clothes made from bamboo. Bamboo fibre made from treated bamboo pulp is strong and durable and fabric made from this fibre is soft, smooth and comfortable. Its natural breathability allows a bamboo fabric to absorb sweat and circulate air, thereby keeping the wearer cool, dry and odour free for much longer. Another reason to wear bamboo during summer is its ability to cut down the ultra violet rays. The micro-gaps and micro-holes in the bamboo fibre that allow you to stay cool also keep you warm in winter by trapping in warm air.

Bamboo produces an anti-bacteria agent called ‘bamboo kun’ to defend itself from pests, which makes fibre made from bamboo naturally anti-bacterial. This feature of the bamboo makes it most suitable to make innerwear, socks and tight T-shirts. Bamboo clothes are 100 per cent bio-degradable and therefore the most eco-friendly clothes available today.

Across Cultures: A Chinese poet once wrote, “Man can live without meat, but he will die without bamboo.” China grows and uses bamboo more than anyone else in the world. In fact, China is called the ‘Kingdom of bamboo’ for the more than 400 varieties of bamboo it grows. It also has the largest area under bamboo cultivation in the world. Bamboo pervaded the everyday life of the Chinese. They used it as firewood, to make tiles, paper, hats, shoes, food, etc. Bamboo has thus played an important part in the development of the Chinese culture. For the Chinese, bamboo is a symbol of longevity due to the plant’s own long life.

In India, bamboo stands for friendship. Since bamboo flowers rarely, its blooming in certain cultures is regarded as a sign of impending famine. A bamboo forest in Japan that surrounds a Shinto shrine acts as a sacred barrier against evil. Vietnamese culture is often regarded synonymous to “bamboo culture” as the plant symbolises the Vietnamese hometown and Vietnamese soul in virtues like optimism, straightforwardness, unity and adaptability. An old proverb in Vietnam sums up bamboo as a symbol of Vietnamese eternity: “When the bamboo is old, the bamboo sprouts appear.”

Environment: Bamboo is the perfect solution for environmental problems that we have today including soil erosion and deforestation. The bamboo has an extensive rhizome system which lies in the top layer of the soil just below the surface. This prevents soil erosion occurring in flood plains, on riverbanks and on steep hills, thus controlling landslides. Another environmental problem that bamboo can help mitigate is pollution caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Bamboo produces more oxygen than any other tree or plant and this means there can be a significant reduction in the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere if we plant more bamboo in highly polluted areas.

Deforestation is a major problem we are facing today. One of the main reasons for deforestation is the furniture and building material industry. Forests, mainly timber, are cut down to supply to these industries. The bamboo’s qualities of strength, lightweight and flexibility make it a viable alternative to timber.

As a language teacher, initially of French and later of Hindi, I was struck by the agony that Hindi seemed to generate among students who were not native speakers of that language. A number of times, students who had struggled with Hindi for five years or more would come to me and beg me to allow them to switch over to French as their second language!

Their sense of complete helplessness expressed itself in declarations such as, “Hindi is too difficult to learn.” And when I ask them how they were so confident about learning French, they would reply,  “French is easier!” and give me names of older students who fared better in French, after switching over from Hindi, in their 10^th standard exams as proof. I too had to admit that children could not only handle the exams but also speak in French with some fluency after being exposed to the language for two or three years alone. So, why was it so difficult to gain a measure of proficiency in Hindi?

My own experience with language learning told me that no language is more easy or difficult to learn than the other. Learning is the outcome of a student’s own motivation, aptitude, degree of engagement with the process of learning, and last but not the least the process of teaching and learning itself. In this article, I would like to concentrate on the last factor.

As I interacted with a wide variety of non-native speakers who had studied Hindi as their second language in school, I began to notice a basic pattern in the difficulties which led to a sense of helplessness among such students. These were clustered broadly around the following issues:

Having become aware of these issues, I decided to address them in the classroom by taking up Hindi language teaching to young children. Scholastic India Ltd has now published some of the material and classroom practices that emerged from this shift. It is called ‘Hindi Ki Duniya, pehle kadam’.

In this article I will discuss briefly the reasons for the problems outlined in the box. I will then describe some of the common current practices that don’t address the problems, and  then give some broad principles of language learning and teaching and share some ideas that I have found useful in the classroom.

Students make many mistakes in writing because their pronunciation is faulty. When a child cannot pronounce Hindi words correctly it is natural that he will make mistakes when writing them – Saat (Seven) saath, khana (food) kana, mujhe-muje. I realised that the child could not pronounce these words properly because he simply did not hear the distinctions clearly. And typical errors such as the ones mentioned above were legion in students’ notebooks.

Teachers try remedying these by giving frequent dictations. When lists of words are dictated to students, they sometimes do manage to write them correctly. However, when they attempt any kind of free writing, the errors come right back. No amount of practice with dictation can really remedy this issue.

The key, I realised, lies in more oral work which stresses upon getting a more accurate pronunciation. Audio-based materials seem to help. Recording stories onto cassettes and giving them to children to listen to at home are useful in training the students’ ear to hear the sounds of the language. Recording students’ own speech and playing it back to them will also sensitise them to issues of pronunciation. Cassettes where blank space is left, for students to repeat after a recorded sentence or verse of a rhyme, also give an opportunity to students to hear and pronounce the sounds of the new language. Use of cassettes becomes all the more pertinent when a non-native teacher herself may have a less than accurate pronunciation.

Substituting auditory discrimination tests for dictations is another effective practice: Distribute papers that have similar sounding words written in pairs. For instance – Saat-saath, khana-kana, mujhe-muje, tali-thali, jharna-jarna. The teacher then reads out a sentence – Mere saath Bunty bhi aaya hai. The child has to tick the right word on his sheet.

Students make errors in syntax. Most can be traced to a lack of awareness of the gender of nouns. It is interesting to note that no primer introduces students to the gender of nouns, and therefore, they are often not aware of the gender of nouns appearing in their textbooks. Since much of Hindi syntax is dependent on the gender of nouns, it is not surprising that students make mistakes when forming sentences; they have no reference material to guide them.

In my classroom, I adopt the following approach: First, I make it a practice to introduce every new word with a small drawing of a boy-face or a girl-face1 and teach the children the concept of boy-word, girl-word. I encourage the children to ask me for the gender of every new word they came across, and help them note it with symbols in their books. Then I create a set of flash cards using the nouns that the children come across in poems or texts they learn: Naav, nadi, kauwa, kuda, kovi, lattu, magarmach, machli, makdi, machchar, aam, eekh, eenth.

With the flash cards ready, we play simple games. We sit in small groups of five in a circle. We spread the cards in the centre, upside down. One child in the group has the list of words with the gender symbol – he is the umpire. Others pick up cards in turn and make sentences with the noun they have on their card. For instance – Yeh mera naav hai or yeh meri naav hai. The umpire checks whether this is correct. If it is correct, the child gets to keep his card. If it is not, he has to place it back in the centre. The child with the maximum number of cards is the winner. Children love to play these games.

By systematically playing such games, children can internalise the gender of nouns encountered in lessons with a fair amount of ease. In the first two years of language exposure, I play such games regularly with my students. Though these students continue to make errors in their later years of learning, the frequency comes down visibly. And what is most satisfying is that they do not experience a sense of helplessness while using Hindi.

Students could read aloud fairly complex texts even with some degree of confidence, however many did not comprehend even ten per cent of the text. This is because our schools have for far too long stressed more on literacy, i.e., decoding of script to sound, rather than on the act of reading which is a more complete act of making sense of what one decodes.

Unfortunately, even well-designed textbooks fall into the trap of reducing the complex act of real reading (understanding what you read) to such exercises as: Padho-ghar, kar, kab, kam, man, nal, bus, ras, kalam, namak, kamal (taken from Bal Bharathi Bhag 1 pg 19).

In doing such an exercise, the message that the child gets is that if he decodes the words in the book, his task is done. He thinks this is reading. And will continue to ’read‘in this fashion for years to come, never mind if it is all gibberish and brings to him no new information. If we are to inculcate a sense of reading for meaning, we need to shun reading aloud lists of words.

But what is to take its place? Simple, meaningful, socially anchored, and if possible humorous texts. These texts should also have sufficient pictorial clues to help children understand the meaning in the first few years of language learning. Such an attempt has been made in the reader which is part of the Hindi Ki Duniya kit.

Teachers need to look out for simple yet meaningful texts with high pictorial content. Some Children’s Book Trust CBT and Scholastic publications are very suitable for the early stages of reading.

Students ‘know’ many words and phrases, but they cannot use them correctly in basic sentences. This often happens because children are taught a lot of disconnected words in a single class. The idea of semantic fields, i.e., words belonging to one semantic domain needs to be kept in mind while introducing vocabulary in a new language. Nouns need to be associated with verbs and other elements of syntax. I have found that it is a lot of fun to do activities such as the following: Think of simple everyday activities like drinking water from a jug. Together with the children pretend that you are actually drinking water from a jug, while vocalising each action. Here’s an example. Paani ka gilaas uthao. Use seedhi kar ke mez par rakho. Jug ka dhakkan kholo. Dhakkan ko neeche rakho. Ab jug dhyan se uthao. Paani bina giraye gilaas mein bharo. Jug mez par rakho. Us par dhakkan wapis dhako. Ab gilaas uthao. Bina mooh lagaye gilaas se paani piyo. Saara paani pee jaao. Gilaas wapis ulta kar ke jug ke dhakkan par rakh do. Students can in turn be asked to do something as simple. This encourages them to comprehend and speak.

Students frequently used literary words in everyday conversations and writing. Main darpan mein mera chehra dekhi. This is the kind of sentence that Hindi teachers will recognise as one of their students’. The word ‘Darpan‘ may not be wrong, but it certainly is not a word you use when you speak. A simpler ‘Sheesha’ is more appropriate. But the non-native speaker of Hindi has probably never come across this more simple word! Yet, knowing a language is knowing its subtleties. We introduce literary elements far too early in our process of language teaching and then fail to forge the necessary bridges needed to understand that each language functions at various registers. Teachers need to emphasise this aspect explicitly. In fact, it is good to bring a range of language registers into the classroom and help students distinguish between language of everyday use and language used for literary or other cultural purposes. Far from making things too complex for the student, such a rich exposure will actually help students learn a language more effectively and make them independent users of the language.

• Students made many mistakes in writing; this was largely because their pronunciation was faulty. For example – Main kana kata hoon (rather than main khana khata hoon).
• Students made errors in syntax, which could be traced to their lack of awareness of the gender of nouns. For example – Bus aa gaya.
• Students could read aloud fairly complex texts even with some degree of confidence, however many did not comprehend even ten per cent of the text.
• Students ‘knew’ many words and phrases, but they could not use them correctly in basic sentences.
• Students frequently used literary words in everyday conversations and writing. For instance, Main darpan mein mera chehra dekhi.

1. Please see Hindi Ki Duniya, Pehle Kadam, Scholastic India Limited, 2004

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, through his studies of classical Indian philosophy and thought, explored how modern Indian education could be shaped. This article, on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, September 5, traces the evolution of his vision of education. It does not raise questions on his thought from a sociological point of view, but examines, instead, through biographical detail, his contributions to early modern Indian education.

Radhakrishnan was born and raised in the town of Tiruttani, on the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (Sarvepalli is a town in Andhra Pradesh, from which his ancestors hailed, about 200 miles north of Tiruttani). The town of Tiruttani is one of many temple towns sprinkled over the landscape of this region. Over the centuries, these temple towns have been associated with myths, legends and stories about gods and goddesses and interlinked deeply with the landscape of ancient Tamilnadu. Oceans, rivers, hills, waterfalls, trees, flowers, birds and animals are part of the mythology associated with the temples, and goddesses and gods often had a myth or legend that was linked with any of these natural elements.¹ It was in such a sacralised landscape that Radhakrishnan spent the early years of his childhood. Perhaps a childhood memory of such an intensely religious atmosphere is sparked off as he recalls in later years: “ From the time I knew myself, I have had firm faith in the reality of the unseen world behind the flux of phenomena, a world which we apprehend not with the senses but with the mind, and even when I was faced with grave difficulties, this faith has remained unshaken.”²

All the schools that Radhakrishnan attended in Tiruttani and Tirupati (a neighboring town) were run by Christian missionaries. The same pattern of education continued through college, at Voorhees College established by the Reformed (Dutch) Church of America. It was here that Radhakrishnan had his first exposure to Western philosophy in the religious milieu of Christian Evangelism.³ The rigorous approach to Western philosophy introduced to Radhakrishnan at this time in his life, perhaps, gave him an idea as to how he could develop his studies of his own religion, Hinduism (of which he had undergone no formal training). He was, as an interpreter of his own religion and equipped with what may be called a ‘western education’, placed in a peculiar position of familiarity with the two different approaches to philosophy.

With his knowledge of Sanskrit (which he learnt as part of his Master’s degree from Presidency College, Madras) and of the ethos of Hinduism, he began to ‘interpret’ his culture and religion to an alien, western audience. His work could never have been under the influence of what Borges called ‘illusory closeness’ to his culture and language: believing himself to be closer to his tradition and language than one actually is. He also could not have faced difficulty of temporal distance, i.e., the problem of a translator who deals with very old texts, particularly in an ancient language, which is analogous to that of a translator who deals with a foreign language.⁴ Sanskrit, however, unlike other ancient languages of the world like Greek or Latin, never went completely out of written and oral use and was accessible to students in most universities.

A notable step in his career as a translator of texts such as the Upanishads, the Gita, and so on, was an invitation to deliver the Upton lectures at the University of Oxford, published as The Hindu View of Life. He also delivered the Hibbert Lectures, which were later published as The Idealist View of Life, which is often seen as his mature work. Perhaps the biggest award from a foreign country that was conferred on him was the knighthood from King George the fifth of Britain, in 1931. What followed was a flood of writing on a variety of subjects – religion, society, education, and philosophy. It was his passion for writing and translation that led to his varied and vibrant career – among the many roles he held were Chairman of the University Commission of India, (which rejected the teaching of religion of the sectarian kind) Vice- President of India, and eventually, President of India, in 1962.

It was at Calcutta University, early in his career as a translator, that Radhakrishnan began to take a serious interest in education. (It was at this time that Radhakrishnan found the time to work on the two volumes of Indian Philosophy, perhaps the best-known introduction to the subject.) It is not surprising that Radhakrishnan described the aims of education in traditional terminology. ‘Self-knowledge’ for the individual is a term used by many philosophers and educators; but each philosopher uses it in a sense peculiar to his own imagination and understanding. Radhakrishnan’s use of the term is derived from his reading and translation of the Upanishads and the Gita; in the sense of restraint of the emotions and the senses, the development of discrimination, and discipline. His ideas of ‘Truth’ and ‘compassion’ (from the Dhammapada) are also undeniably derived from his readings of these texts – the truth that is outside the pursuit of self-interest, and compassion for the powerless.⁵

Apart from such intellectual definitions, Radhakrishnan also explicitly gave guidelines to teachers and students. The student has to study with diligence, sincerity, and work extremely hard. Knowledge and skills are not just for personal acquisition, but have to be given back to society as service. A student should have humility, courage, and a cooperative spirit.

Radhakrishnan placed a great deal of importance on the role of the teacher. A good teacher, besides knowing his subject thoroughly, is committed to the role he plays in inspiring his students. Most importantly, he does not do things for fame or power. A good teacher is also open to correction. He should develop a sense of objectivity about his mentors and colleagues.

These kinds of definitions were perhaps based on an underlying idea that Radhakrishnan had of the university. Places of learning are often built upon closely cherished ideals of what society can be, and how people can be shaped. Radhakrishnan did not see the university as simply a place where learning or scholarship occurred; rather, as a place where a person also developed his or her ethical sensibilities. His definition of the university seems to suggest that it could be a place where learning and scholarship could be combined with a sense of national unity and communal harmony. When an educator’s thinking takes different directions, it is not easy to identify a single ‘core’ idea common to all his thinking. The sensibility that overrides his nationalistic aims for education, and which seems to have informed his literary, philosophical and educational output, however, can be found in his Religion and Society in which he writes about:

“…the renewal of the heart, the transformation of values, the surrender of the spirit to… the eternal. We all look up to the same stars, we dream beneath the same sky… and it does not matter if we endeavor to find the same truth along different roads. The riddle of existence is so great that there cannot be only one road leading to an answer.”⁶

Notes and References
1  For a detailed portrait of the living tradition of South Indian temple culture, see Wood, Michael. The Smile of Murugan: A South Indian Journey. (London, Penguin: 2000)

2  Radhakrishnan, S. excerpts from Religion in Transition “My Search for Truth” online article <www.uramamurthy.com/philosophy/html>

3  For all details of Dr. Radhakrishnan’s biography, I am indebted to Robert Minor’s biography. Minor, Robert N. Radhakrishnan: A Religious Biography. (New York, State U of NY: 1987)

4  Maria Herrera in an essay has summarized the problems of the interpretation of culture, and translation, as outlined by Jorge Louis Borges (among others). See Ed. Deutsch, Eliot. Culture and Modernity : East-West Perspectives. “On the Interpretation of Traditional Cultures” (Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass: 1991): 505-525.

5  The chapter on Education in Clarissa Rodrigues’ book succinctly summarizes Dr. Radhakrishanan’s views on the different aspects of education. Rodrigues, Clarissa. The Social and political Thought of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. “Education“ (New Delhi, Sterling Publishers, 1992): 117-160.

6  Radhakrishnan S. Religion and Society. (London, George Allen and Unwin: 1966): 227.

After long days of grading papers and disciplining unruly children, a growing number of tech-savvy teachers are creating online journals to vent about the stresses of the profession.

Educators who have already embraced the technology – called blogs – find themselves walking a fine, virtual line of conduct. They strive to entertain and inform, but cannot violate their school districts’ ethics, policies or federal laws designed to protect students’ confidentiality.

Most teachers who blog have opted to do so underground – refusing to cite their names, workplaces or other identifying details – to avoid potential professional pitfalls.

“School administrators tend to be pretty vindictive and they don’t like people with different ideas from them. People who speak out are not regarded very highly,” said Mike in Texas, an elementary school science teacher from East Texas, who started an online diary two years ago as a way of defending public education.

Teachers, initially slow to try out the medium, are publishing blogs at rapidly increasing rates – partly because they see the online journals as a way to have their opinions heard, experts say.

“Teachers’ public voices have less and less currency in the education market with respect to deciding what benefits children,” said Michele Knobel, an education professor at Montclair State University inNew Jersey. “Blogs can become a forum for voicing frustration with the ongoing de-professionalisation of teaching and the sidelining of teacher wisdom and experience.”

The number of blogs about “teaching” or “teachers” tracked by Technorati.com has jumped 10 per cent in less than six months to nearly 950. LiveJournal, one of the most popular blogging sites, lists about 415 chat communities interested in teaching.

A delicate balance
Libby Nicole Ingrassia, a techie-turned-teacher, admits that most of her co-workers are far behind the blogging curve. The first-year KIPP Houston High School teacher has been blogging since 2000.

“Most teachers here might be aware of blogging, but only on the peripheral,” said Ingrassia, who keeps a blog called Notesgirl. Still, she said she expects to see a rise in both the number of teachers who keep personal blogs and the number who use blogs to communicate with students about assignments.

Though Ingrassia is open about her blog, most teachers aren’t willing to reveal their identities. They say they’re afraid of getting fired, upsetting their co-workers or violating federal laws that protect their students’ confidentiality.

In the cyber world, these teachers pour their thoughts out under screen names like “Bud the Teacher,” “Hip Teacher” and “Cool Cat Teacher.”

Some teacher-bloggers predict that their districts may soon draft rules outlining what employees can and can’t say online.

A right to blog
“While the district does not have the authority to prevent district employees from subscribing to these types of applications from their homes or from exercising their rights to free speech, employees are held accountable for adhering to the state code of ethics for educators,” wrote Lenny Schad, Katy school district’s deputy superintendent for information and technology services.

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said districts can’t restrict teachers from commenting on public matters. They can, however, forbid teachers from revealing students’ identities or from using taxpayer resources for personal pursuits.

“They have an absolute right to blog,” Fallon said. “Just not on school time, not on school computers – even if it’s lunch, it’s still a school computer.”

While talking about unidentified students isn’t yet addressed in policy, most teachers said they have the good sense to avoid bad-mouthing the youngsters they teach.

“Mr. AB,” a young elementary school teacher in San Jose, California, admits to originally using his blog to vent about students. He said he’s now found a better subject-matter balance for his blog, called “The Trenches.”

‘Free therapy’
“Ms. H,” a 35-year-old high school teacher in the Fort Worth area who keeps a blog called Molding Young Minds, said she gets pretty personal about her experiences, telling readers about a former student who she’s taken under her wing.

She said she got hefty criticism on her blog when some readers thought she crossed a line by giving students rides home. The teacher said she usually appreciates the feedback from fellow teachers across the country.

“It’s free therapy,” she said. “It’s turned out to be really useful for venting and thinking through stuff.”

If you, as a teacher, are an avid blogger, please write to us about your experience.

Some blogs by educators:

• Libby Nicole Ingrassia at www.notesgirl.com
• John Pearson at learnmegood2.blogspot.com/
• “Mike in Texas“ at educationintexas.blogspot.com/
• “Ms. H“ at moldingyoungminds.blogspot.com/

© 2007 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today, teachers are so engrossed in finding new teaching aids that the blackboard has been completely forgotten. Even as schools use different kinds of teaching aids like flip charts or television or computers, the blackboard remains an essential teaching instrument. For many schools, especially in the remote areas, the blackboard is the only teaching aid. The blackboard, unlike our computers, does not have any mechanical faults. And the best thing is that nobody can steal it. The blackboard is always available to a teacher – a trustworthy friend.

It’s sad that the blackboard these days is used only to write the date and the subject being taught. While textbooks provide information, there is nothing more boring than simply reading that information out aloud in class. This is where the blackboard can complement the textbooks. Children need plenty of visual images to enhance their interest and learning. A teacher need not be an artist, a quick simple drawing is better than a long explanation. As you draw, keep talking to the children in your class about what you are drawing or what will follow next, otherwise the children will get bored.

The blackboard is one of the oldest teaching aids, but it can still be used in a number of ways. It can be the window to the outside world.

The writer teaches at Bombay Cambridge School, Andheri, Mumbai.

The obvious place to begin would seem to be the product itself. Ask the children to talk about what they have brought to lunch. You should get a variety of answers, and some of them may include some form of bread, ranging from the ever-popular sandwich to the alu paratha or puri. Most of us may have a limited definition of ‘bread’, taking it to be only that which is baked in an oven and shaped like a loaf – but indeed, bread comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and forms, and only some of it is baked in a conventional oven. But more about that later. From their lunch boxes, travel outward and outfield to prompt them to think about how bread is made, the different names it is known by, how it is served and eaten, idioms and phrases associated with it, and stories where bread plays an important role. You’ll probably end up with a chaotic discussion that goes all over the place, and it will be quite a task to contain it within the confines of a single subject. But isn’t that what a project is all about? This would be a good way to set out the various directions this project will take and give the students an idea of all the activities and topics they will have to engage in over the next few days.

It might help if a small group of teachers could brainstorm this together and see how they can divide the project work into discrete classroom units, spread over several subjects. The ideas given here can be worked into different curricular areas. The more obvious ones are science (yeast as a leavening agent, oven design and baking bread, nutrition, etc.), history and geography (cereal production and the kinds of bread made across the world, ceremonial and celebratory breads, the history of bread making), and language (origins of terms involving bread, idiomatic phrases, writing recipes), and of course mathematics (ratio and proportions, the economics of bread making and selling).

No matter what form and direction the project takes, it can culminate in a bread festival where students can in groups and individually make different kinds of bread and share it in school – or they can organize a sale of exotic breads to raise funds for a school need or a community need. You can have them try some of the recipes given on the centrespread, or create breads based on recipes of their choice.

The Origins of Bread
Where does bread come from? Agricultural historians suggest that bread dates back to the Neolithic age, and the first breads produced were probably cooked versions of a grain-paste, made from ground cereal grains and water. Traditional breads like chappatis and tortillas are reminiscent of this kind of ancient bread. According to one legend, the first loaf of bread was baked accidentally by an Egyptian slave in about 2600 BC. He was making traditional wafers from flour and water, but after putting them on the fire, he fell asleep and didn’t notice that the fire had gone out before the wafers were baked. The dough rose overnight and in the morning the slave found that what he had was much tastier than the thin wafers. Bread became so popular amongst the ancient Egyptians that they used to bury bread with their departed loved ones, to sustain them on their long journey to the afterlife.

The French baguette (meaning ‘stick’) too has an interesting beginning. In the early 20^th century, bakers sought a way to meet customers’ demands for bread which had the maximum amount of crust, and the elongated loaf was born. Its dimensions, texture and taste are strictly monitored to ensure that every baguette measures up. France has many other varieties of bread, and most of us will remember those famous words attributed to that unfortunate queen, Marie Antoinette, who exhorted her subjects to ‘eat cake’ if they did not have bread.

Ask the students to read about the symbolism inherent in bread in different cultures. A look at any dictionary of idioms will lead them to a wealth of knowledge. Bread has significance beyond nutrition in most cultures. The Eucharist, which symbolizes the body of Christ, is a kind of thin bread. While the Jewish people recall the flight from slavery in Egypt by eating only unleavened bread during Passover, hot cross buns are an important part of Easter festivities. The Lord ’s prayer has the phrase ‘give us this day our daily bread’, and in the Sixties, the hippies used the word ‘bread’ to signify money, a usage that remains current. The communists and the women’s movement both used bread as a powerful symbol of basic needs.

Group work: Get them to find out more about different cultural practices and different uses of terms related to bread across regions, and you will have a series of interesting presentations. One way to do this is to ask the class to work in groups on different regions of the world, and come up with facts and stories that bring out the cultural, economic and political significance of bread in each region.

Light dough to crusty loaf

We all tend to think of all breads as baked, but once we realise that there are so many varieties of this food, it also becomes apparent that there are varieties of bread that are not made in a conventional oven. Get the children to find examples of bread that is not baked. How else can it be made? Introduce them to the idea of fried and steamed breads that are made in the East. How do the texture and taste differ? What are the different processes that are used to make bread?

This would be a good opportunity to introduce the chemical and physical changes that take place in the transition from dough to bread. What role do leavening agents like yeast play in the taste and texture of bread? Yeast has been used to raise dough since ancient times, but other leavening agents have been used as well. Airborne yeasts were used, by leaving dough exposed to the air over time until it had risen sufficiently. The Gauls and Iberians used skimmed beer froth, while in other parts of the world where wine was more commonly consumed, fermented grape juice was used. East Europeans kept back a piece of old dough (sourdough) to use as a ‘starter’ for the next batch of bread dough – much like we use youghurt culture to set curd each day. The sourdough starter is basically a combination of yeast, flour, water and lactobacillus, which lives in symbiosis with the yeast. It has been found that different parts of the world have different strains of lactobacilli, which leads to distinct regional flavours of sourdough bread depending on where it is produced. In India and other parts of the Middle East, sour curd is used to leaven the dough, as in bhaturas and some kinds of nan.

Have the students work in pairs to come up with an illustrated chart of what goes on inside the dough as it prepares to turn into bread! They could have some fun with these charts, animating them with stick figures and cartoon characters.

The style and design of the oven also plays an important role in how the product turns out. The tandoor, for instance, is an interesting variant on the traditional wood oven. How are conventional ovens different from microwaves? Can you bake bread in a microwave? If your school has access to a microwave and a conventional oven, you could try a little experiment to see the difference – or you could ask the children to try it out at home.

Does the shape and thickness of the bread make a difference to how it tastes or feels? Why is it that parathas are round while nan is elongated? Why is it that some breads have crusts while others do not? You can discuss techniques like rolling and kneading and how they impact the quality of the final product. The proportions of different ingredients are crucial to how the bread turns out, and most professional bakers measure by weight rather than volume (known as the Baker’s Percentage), which is the case for most other recipes. If you have a home science programme in your school, you could experiment with different recipes that call for varying amounts of flour, water and other ingredients, and see how they differ. See if the children can come up with variations of common recipes and then write them out in an interesting fashion – organise a bread bulletin board with their original recipes!

And where does it all begin?
The quality and type of wheat is an important consideration in bread making. In musty parts of the west, common wheat is used for bread, while in Europe and some parts of West Asia, other specific varieties of wheat such as durum, emmer and spelt are used. You can talk about the composition of wheat and why it is the most popular base material for bread. Other cereals and grains are also used, such as rye, oats, barley and in Latin America, even corn. Get the children to do a world map based on what kinds of cereals dominate in different parts of the world and what that has to do with the kind of staple food. The Chinese variant of bread, dim sum, is actually a steamed dumpling that uses rice flour. This is an ideal way to go further in the discussion on where bread is most popular and why, and the agricultural and market economics of bread production. If possible invite a professional baker, an agriculturist or a food scientist to talk about the bread making cycle from grain production to marketing.

Over the top
Once baked, bread is used in so many different ways. Sandwiches, open topped and closed, toasted and grilled, hot and cold… and rotis rolled around spicy curries, kathi rolls and puris with alu… pizza base topped with a variety of succulent meats and vegetables… sweet breads, fruit breads, masala buns… and the list goes on. While making bread is in itself an enjoyable activity, it’s equally interesting to see how bread can be dressed up, accessorized and served up to be a bit more than it is! Ask the children how they have their bread, and whether they can come up with new and innovative ways of using bread. Some people would think of bread as a necessary accompaniment to soup or eggs, others would think of toast and butter with tea. What are the children’s favourite ways of having bread? What about bread puddings and other sweet ways of serving bread? This could lead to a lively discussion in class, and perhaps lead into a vocabulary session on words associated with bread and where they come from (sandwich, for instance comes from an English noble from the village of sandwich who ate his bread on the go, with the meat stuck in the middle).

The variety of ways in which bread is made, and the differences in the basic ingredients leads to a huge variety of types of bread. The accompanying poster introduces you to some of the world’s breads, and you can get your students to put together a bread cookbook based on their own research!

Learning by doing is a cliché today; and yet, one can breathe new life into it constantly. It is a proven fact that much of what children need to learn in the primary classes can be imparted through activities. Like most activity-based learning, craft activities help develop various skills such as physical and mental skills, enhance one’s language abilities or help learn concurrently in multiple subject areas. Below are some craft activities (some of which have been selected from the Internet1) around insects, which can be used to link language learning with ‘doing’ math and/or with learning about the world around us.

Activity 1: Colourful caterpillars!

Materials needed:

• Paper plates
• Crayons / colour pencils / paints / markers
• Pencil
• String
• Scissors (Footnotes)

This is an article for subscribers only. You may request the complete article by writing to us at editorial@teacherplus.org.