But what does it mean?

Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize brought an important issue into the limelight – climate change and global warming, interrelated issues that have taken up a lot of space and time in the mass media. The former US Vice President Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” did its bit to raise awareness and rekindle debate about the causes and consequences of environmental change. The fact that an Indian scientist, Dr R K Pachauri, is leading the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) created ripples of interest in the topic across India as well.

The debate may not have escaped the attention of your students – many young people are extremely passionate about environmental issues and it is not difficult to excite their interest in things that (it is clear) will affect their access to natural resources in the not too distant future. As they prepare for the summer holidays, get them thinking how lifestyle changes have impacted their immediate environment and how these changes in turn have led to changes in the way we live, work and travel. Earth Day (observed by the United Nations on the spring equinox, March 22, and by several environmental groups on April 22) occurs right in the middle of examination season or the beginning of the holidays so it is often difficult to plan an event on the day. The next best thing therefore is to give students something to think about on Earth Day and carry it through as an activity during the summer holidays. If they are in class 9 going into the 10th, this could be one of their final year projects for Environmental Education, which is now a compulsory subject in most boards. It could also form the basis for an introductory discussion on environmental change, as this is the focus of much of the EVE syllabus.

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As a special educator, I find it inspiring to see what happens when we don’t divide people. Recently, I went to a birthday party of a 6-year-old and was overwhelmed to see how all kinds of children (differently-abled and normal) mixed with each other. They seemed to be telling each other, whether you can talk (and how you talk) or not has nothing to do with whether you’re my friend. They accepted their friends for who they were and seemed to share incredible relationships.

As adults and caretakers, what can we do to further such behaviour? The dice should start rolling with the administrators, who have to provide the impetus and support to make inclusive education happen. Along with their staff and parents, administrators need to plan and have a vision to provide equal educational opportunities to all students. As a first step, they can facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration. Staff training, continuing education, and ongoing professional development opportunities are the next step. Administrators can support teachers in inclusive schools by providing in- service training that addresses teacher-identified needs, employing competent personnel to deliver the training, offering incentives to educators to participate, using diverse methods, and coordinating the training with other districts or institutions.

Parent education is key to helping parents realise the value of inclusive education. Parents whose children are normal may question the academic validity of inclusive education. They may feel that their children will not make the same academic gains in an inclusive setting as in a rigorous academic class. Research, however, shows the opposite is true. While many parents may not like an active classroom and may think their children are not able to learn in such an environment, studies show that few students consider an inclusive setting disruptive.

On the other hand, parents of students with disabilities are most concerned that their child will be teased or harmed and not be safe in an ordinary school. In almost every instance, after two years of integrated education, this is not a problem or is a minor one.

Parents may support inclusive education once they understand one of its goals is to keep students in their neighborhood school, a school where siblings may attend. This makes it easier for parents who may be more comfortable becoming part of a school community that they already know.

How can schools work with parents toward inclusive settings? Schools need to involve parents actively in their child’s education and future. Both parents and teachers need to understand that children with special needs have to be able to practise what they learn at home in school and vice versa. For instance, a child who has learnt to do something independently at school must be given an opportunity to do it at home as well. We need to be sure, too, that students work on vocational skills for after-school years along with academic skills. There is research and evidence for us to know what works and what doesn’t. Educators need to share that information with parents.

We need to turn schools into communities that support children. Once we create good schools, inclusion will happen.

The author is Special Educator at the British Institute of Learning Development, Dubai. She can be reached at rodrigremy@yahoo.com.

Every year as the school season begins, my search for a child who can help me better myself also begins.

Take the last academic year, for instance. At the beginning of the year, I met Nikita – a child who was loquaciously quiet, actively inattentive and confidently nervous. It was these antithetical qualities that drew me to her. I started thinking of ways of bringing about a positive change in her and for this I needed assistance from her peers, parents, teachers and above all, from Nikita herself.

I knew it was going to be a Herculean task, but what would life be without challenges? With all the help I received, days of pondering and plodding, and gate-crashing the resource room, I reached somewhere. But this was a slow and gradual process. There were several times I was ready to give up, several times I thought this was not my cup of tea, eight months in hand will not be enough, whether the endeavour would make any difference, and if yes, would it last?

I wanted to start with my strategies, but I had to gauge the child’s capabilities and limitations. I didn’t want to just thrust my expectations on her for I feared failure. “Strive harder,” was the voice that came from within. I firmly believe that hard work supplemented with perseverance does not go waste. I saw the word ‘impossible’ smiling at me, but I was going to prove it wrong. Nikita slowly began understanding words that she couldn’t decipher earlier.

After months of training, Nikita scored an 18 out of 20, where she had begun with one out of 20. I ran mid-lecture with her answer sheet to my colleague Neha to share the achievement. How proud we felt… for it was not the words she got right that mattered but the potential that we discovered. Every child, in my opinion has potential. They just need good soil (guidance) and unblocked sunshine (understanding) to bloom. Today, Nikita is doing well, by her own standards!

With every new child I meet, my belief that, “Everything comes to those who have the patience and fortitude to wait for them,” becomes stronger. Over the years, the innumerable kids that I have met, spoken to, learnt from have taught me, “No matter how often you use the same brushes or paints, each canvas will be different.”

My search continues….

Roselin Anthony teaches at Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya, Mumbai. She can be reached at dsrv_m@bcgschools.org.

Kindergarten and lower primary teachers know how much children enjoy taking things apart, getting their fingers messy, and cutting and tearing paper. There’s usually no dearth of paper of all sorts in a primary classroom – newspaper, chart paper, crepe paper and construction paper in many hues – so why not put it to good use?

Tearing is an activity that puts to use gross and fine motor skills. When a paper is torn without purpose, it still does exercise the wrist and finger muscles, as the activity requires a child to hold the paper in a certain way, pull in a given direction and apply pressure differentially as the tearing proceeds – all of which happens unconsciously, of course. But purposive paper tearing can become quite a creative activity, if children are directed just a little bit. Tearing doesn’t have to be restricted to enthusiastic four and five-year-olds. There’s a lot that even older children can learn from the activity. As in any craft activity, it’s important to keep the direction adequate but minimal so that the children can discover techniques on their own and surprise us with their ideas!

Tearing activities can proceed from tearing coloured paper for use in framing and pasting to making progressively more complicated shapes. The French, the Japanese and the Chinese have forms of art that are based on paper tearing. The French call it ‘dechirage’ (from chirer, which means to tear), a way of forming a collage using shapes torn rather than cut from paper. The Japanese form, which is often used to decorate fans, is called Chigirie. In China, this now almost forgotten art is called Si zhi.

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School is not just about giving children boxed lessons in a selected set of subjects. It is a place where children acquire important life skills, and perhaps the only place where such skills can be introduced in a planned and caring manner, where mistakes can be made and discussed. This project is a departure from most carried earlier in Teacher Plus, in that it relates to no specific subject but cuts across several in a manner that relates not to examinations, but to life. It could become part of a series of SUPW activities, or a series of discussions in assembly leading to individually-driven activities, or even integrated into an economics, social studies or mathematics class. We all agree money is important, more so today than ever before in history, and we need to understand it. So why not begin in school?

The last decade has seen a vast change in the way we live, work, think about and use money. This period has seen a significant section of the population making millions out of an idea, and at the same time a record number of lay-offs, shut downs and bankruptcies. The job market has become flexible, as there has been a steep rise in the number of professionally qualified youth along with a demand for more and more workers with certain specific skills. Young people with a reasonable education have access to jobs that pay more than their parents could ever dream of, and as a consequence at a very young age have the means to material comforts unthought of just one generation ago.

In such a context, it is imperative that children understand money and gain some level of skill in personal financial management. We have been acquiring financial skills by a trial and error method. But in today’s flexible labour market, with widespread and easy access to loans and credit, and cash-less shopping – all against a backdrop of aggressive advertising – we need to go beyond trial and error to a deliberate education in managing money.

Swapna Mirashi conducts financial literacy workshops for school students and teachers. She can be reached at swapnak@rediffmail.com. See also www.swami4kids.com.

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The World Wide Web is a tool with immense potential; it allows for collaboration and sharing information in a way that was never possible before. This has strong implications for people in the information and knowledge ‘business’ – whether you are a teacher, a journalist, a researcher or whatever else. In what way can educators in India benefit from its multiple possibilities? Here are some suggestions:

Frederick Noronha is a Goa-based journalist who been on the Net since 1994, and believes in sharing information and other digital ‘assets’. He can be reached at fredericknoronha@gmail.com.

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Although the Bible tells you to love your neighbour, there are times when you find it humanly impossible to do so. Thinking of the ‘boor’ living next to you is enough to stem the flow of the milk of human kindness that is supposedly running through all of us. When you dislike the person staying next to you, everything he does or doesn’t do becomes a major source of irritation. Sometimes, in your anger, you begin to call him names – these nicknames could be based on his physical appearance, his idiosyncrasies, why, they could even be based on what he eats!

When I was in school, I used to be frequently called ‘curd rice’ because I was a ‘Madrasi’. I used to retaliate by calling my friends from North India ‘chapathi brain’. These types of culinary insults are common even now; they are not only exchanged between people living in the same country, but also between people of different countries. Very often, what we eat tells other people who we are. To our enemies, we are what we eat. Let’s take a look at how the English refer to their fellow members of the European Union.

We normally reserve our intense hatred for those who are our immediate neighbours. I guess this explains why the English have such contempt for the French. They refer to them as ‘frogs’, not because they think their neighbours look like one, but because they are in the habit of eating certain parts of this particular amphibian. For the French, a frog’s leg is a delicacy; something to be relished. The Englishman, brought up on a staple diet ‘fish and chips’ and beef, finds the idea of chewing on any part of a frog practically revolting. Considering the fact that historically the two countries have always been at loggerheads, it is not surprising that the English do not find anything redeeming in a Frenchman. Seen through English eyes, the French are undependable, promiscuous people, who are in the habit of swearing all the time. English idioms with the word ‘French’ in them are seldom complimentary: French letter (contraceptive), French leave (leave without permission), and pardon my French (excuse my swearing) are just a few examples.

Interestingly enough, before the French were called ‘frogs’, the sobriquet was applied to the Dutch. The name was given to them not because frog legs were part of their menu, but because like frogs they lived in swamps – for the English, Holland was nothing more than swampland. Nowadays, the Dutch are referred to as ‘butter box’. Like the French, the Dutch weren’t thought of very highly by the English. Just look at the idioms containing the word ‘Dutch’, they are not complimentary at all. A ‘Dutch treat’ is no treat, a ‘Dutch auction’ is one where the bidding comes down instead of going up, and ‘Dutch courage’ is the false courage that one gets when one has had a little too much to drink.

If you ask me, Adolf Hitler is a much misunderstood man. Here was someone with a funny looking moustache who went about convincing the rest of his countrymen that it was time for the Germans to reinvent themselves; that there was an urgent need to create a superior Aryan race. Wouldn’t you and I try to do the same thing if the rest of the world referred to us as ‘cabbage’? Don’t get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with this noble vegetable, but it lacks the appeal of an aubergine or okra. It is perhaps the humblest of all vegetables, too common and just too plain; and to call a proud Teuton, not just a ‘cabbage’, but a ‘sour cabbage’ is enough to make his blood boil. Now, why were the Germans given this unfortunate nickname? The answer once again goes back to their eating habits; the ‘sauerkraut’, meaning ‘sour cabbage’ was one of their favourite dishes. During World War II, German soldiers were contemptuously referred to as ‘Krauts’ by the Allies.

Since the Italians were tied to Hitler’s apron strings during the war, it is not surprising that they are nicknamed ‘strings’ – as you probably know, the word ‘spaghetti’ means ‘strings’. (Now do you understand why Congressmen are tied to Sonia’s?) The English and the Americans call the Italians ‘spaghetti’ or ‘macaroni’ because these are two of their favourite dishes. Ever wonder why Clint Eastwood’s ‘A Few Dollars More’ and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ are called ‘spaghetti westerns’? The films were made by Italians.

Why are Americans called ‘Yankees’ and the English ‘limeys’? More about it, later.

S Upendran teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. He can be reached at supendran@gmail.com.

When I say Hyderabad has it all and I enjoy a terrific time here, I meet with quite a few surprised looks. “What say you of the traffic?” they ask. It rocks, I say. When I say it rocks, I mean it rocks, for tell me what other issue has become such a fixation with us? It is traffic that rules all spheres of our life and conversation and has brought about so much understanding, empathy and goodwill amongst us.

Forgive me if my stance seems a bit off-centre, but I maintain that a traffic jam is a phenomenon with a binding influence. Frankly, what other occasion besides cricket binds people together the way a traffic jam does? Anybody (and you could be sure it is everybody) having experienced the pangs of being stuck in a traffic jam is able to sympathise and empathise with another in the same predicament.

The blessings of a traffic jam were revealed unto me, as I sat in my car one day and philosophised on what God could mean by fixing me in one, just a stone’s throw from my home. These things are sent to us for some good purpose, I told myself; no doubt they make us better people! As I set out to ponder on this, I was witness to a truly commendable spirit of comradeship. People from different walks and very different social strata had gathered to take up the job of easing the jam we were packed in. Watching them work I was thrilled to see their amazing cooperation and superbly co-ordinated efforts in coping with the situation. When, I asked myself was the last time I had seen such a seamless bit of work?

Blame a jam on the economic boom, population explosion, lack of civic sense or better still on the autowalla, the fruit vendor or the stray cat, the fact remains, traffic jams are a sign of our times and are here to stay. I offer no justification for them, nor do I have a viable solution to avoiding a jam, leave alone getting out of one, but I truly vouch for their absolute even-handedness. A traffic jam is as much a traffic jam for the loaded as it is for the broke, it is as much a traffic jam for the capitalist as it is for a communist, and as much a jam to a grandmother as it is to her grandchild. Now here is a phenomenon that transcends all boundaries and is plain justice come to life.

No, I wouldn’t go so far as to say let’s work towards creating better and greater traffic jams. All I say is go a bit soft on them, because sometimes they make us do things we wouldn’t have done in a lifetime. They make us better and greater beings, they test our patience, teach us endurance, develop tolerance, help us understand and relate to people and give us a common cause to think and work on.

Even the age-old bitterness between bosses and workers, husbands and wives and hosts and guests is about to grow into a more loving and understand bond, where if one says ‘I was in a jam’ the other will answer ‘I understand’. Been there, done that!

Just as the saying goes, ‘Into each life some rain must fall,’ so goes, ‘Into each life some jam must come’, and if you live in Hyderabad, so it shall!

Zeba can be reached at zeba_117@yahoo.co.in.

Two, the article “I plagiarise, therefore I am’ seemed redundant because the editorial also spoke about the same issue. And I felt the tone of the article (‘the know-all writers/editors’) would only discourage people from writing for Teacher Plus… which is not in the best interest of the magazine.

Sadhana Ramchander, Hyderabad.

Too harsh on teachers
I went through your January issue and I think just too much is being made of plagiarism. I agree it is an important and crucial issue but the Last Word by Pawan Singh is uncalled for. The article is too harsh on teachers and is written without giving a thought to whether we need to criticise teachers or educate them on plagiarism. Let’s not forget that schools and teachers in India are still on a learning curve. I have been associated with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education for over 6 years now and have clearly realised that teachers and schools need to be educated about technology.

As a magazine for teachers, your role should be to educate, educate and educate. Maybe all these instances were not intentional. Let’s treat teachers as learners only. Maybe a better approach could have been adopted in the article.

I am hurt because I have great regard for the teacher community and I work very closely with them.

Narinder Bhatia, Gurgaon.