Counsel the adults first

Children are largely guided by the adults in their lives – the parents and the teachers. As a mental health professional I feel it is essential to talk to these adults in order to reach out to the children. To help a child realise himself, we have to first help the adult recognise his/her concerns, and deal with emotions such as anxiety and anger. Once the parents and teachers are less stressed, I am sure that the children will themselves be less stressed and have better lives.

Anjum Khan, Hyderabad.

Why I don’t read ‘teacher magazines’

I was once asked if I read teacher magazines. My reply was ‘No, I do not, because I seem to have too many interests’. And that, apparently is not too good a thing? A teacher must be seen all the time trying to update herself professionally. I beg to differ.

While it is wonderful to be a teacher and have a class full of eager young children raring to learn, reality hits you when you start teaching a class of 45 young kids, each with different needs. Believe me, they are a treat, sweet, sour and bitter all rolled into one; like wet cement if you please, just waiting for you to go in there and make them into Davids (educationally, mentally and physically).

And where does that leave you at the end of the day? Tired, mentally stressed out. And you realise you still have the note books to correct, make lesson plans and draft question papers. As a wife, mother and homemaker, how much time do you have for yourself? Speaking for myself, very little, and you want me to read a teacher magazine? Standard reply, “Sorry, no time”, the same I say to my kids and husband. And, excuse me, I want to get away from it all even if it is only for a few minutes.

So, teacher magazines? No thank you. I need time for myself.

Rajyalakshmi Marty, Hyderabad.

Kanika was a brilliant student, with a bright future ahead of her. She passed her secondary exam, topping the merit list of the State Board. When she enrolled in the 11^th standard she had to make a choice between the sciences, commerce and the arts. Her parents thought there was only one option for their extraordinary daughter – Science – for wasn’t that the first choice of all intelligent students? Kanika did not interfere with her parents’ decision as she wanted them to be proud of her. Throughout her 11^th standard, however, she struggled to match her 10^th standard results. Although she found the going tough she thought she could do it. But a very rude shock awaited Kanika and her parents. She didn’t make it through in her annual exams!

A devastated Kanika attempted to take her life. It was her teacher who talked to her and helped her rethink the choice she had made, of opting for subjects for which she had no aptitude. The teacher reminded her of the brilliant work she had done in her other subjects. This helped Kanika regain her confidence. Kanika now opted for the Arts and sure enough came out with flying colours in her senior secondary board exam; 2^nd in the merit list!

This true story has a happy ending, but unfortunately there are many that end tragically. The pressure to choose starts early: students are asked to indicate their academic and career interests. It is presumed that they know what they want to study and what career they wish to pursue. Added to that is parental pressure to learn subjects which they assume will allow their children to get into lucrative careers. Who cares about the interest and aptitude of the children?

I was the teacher in this real life story and this incident helped me realise the importance of assisting my students with career counselling and impelled me to pursue a course in guidance and counselling.

Ever since, I have been advising students that before they make a career choice they should consider factors that are likely to influence their decisions or could affect their goals. Answers to their questions will hopefully give them an idea of what career choices they can make. Setting personal goals and learning skills help in making positive career choices.

Today, there are educational counsellors who advise students on educational issues, career planning and personal development and co-ordinate the provision of counselling services to students, parents, teachers, faculty and staff. They are employed by school boards, universities and colleges, technical institutes, correctional facilities and government agencies. Most secondary schools have a counsellor on site, either on a full or part time basis. Primary schools generally have a counsellor/psychologist who visits periodically and whose main role is that of testing and assessment. In primary schools it is teachers who deliver ‘pastoral’ care and children are referred on for counselling, usually in consultation with the child’s parents.

Career counselling helps in areas of study and possible career changes. If individuals experience a personal issue about their future and want to discuss or discover opportunities about their career plans, they can do so with a counsellor. The counsellors are experienced, qualified professionals who understand the difficulties of career choices and can offer appropriate advice to each individual. They will ensure that students set realistic targets for themselves and choose a career to suit their expectations and not others’. Pressure to enter into a career that doesn’t appeal to the child will not motivate her enough to do the job. Counsellors will also make sure the student has as much information as possible about the path she is considering and ensures that it suits her personality.

Career counselling can help to:

• Generate personal plans of action
• Recognise interests, skills and abilities
• Make educated decisions about future direction
• Create a portfolio of abilities
• Explore graduate employment and availability
• Investigate university requirements.

I have always felt that a teacher is a guide or helper in the processes of learning, but his or her role is not limited to academic subjects alone; it includes supporting and mentoring pupils in community roles, life skills and future building. As such, counselling should be an integral part of teacher training. Although there are professional counsellors to advice the students, it’s the teacher who understands his or her students best.

The writer is an educational consultant with Sparsh, a division of SEED Infotech at Pune. She can be reached at shakuntala.jaisinghani@seedinfotech.com.

You get up in the morning with an uneasy feeling that you’ve forgotten to do something, that there are too many things unfinished… sounds disturbingly familiar? You open your closet and find it in disarray… Then you walk into your classroom, only to realise there is less than a month before your class play is to be staged, and there’s so much to do, to plan, to organise!

That’s the key word – organise! So many of us seem to have such a hard time getting our lives together; we see the symptoms of poor organisation in our students as well, so why not tackle the issue head on and talk about it in class? Better still, why not plan a whole project around the topic? This is one theme which connects across subjects, in fact, across all areas of life and living, so finding the interdisciplinarity won’t be a problem.

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Ask some 8 to 10 year-olds what they understand by peace, and the answers you get will make you stop and think. “Uhhh… calm, silent… dullish, a bit boring… not war?.” Now try ‘compassion’ or ‘sensitivity’… . See what I mean?

How can we convey ‘abstract’ concepts to children so that they understand and relate to them? The key seems to lie in imaginative writing that can breathe vibrant life into themes and issues which we all encounter in everyday situations. Stories that have the impact to make children pause and reflect, and perhaps act when opportunities arise. The Karuna Kit, as the name implies, brings together a unique collection of such stories dealing sensitively with enduring values. A total of 16 themes have been identified, and excellent stories and writings by different authors have been compiled to form this kit.

The author teaches at Centre for Learning, Bangalore. She can be reached at usha.mukunda@gmail.com.

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Proficiency in algebra is now considered all important as it forms the basis of higher maths. This being the case, it is important to introduce the subject right from the start – all the way from the primary level.

Middle school maths is generally divided into three sections – arithmetic, algebra and geometry. While the student is familiar with arithmetic and geometry from primary classes, algebra is introduced only from classes 6 and 7. Strangely, or may be not so strangely this seems to be the level where we find a drastic change in grades and children’s attitude towards maths. Further, topics in algebra build up in such quick succession and are sometimes so unconnected that it throws the student into complete confusion. This invariably adds up to fear of the subject itself. The immediate fallout is a desperate search for private tuitions, which often do not seem to help remedy the situation.

Most middle school maths text books will have the chapter ‘Linear Equations’ generally listed immediately after the chapter dealing with the four basic operations in polynomials. We begin working with the solution of simple equations, and here is what we generally encounter:

Exercise 1: x + 3 = 4
x = 4 – 3
Rule: Move 3 to the right side, and change the sign.

Exercise 2: 3x = 18
x = 18/3
Rule: Move 3 to the right side, and divide.

The author can be reached at saroja@gmail.com.

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Children are among the most important assets of a nation. However, while they have become the focal point of development and education policy, effective implementation is necessary for the benefits of these policies to reach every child in India.

Child development policies over the last five decades are enshrined in the following documents: Article 45 of the Indian Constitution; National Policy for Children (1979); National Policy on Education (1986/92); Convention on the Rights of the Child (1992); National Nutrition Policy (1998); National Charter for Children (9^th Plan) and the recent constitutional amendment that makes elementary education a fundamental right. Despite these policy initiatives and large scale ‘Education-for-all’ projects like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, little breakthrough has been made as far as the contextualisation and improvement in the quality of rural elementary education is concerned. The one positive thing that has happened in the years since independence is that access to primary education has improved tremendously. Today there is a primary school within a kilometre or two of practically every habitation.

Good as that is, in more than 80 per cent of rural schools there is just one teacher handling many classes. This sometimes means that students belonging to different grades are forced not just to sit together but to learn the same thing, irrespective of whether they are too old or too young. Thus, the whole system of rural education is designed to fail. Two other factors that contribute to the low quality of rural primary education are alienation of the local community from the school and inappropriate child care and protection both at home and school.

In view of this, a two-pronged strategy is required to improve the quality of life and education of rural primary children:

1. Empowering families and communities to provide adequate care and protection to children;
2. Making education quality-oriented by contextualising child development as well as making communities responsible for their schools.

For small rural schools, an integrated child development initiative is required. The rural schools need a non-graded system with appropriate teaching-learning material and a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:30. The community should be made responsible for the management of such schools including supervision of their mid-day meals. It will also help if empowered mothers’ groups are formed for rural schools. These groups can be educated about family life and child care, thus improving the way a child is cared for. Also, the awareness of government health schemes among such mothers will lead to an increase in their participation in the schemes.

The quality of rural schools should be judged by the enhanced academic achievement levels of children, increased participation of girls in education and successful completion of primary education by all enrolled children. There is a need to couple equity with quality. Unless proper attention is paid to the care and education of rural children, the development and progress of the country will remain biased towards urban society.

The author is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Unfolding Learning Potentials, Jaipur. He can be reached at
lalit_culp@rediffmail.com.

A baby’s first words are mama, dada, tata. As the baby grows older and develops her (his) communication skills you will notice these simple words replaced with the more complex why, what, who and where. It’s not that he wants to know the mystery behind the sky or why he cannot fly. The baby only wants to communicate with his parents. Asking repeated and pointed questions about something and having a parent answer them makes the child happy. He feels that the adults around him are paying attention to him.

Questions at home
As parents, when our children ask us questions we answer as truthfully as we can. But there are times when their questions stump us. I was once visiting a temple situated at the top of a mountain with a friend. My friend’s young daughter wondered why the temple was on a mountain top. My friend asked her daughter to come up with an answer herself. And the daughter said, “The higher the temple, the nearer we are to god since god stays in the sky!” In another instance, a child once asked me, “If a fly does not fly, what should we call it?” How does one answer such questions? Parents have to practice patience and learn the knack of giving smart and quick answers. Any delay arouses suspicion in a child. Are you making up an answer or telling them the truth? And beware, children are smart enough to catch you lying. Kanmani Buddhi, a professor and mother of two, says, Grandparents or other elders in the family can play an important role to satisfy the curiosity of the child. This helps the child connect with people other than his own parents.

Questions at school
Unfortunately this enthusiasm for questions dies when the child starts school. At school he/she is expected to answer all questions from the teacher. He is hardly given the opportunity to question when he has doubts. He is afraid of the reaction his questions may evoke in the class. And he is unsure of the teacher’s response. Often the teacher has limited time to complete the syllabus and she does not want to waste it by answering questions. Some students are shy and though they may have doubts, they prefer to ask their classmates or their parents instead of the teacher. Though the Internet can satisfy curiosity, this should be an option only in higher classes.

The teaching-learning process
Teachers are trained to frame questions for the lessons they teach. These questions test comprehension skills, analytical thinking and reasoning. A teacher judges the child’s intelligence by his capacity to answer these questions. And when she doesn’t get appropriate responses, she understands that the lesson has not been properly understood. If students are given the freedom to ask question as the lesson proceeds, the teacher can clear the doubts. With students participating more eagerly, the class will become more interesting. First, curiosity should be evoked by the teacher. And when the lesson is over, students should be encouraged to ask questions to know more about the topic.

Intellectual growth
According to Nandini Nayar, children’s writer and parent, “Asking a question not only requires the intelligence to recognise a lacuna in knowledge and seek to fill it, it also requires the courage to stand up in front of the entire class and voice it.” When there is a positive reaction to the question, the child feels happy. Not only is his curiosity satisfied, he is encouraged to ask more questions. When a child is brusquely told to sit down and his question is ignored, it can make him feel small. This also conveys the message that his questions are unimportant and unless he is a very determined child, it is more than likely that he will not voice any more questions in the future.

The teacher’s role
The teacher has a big role to play in ensuring a child’s intellectual growth. He or she has to encourage the child to question. When a child asks a thought-provoking question, the teacher should acknowledge it. Sharada Ramachandran, a primary school teacher, says, “When a student asks a question, I challenge the student and also the class to come up with an answer. I always appreciate a good question. There are some students who tend to ask irrelevant questions. For them I emphasise good listening skills.” Let us not label any student who constantly questions as a trouble-maker. Instead, help him understand that he cannot interrupt the class. Only when a paragraph is over and the teacher pauses can the student seek permission to clear his doubts. Cheryl Rao, a writer and a former teacher, says that a question hour should be set aside every week for the students; a question box to drop in questions will also help the very shy students clear their doubts.

Spirit of enquiry
In today’s scenario, skills such as communication, self-confidence, leadership, etc., are the need of the hour. A quiet student who doesn’t open his mouth may be in the good books of the teacher, but that quality may not lead him anywhere. Constant questioning will open and widen his horizons. Gone are the days when children who questioned were looked upon as rude. Today’s children are intelligent and cannot take things for granted. Teaching should be an interactive session of give and take. Some of the world’s greatest discoveries started with an innocent question, “Why does an apple fall on to the ground and not go up?” Who knows, a budding Newton may be sitting right there in front of you with questions popping up in his mind. Don’t discourage him. Let him question.

The author is a freelance writer and conducts soft skill programmes for school students in Hyderabad. She can be reached at radhika_writer@yahoo.co.in.

Anyone would think a playground is a harmless place. But it is the most common place for injuries considering that children are energetic and carefree when on a playground. Children need all the physical and mental stimulation they get through play. Therefore, when providing natural play environments for children, safety is of paramount importance.

Every year more than 20,000 cases of playground injuries are reported in the United States. There is no such data available for any of the developing countries, including India. However, according to a study on parental awareness of childhood injuries published in the Indian Journal of Pediatrics, the most common cause for injuries among children in India is – falls. The study further says that the maximum number of children vulnerable to injuries during play is between 5 and 14 years of age.

Many of the injuries that occur during play are easily preventable. The playground can be checked for likely dangers that can cause accidents. Adult supervision is a pre-requisite for younger children who are unable to foresee hazards during play. Older children too are at risk when they try to show off to their friends or test their own limits while negotiating the bars of a jungle gym or other play equipment.

Responsibilities of the PE teacher
Playground management is one of the many responsibilities of a PET (Physical Education Teacher). Playground management includes designing the playground, spacing the equipment, and maintenance and routine inspection.

A typical school playground consists of courts, fields, tracks, and play equipment like slides, swings, jungle gyms, etc. Designing a playground effectively ensures that it engages the children in activities with minimum fuss and offers them maximum pleasure.

Ensuring age appropriate play spaces is an important aspect of playground management. Play areas for pre-school and older children should be separate. Since the equipment is likely to be different it follows that the play areas will be demarcated.

Children should also have opportunities for socialising while playing. Explaining the importance of safety to children and supervising them during play is one of the duties of the PET.

Regular ground maintenance is a must. This includes rolling the ground and marking lines on courts and athletic tracks. Watering and rolling the ground makes the ground firm and prevents dust from rising when children play. Removing debris from the ground is important, hence it may need sweeping occasionally.

Care of play equipment like bats, balls, hockey sticks, nets, etc., also come under the purview of the PET and due care needs to taken while storing these. Children themselves could be involved when a bat, racquet or a net needs to be repaired.

Play surface
The play surface has a crucial role in reducing injuries during play. Concrete and blacktop road surfaces are the hardest and unfit for children to play. Pediatricians say that a fall on to a hard concrete surface even from a height of one foot can cause a fatal head injury in a child. Plain ground is often good enough for children to play football, hockey or cricket on, but as it raises a lot of dust, it needs regular watering and rolling. Grass, on the other hand, is softer and reduces the impact of falls, but involves a cost factor and regular mowing. The play area must also be free of standing water.

Play equipment
Play equipment must be inspected often for wear and tear and other potential hazards like loose ropes and loose links in chains. Check for any hooks that are likely to catch children’s clothing and cause a possible fall. Fall zones should be cushioned with appropriate material.

There should be plenty of room around the equipment to allow for moving parts and getting on and off. Swings must be placed at least two feet apart with clear space of four to five feet around. There should be only one swing per bay. There should be enough room at the base of a slide for a child to land in, with a bank of soft sand or a grassy patch at the bottom. It may be a good idea to display illustrated safety instructions near the equipment, for example:

• No standing on swings.
• Slide feet first.
• No pushing and shoving on the jungle gyms or slides.
• No climbing from the guard rails, etc.

Field management
During the games period there is likely to be a big group of children on the field, anywhere between 20 and 50 at least. To ensure that the games period passes peacefully the teacher has to make sure that the children use the entire play area and don’t huddle in a small part of it.

Colourful carefully spaced marking that includes numbers, letters grids and various geometric shapes can be used to delineate play areas. Not only are they attractive, they also give the playground a cheerful look. This actually ensures that children do not injure themselves during play. Organised play areas can also reduce scope for bullying and other confrontations during play.

Hazards from trees
Keep an eye out for tree roots, stumps and rocks. Heights of trees can be an issue if children play in the ground. Climbing trees is an experience all children cherish. Therefore, trees in the playground must be inspected for potential risks. Dead branches must be cut and removed. If the branches of the tree are far apart, it may be unsafe for children to climb the tree. Such trees should be cordoned off with a notice that says, ‘This tree is unsafe for climbing’. Check for roots, re-sprouting from stumps and the growing pattern of the tree. If the lower braches seem too weak, it may be wiser to prune them.

Conflict resolution
Confrontations, even physical fights, on the playground are common as children are still learning to play by the rules. The PET is more often than not settling disputes among children. It would be a good investment of time if he could work out strategies for conflict resolution and brief the children in one class.

Safe and unsafe dares
Children should also be made aware of dares. Children, for instance, wouldn’t think twice before daring one another to jump off the topmost branch of a tree. They should be made aware of the danger involved in such foolish dares. For instance, as children during the 1972 Indo-Pak war, our favourite pastime was to climb trees. Due to the war, our play had a patriotic flavour and we would dare our friends to climb up the highest branch and urge them to jump. “Jump, jump, you can do anything for your country.” Luckily, we were duly chastised by an observant adult before anyone attempted the jump.

Having said that, risk taking is a skill learnt easily on the playground, hence safe dares should be allowed. To prevent injuries to children, the PET could also guide them, perhaps teach them to jump the right way, and if they are old enough to understand, explain how leg muscles work and get injured. A PET could also draw a list of rules for play – no name calling, no pushing and shoving on the jungle gym, etc. It may also be helpful to give them simple advice on how to be a good sport – ‘Do not boast when you win and do not make excuses when you lose’.

Activities on safety
To make the class more aware of the importance of safety, one games period could be used to conduct a quiz, e.g. ‘How safety minded are you?’ Get children to make charts on topics like safety when climbing trees, safety when walking on the road, safety when swimming, safety for scouts and guides, first aid, being a good sport, etc. The PET could also assign a group of students to take turns at being ‘safety reps’ of their class, and train these children in basic first aid as well.

It is important to achieve the right balance in providing safe as well as stimulating and exploratory play areas. Children’s safety is a pre-requisite to play and no measure is too great to ensure their play is free of accidents.

The author is a freelance writer based in Hyderabad. She can be reached at sujata117@yahoo.co.uk.

Every part of India has its traditional cool drink to beat the heat. In Goa, it is kokum juice, while in Uttar Pradesh it is khus and nimbu paani (fresh lemonade). Khus or vetiver is also used in the straw mats that are strung outside doors and windows to keep homes cool, emitting an earthy fragrance when splashed with water. Mint, or pudina, grows profusely in the summer and is used not only to add flavour to fruit juices but also for its cooling properties. Rose extract, or gulkhand, also cools the system and aids digestion in the hot summer months, and is taken by itself or with pan. Thandai (which literally means ‘coolant’), a mixture of almonds, melon seeds, saffron, rose petals, fennel and cardamom, is also used in milk or as a sherbet. Jal Jeera, a favourite in North India, is a spicy mixture of cumin powder, rock salt, pepper, and sometimes, dry mango powder. It used both as a digestive and a coolant. Kanji, a Kashmiri drink made of turnips, is perhaps an acquired taste but those who have grown up on it would swear by its remarkable properties.

In Tamil Nadu, ‘panakam’, jaggery water flavoured with cardamom and dry ginger powder, heralds the start of summer. Raw mangoes are used to make ‘kairi panna’, a sweet-sour drink that is a favourite across the country, flavoured variously with elaichi, black salt and jaggery. ‘Sabja’ or ‘balanga’ seeds (sweet basil) are found in local markets and used to make summer staples – homes would have whole clay pots of cool water with these seeds soaked in them, to which a twist of lime, rose syrup or a sprig of mint is added for flavour. Sweet basil seeds are also used to cure dyspepsia and form a base for rooh afza, a popular summer drink said to have been brought to India by the Persians. And of course there is the ever popular lassi and its variants – chaachch in the west, neer moru or salla in the South – and enjoyed both sweet and salted!

A couple of months ago, while writing about culinary insults (Teacher Plus, March), I had concluded the article by saying that in the next instalment I would explain, or at least attempt to explain, why Americans are called ‘Yankees’ and the English, ‘Limeys’. I forgot, and so did the readers and the Editor of this magazine. There was no letter of rebuke from the wielder of the blue pencil, nor was there a litany of complaints from angry readers saying that the suspense of not knowing the origin of these two words was playing havoc with their rather delicate digestive system. Since no one waited for the next instalment of the magazine with bated breath, I guess there is no need for me to apologise. So without further ado, let me fulfil a promise that I had made.

Americans are known throughout the world as ‘Yankees’ or ‘Yanks’, and as everyone is aware, this epithet is not always used as a term of endearment. The origin of this term is shrouded in mystery. According to some scholars, there are as many as 20 different theories to account for this word. The one thing that everyone agrees on, however, is that the first ‘Yankees’ were not Americans! In the late 1600s, the Dutch were derisively called ‘Yankees’ by the Germans and Flemish. Interesting to note, isn’t it, that the terms ‘frog’ and ‘Yankee’ were first applied to the Dutch and not the French and the Americans as they are now. You begin to wonder why the poor Dutch were despised so much.

The name ‘John’ is quite common all over Europe, but the manner in which this name is pronounced depends on which part of the continent you are from. The Dutch, for instance, pronounce it ‘Yan’, and not ‘John’. According to some scholars, the second half of ‘Yankees’ is derived from the word ‘kaas’, meaning ‘cheese’. The word ‘Yankees’, therefore, literally means ‘John cheese’. You may wonder why ‘cheese’? For all ‘paneer’ lovers, the answer is fairly obvious; the Dutch are masters in the art of making different varieties of this edible substance. Every Dutchman was seen as a Johnny who made cheese! With the passage of time, however, the word ‘Yankee’ became rather restricted in its meaning; it was used to refer Dutch pirates rather than all Dutchmen. When America was discovered and many people of Dutch origin settled down in the colony of New England, they were derisively nicknamed ‘Yankees’ by the English. During the fight for independence in the late 18^th century, American soldiers adopted this term of derision as a term of national pride. They began to call themselves Yankees and the song ‘Yankee Doodle’, which was originally written by an English doctor to poke fun at the colonial (American) troops, became a source of inspiration; it became the marching soldiers’ anthem.

During the American Civil War (1861-65) ‘Yankee’ became a term of contempt within the United States. People living in the southern states of America, those who were in favour of slavery, disdainfully referred to their northern counterparts as ‘Yankees’. Those who lived in the south called themselves ‘Confederates’. Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler in the novel ‘Gone with the Wind’ were Confederates. This distinction remained for quite some time. It was only during World War II that all Americans, irrespective which region they came from, began to be called ‘Yankees’ or ‘Yanks’.

While most nicknames were determined by what individuals ate – spaghetti (Italians), frogs (French), cabbage (Germans) – sometimes, it was what they drank that determined what they were called. The case of the English being called ‘Limeys’ is one such example. The English, as everyone knows, loved to sail; but the problem with being out at sea for too long was that people developed scurvy. This Vitamin C deficiency it usually resulted in sailors having spots on their skin, spongy and bleeding gums, etc. In order to protect its men from this common disease, the British Navy in 1795 ordered its sailors to drink lots of lime juice. The Australians and the Americans began to contemptuously refer to all English sailors as ‘Lime juicers’; later this was reduced to ‘Limeys’. With the passage of time, the epithet began to be applied to all Englishmen.

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