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

Sometimes we make incorrect judgments about people because of wrong assumptions and expectations. When we expect something and don’t get it, we find it difficult to accept and as a result, direct our anger at people who don’t have anything to do with these expectations. This happens to many of us in our homes, workplaces or elsewhere and causes psychological and sociological problems affecting individuals and communities. We can help our children in averting such problems later on in their lives, if we teach science more carefully than we are currently doing.

One of the most important aims of teaching Science is to inculcate a scientific attitude in children so that children can approach real-life problems with ease and try to work out solutions. Any research on good practices in the field of education will show that children who develop a scientific attitude during their student years approach any situation or process objectively and make decisions carefully by considering all possibilities and develop into good members of the community. An important ingredient of scientific attitude is the willingness to accept the `unexpected’. It is important that we train our children to have an open mind. How can we achieve this? This article gives one solution.

It was the year 1990. Although I was a Physics teacher, I had to teach middle school biology (as part of the integrated science course), due to a shortage of qualified science teachers in Botswana, at that time. (I remember Zabine Feezer, a colleague, needing my assistance when she had to teach Ohm’s law or my requiring her help when teaching the Nitrogen Cycle. In fact, that was the first time that I realized what `team teaching’ was all about, although I had studied it during my B.Ed course years before). Although I found it a bit difficult to teach biology for the first time in a classroom, I could easily overcome the pressure, by going back to the high school textbooks I had used in my school days, trying out the textbook activities myself and referring to contemporary material. Besides, thanks to the British Council Library, I could borrow very good curricular videos and sci-fi films such as `Fantastic Voyage’ for use in my classroom.

I developed almost all science activities in such a manner that they included the skill of `predicting’. My students identified this as an important skill that would help them become scientists who make hypotheses or effective people who can approach problems in real life situations in a pragmatic manner.

Once I had to teach “Transportation of Water in Plants” to my middle school science students. I developed my lesson material to include a hands-on activity written like a worksheet as follows:

1. Take a transparent plastic cup or container (plastic is better than glass as the latter can cause injury if it breaks).
2. Pour some water and mix some food coloring to it.
3. Dip a leafy stalk of spinach into the water.
4. Leave it for about 4 hours.
5. Soon after dipping the stalk into the water, study the following statements and put a √ mark to show your choice:
• At the end of 4 hours, there will not be any change in the color of the stalk or the leaves.
• At the end of 4 hours, there will be a change in the color of the stalk or the leaves.
6. At the end of 4 hours, observe the stalk and leaves of the plant.
7. What do you observe?
8. Take the stalk out and cut it across. Observe the cross-section of the stalk.
9. What do you observe?
10. Explain the reason.

Emotional problems in children can be prevented if schools use textbooks that enable teachers to develop pedagogically sound classroom processes that will train children to think in the right direction. This means that textbooks should be written accordingly. I place emphasis on textbooks here, because in countries like India, almost all classroom processes are based on what textbooks say. Teachers very seldom have the time to make children think beyond the textbooks (for reasons such as substitution work and administrative responsibilities). Besides, they are under pressure to `cover’ the `portions’ by the most influential stakeholders in the system: parents, school managements and examinations boards. In India, textbook contents are written in accordance with syllabus frameworks prescribed by government agencies and by private agencies such as The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations. Well-defined syllabi and carefully developed textbooks can prevent a cascade of problems.

But, as our syllabi do not adequately emphasize precise skills, the lessons in our textbooks reflect this deficiency clearly. (For example see box, pg.15).

As a professional who has worked in textbook publishing in the private sector, I have found the same situation there as well. There are exceptions in both cases, but they are very marginal.

Science activities that include the `prediction’ component encourage children to be pragmatic in problem solving approaches and train them to be creative individuals who can accept the unexpected, and are flexible enough to adapt themselves as good members of the community. Textbook publishers have an important role to play in this direction. Well-developed textbooks can do well in the global playing field.

“Research on student learning indicates that a cycle of prediction, observation and then explanation promotes student learning” – Tobin K, Tippins T J and Gallard A J: Handbook of Research in School Teaching and Learning: Macmillan, New York: 1994.

What does the stem do?

In India, the central government and state governments run their own schools. It is mandatory for government schools to use textbooks developed by their respective government agencies. National Council of Educational Research and Training develops textbooks for use in central schools all over the country (and abroad) and The Tamilnadu Textbook Corporation, a Unit of the state government of Tamilnadu, develops textbooks for use in government schools in Tamilnadu. Similarly there are agencies associated with each state government to bring out textbooks for use in their schools.

Transportation of water in plants is taught in grade 6 in central schools. What follows is an excerpt from the grade 6 NCERT textbook (http://www.ncert.nic.in/textbooks/testing/Index.htm).

“We would require a glass, water, red ink, a herb, and a blade for this activity. Pour water to fill one-third of the glass. Add a few drops of red ink to the water. Cut the base of the stem of the herb and put it in the glass as shown in the figure.

Observe it the next day. Do any of the parts of the herb appear to have red colour? If yes, how do you think the colour reached there? You can cut the stem across and look for the red colour inside the stem.

From this activity we see that water moves up the stem. In other words, stem conducts water. Just like the red ink, minerals dissolved in water also move up in the stem, along with the water”.

The same concept is taught in grade 4 in the Tamilnadu government schools. As the textbook contents are available only in Tamil and other regional languages, they could not be excerpted for this article. However, you may view the contents at
http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/Books/04/Std04-ESSc-TM.pdf. In neither lesson is there an option for children to `predict’.

The author is currently a freelance writer and has formerly been the Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Government of Cambodia. He can be reached at panamalairguruprasad@gmail.com.

It has often been asked if art can be taught. Can you teach someone to become a painter, a sculptor, an actor or a musician? Or are children gifted and talented and it merely has to be identified and nurtured? This seemingly complex question would probably find an answer if one tried to understand the objective of an art form.

In today’s increasingly consumerist society career options for young adults lie in avenues that are likely to maximize financial returns, be it with any compromise. Hence, these ‘yet to be made’ decisions directly influence the time children invest in learning, apart from ‘swallowing information’. The general reactions and attitude towards an art class today, range from ‘how is this important… what relevance does this have?’ to saying ‘this is an urban thing…. an indulgence… there are better things to learn… this is such a waste of time…’

Should the purpose of an art class be only to churn out artists of tomorrow or can the purpose of interaction with art take deeper significance? Should an art class be all about the right design for the right product that will sell in a market or can an art class be the road to refinement of the aesthetics of human consciousness?

The art of theatre
It is said that where there are two people in a common place and there exists a conflict between them, the magic of theatre happens. Theatre is all about interaction and communication. What distinguishes it from all the other art forms is its composite nature, for it combines in itself drama, writing, song, music, dance, painting, architecture, sculpture and so on. And the art of theatre has been reaching out to children in many forms.

Theatre for children is a format in which adults come together to put up plays for children. Adults plan and enact roles of other adults, children or even imaginary characters for an audience of children, who are also entertained, as some important idea or message is being conveyed to them.

In theatre by children, adults plan but it is the children who enact a play for others. Popularly this is where parents and teachers feel that hidden talents are unleashed and children find a platform for creative expression.

Some schools do offer theatre as a subject of study where various aspects of performance history, and developments are studied and performance texts are analyzed; however, the theatre in education format looks at the possibilities of theatre becoming a technique to impart other core subjects like maths, science and social sciences more effectively. Here the children don’t deal with theatre directly as an art form but through the route of theatre exercises and principles understand other subjects including the exploration of life skills.

Theatre education, on the other hand, deals with techniques imparted to teachers and educators to teach theatre and utilize theatre principles effectively.

Theatre and the classroom
Education has primarily been experienced as a passive process. The teacher talks, the students listen! Discipline, rigidity, standardization, examination, mark sheet scores define the boundaries of this system which displays a strong disconnect with the realities of daily existence. Learning is fragmented for only a few mental muscles are utilized; the larger physical body, sensorial body and the body of consciousness remain untouched. And the only way to revert this restrictive process is by engaging in experiential learning. A process where everyone goes through a concrete experience together, observes, reflects, analyzes abstract concepts and tests them in new situations. This immediately replaces the hierarchy of the teacher and the taught and both become co- learners. The involvement in art opens up the avenues for such a system to function. It inherently calls for engagement, expression, making choices, having an opinion, reflection therefore encouraging the child to activate her/his mind, body and spirit.

Theatre becomes a very powerful medium in this context. It breaks all traditional hierarchies. It allows for direct contact with as many varied human experiences and each subjective experience is valued as there is no one right way of experiencing. Each person and her/his experience becomes unique. Critical and divergent thinking is encouraged; the uses of language are enhanced and hence even the articulation. Classroom becomes a collaborative and creative activity without the fear of judgment.

Theatre and life skills education
The two worlds that orient a child’s world are the home and the school. The crucial aspect that strikes the right balance is the psychosocial competence or the child’s ability to have a constructive relationship with the varied challenges and pressures of life. For school going children, life skills learning represent the vehicle by which they can gain a feeling of psychosocial competence.

Life skills are a set of ten skills prescribed by the WHO – decision-making, problem solving, creative thinking, critical thinking, effective communication, interpersonal skills, self awareness, empathy, coping with emotions and coping with stress. These can be defined as competencies in adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.

These life skills ought to be examined in several ‘contexts’ such as gender, sexuality, peer pressure, career choices, conflict, abuse, self harm and so on. Life skills instructions so far has remained largely in the realm of theory.

However, if a platform for discourse is created, the process of awareness building, understanding relations within the society, their construction, the construction of knowledge, the domains of public discourse and practices, have an opportunity to be examined and explored by the children. Discussing experiences in general provides a window to life skills; discussing life skills provides a window to conflicts and problems; discussing conflicts in general provides a window to specific issues of gender construction / practices/ stereotyping and so on. This ‘window framework’ allows for flexibility and adaptability in context and content development.

The most effective way of imparting and facilitating these life skills is by the use of experiential methodologies like art work, narratives, games and group work. However, the use of theatre seems to enable greater outreach due to its sheer fundamental nature of engaging people in non-threatening and participatory activities. No one has to perform in isolation, a lot of spontaneity is encouraged and through the course of exploration of life skills, participants develop a sense of affiliation, connection and trust. There is space for deeper enquiry through scene work and role plays. All along the methodology is experiential not didactic, contextual not content based and most importantly, process oriented than being outcome oriented.

Theatre – the beginning of a dialogue
As much as theatre can be fun and entertaining, it can also become a very important medium of learning based on the hypothesis that dialogue is the common and healthy dynamic between all humans.

In the words of the great theatre practioner Augusto Boal, “Dialogue should be the rule for humanity. All relationships can tend to become a monologue, a man and a woman…. Races –one race tends to be the one who imposes the standards of beauty, etc., the other race submits to that… human relations should be a dialogue but one of them sometimes becomes active and the other passive……. it should not be spectators specializing in listening and looking at the actors specializing in being super human – we should specialize in being human. Because to act is to be human.”

If theatre is embraced in this light, then theatre becomes all about participation, ownership and dialogue – a process of engagement and transformation. Performances are aimed to meet the needs of all individuals for interaction, dialogue, critical thinking, action and fun. The individual’s story becomes a springboard for collective wisdom. Theatre then, is the way of developing personal skills. The path for a journey of discovery and transformation, for every individual who sets upon it.

And it is this ‘rehearsal of the future’ that allows for the recognition and celebration of the aesthetics of life.

With gratitude to Dr. Shekhar Seshadri, Professor, Child and Adolescence Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore, for his invaluable guidance.

The author has facilitated several self-discovery and personal growth workshops through drama and theatre in education workshops for diverse groups. She is currently with Makkala Jagriti, an organisation setting up learning centres for children in government schools and communities. She can be contacted at madhushukla@gmail.com.

The influence of education in grooming people is extremely significant. On the one hand it has moulded responsible world leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Abdul Kalam, Bhagat Singh, Rabindranath Tagore, Dr. Rajendra Pachuri and Mother Teresa. But on the other hand there are several issues:

• At the level of the individual – purposelessness or disclarity about what to do, disinterest in learning, lack of curiosity, boredom, escape to TV and gaming, self-centeredness and disregard for others, inactive lifestyle, overweight and other health problems, substance abuse and risk-taking, depression, psychological disorders, suicide, stress, insecurity, loneliness.
• At the level of the family – the all consuming pursuit of money often by any means, peer pressure, competition, shrinking circle of people to be cared for while exploiting everyone/everything beyond it, disconnect from parents and siblings, breaking-up of families, mistrust and insecurity in relationships, divorce, family feuds, incest, legal suits.
• At the level of the society – teasing, ragging, little engagement with social systems, feeling of mistrust in systems, migration from villages to metros, exploitation of man by man, corrupt governance, growing incidences of violence, terrorism, naxalism, rising communalism, spreading casteism, racial and ethnic struggle, wars between nations, attempts of genocide, fear of biological, nuclear and genetic warfare.
• At the level of nature – feeling of helplessness, inevitable destruction of nature, non-involvement with nature, cruelty to animals, global warming, water scarcity and pollution, air, soil, noise pollution, resource depletion of minerals and mineral oils, sizeable deforestations, loss of fertility of soil.

Many educational institutions are doing seminal work; education is reaching more people today than ever before. However, more needs to be done, something different, something fundamental. Education must help students find a meaningful direction for their life in addition to developing competence for a profession. Education must reinforce human goals in every student, by ensuring:

1. Right thinking, i.e., ability to discriminate between superficial and valuable, to work out meaningful goals in line with human aspirations, recognise one’s responsibility and follow through with freedom and courage.
2. Understanding and feeling of responsibility for mutually fulfilling relationships with other human beings, i.e., behaviour that ensures the continuity of trust, respect for and inclusion of all.
3. Understanding and committing to a system of mutually enriching work, i.e., ensuring prosperity for human beings and for the rest of nature.

Like a seed is to a tree, education is to human beings. People develop in the direction provided by their education (shiksha) and the net of their experience (sanskaar). One type of education can lead to self-centric behaviour and nature-depleting work, while the right education could lead to human-centric behaviour and nature-enriching work. It is therefore crucial to ensure an education that helps individuals develop a holistic perspective that can guide their effort into the direction of understanding and fulfillment of human goals. The education needs to be based on universal human values and a pedagogy that encourages exploration and discussion.

An Introduction to Excellence is a one-day programme to introduce the concepts of human excellence through dialogue and interaction. The aim is to facilitate the development of a holistic perspective towards life. Such a holistic perspective forms the basis of value-based living in a natural way, in terms of ethical human conduct, trustful and mutually satisfying human behaviour and mutually enriching interaction with nature.

A programme on excellence was conducted for all 130 teachers of Pallavi Model School, Hyderabad over two days in June 2009. The first day was for 70 primary teachers; the second was for 60 secondary teachers. The principal Ms. Manju Gupta, vice-principal Ms. Simi Nagi, headmistress Ms. Padma Singh and primary incharge Ms. Deepa Arun were among those who enthusiastically attended the workshop. We look forward to Pallavi Model School taking these learnings into action.

The seven specific takeaways of the participants during these two days were:

1. Happiness is a key human goal. We want continuity of happiness. It can be achieved only by creating happiness for others and by doing that we ensure right feelings in the self, i.e., with right understanding and fulfilling relationships.
2. Prosperity is a feeling of having more than one requires. We used to think prosperity meant having lots of money, but now we know it means determining what is really required and then having more than that. It also means things are meaningfully utilised and left over things are shared. Excellence is to help the other to come to your level; opposition is to stop the other from reaching your level. Excellence is to understand and to live in harmony, with no contradictions, at all six levels (self, body, family, society, nature and existence) of our being. The discussion on opposition vs. excellence made it clear that excellence is absolute and not relative, i.e., it is possible for all to be in harmony, like in nature, plants and animals are already in harmony. Excellence is the aspiration of all human beings.



3. Importance of human education. Learning never stops – we learnt so much that we thought we already knew.
4. Meaning of co-existence. We can readily observe that soil and trees have a symbiotic, mutually enriching relationship. The underlying principle is that everything that exists is related in a mutually enriching manner. It is clear that this principle is natural in all relationships.
5. Importance of human relationships. Each of the nine feelings/expectations was clearly defined. Trust is a feeling of assurance that the other intends my happiness. We understood the difference between intention and competence. Respect is right evaluation. We will accept others as they are, with no pre-suppositions. Listening is very important. Listening is to understand what the other is saying without judging, which we can do after listening to the whole point.
6. Natural acceptance is in every human being and it can help to decide what is right. We used to think only a few people can decide and we have to follow, but now we are more confident. We can decide ourself what is right, based on natural acceptance.

The workshop helps focus on what a human being is, what are purposeful human goals and a path to achieve these aims. Embedded in nature, human beings interact at several levels – in the workshop we discuss the role of a responsible human being at the level of individual, family, society and nature.

Simply put, the human goal is the continuity of happiness in every individual, prosperity in every family, fearlessness in society and co-existence in nature. With this clarity, one is able to see the meaning in life and becomes committed to fulfill that meaning. The satisfaction obtained out of the fulfillment of purpose, gives one a feeling of self confidence from within. Individuals need to have this confidence in order to be able to proactively set their own goals. When goals are set proactively, without ‘peer’ pressure the motivation for action comes from within. The rest follows, in terms of commitment and effort leading to fulfillment of purpose.

The workshop is conducted as a dialogue, free from any dogma, value prescriptions or dos and don’ts. Self-exploration also enables them to evaluate their pre-conditioning, present beliefs and be able to differentiate between what is naturally acceptable or intention and what is their current ability or competence, thus setting the stage for developing mutual competence.

According to Dr. Abdul Kalam, “self-knowledge would promote a learning atmosphere, where this whole movement of inquiry into knowledge, into oneself, into the possibility of something beyond knowledge would bring about naturally a psychological revolution. From this comes inevitably a totally different order in human relationship and therefore society as a whole. The intelligent understanding of this process itself can bring about a profound change in the consciousness of mankind”.

In closing, we feel education is still the most significant lever in transforming ours to a humane society.

The author is an independent consultant on Human Values & Ethics, a member of the academic council IIIT – Hyderabad and former global head of Satyam Learning Centre. He can be reached at rajul_asthana@yahoo.co.uk.

What the teachers say

The workshop on excellence for teachers had a different connotation for all who participated in it. For some, it meant achieving perfection, for others it simply meant being outstanding in one’s chosen sphere of work. None however had even the remotest idea that all these ideas and definitions of excellence would change for them after attending the workshop.

With four months gone by since the workshop was held, Teacher Plus decided to quiz some of the teachers who participated about how far their key takeaways from the workshop influenced them, and change, if any, had really happened, consciously or otherwise.

According to the principal, Ms. Manju Gupta, “it was indeed a wonderful workshop and the takeaways have influenced us to think differently. Rajul Asthana has helped the teachers to “raise the bar” (Our theme for this year) through introspection and self-analysis. Personally, I have gained immensely and I am sure the same holds good for all my teachers. These kind of workshops and seminars provide food for thought and help us to rejuvenate and rethink our priorities in life and place them in proper perspective. If our takeaways can help others to think positively, we will definitely feel elated”.

Anjali said the workshop taught her the meaning of prosperity. Being prosperous had nothing to do with wealth, but it had everything to do with the richness in one’s heart. “It made me more introspective, I began to question myself, my responses, and tried hard to bring about behavioural changes in myself and in my dealings with children. I am still trying”

Sunita was forthright and admitted to being impatient with her daughter and in the classroom. “I did not realise that I had everything in terms of possessions. I used to crib for little things. I did not even listen to my daughter’s stories. But the workshop helped me see things in perspective. I understood that having expectations from others meant that I was not satisfied with other people’s attitudes and I wanted them to change. However, now, the workshop was an eye-opener, and I am more accepting of people and more patient with my daughter. It has made me a happier person,”

Shubhra teaches Chemistry and is extremely passionate about the subject. She has keenly resolved to stop buying plastic, to organise herself, but agrees that she has to still fight her biggest enemy, which is her temper. “There are actually six levels which we need to understand and tackle. Yes, the workshop was rich in terms of information. To implement all of these is a continuous process and it is happening.”

An important outcome was that most teachers felt that excellence was not about performance in your work space but about progress — in attitudes, in behaviour, in dealing with parents and children and in relationships with other teachers. The manner in which a teacher saw herself and how others related to her would ultimately extend to the way she handled children.

Mallika Rao felt that this kind of reflection meant spending time with oneself on a daily basis, only then can change happen in small ways. “I don’t judge now. I neither condemn, nor praise and I am consciously trying to see the positive side.”

“I have learnt the power of I” said Priscilla. ‘All along, we were given to understand that ‘We’ is important, but I know now that without ‘I’, there can be no ‘We ’. It is only when each of us contribute, that we can make things better for ourselves”. And she added, “At school, I was a different person, accommodative and understanding, but at home, I was not a nice person to live with. This workshop has given me the courage to contemplate and face certain truths. I used to take Nature for granted, but now, I am keen to conserve it so that I can live more harmoniously.”

Teachers are primarily motivated if they are rewarded by a feeling of accomplishment, self-respect and responsibility and workshops such as these help them to excel, to recharge their batteries and carry forward their goals. Motivation, by itself is psychologically very complex, and involves satisfaction at both external and internal levels. There can be no argument about the fact that it is at the internal level that motivation can bring in the most satisfaction. And for teachers, that ultimate sense of satisfaction comes when they are able to affect students. For them, that is the true yardstick of their personal worth.

Finally, as each teacher, as each individual, works more, loves more, and cares more, there is a greater sense of harmony, and where can all this be nurtured, except in a place called the school.

Repetition: 1 on each side

Seated knee squeeze
Limbers and relaxes lower back, improves digestion; improves respiration
Breathe out completely. Breathe in and lift your right leg with both hands and pull it to your chest while holding your breath in. Tuck your head toward your knee and let your raised foot relax. Hold for a few seconds, then release and switch sides.

Repetitions: 3 on each side

Sun pose in chair
Improves circulation to head; massages internal organs; limbers spine and hip joints
Separate your legs and sit with your hips against the back of the chair. Breathe out completely. Breathe in and raise your arms in a circle to the sides and overhead. Look up and stretch. Breathe out, tuck your head, and bend forward between your legs. If you can reach the floor, place your palms fl at. Breathe in and raise your arms up over your head again, then breathe out and lower your arms to the sides.

Repetitions: 3

Seated side stretch

Limbers spinal column, improves respiration, reduces waistline

Sitting with feet slightly apart, breathe in and raise your arms out to the sides. Breathe out and bend toward the left, keeping your arms straight and trying to reach the floor with your left hand. Breathe in, come back to the starting position, then breathe out and bend toward the right.

Repetitions: 3 on each side

Ankle rotations and point flexes

Improves circulation to feet

Hold on to the seat of your chair, stretch your legs out in front of you, and rotate your ankles several times in each direction. Then point and flex the feet several times.

Repetitions: 5-6 circles in each direction, 5-6 point-flexes

Seated leg lifts

Strengthens legs, hips, and lower back; improves circulation to legs and feet

Hold on to the seat of your chair for leverage. Breathe out, then breathe in as you lift your right leg straight, foot flexed. Breathe out and lower your leg.

Repetitions: 3 for each leg

Next do three lifts with both legs.

Text: Excerpted from the American Book of Yoga.

Every job has its own set of physical demands, and teaching is no different. Even within the teaching profession, there are a multitude of contexts and each school, in fact every classroom, might offer its own unique set of demands! A nursery school teacher might have to pick up and carry children more often, while a high school teacher might have to spend more time hunched over complex projects. A middle school teacher might spend a large part of her day straining her arm writing equations on the board, while a special education teacher may end up organising and reorganising classroom materials.

How then does one stay fit and fresh through all this? We may not be able to do much about the stresses that come from the specific nature of the job – difficult or disruptive students, staffroom and school politics, parent expectations and work load – but we can to some extent take care of our bodies and keep ourselves in shape so we are better able to deal with our physical environments and the demands they place on us. While a general fitness regime is a good idea no matter what kind of work one does, it may be useful to think about the specific ways in which you need to exert yourself, and compensate for that through exercise or relaxation techniques that address those specific c parts of the body.

Those who sit for long hours at the computer are advised to take a regular fl ex-ex break every two hours or so, to relieve the stresses that build up in the shoulders, upper arms, back and wrists. Gardeners and others who hunch or squat need to stretch periodically to release the cramps that may occur in their upper thighs, shoulders and abdomen. Teachers too can pay attention to those parts of their bodies, and specific muscles where tension builds up, and do a combination of quick exercises to relieve short-term stress and regular daily exercise to build muscles strength and fitness in the long term.

The articles that follow describe two such approaches to staying physically fit. The first offers a few quick tips to keep you going through the day, while the second discusses yoga, and its advantages. Ideally, it is a combination of both that will keep you fit overall, and help you deal with your day – day after day.

In the September issue of Teacher Plus, in his article entitled ‘Reclaiming Shiksha’, the author introduced Ivan Illich’s idea of deschooling and discussed replacing school-based education with an open community based system that is child led rather than simply child centred. He urges us to ask ‘disturbing’ questions that take us beyond ‘business as usual’ in terms of education.

Is it really possible for us in India?
Contrary to popular misconception, unschooling and deschooling are not from the West or only for the West. We need to understand that Shiksha and Education are not the same. They come from totally different historical, philosophical, spiritual and epistemological roots. We need to reclaim the meaning of shiksha and forms like the guru-shishyaparampara. Shiksha is more closely rooted in selforganised and experiential forms of learning. Real gurus were never self-proclaimed/state-imposed instructors, nor did they seek to impose a uniform standardised syllabus on those who learned with them. For us in the subcontinent, shiksha grows from concept-practices such as in satya, swadhyaya, samvaad, ahimsa, anekantavad, yoga, sahayog, lok vidya, shram, vinumvrata, kshama, etc. There are many powerful stories of self-learners throughout history. Eklavya being one of the most famous ones. However, these heroes have been sadly maligned by the guardians of the Institutional Faith. Some of the initial experiments with Nai Taleem and Shantiniketan also tried to embody these principles but somewhere along the way, they also got corrupted in the framework of institutionalised education…

In fact, I truly believe that it is much easier for us to make this connection than for those in the West, because we still have so many living learning spaces. In villages and even in most towns and cities, you can still find opportunities for apprenticeship learning, you can easily get to a forest, you can experience life in a joint family (full of rich relationships of all ages). We luckily do not have to go to a zoo to see animals; we can interact with them on the roads and in the fields. One can learn yoga without going to a yoga center. Everywhere, you can find a million forms of kabaad (so-called waste) to jugaad with, to make something useful, beautiful and durable. The best part about these opportunities in India is that most have not yet been commodified. One quite fortunately does not have to pay a lot of money to access them.

Indigenous resources
We urgently need to look at our learning assets outside of the framework of schooling. This exercise has not been seriously undertaken in the last 50 years. Gandhi had some inkling of it but the work was abandoned post 1947. If and when we undertake this, we will soon begin to realise that India is not a ‘poor’ or ‘backward’ country in terms of learning resources. We need to honestly re-evaluate what is ‘forward’ and what is ‘backward’ in India. For example, I recently met a woman from Canada who was sharing with me an educational programme that she had started in schools to teach children emotional empathy and sensitivity. For a number of reasons, there are very few opportunities for children in Canada to touch and hold small babies. Millions of dollars were being spent to bring small babies into the classroom so that middle school children could interact with them for a few hours a week. I felt we were quite fortunate that children in India are able to naturally witness birth as well as death. I pray for the day when we in the Global South will begin to understand that we are in many ways much better off than our heavily institutionalized Western counterparts.

The real threats to these vibrant indigenous learning resources are the institutional viruses that pose as roses: like the campaigns against child labour and for compulsory/coercive education. While I agree that hazardous labour should be outlawed for men, women and children, I do not feel that all labour is bad or should be banned from our children’s lives. Indeed, one of the leading reasons behind the degradation of human health today comes from the lack of authentic physical work and labour in our lives. Such productive labour kept us alive and thriving for generations, why do we want to banish it from our lives? It is important to re-look at the link between using our hands/body, meaningful work and the growth of our mind, spirit and emotional well-being.

Where is the hope?
For the last nine years, I have been working with people around the world to respond to the question, “If not the culture of schooling, then what?” What’s sprung up are several networks. One is the Learning Societies Network1 where we have invited a number of unusual partners (farmers, artists, artisans, activists, filmmakers, healers, storytellers, local businessmen, children, youth, parents, grandparents, illiterates, spiritualists, etc.) to explore what kind of learning and living we want in our society. We ask people who are interested to start by sharing their town experiences and experiments with learning in different ways in their own lives. The idea behind the Learning Societies Network is to demystify and break the monopoly of education experts and professionals over discussions concerning human learning. We do not believe that educators alone can envision and make the deeper changes in education that are necessary for the 21st century. People with diverse worldviews who are leading/supporting real-world experiments across many different domains need to be in the discussion. Today, friends in fields as varied as global climate change, community media, organic farming, free software movement, etc., are raising the kinds of profound questions about life that can eventually shake the foundations of the education system. Are we willing to listen?

Just as natural farmers are redefining the field of agriculture, and self-healers are redefining the field of medicine, so are many youth determining their own paths of learning as more than 90 per cent of youth in India do not attend college. These pathbreakers are however, at the same time nurtured by and nurturing the growth of a large and vibrant underground system of Shiksha. We share their stories, experiences, insights, opportunities and experiments through the Swapathgami Network. The Swapathgami Network is also called the network of walkouts and walkons; that is, people who have walked out of dehumanising, exploitative or violent situations, institutions, attitudes, products, etc., and who are walking on to live in more meaningful, authentic, healthy and honest ways. In the process of taking control of their own learning, they are re-discovering and co-creating many amazing learning opportunities around the country. It is a silent revolution. They are once again reminding us that millions of ways of understanding/knowing/being exist in the world, which are outside the scope of schooling.2 Are we willing to see these?

At Shikshantar, we are also exploring and regenerating the learning resources of our own city, in a process called Udaipur as a Learning City (ULC).3 One of my reasons for co-initiating this process was to open up more (un)-learning opportunities for both my daughter Kanku and me. In ULC, we are constantly looking for people and places around the city from whom we can learn to live a just and harmonious life. Most people are interested in finding relationships towards organic living, which includes city farming, composting, zero waste homes and zero waste neighborhoods, self-healing and herbal medicines, community media and urban space, bicycling and pedestrian power, healthy cooking, rainwater harvesting, and more… We are discovering once again that the home and neighbourhood are indeed powerful learning spaces for collaboration, creative experimentation and deep dialogue.

In all of these initiatives, we have found that it is important to find creative ways to engage with friends in the mainstream system. It is not enough to just be creating alternatives. For example, many of us need to Heal from the Diploma Disease. We recently came out with a publication of the same name4 that invites civil society organisations to stop using diplomas, degrees and certificates in their hiring and promotion processes. In its place, we ask that more appropriate systems of identifying and evaluating personnel be explored and used. This request has sparked a wider conversation about what we want to see manifest in our work and in our world, and we hope will help pave the way for more diversity in learning opportunities.

What now?
For me a critical point in my life was when I consciously stopped describing myself as a ‘teacher’ or a ‘planner/social engineer’ and started seeing my primary role as a ‘lifelong seeker of truths’. I do not see myself as Kanku’s teacher. In fact, I consider her to be one of my gurus since she has inspired me to take many new risks in my life. This shift should not be taken as yet another piece of superficial jargon – as is often done by the education establishment. It needs to start with some introspection, for example, by re-examining one’s own learning process up until now: what have been some powerful learning experiences in your life? Under what conditions have you learned best? What lies have you unlearned?5 What brings you real happiness? What are you curious/disturbed about now? Go explore it and share your journey with children. Invite them to do the same. Where are you feeling stagnant? What depresses you about your life? Share this as well. Perhaps they can help you find a way out. As long as one needs to be working in the education system, one can think about how to creatively subvert/dismantle its claims of authority and monocultural-ness. This is one of the primary challenges of our times. Shake up our own schooled mindsets. Reclaim our faith in the innate power of children and villagers to direct their own learning. Encourage your children to explore other opportunities and relationships outside of the four walls of schooling. Ridicule the examination system and its claim as a fair/useful form of evaluation. Refuse to be called a ‘product’ or a ‘human resource’. Make a strong commitment to regenerating peoples’ knowledge over expert/textual/institutional knowledge. Be creative. And perhaps, most importantly, open up real spaces to experiment and make mistakes.6

I realise, of course, this only works to a point (which is why I personally stopped trying to reform the education system). A friend once said, “It’s very hard to criticise something when your salary depends on not criticising it.” At one point or other, most teachers and schools have to come back to curriculum, textbooks, exams, etc., and more seriously, to the underlying politics and economy. In that authoritarian, unjust and artificial context, it is virtually impossible to sustain any real trust and authentic co-learning between yourself and the children.

So, for those who are genuinely interested in pursuing real shiksha and supporting others to do the same, I would frankly encourage you to walk out of the school system and walk-on to creating something new – learning spaces and learning webs that embody a deeper vision of human learning: ones that do not rest on commodification, competition, compartmentalisation or compulsion; ones that deepen human wisdom, imagination and friendship. Just remember that there are no readymade, mass-produced solutions (after all these years of being fooled over and over again, we should be really skeptical of anyone who offers/imposes these). We each need to invest ourselves in creating our own localised alternatives and connecting these to each other in dynamic ways. There can and should be a world with many streams, not just one mainstream. It is time for us in India to evolve a more mature vision of social equality – one that is not built on monoculture or copying the hypocritical West.

Since she was a baby, I have seen Kanku finding and choosing her own gurus (sources of inspiration) – of all shapes, sizes and species.7 Some of these are for a few fleeting minutes, others remain for many days. She negotiates and co-creates her own selfdiscipline and intensity. She is both moved and motivated by real world activities and problems. My experiences, co-learning with Kanku, have certainly made me believe that it is absolutely necessary to re-look at some of our core assumptions about how human beings learn and why we learn. This debate has to be opened up across the country with our friends, colleagues, children, grandparents, neighbours, leaders, etc. It should not be abstract or overly theoretical but rather start with our own honest personal and intimate experiences: How did schooling help deepen my learning capacities? How did schooling hinder/harm my learning capacities? What did I really gain and what did I really lose? What did my community really gain and lose? How has my local natural and cultural environment benefited and lost? The real debate is not about school vs. no school. It is about co-creating the best possible learning ecologies for ourselves and our children. This is what we are trying to do with Kanku and this is the invitation that I would like to extend to you as a reader. I look forward to being in a dialogue with you.

1. www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/ls_discussion.html
2. One can learn more about their gatherings, and read issues of their magazine (in Hindi and in English) online: www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/walkoutsnetwork.htm
3. www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/udaipur.html
4. www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/healingdiplomadisease.pdf
5. See my note “Ten Lies My School Taught Me” in Swapathgami: http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/
swapathgami_english1.pdf
6. Most so-called experiments in school are not really experiments as the result is known beforehand and there is no room to make mistakes.
7. See Co-Learning with Kanku: Some Experiences from 2006 at http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/
kanku2006bookfinal.pdf

Manish Jain is with an NGO, Shikshantar, that works in rural Rajasthan. He invites your questions, experiences and feedback at manish@swaraj.org