Climbers and runners – The Ipomoeas

Geetha Iyer
This time Naturewatch brings to you a description of a charming group of plants that is easy to cultivate and which contributes to the health of the environment and humans.

To switch or not to switch?

Monica Kochar
Fun experiments explained in this article can help children understand ‘probability’. Taken from television game shows, these experiments test your skills and intelligence with the probability of winning or losing. Try them out in your class.

Knowing and growing

Brendan MacCarthaigh
How can teachers really enable children to both know and grow? Just as knowing is a part of education, the growth process is equally important. Children grow by socialising , by being encouraged in creativity, by being given choices and by being given responsibility. Both these processes are equally important and teachers must adopt this in their teaching methods.

Reflections on spirituality

Ramgopal Konneripalli

The annual “Education Network’ meeting this year was held at a KFI retreat near Hyderabad. The theme for the meeting was ‘Spirituality and Education” . Here is a round up of the proceedings.

Impressions of a teacher

Shakuntala Jaisinghani
A light article on how teachers and students influence each other and the extent to which teachers can go to motivate their students to learn.

Understanding structural issues

Ketaki Chowkhani
In the background of three cases of sexual assault reported against children of different schools in Bangalore, the questions that we need to ask are: How can we nurture different ways in which adults relate to children? How can we ensure that the relationship between adults and children in school is not based on discipline, punishment and a sense of power?One solution would be to have sensitization programmes on sexuality and gender for the adult staff at the beginning of every school year. This will go a long way in undoing the unequal power relations that result in child sexual abuse.

Where the mind is full of fear

Did you know that a teacher could be as vulnerable as a child (and sometimes even more) to sexual abuse? I didn’t. Purely because I was never wary, having grown up in an environment of love, care, learning, and nurturing, and I least expected a colleague to misbehave with me.

A gender perspective

Avantika Thakur
Sexual abuse is inappropriate sexual behavior with a child. It includes fondling a child’s genitals, making the child fondle the adult’s genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism and sexual exploitation.