Yes Ma’am

As adults we reminisce fondly of our school days. We hold memories of our teachers walking into class, all students becoming silent, scrambling up to stand straight and saying “Good Morning/Afternoon” in a typical sing song voice!

Contrast this to a classroom of today ... A teacher walks in. Some students become silent; many continue to talk regardless. The teacher looks dismayed and asks students to stand up and greet her. A lecture on respecting teachers follows. Most students hear her out with a bored look. The teacher goes back to the staff room fuming about how this generation lacks manners and values!

Why has the behaviour of students changed?

In the past was it fear or was it respect that prompted students to stand up and greet the teacher? Or was it the successful drill of the moral science classes where they learnt endlessly to “Respect your elders!”

On this thought we would like to share a school bus episode. A few front seats of a school bus were always ‘reserved’ for teachers. Over time the number of teachers commuting on that bus went up. Students who travelled on the same bus resisted giving away seats to teachers, especially those who did not teach their class. This prompted a senior teacher to scream at them and ask them to give up their seats. She questioned their behaviour and told them that they needed to have respect for their teachers. Some students got up reluctantly that day only to repeat the same story the next day.

As adults we find it natural to impose authority and demand respect. However, do we really look at children to offer us seats for the fear of punishment? Or do we want them to respect us because they consider us worthy of their respect?

Teachers in the past were revered as being the fountains of all knowledge. Today children have access to this knowledge easily in the print and electronic media and on the Internet.
The school system in the past was entirely geared towards ‘doing as you are told to’. So students unquestioningly accepted all information that teachers provided; and did as they were told to do.

On the other hand, teaching methods now adopted in schools encourage children to think, ask questions, debate and share opinion. To demand respect and unquestioning obedience from students who have internalised these skills is - unrealistic.

Let us also reflect on current societal attitudes. Adults nurture relationships only when they see some tangible benefits from them. Children imbibe this at a very early age.

The days of blind respect and obedience are over. Teachers today need to work on building bridges with children; enjoying the new age children who at times are ahead of adults!

Teachers may need to think of new age roles for themselves - as facilitators or mentors and work towards bringing wisdom rather than just knowledge to their students.

Endorsing Children’s Opinions

Our education system includes all the following persons in the decision making in schools – school owners, schools leaders, teachers, parents, representatives from politics and bureaucracy.

It does not however include an important stakeholder - the student. While we have built the entire edifice of education around students, we make them passively accept and imbibe all processes and policies that we adults consider pertinent. When we incessantly talk of moving away from teacher-centric classrooms to child centric ones, should we not also consider schools adopting a more child-centric approach to decision making?

Many adults may respond to this saying - “Ah! But children do not really know what is good for them. If given a choice they will only like to spend their time on fun activities. In any case they cannot think about serious issues such as learning and education.”

So we spoke to some children to understand what they had to say in this matter. We asked them to mention one thing they liked in their school and another that they wanted to change. The responses we got from them were startling. Here is a sample of what the children shared.

•  Mridula is 13 years old; fond of dance and painting. She has this to say about the public school in a Tier 2 city she goes to.

• Eleven year old Akshat is quite a musician. He plays the keyboard and the tabla. A voracious reader, he loves to read the ‘Wimpy Kid’ series. He writes:

•  Thirteen year old Meena studies in a government school. She aspires to use her education to succeed in life. She said that she likes her teachers in school because most of them teach very well!

These three responses from three very different children emphasise that they notice and appreciate the intangibles in their school environment. They’re not just thinking about having fun, having things easy, or focusing on the obvious such as infrastructure and comfort.
When we asked some children about one thing they would like to change about their schools, the suggestions were equally insightful as their opinions about their schools.  

• Mridula wrote:

• Sanah has just stepped into her teen years and has an equally relevant comment. She says:

• When asked to cite an example of a pointless rule she shared that they are allowed to borrow only one book from the library every week. She often is able to read through a library book in three or four days but has to wait for the next library period to get her hands onto another book.
• Meena would like her school to teach more English and Math since she considers them important for her future education and career. She also suggests they should offer extra-curricular activities like dance and music.
• Jay would like his teachers to be more willing to answer questions rather than telling him not to be cheeky. He says he asks questions because he is really intrigued by a topic and not because he is trying to be as his teachers call him - ‘oversmart’.

Notice how none of the respondents spoke about having air-conditioned classrooms, comfortable bean bags instead of chairs, soft drinks instead of water in the hot summer months. Each child has tried to focus on a real and essential issue.
This small survey reiterated that children are thinking individuals; they can distinguish between their wants and needs and express them clearly. Children's expectations from their schools are not frivolous or immature. We must begin to accomodate their thoughts and aspirations for their centres of knowledge. Not only will this make schools more democratic, it will instill in children a greater sense of responsibility towards their own learning.
 





 

The Inspiration for Inspire

At the onset of a new year, a recount from the founders on how the journey of Inspire began...

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.                          Thomas A. Edison                                   

This one-percent though small carries a lot of significance – quite simply, it differentiates someone who completed something successfully from someone who did not.

It is this one-percent that makes an explorer sail in search of undiscovered lands; an inventor labour to craft that unknown miracle that could change the world; a writer pen hundreds of lines to find that perfect prose.

It is this one-percent that brought together the founders of Inspire.

Inspire started as a thought – to bring a change in the 'learning' experiences for a child.

Radhika Suri and Sameera Sood had been educators for many years. They had seen how parents though keen and involved in their children's education were hampered by lack of understanding of what actually 'good' education is. They often based their choice of schools on factors such as infrastructure or catch phrases used in the brochures. On the other hand the school promoters and publishers used the advantage of the situation parents were in to create a successful business model based mostly on superficial elements.The entire industry built around the child paid little attention to what the child really wanted!

The inspiration behind Inspire is the child. 

One of Sameera's fondest memories is of a day when she wore a pink sari on a school occasion. She recalls vividly one compliment among many that she received – this came from one of her students who said "Oh! You look so nice today! Just like a strawberry ice cream!" She had been teaching her class colours. The little child's simple and honest response showed her attempt to extend and apply her learning beyond the class. This has remained with Sameera after so many years.

Radhika recalls how during a class she realized that teaching demanded more listening than speaking. One of her students when asked a question responded exasperated and confused. "Arre Ma'am! Aap chup rahogi toh sochunga na!" (I can only think if you keep quiet!) Radhika calls her it her 'Lesson on Teaching from a 4-year old.'

Unlike Radhika and Sameera, Tilottama comes from a corporate background. Her first interest in education came from the time her son started school. When she began hunting for a 'good' preschool for her son, all the schools she visited looked more or less the same and said the same words. In many of the schools she saw children moving around mechanically with expressionless faces. Ultimately she settled for a school which had strong recommendations from some parents she knew. What she found later in the school was something she had hated as a child – homework! Toddlers were expected to complete worksheets to be signed and graded by the teacher.

Each such experience that the founders went through was like a seed for thoughts of doing something different - wherein a child would be loved, respected, asked, listened to, given opportunities to explore her likes – to channelize the boundless enthusiasm and energy that the child has.

The learning experience would make the child look forward to learning.
The learning tools would be appropriate to enforce this learning in the child.

In its journey, Inspire looks to find many persons who share this thought of bringing in a change. A change that must happen among schools, teachers, parents and even children – in order to be effective.

It is Inspire's aim for a collaborative and accelerated effort towards better education. 

That is the remaining ninety-nine percent...the journey for which has only begun.

Changing Mindsets

Teachers often complain that some children in class are just not interested in learning. They are not willing to put in the effort needed to learn.

Yet any of us who have taken care of a three year old know how physically and mentally tiring it can be to answer their incessant stream of questions and follow them as they go exploring the
environment.

Every waking moment in a toddler's life is spent on learning.

So are we as teachers saying that some children don't want to learn while actually implying that they do not want to learn in school?

Why should they - schools are contrived environments while the world outside is so much more rich, diverse, nuanced, dynamic and challenging.

Our schools and education system still equate education with acquiring information.
Knowledge is absolute, so a good student is someone who can download the knowledge, save it in memory and reproduce it as is, whenever needed. Learning is therefore all about obeying orders and following instructions. Moreover schools continue to function under the illusion that knowledge is available only in the class.

The world however is changing rapidly. While it took the radio over three decades to reach 50 million people, Facebook reached this number in just a couple of years.

Our children's world is one of instant information, communication, entertainment and collaboration. YouTube has over one billion page views per day and there are over 31 billion searches on Google every month.

We as teachers need to accept that knowledge can no longer be considered as absolute and unchanging. Neither can we continue to believe in ourselves as the fount of knowledge.

Instead, we need to view ourselves as facilitators - creating collaborative, inquiry-based learning experiences that will help students to gather, examine, validate, modify and extend knowledge. We need to support and guide them as they use the current knowledge to create new products and solutions as well as discover what is still unknown.

While this will have implications in the school design, classroom setting, practices and curriculum, the change will have to begin from the change in teachers' attitudes towards teaching and learning.