Looking within: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Today I saw this SRK starrer and came back completely entertained. The story was about an arranged marriage and this ordinary guy who has quite different interests from his wife. He is an average, disciplined guy with average looks and mediocre living. However married to a girl who loves dancing, is modern and happening. Now the entire gamut of emotions revolves around this girl who has lost her lover in an accident and for her this marriage is not more than a compromise. SRK in the role of her husband is a silent lover. He gets an opportunity to play another role as Raj to woo and dance with his own wife whom he madly loves but never reveals the fact that both the characters are same. Eventually this girl starts liking and loving this SRK disguised as Raj and wants to step out of her compromising, mediocre married life. Here comes a twist in the story. After a lot of emotions being portrayed this girl sacrifices her love for Raj and sees GOD in her husband and gets back. Gradually it dawns on her that both the characters were same and she realizes true love in her husband and is happy.

We as an audience love the script, songs, setting and overall the ending that emancipates this ordinary man to the level of GOD and we ally with the story. If this story had an alternate ending where the girl would have stepped out of her marriage and gone for her fulfillment of dreams, this movie would have crashed at the box office? Have we ever wondered why? Especially I shall like to question the females that aren’t we traditionally conditioned into this male dominated society? Emancipating husband to the level of god, fear of stepping out of our marriage, social taboo associated with women fulfilling her desires. I find it no different from the incident of agni pariksha in Ramayana. Sita had to prove her loyality towards Rama by sitting in the pyre of fire. Marriage has always remained in Indian society a very patriarchal institution. Do we all remember the fate of Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna that showed a man and woman having audacity to step out of their marriages and fulfill their desires. It crashed at the box office. What I intend to point out is that what rocks at box office is not very different from the existing social order that is predominantly male dominated. We all are groomed in a way to conform to existing gender schemas. Rarely in some households we find androgenous models of parenting where both men and women are not gender typed and participate equally in the processes of child rearing.

I wonder as to when shall we realize the pervasive effect of patriarchy on our psyche and be more critically aware of reality. We all need to live in peace with our inner selves and not just conform to the order of the day. Imagine what kind of turmoil might this wife character in this movie must have faced while succumbing to her marriage and saying No to her love for Raj. The movie also showcases the spell bound charisma of SRK as husband that unfolds in the climax, which was in the backburners when his wife was developing a liking for this SRK albeit Raj. I would say that Raj was equally faulty of mesmerizing Taani (wife) in one role and remaining silent in another role. But as an intelligent audience we need to understand the silence of husband and the flow of the script that largely remains pro-marriage institution. Most of us would have critiqued the movie if this wife would have fled with Raj and would have called her different names. What we need to look is within ourselves and reflect that how much conditioning has gone into this that has eventually shaped our attitude. This is what is important looking within, questioning and executing our choice. We as women always remain disempowered due to our conditioning. Not to mention that even men are equally harassed due to the macho-schema that has just somehow stuck with them. I think if we all simply look within, love ourselves, are aware of the choices we make, we shall live in harmony with ourselves and the outside world.

Any views??

Wonders of Class libraries

Wonders of class library, Published in Education Times, Times of India on 8 December,2008 by Meeta Mohanty

Class library is a wonderful way of ushering children into reading and writing. Let’s examine some ideas that shall make our class library engaging for learners.

• Variety of literature: A class library needs to be equipped with a variety of children’s literature, short stories, poems and reading material. Variety of children’s literature can include wordless picture books, fantasy stories, humorous stories, mysteries, tall tales, biographies, experiential stories, folk tales etc. Other reading material can range from catalogues, brochures, pamphlets , magazines, newspapers etc.
• Children’s work: Children’s projects, diaries, work , journals, self made books ought to find place in a class library. These material serve as excellent resources and personalize learning. Children can be encouraged to share the books they read at home and place it in the library for others to read. This inculcates a value of sharing in children and enriches libraries.
• Choosing material: Whose choice should prevail while selecting material for the class library? Both teacher and the student. It is worthwhile to visit resource room or the main library with children and allow them to select material for reading. You can also place a few books which you feel relates to the theme done in the class.
• Language: Emphasis of the class library should not be only English. The purpose is exposure to language, helping children become proficient readers and writers and learn language/s. Thus it must have stuff available in the regional language. Children draw parallels between languages and thus cross language exchange needs to be encouraged .
• Set classroom routines: It is important to allocate time for reading. Give at least 15-2o minutes of reading daily in the morning. Introduce this as a practice, it is important for you to read during that time to set an example and not engage with classroom chores.
• Issuing books: Books from the class library should be issued to inculcate reading habit in children. Children can select books on their own at times and home works can be carved around these books, if needed. Children should know both reading for pleasure and also reading for a purpose/ task.
• Sharing routines: It is also important to introduce sharing time where children share their reading experiences. This can be a whole class activity and can later be followed up in small groups. This gives children real stuff and audience to share.
• Response to literature: You can also engage learners in responding to what they read. This can be oral in the begining and can shape into written reviews later. However children need to engage with text again and again and you need to support their thoughts. The idea is their opinion about the read material and view point needs to be respected.
• Energizing libraries: With due time you shall also witness that level of engagement with libraries trip and this is a strong indication towards changing the stuff in the library. Make it a habit to replace books and stuff in the class library fortnightly.
• Drawing attention: At times you need to draw attention to the library by talking about a book you read, placing your comments in the reading log, planning your lessons and activities around the books.
• Nature of activities: You may ask children to read and narrate a story, make picture books using the characters of a story but altering the plot, frame riddles about the characters they studied and play a quiz, build story maps. Other literary activities may include writing an introduction for a book, making a poster, role play, letter writing. Entire gamut of genres we want children to explore can actually be blended with the stuff from the class library.
• Respect for books: Wear and tear of books is a natural concomitant when children use library. They should be engaged in mending books and thus tapes, scissors, glue should be provided to them. Replacing a torn book with money never inculcates in children the value of books as they do not see money as their own and are not engaged in the process of mending.
• Economic costs: Some people might just reject the idea of class library thinking it to be too expensive an affair, however it is not. Quality children’s literature is available in market published by National Book Trust, Children’s Book Trust, Eklavya, Pratham, Scholastic, Tulika, Katha amongst many others that can suit the running costs of the library.
  One can attain miraculous reading and learning levels in a classroom if one allocates space for class libraries that is accessible to children. As parents one should demand the schools to provide this rich exposure to children right from kindergarten.
  
  

Violence and education

Some reflections......
I don't think we have to explain our children what terrorism is, it exists and children are seeing it be it live commentaries on TV, newspapers, emails etc. The only thing we can do as parents/educators/curriculum developers is not to hide terrorism and the ugliness that life offers. We generally present the good/ positive side of life undermining children's cognitive capacity. What we need is a balanced curriculum, sensitive teachers to handle this chaos. Speak to children, let them express their views, also show them the horrible side amongst all positives we show them. They understand everything and are witnessing everything.

I remember an year back when I was teaching at The Heritage school, Gurgaon, one of my student class three, had visited Wagha border (as told by his parents). He sat on his father's shoulder and peeped across in Pakistan and said,"Papa I see all men, women there are same, then why India and Pakistan fights?" This is a real incident told to me by the parents who had a very peaceful family and no violence. Children are reading and growing up in violence, we need to acknowledge that in texts too and help them integrate peace in their lifestyles. Meditation in schools has been replaced by drills on drum beats. There is dearth of activities that help children focus inwards. Moreover our curriculum developers want to stay clear of controversies while publishing and teachers do not take it up as they simply do not have time. The whole issue remains unaddressed and this creates inner conflict in children?

Where is PEACE? What is left is only VIOLENCE and CONSUMERISM. If we do not join hands today, tomorrow we shall see our own children with guns. Feel really disturbed due to all this chaos. To agree to violence, or submit to terrorism is again not PEACE. WE are equally guilty.......

Do not ask what to do, just think that what can I do and then what can WE do to change this scenario. Why all this mess around elections and the blame game? We accept violence in most forms. Terrorism and blasts are only the most visible, perverted forms of this chain. How many women have rebelled against male dominance be it their father, brother, husband in their family, how many of us have felt irritated with women being subjugated and portrayed as weaker sex in serials, how many of us have not felt happy when India won a match against Pakistan, how many of us have not dominated our maids, helpers etc. In workplaces, schools, homes, communities everywhere there is domination and the child is observing all this. What we need to only help the child is with to deal with these conflicts and focus inside. Introspect and love oneslf and then the environment. This will not come to the child if our very home is replica of a power- struck, authoritative society.
ELIMINATE violence in homes before one really needs to wonder about our kids.

Education for peace

It is indeed sad to witness terrorist attacks in India and most metropolitan cities being targeted one after the other. But what are we doing to change the scenario. We feel unhappy, talk about issues and still remain consumers of knowledge. As an educationist I feel a strong need to integrate education for peace in curriculum. What is this , a new marketing mantra that can be comfortably used to sell a product to most people out there who are not reading. I read in my childhood about the Boycott movement where Indians had joined hands and said no to British products. I see education still colonized and no torch bearer like Gandhi to conscientize our souls and make us understand that what we need is freedom from information, examination systems and closed pedagogy. Today we are being attacked and India facing crisis in face of this mass destruction. But we continue to be business oriented and be pawns in the system. How can we overpower this crisis. I see education that liberates what Gandhi or Paulo Freire ever dreamt of. 'Freedom from Content' and 'Feel Good Factor' what most textbooks offer- a world of make belief where these terrorism, caste/ class conflicts, religious intolerance, sensitive issues are kept outside the books because that builds in conflict within our inner selves, are radical, and are not best sellers. Its high time we need to awaken from this deep slumber and say no such education. Let our children construe a real world and be well equipped to handle such crisis.

EDUCATION – CONFORM OR TRANSFORM

Education for peace forms an integral part of education. A close look at our educational system reveals an overemphasis of the cognitive functions resulting in weaning of the affective functions. Competition, academics and examinations have assumed centre stage in child’s education. This has given rise to an inner conflict within the child who operates under the shaping influence of biased texts and pedagogy that accentuates a break between the intellect and the heart.

• Most textbooks for primary construe a lively world view for children translated through the content and the illustrations. Rarely an attempt is made to make children aware with the realities and challenges of daily life. For example: a rainy season is depicted with children sailing paper boats and eating pakoras. It is difficult to find texts that depict rainy season associated with floods, overflowing drains, transport troubles, leaking roofs, power failure, epidemics, etc. This dimension is completely overlooked and texts remain exclusive of wide social reality.
• Textbooks too have an implicit writer’s bias that stems from their personal, subjective experiences. Usually a textbook writer belongs to a literate, urbanized strata of society and this gets unequivocally focused through the content, language, context and illustrations of the book.
• Exclusion or marginal representation of different social groups based on caste, class, and culture is also visible in textbooks. Rarely an attempt is made to incorporate different languages and cultures in the text. Imagine the impact of such exclusive text on the child’s psyche in a classroom which is not a homogenous group. Thus he/she feels indifferent, humiliated and develop negative identity due to such impersonal texts.
• Another pervasive effect is that of westernization. Westernized style of eating, celebration, education, greeting, dress up has overshadowed indigenous culture and customs in texts. There is a need for textbooks to break away from the tyranny of westernization and represent our rich, heterogenous culture. Alienation through texts has a negative impact on the child and is certainly not the premise of education for peace.
• Gender stereotyping is also explicit in textbooks. The illustrations remain heavily male dominated and embody men in constructive roles like engineers, architects and women as teachers, doctors, nurse etc. Sexist language like mankind, chairman, postman are still an essential component of our textbooks. Some stories like Sania Mirza or Kalpana Chawla are included as exceptions but hardly are able to mitigate the effect of gender stereotyping. Children are not able to relate to these exemplary women due to their distance from their social context. They need more community specific examples as their role models.
• Value based-textbooks draw stories from religion, philosophy, fables, folk literature etc. These perpetuate values of patriotism, secularism, democracy with a marked degree of impersonation where the agency of the child is lost. He or she becomes the object of education but never the subject. There is no space for subjective personal stories that explore the myths, values and attitudes implicit in the text.
• Textbooks preach values with a didactic, informative and regulating tone. Rationality, critical thinking, questioning, analysis are completely missing. Further such unquestioning obedience to value based texts is legitimized by society that conforms to unquestioned values. J. Krishnamurti, an educational thinker, articulated that ‘education should help us to discover lasting values so that we do not merely cling to formulas or repeat slogans; it should help us to break down our national and social barriers, instead of emphasizing them ,for they breed antagonism. Education should encourage the individual to discover the true values which come with unbiased investigation and self-awareness.’
  The question is whether our texts indoctrinate us in values or nurture a spirit of inquiry?
  
  Possible Solutions
• It is important to present a holistic perspective through texts and not undermine the cognitive capacity of children. Textbooks need to integrate social reality and be inclusive in nature. This is possible through integrated and thematic curricula that transcends subject boundaries. Ironically, what is visible is a gush of value education textbooks that undermine the fundamental premise of education for peace.
• National Curriculum Framework 2005 suggests that children need to be equipped with peace skills like ability to distinguish between facts and opinions, handle information in an unbiased way, analyze problem from different points of view, reflect and arrive at new solutions.
• Efforts should be made to invite authors belonging to different communities and regions as they enliven the cultural diversity of the text. It is important at this point to break away from the hegemony of dominant social groups that might affect the texts. Texts ought to be unprejudiced and not a mirror of wider social order.
• Children need a variety of linguistic input in primary as these being the formative years. No single textbook or a value education book can ever substitute the richness, variety and diversity of cultural story books and picture books. Children need exposure to a variety of children’s literature that incorporate the local language, customs and ethnicity. More children handle different picture books, it strengthens their concepts about print, ushers them into the world of reading with a positive self esteem that stems from identification with these texts.
• Special attention needs to be paid to the language and illustrations of inclusive texts that it should nurture the local customs and cultural practices. It shall be worthwhile to collect oral folk stories that exist in various regions and cultures and publish them.
  Inviting grandparents, helpers in the school, people belonging to different states to share their cultural stories makes the classroom inclusive. It prizes the cultural capital of community and sets an equation for dialogue in classroom. Children can be involved in retelling or writing these stories, making picture books and can be encouraged into writing.
• National Curriculum Framework advocates the use of strategies like questions, stories, anecdotes, games, experiments, discussions, dialogues, value clarification, examples, analogies, metaphors, role-plays etc to promote peace through teaching and learning.
• It is important that education for peace forms the shaping vision of education .Thus it is important for texts to be inclusive. Textbook writers need to evaluate the psychological, sociological and pedagogical impact of exclusive texts on children. Textbooks wield the power to alter the social order. It is difficult to publish inclusive texts that are culturally sensitive, devoid of power influences and are unprejudiced. This is the choice we have to make. Do we want our children to be the pawns in the system and fit into the patterns of society or do we want them to be agents of social change?
  
  http://www.ncert.nic.in/html/focus_group.htm ( A must read for all educators and parents to know about what actually does NCF 2005 say)
  
  {By Meeta Mohanty, Has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools. Currently editing children’s books at Ratna Sagar P. Ltd.}.
  
  

Write it Right

Write it Right- Published in Education Times, TOI, 17th November, 2008 by Meeta Mohanty

Writing forms an integral focus of language instruction in classrooms. It is sad to witness that in most Indian schools writing is equated with formation of alphabet, symbols and handwriting. Evidence of this narrow view of writing is visible in language textbooks and pedagogy in early childhood education. Texts reinforcing pattern writing, drills focusing letter formations, standing and sleeping lines, flood the market and take preference over writing to communicate.
What clearly misses from these texts is the fundamental premise of writing as Krishna Kumar quotes ‘purpose of writing and the sense of audience’. He cites that the ‘alphabet has no meaning and therefore excessive or isolated emphasis on the alphabet can discourage children from seeing writing as a means of meaningful communication’.

A perspective
Writing is communicative. We all write with a purpose. The purpose of this article is to persuade readers to re-evaluate writing instruction in classrooms. The organization of this article is in form of problem-solution structure. Thus before writing, a writer selects the purpose of writing and the text organization amongst several other factors. Let’s examine these features.
M.A.K. Halliday (1975) identified seven functions or purposes of writing. A writer writes for different purposes. These can be to inform as visible in reports, to persuade as in speech, to regulate or monitor as in orders and commands, to interact and form relations as in letters, to inquire as in interrogative logs, articles. Writers might use personal language to opine about a subject or use imaginative language as visible in stories and poems.
The various purposes of language as identified by Halliday may overlap. As an educator it is important to understand the various functions of language and ensure that children receive ample exposure and opportunity to use various functions.
It is also important to expose children to various types of text organization structures like compare and contrast, sequence, cause and effect, problem- solution etc. Exposure to different text structures and various functions of language builds children’s background knowledge which they apply while writing. An educator needs to provide exposure of these diverse texts through reading, writing, listening and speaking. A close look at the texts for children in primary shall reveal predominantly informative (expository) texts or stories and poems.
Most people believe that language skills develop in a linear fashion from listening, speaking, reading and writing. However A child begins to use language long before he or she enters school. Children babbles are speech, reflexes are signs of listening, drawings & scribbles are early forms of writing, picture reading are signs of early reading. We need to acknowledge these inherent capacities of child in school and nurture these. The entire pedagogy falters as we begin with false premise that they do not listen, read, write, speak and we need to teach them through graded instruction.

Suggestions
Listen to language: Narrating stories, poems, personal experiences, audio tapes can help. Inviting different people like peers, family, community members to share their experiences extends children’s audience.
Language Experience Approach: Children can narrate personal experiences about his/her breakfast in the morning, what he/she saw on the way to school and the teacher listens and inscribes verbatim for the child in print. Through this approach the child connects personal experience with print and sees it as a means to communicate. He/she shall gradually begin to identify key words. One must refrain from correcting grammar while inscribing as this is de-motivating.
Real opportunities to write: Teacher can write morning message on the board. He/She can begin to write about a special event, announcement, short riddle, words about the weather etc. There are no hard and fast rules about the morning message board. It can take any shape as per the class dynamics. An educator can gradually assign each child turns to write morning message and read it aloud. Only she/he needs to tell the child to write in large font. There is no need to ask the child to spell correct or check grammar. What eventually shall happen are peer corrections in the most unobtrusive manner. Children can write daily messages to their friends thus reinforcing interactional language. They can be involved in taking down observations while visiting different places like a pond, park, canteen, swimming pool, library etc. Places for visits need not be museums always.
Reporting news: Children can be divided into groups and collect news from nook and corners of the school. They can take turns to narrate their experience. This activity can culminate in a class news bulletin or newspaper. Shift emphasis from editing, correct products, at first, as children need to organize ideas and write drafts.
Graffiti corner: Paste a chart paper within the child’s reach and let it be their graffiti corner where they write what they want and when they want.
Maintain writing folders: Encourage children to write messages, stories, words, labels, poems, anything what they feel and place it in their writing folders. Over a period of time you can see progression in writing and assess them on realistic parameters.

The whole idea is give them ample and real opportunities to use language. You can incorporate these as regular class routines or as energizers. Children will love these small breaks and routines and you shall witness high reading-writing levels in classroom.

On education

A wonderful video on education. Do watch it till the end. web source

Just click on this link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4704281391188212406

Do Flowers Fly?

A wonderful video on the current state of our education system..... (WEb Resource)


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6192046547433568219

A Perspective into differently abled

I have a sister
My sister is deaf
By Jeane Whitehouse Peterson

I have a sister
My sister is deaf
By Jeane Whitehouse Peterson


I have a sister
My sister is deaf.
She is special.
There are not many sisters like mine.

My sister can play the piano.
She likes to feel the deep rumbling chords.
But she will never be able to sing.
She cannot hear the tune.

My sister can dance with a partner or march in a line.
She likes to leap, to tumble, to roll,
to climb to the top of the monkey bars.
She watches me as we climb.
I watch her too.
She cannot hear me shout, "Look out!"
But she can see me swinging her way.
She laughs and swings backward, trying to catch my legs.

I have a sister who likes to go with me
out to the grassy lot behind her house.
Today we are stalking deer.
I turn to speak to her. I use no voice,
Just my fingers and my lips.
She understands, and walks behind me,
Stepping where I step.
I am the one who listens
for small sounds.
She is the one who watches
for quick movements in the grass.

When my sister was very small,
When I went to school and she did not,
My sister learned to say some words.
Each day she sat on the floor with our mother,
Playing with some toys we keep in an old shoe box.
"It's a ball," our mother would say.
"It's a dog. It's a book."
When I come home, I also sat on the floor.
My sister put her hands into the box.
She smiled and said, "Ball."
Baaaal it sounded to me.
"It's a ball," I repeated, just like our mother did.
My sister nodded and smiled.
"Ball," she said once more.
Again it sounded like baaaal to me.

Now my sister has started going to my school,
Although our mother still helps her speak and lip-read at home.
The teacher and children do not understand every word
she says, like sister or water or thumb.
Today the children in her room told me,
"Your sister said blue!
Well, I heard her say that a long time ago.
But they have not lived with my sister for five years the way I have.

I understand my sister.
My sister understands what I say too,
Especially if I speak slowly and move my hands a lot.
But it is not only my lips and fingers that my sister watches.
I wore my sunglasses yesterday.
The frames were very large. The lenses are very black.
My sister made me take them off when I spoke.
What do my brown eyes say to her brown eyes?
That I would really rather play ball than play house?
That I just heard our mother call,
but I do not want to go in yet?

Yes, I have a sister who can understand what I say.
But not always.
Last night I asked, "Where are my pajamas?"
She went into the kitchen and brought out a bunch of bananas
from the fruit bowl on the table.

My friends ask me about my little sister.
They ask, "Does it hurt to be deaf?"
"No," I say, "her ears don't hurt,
but her feelings do when people do not understand."

My sister cannot always tell me with words
what she feels.
Sometimes she cannot even show me with her hands.
But when she is angry or happy or sad,
my sister can say more with her face and her shoulders
than anyone else I know.

I tell my friends I have a sister
who knows when a dog is barking near her
and who says she does not like the feel of that sound.
She knows when our cat is purring
if it is sitting on her lap,
or that our radio is playing
if she is touching it with her hand.

But my sister will never know if the telephone is ringing
or if someone is knocking at the door.
She will never hear the garbage cans
clanging around the street.

I have a sister who sometimes cries at night,
when it is dark and there is no light in the hall.
When I try plugging my ears in the dark,
I cannot hear the clock ticking on the shelf
or the television playing in the living room.
I do not hear any cars moving out on the street.
There is nothing.
Then I wonder, is it the same?

I have a sister who will never hear the branches
scraping against the window of our room.
She will not hear the sweet tones of the wind chimes
I have hung up there.
But when the storms come,
my sister does not wake to the sudden rolling thunder,
or to the quick clap-clap of the shutters in the wind.
My little sister sleeps.
I am the one who is afraid.

When my friends ask, I tell them
I have a sister who watches television
without turning on the sound.
I have a sister who rocks her dolls
without singing any tune.
I have a sister who can talk with her fingers
or in a hoarse, gentle voice.
But sometimes she yells so loud,
our mother says the neighbors will complain.

I stamp my foot to get my sister's attention,
or wave at her across the room.
I come up beside her and put my hand on her arm.
She can feel the stamping. She can feel the touching.
She can glimpse my moving hand from the corner of her eye.
But if I wake up behind her and call out her name,
she cannot hear me.

I have a sister
my sister is deaf.
( From the internet)

An Animal School Parable

This is an interesting parable, a scathing reality of our education system as it exists today.
Source: Downloaded from internet


The Animal School: A Parable

Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something decisive to meet the increasing complexity of their society. They held a meeting and finally decided to organize a school.

The curriculum consisted of running, climbing, swimming and flying. Since these were the basic behaviours of most animals, they decided that all the students should take all the subjects.

The duck proved to be excellent at swimming, better in fact, than his teacher. He also did well in flying. But he proved to be very poor in running. Since he was poor in this subject, he was made to stay after school to practice it and even had to drop swimming in order to get more time in which to practice running. He was kept at this poorest subject until his webbed feet were so badly damaged that he became only average at swimming. But average was acceptable in the school, so no body worried about that – except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of her class in running, but finally had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up time in swimming – a subject she hated.

The squirrel was excellent at climbing until he developed a psychological block in flying class, when the teacher insisted he start from the ground instead of from the tops of trees. He was kept at attempting to fly until he became muscle-bound – and received a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was the school’s worst discipline problem; in climbing class, she beat all of the others to the top of the tree used for examination purposes in this subject, but she insisted on using her own method of getting there.

The gophers, of course, stayed out of school and fought the tax levied for education because digging was not included in the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to the badger and later joined the groundhogs and eventually started a private school offering alternative education..

Alas the author is unknown (a student at the University of Toronto)

Feedback for Learning

Feedback to Facilitate
Published in Education Times, TOI, 22nd September, 2008 By Meeta Mohanty

Akanksha, the description of the rainy day is beautiful. You have tried making a poem and the drawing also explains your idea very well. You can try using some more rhyming words.

Varun, I really liked the way you have recorded your observations. Your drawings are elaborate and you seem to have paid good attention to the minute details. It would be a nice idea if you try writing your observations in a list form next time. What about observing a banana leaf?

Imagine yourself as a child who receives this feedback on the task as opposed to a regular ‘good’ or ‘needs improvement’ by the teacher.
Feedback is one of the most powerful tool that a teacher can employ to facilitate learning in classroom. It can be used for a variety of purposes. For example to assess the learning outcomes, motivate a child’s indigenous style of expression, challenge his/her thinking, suggest alternatives etc. Feedback is as important as learning in a child centered classroom. It is often either ignored or evaluative in most cases resulting in loss of learning situations. Let’s examine some key features of effective feedback:

v Feedback should be both on the process and the product of learning. It is important to appreciate the efforts and unique style of a child. It also needs to provide a description of the expected learning outcome and help the child to assess his/her learning.
v Feedback should be quick following a task so that it can be implemented. It is also important for a feedback to be simple and comprehensible by the child. Avoid using judgemental words like good or bad.
v Make feedback clear, specific and complete. Do not use words like you can improve, well-written etc. Such feedback create bewilderment in the child as to what he/she should improve or what was good in writing the content, presentation, choice of words, style etc.
v Effective verbal feedback entails attentive listening by the teacher and other children. In most cases it is seen that the classroom discourse remains closed with teacher wielding power to initiate questions and also evaluate the responses as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Efforts should be aligned to make learning dialogic wherein a child initiates question and other children can offer perspectives. In such a classroom the onus shifts from a unidirectional flow of information to an inquiry centered classroom.
v To help children probe the subject matter, it is important for a teacher to give adequate wait time to students to respond. Often teachers ask closed questions like ‘When is Gandhi Jayanti celebrated?’ ‘What was he popularly known as?’ Hardly do we come across questions that challenge thinking, help children gather evidences or express opinions. To facilitate thinking the same theme can be dealt by asking probing questions like, ‘Do you think Gandhiji was right in breaking the salt law? How do you know about Gandhiji?’ Such questions give scope for subjective interpretations. An effort should be made to break away from the tradition of asking rhetorical questions.
v A teacher needs to vary the feedback according to a child’s level of accomplishment. For example if a child who has just begun to write receives a punitive feedback telling that he or she needs to improve her spellings or check grammar use can be de-motivating. It is important that the teacher provides constructive feedback highlighting the strengths of the written piece. A teacher should use feedback as a mechanism to enhance learning and not dismiss learning. Teacher’s expectations can be conveyed subtly and can be suggestive.
v Personalized feedback work wonders than generic ones. Addressing children by their names and highlighting their strengths increases the probability of desired outcome. It motivates and empowers the child.
v Feedback should be authentic and not just praise devoid of context.
v A teacher should be cautious of using negative injunctions like: Don’t write in upper case, Poor, Untidy work, Incomplete. Such statements are power-centric, closed and may disconnect the child with the learning process. Efforts should be made to engage emotions of the child by making feedback dialogic and non-threatening.
v It is imperative to set an equation for mutual feedback. Thus a child can provide constructive feedback to his/her peers. He or she should be encouraged to express views on what an educator creates. Such practices help in making the child fearless and democratic while giving feedback. It also decentralizes the power dynamics in the classroom.

Edu Talk: Are Textbooks child centered ?

Edu Talk: Are Textbooks child centered ?

Are textbooks child-centred?
Education Times-25 Aug 2008, 0614 hrs IST, Meeta Mohanty

Textbooks play a key role in socialisation of the child — through them a child vicariously experiences the world. Thus, the publishers and authors who select the text have a great responsibility. However, a survey of the textbook market in India would probably reveal: -

--Textbooks, in general, are overloaded with information, facts and figures.
-- Most textbooks may profess to abide by the guidelines enshrined in the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. But, while they adopt the themes as examples, their approach remains archaic, ie to disseminate information to the child
-- There is hardly any scope for the child to explore, investigate or question the text. The content is sacrosanct and can no way be wrong or interpreted differently by the child. Thus, the text is closed and not open to subjective interpretations
-- Little effort is made to embed learning in a social context. So, a mathematics textbook shall have operations devoid of context, a social science or science text shall sequentially unfold information
-- Gender sensitivity, mental health, life skills, peace education are key words picked up from NCF 2005 and exploited only as marketing tools .

A perspective
There is a need to delve into the sociological, psychological and pedagogical impact of the text before publishing. NCF 2005 clearly emphasises the importance of a trial of books to assess the content and context validity. It states: 'It may be a good idea for the initial lessons to be piloted, ie to be taught on a trial basis, with the textbook writer observing the transaction in the class while also receiving feedback from both teacher and students. This is also important when innovating with the textbook content in order to understand and place them within the realities of the classroom and teacher preparation.'
The new NCERT textbooks have been a sincere effort in this regard. The textbooks are an apt example of child-centred text that is well researched. They integrate the cultural milieu of the child and encourage inquiry; draw abstracts of children's literature published by NBT, CBT, Eklavya and others; and engage children.
Some efforts in this direction have also been made by private publishers, who made books skill based, integrated text thematically, incorporated relevant case studies, life skills, etc. The presentation of the books is changing with some exploration projects, vivid illustrations, comic strips, stories, etc. However, by and large, the approach remains interventionist with innovation representing only an added feature. One must remember that a child doesn't need fragmented bits of information in a better layout, what he/she needs is an integrated curriculum. So, while such new textbooks seem like 'old wine in a new bottle,' the need in reality is for 'new wine' — a new text, the content that generates in a classroom in sync with the child's interest. Such a curriculum would be creative, innovative and worth teaching.
It is important for parents to be critically aware of child-centred text. Intelligent questioning and reading educational research is important. If parents are not well informed, then there is little scope for innovation. As consumers, it is important to create a 'demand' and the publishers will 'supply.' This is how the market forces operate and how the face of Indian education system can change. All that is needed is a happy child and the joy of learning.

Some Suggestions
Curriculum progression: Evaluate the learning outcomes in the beginning and end of the book. Question whether the book provides necessary scaffold to the learner to gain competencies as conceptualised. Vertical progression also needs to be evaluated. How a concept progresses through class I, II, III and so on. Progression needs to be observed in the skills and the level of reasoning, not merely in adding new concepts.
Relevance of text: A child needs to enjoy the immediate benefits of learning and, thus, something that is linked to the daily life. Concepts like money, weights and measures, can be understood well through examples of a market or interviewing a grocer.
Approach: Textbooks, in general, have an informative tone. More narratives like stories and personal experiences; persuasive writing like ads and editorials; procedural writing like recipes and experiments; and transactional texts like interviews and invitations should be integrated into the textbook.
(The writer has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools, and is currently editing children's books)

Edu Talk: An alternate approach to reading

Edu Talk: An alternate approach to reading

An alternate approach to reading
Often we as educators and parents are concerned about inculcating reading habit in our children. Reading (as dealt in most primers and classrooms) is decoding the symbols of the language( A to Z). As a child ushers into the school his/her reading trajectory begins with alphabet recognition, 1-2 syllable words, sentences & text. It is assumed that this is the progression i.e. simple to complex.
The constructivist viewpoint in education talks of an active learner who constructs meaning of the text based on his/her subjective experiences. Frank smith adds that a learner supplies non-visual information to the visual information while reading. Reading is essentially a meaning making process. However, the texts that flood the market are largely based on the approach progressing from alphabet to words and sentences devoid of any context to which a child can relate. Reading here symbolizes ‘mastering the code of the language’.

Crucial Aspects of Reading:
· Readers do not read by decoding alphabets. Rather they read by integrating meaning from the context. These contextual clues function in an integrated way. For example: “Our school has good quality t.....”. Definitely as a reader we may supply this word as teacher and not truck or trumpet. This happens because it is not only the phonetic clue that we use i.e. ‘t’ rather we make meaning from the context and this is what we need to model to young learners. They need to learn how to use contextual clues like picture clues, phonetic clues or look at the meaning of the text. This is key to good reading and needs repeated exposure and modeling by an educator or a parent.
· A reader also uses comprehension strategies while reading . For example : ‘ A new paradigm in education talks of an active role of a learner.’ A person who reads the word ‘paradigm’ for the first time does not get stuck with the word. S/he reads on and comes back again and tries to substitute a temporary word meaning like viewpoint/ theory/ perspective etc. to make sense. Some readers might try to recall the previous read piece where s/he might have encountered this word. Thus these strategies like reading on, omission, substitution, connect with previous knowledge are some comprehension strategies which readers employ.
Strategy selection is also determined by the purpose set for reading . If a reader is reading a text to get an overview of the text s/he will use strategies like skimming, scanning the text and shall focus attention on title, subtitles, diagrams etc. However the strategy differs when a reader is reading to extract key information, thus s/he shall use boldfacing, underlining, inserting comments, note taking etc. Thus setting a purpose for reading is also crucial.
Ironically, it’s amazing the way children are taught to attack new words by splitting them into syllables and through right pronunciation or encouraged to use a dictionary rather than integrate meaning from the context. In most cases children are either unaware of the purpose of reading or the purpose is set by an educator. More children engage in defining the purpose on their own, more shall be their motivation to read.
A reader in Smith’s words supplies non- visual information to the text. For example:
‘ At the interbank foreign exchange market , the rupee opened higher at 42.9350/9550 a dollar and was trapped in a narrow range of 42.93 and 42.98 before ending at 42.93/94, up by 3.50 paise from Thursday’s close of 42.9650/9750’.
It is difficult to understand the meaning of the text cited above, though we might be able to decode it fluently. Meaning making only happens when a brief about the share market and economy is supplied to us enabling us to make some connect with the text. Similar background building is important when children begin to read. Thus meaning lies in the interaction between the textual information and the information stored in the reader’s mind. Smith rightly said “ The more non visual information you have when you read, the less visual information you need and vice versa.”Thus it becomes important for an educator to build and activate child’s background information. Let’s look at some of the ways of doing so:
· Talk : Giving opportunity to children to talk about the topic they are about to read helps in activating background information.
· Know your learners: It’s important to know the learners background so that an educator can make connect while teaching. While talking about Dusshera in North India, a sensitive educator could ask a Bengali child in his/her class to share about Durga Puja celebrated at the same time. Nurturing diversity widens the background information of children. Besides this giving freedom to express about a topic either through dance, drama, poetry, role play, writing, builds the background information of children and also caters to different kinds of learners.
· Brainstorming : A technique of putting down all responses by children related to the topic on the board. Such a visual organizer helps to collate information that children have about the topic.

A sensitive and observant educator can use many other ways of building background information by narrating a story, playing a song, an instrument that relates to the theme. There can be multiple entry points and variety is what keeps the classroom alive.


{By Meeta Mohanty, Currently employed as an editor for children books. Has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools}.

Edu Talk: The Art of Questioning

Edu Talk: The Art of Questioning

Questioning is an integral part of an inquiry centred classroom. It is a learner’s thinking tool to carry out investigation about a subject matter. It is however sad to witness that in most Indian classrooms this tool is used to monitor children. The power to question is vested with the teacher who uses this tool to either approve or disapprove of children’s knowledge thus empowering or disempowering them. Thus the child finds it safe to remain silent, killing the essence of an inquiry-centered classroom.
Glimpses of an Inquiry-centered classroom
· A teacher needs to assume the role of a facilitator where s/he can probe into children’s cultural knowledge and integrate it with the text. This helps in engaging emotions.
· S/he can pose a variety of questions ranging from simple recall to questions that require analysis and interpretation of visual data, graph etc. She can encourage children to collect evidences, verify the authenticity of collected data and help them re-search the given topic and generate new knowledge.
· S/he can also frame questions that help children express and advocate their perspectives . Role reversal can help children to think back and forth. For example: while talking about a new government children can argue as PM themselves and then as general public.
· A teacher can pose questions to help children become critical thinkers. S/he can help them understand the bias implicit in a text or a documentary, the subjectivity of the author etc. For Example: Baghbaan, a popular film propagates a viewpoint and we ally with the central protagonist Amitabh Bachhan . However if this story was retold from the vantage point of his elder daughter in law who is a professional, homemaker and a mother our allegiance shall change. Thus a text always presents a perspective and a teacher should pose questions like: Who is the central character? Why we never hear or see character X? What if this story was set in primitive era? Such questions shall lay the foundations of a thinking classroom.
· A teacher can extend a child’s response by giving relevant feedback and adequate wait time. S/he needs to focus on thinking process of the child. She needs to engage children with a variety of tasks that need both objectivity and subjectivity.
· Engagement with real life projects can spark curiosity in children. Genuine questions and mutual inquiry by both the educator and the pupil helps. Thus children can be engaged in collecting data, observing and studying patterns, interviewing people etc. This provides children an extended audience.

Tagore: Ideas in Practice

Re-living Tagore’s ideals
Rabindranath Tagore, a writer, thinker, philosopher strongly felt the need to revitalize the existing educational system. In his famous article ‘My School’ he cites: ‘We devote our sole attention to giving children information, not knowing that by this emphasis we are accentuating a break between the intellectual, physical and the spiritual life.’
A close look at majority schools in our country substantiates Tagore’s findings.

§ Academic excellence takes priority over pursuit of art, craft, dance, drama and sports. These activities have got space in the curriculum though as mere tokenism as co-curricular activities.
§ Hardly an effort is made to nurture these competencies in every child.
§ Emphasis on academics is also reinforced by parent’s expectations which build enormous performance pressure on children.
§ Examinations in India remain paper and pencil tests which require a child to be a proficient reader and writer. What if a child is good at logical reasoning and spatial drawing but fails to perform in a paper and pencil test? How valid is such a test? Does it measure child’s learning?
Tagore critiqued schools for grinding out uniform results.
§ Education of the heart, the spiritual self hardly finds any space in the curriculum. It is mostly confined to prayer meetings, value education slots in the timetable or special cultural events. The approach remains in form of a monologue. Whether it is the teacher or the textbook both feel compelled to narrate some stories emphasizing values. Rarely do we find text that investigates values with reasoning.
Tagore commented, ‘The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes life in harmony with all existence. I believe that the object of education is the freedom of mind which can only be achieved through the path of freedom.’ Thus Tagore envisaged a culture of investigation of the world and introspection of the inner self.
He was a proponent for experiential education. In his article he quotes, ‘I well remember the surprise and annoyance of an experienced headmaster, reputed to be a successful disciplinarian, when he saw one of the boys of my school climbing a tree and choosing a fork of the branches for settling down to his studies. He believes in an impersonal knowledge of the tree that is science but not in a personal experience of it.’
A pertinent question here is to probe ourselves as teachers and leaders, ‘Do we provide children this personal experience of nature or is it limited to a few nature walks without talk?’
§ Learning, by and large remains encapsulated between the four walls of the classroom in contradiction with the child’s intrinsic nature to explore.

Some suggestions
§ Curriculum should emphasize education of the mind, body and spirit in an integrated way. Thus a trans-disciplinary approach rather than compartmentalized subject delivery is proposed. Efforts should be made to integrate child’s personal knowledge. His/ her local language, customs, culture should get adequate representation in the text and teaching.
§ A shift from teaching children to learning with them needs to be emphasized. Thus there needs to be a real question for investigation for both the teacher and the learner. An ethos for inquiry centered learning is key.
§ It is important to explore nature. Thus being with nature, studying it through direct personal experience and observation is fundamental.
§ Diverse learning styles of children needs acceptance in the classroom. This implies that the same concept can be taught in a variety of ways to make it comprehensible. For example concept of symmetry can be taught through demonstration on the board, asking children to collect symmetrical objects from nature, through origami, drawing etc.
§ Varied modes of assessment should be used like maintaining audio-tapes, video records and portfolios. Assessment should be on a variety of tasks and in a variety of setting like individual, group, formal presentations and informal get together. Rubrics can be used to assess children on a developmental continuum and the teacher needs to effectively gauge child’s learning and challenge his/ her thought. Thus the teacher needs to scaffold children through challenge and support model.
§ A culture of reflection needs to be ingrained in the system for helping children peep into their values, beliefs and actions and investigate them rationally. Instead of conformity to beliefs, Tagore envisaged reasoning and assessing one’s reality with respect to harmonious existence.

Different Shades of Intelligence

Article: Different shades of Intelligence by Meeta Mohanty

Published in Times of India, Education Times, 30th June,2008

'I am not intelligent, I lack aptitude’ this is a general feeling with which a child lives within our Indian classroom where comparison and competing against one’s peer is a norm. Our educational system is geared towards achievement. Whether it is the curriculum or the teacher, operates on the fundamental principle of giving facts and enabling children to learn better and reproduce the same in exams. Fun, creativity, sensitivity to nature, music and drama are blanketed under the co-curricular section and holds less importance over reading and writing. However what we, as educators and parents, fail to see is that these are different ways in which children express themselves and learn.
Sir Howard Gardner’s research on Multiple Intelligences is quite relevant to understand children. He proposed that all children have different strengths called as intelligences that get manifested in varying degrees. The entire framework of Multiple Intelligences is based on discovering and harnessing the potential in each child. Let’ s look at some classroom examples:
Rahul is learning to read and write. However, he is drawn to nature and is fond of collecting feathers, insects and leaves and loves to share his observations with his peers. He is confident while talking about his findings in a group and can even handle tough group situations. His strength lies in learning from nature and he also displays ‘interpersonal intelligence’.
Similarly, Naman participates in sports and dramas and is a good orator. He is good at interpreting graphs, charts and visual information. However, he struggles to understand the rhythm in poetry and songs. He displays ‘body-kinesthetic intelligence’ and ‘visual-spatial intelligence’.He perhaps has less manifested ‘musical intelligence’.
Likewise, Sukalp is an avid reader but prefers to work alone. She can create new things and interpret texts while reading on her own, but shies away from group presentations and public speaking. She is reflective and learns best when working on her own. Therefore, she displays ‘linguistic intelligence’ and ‘intra-personal intelligence’.
Sir Howard Gardner talked of eight such intelligences which needs to be nurtured in a classroom. For a teacher, it is very important to be aware of the learner’s nature, interest and strengths.S/he must critically observe the learner in a variety of settings like during reading and writing tasks, role play, sports, poetry, presentations, nature study and many other informal learning situations. Let’s look at the table that shall help in identifying different kinds of intelligences in a classroom:

1 Linguistic Learners
Enjoys reading, writing letters,poems,stories, storytelling, oral presentations ,debates etc.
2 Visual-Spatial Learners
Creating maps, charts, bar graphs, comic strips, powerpoint presentations etc.
3 Bodily- Kinesthetic Learners
Role Play, dance, sports, making manipulatives, pantomime, putting together puzzle etc.
4 Musical / Rhythmic Learners
Composing melody, learning through rhythmic aids
5 Naturalist Learners
Collecting objects from nature, observing & categorizing plants/animals, environmental projects.
6 Logico-mathematical
Likes brainteasers, deductive logical problems, conducting experiments, reasoning games.
7 Interpersonal Learners
Likes group work,presentations,giving/receiving feedback, interviewing etc.
8 Intrapersonal
Prefers silent reflection time, self paced projects, diary/journal entry
(Ninth intelligence is proposed to be existential intelligence)
Most teachers find it difficult to give individual attention to students to identify and nurture MI in a classroom, given the huge teacher-student ratio and low budgets. Below are given some ways to do so:
Ø Establishing learning corners like a reading corner stocked with a variety of children literature shall rejoice a linguistic learner. Setting up a corner for inquiry with collection of flowers, leaves, seeds, stems or specimen of animals can give ample scope for discussing living stuff to a naturalist learner. Similar engaging corners having drama props, puzzles and manipulatives can cater to diversity in classroom.
Ø Spaces within a classroom should have charts, graphs, maps, personal letters from teacher and the students, graffiti space for children to write,spaces for displaying children’s work in form of charts, clay models, sculptures, art.
Ø Flexible grouping according to learner’s needs and strengths and self target-setting for children can be good.
It is important to give flexibility of expression to children. A teacher needs to observe the process of learning , the way different children approach , represent and solve a same problem rather than defining the way and output for them. For example while learning about family a child can either share something verbally, present a skit, sing a song, compose a poem, use natural objects to describe his/her family, reflect on memorable moments, frame riddles, make a collage etc. There lies diversity in our classrooms and we need to kindle it.

Instructional Leadership

Instructional leader - a new role in schools
Source:The Times of India, Education Times, 04, August 2008
Meeta Mohanty

Gone are the days when the head of a school was trapped within administrative processes, signing bills and recommendations, and had little time for facilitating and promoting learning within classrooms. With the upsurge of 'instructional leadership' in the 1980's, many progressive institutions began promoting instructional leaders in school. An instructional leader has several roles to play with his/her primary task being the promotion of learning within classrooms. Thus, he or she is a policy maker, mentor, facilitator, resource-provider, action researcher, decision maker and a curriculum developer in a school. Let's examine this multi-tasked profile of an instructional leader.

• Policy/decision maker: He or she frames policies that promote and directly affect learning. Such policies can be about decisions regarding the curriculum and assessment process, teacher-pupil ratio, teaching-learning material, recruitment and induction of teachers and so on. An instructional leader does not form policies in isolation but involves other stakeholders like teachers, parents, community members and students as well. A leader ensures that the policies are revisited from time to time and efforts are aligned keeping the organisational vision at the centre.
• Mentor: An instructional leader has an important role to play as a mentor to students, teachers, parents, and the wider community. For example, an instructional leader would understand a teacher's teaching and learning style, appreciate his/her strengths and accordingly provide opportunities to augment weaknesses. Similarly, he/she acts as a mentor to students who see him/her not as a figure of authority but someone who is approachable, humane and considerate. A leader also has the responsibility of engaging the parents and the community with the process of learning. So, parents are not viewed as mere paying customers but as partners in their child's learning.
• Facilitator: He/she also plays the role of a facilitator of learning at all levels, evaluates learning within classrooms through observations, helps teachers lay down the curriculum and draft assessment processes. Another important task is delegating responsibility and sharing leadership with teachers. Instructional leaders are those who make themselves invisible while making processes of learning more visible, thus fostering a democratic environment.
• Resource Provider: An instructional leader must generate and sustain resources. Generating resources pertains to helping individual teachers learn, observing children's learning, maintaining assessment records, discussing pedagogical issues and helping teachers experiment new ideas and carry out action research in classrooms. Sustaining resources implies offering personal and professional growth opportunities to teachers and other resource persons within the organisation. This entails nurturing a positive learning environment, helping teacher's set their own learning goals and harnessing their strengths.

Only a leader who is well informed and understands his/her teacher's needs can sustain resources. In a nutshell, instructional leadership is not just about control, power, authority, management and monitoring processes. It focuses on empowering all stakeholders and aligning all endeavours towards the processes of learning.

(The writer has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools, and is currently editing children's books)

Are Textbooks child centered ?

Are textbooks child-centred?

Education Times-25 Aug 2008, 0614 hrs IST, Meeta Mohanty

Textbooks play a key role in socialisation of the child — through them a child vicariously experiences the world. Thus, the publishers and authors who select the text have a great responsibility. However, a survey of the textbook market in India would probably reveal: -

--Textbooks, in general, are overloaded with information, facts and figures.

-- Most textbooks may profess to abide by the guidelines enshrined in the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. But, while they adopt the themes as examples, their approach remains archaic, ie to disseminate information to the child

-- There is hardly any scope for the child to explore, investigate or question the text. The content is sacrosanct and can no way be wrong or interpreted differently by the child. Thus, the text is closed and not open to subjective interpretations

-- Little effort is made to embed learning in a social context. So, a mathematics textbook shall have operations devoid of context, a social science or science text shall sequentially unfold information

-- Gender sensitivity, mental health, life skills, peace education are key words picked up from NCF 2005 and exploited only as marketing tools .

A Perspective

There is a need to delve into the sociological, psychological and pedagogical impact of the text before publishing. NCF 2005 clearly emphasises the importance of a trial of books to assess the content and context validity. It states: 'It may be a good idea for the initial lessons to be piloted, ie to be taught on a trial basis, with the textbook writer observing the transaction in the class while also receiving feedback from both teacher and students. This is also important when innovating with the textbook content in order to understand and place them within the realities of the classroom and teacher preparation.'

The new NCERT textbooks have been a sincere effort in this regard. The textbooks are an apt example of child-centred text that is well researched. They integrate the cultural milieu of the child and encourage inquiry; draw abstracts of children's literature published by NBT, CBT, Eklavya and others; and engage children.

Some efforts in this direction have also been made by private publishers, who made books skill based, integrated text thematically, incorporated relevant case studies, life skills, etc. The presentation of the books is changing with some exploration projects, vivid illustrations, comic strips, stories, etc. However, by and large, the approach remains interventionist with innovation representing only an added feature. One must remember that a child doesn't need fragmented bits of information in a better layout, what he/she needs is an integrated curriculum. So, while such new textbooks seem like 'old wine in a new bottle,' the need in reality is for 'new wine' — a new text, the content that generates in a classroom in sync with the child's interest. Such a curriculum would be creative, innovative and worth teaching.

It is important for parents to be critically aware of child-centred text. Intelligent questioning and reading educational research is important. If parents are not well informed, then there is little scope for innovation. As consumers, it is important to create a 'demand' and the publishers will 'supply.' This is how the market forces operate and how the face of Indian education system can change. All that is needed is a happy child and the joy of learning.

Some Suggestions

Curriculum progression: Evaluate the learning outcomes in the beginning and end of the book. Question whether the book provides necessary scaffold to the learner to gain competencies as conceptualised. Vertical progression also needs to be evaluated. How a concept progresses through class I, II, III and so on. Progression needs to be observed in the skills and the level of reasoning, not merely in adding new concepts.

Relevance of text: A child needs to enjoy the immediate benefits of learning and, thus, something that is linked to the daily life. Concepts like money, weights and measures, can be understood well through examples of a market or interviewing a grocer.

Approach: Textbooks, in general, have an informative tone. More narratives like stories and personal experiences; persuasive writing like ads and editorials; procedural writing like recipes and experiments; and transactional texts like interviews and invitations should be integrated into the textbook.

(The writer has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools, and is currently editing children's books)