Not that I care,

But fear of pulling out

I shiver.

The pain is worse

than your decay.

Not that I care,

loosing you and others-

to decay,

I shudder.

What do I do?

Pull you or leave you in.

feel the pain now or wait for it later.

Wisdom tooth let me know.

I threw a tantrum at my son. I, who is 36 years, was furious at him for wasting food at dinner.  He had a full bar of chocolate before dinner, so he hardly ate anything at dinner. I shook my fist at him, yelled at my dad for pampering him, swore at him saying that he would not be allowed swimming until he eats healthy stuff. The entire episode got over an hour ago. I am calm and cool, now.

The more I reflect I realize my son was far better. He never let off his cool. He retorted back for every threat I flung at him. Happily, watched television while I was screaming my head off. And, exactly 30 min after me hopping mad at him, he pacified me with a bar of chocolate. He got me to smile with a few jokes and told me gently never to overfeed him again.

Life’s lessons I learnt – One can be firm and yet diplomatic. Humour helps in really nasty situations. Never, Never overfeed – as a mother- thinking you know the appetite better – our mother’s tricks do not work with this generation any longer.

Meena

Social Science Teacher

 

ALL AROUND YOU.

                              Omnipotent, I am.

                              Different faces, I have.

                              All around you –

                              You will find.

 

                              Musical and soft, individually….

                              Loud and giggly, in a crowd.

                              In a smile or a smirk.

                              It’s me.

                              Nearer to you, I am.

 

                              In joy and in despair,

                              In success and in failure,

                              In anger and in peace.

                              I am there.

 

                              Touch-me-not,

                              You never can.

                              Feel me, you will, you do,

                              The longer you live,

                              The longer I last –

                              In your state of mind.   

• Meena

Economics Teacher.

THE CONCEPT OF “UNCONDITIONAL LOVE”

 

I love to summarize theories.After, almost, eight years, I have managed to summarize my subject – Economics – in a single statement.  “THERE IS NO UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.”  Sounds, like a tagline for a movie? It’s the Naked Truth.

Everytime, I discuss this with my different batches of Economics students, I get different reactions – from a dirty look to a blank one. Some of them think I am cynical (I am, actually); some think it’s a joke and a few do not comprehend it. Let, me explain:

Everything, in life, comes with a price and an expiry date – even relationships. So does love – whether it is between two adults or between two siblings or between adults and children. The price takes a different form, under different circumstances. Most of the time it is materialistic and sometimes, it is intangible. The more I ponder, the more I realise that the  magnitude of  price varies between different forms of love; because there are two different people involved in a transaction      (oops,sorry)relationship, with different perspectives( to life) and different selfish motives( in mind).

Are we all aware of it? We are. It’s just that- we live in a state of constant denial of this fact. The idea that someone is showering unconditional love (when, in reality, they are not) suits our selfish motives and gives us a sense of security. As “rational” beings (an assumption – economists, often, use) we just cannot handle the thought of reflecting at our naked emotions.Infact, acceptance of this fact- would save us a lot of heartache or unpleasantness in life.

That brings us to the question – Are human beings, always, always, “rational”? True – the sixth sense works round the clock. We are never blinded by emotions, as we believe. Our head, every moment, weighs the cost-benefit of anything and everything, around us. It’s time, we accept that we give more, only, when we get more or are sure of getting more, in return for our love. Our love, towards others has a boundary and/or is conditioned. Anyone to prove me wrong?

• Meena

Economics Teacher.

Classroom  is the playing field for a teacher. We expect all kinds of players – quick learners, slow- learners, lazy ones, laid-back students, hyperactive kids, students with varying abilities. That makes a classroom interesting. It gives us a platform to experiment, to understand students better and to throw open different challenges to students with different abilities.

What if we work in institutions were the target is to produce students who can crack the IIT entrance? Where the students are trained to deal with the rat-race? Do such institutions really accept and understand the mosaic of students in a heterogeneous classroom? Or, is classrooms to them a laboratory  where the students are identified, classified- under various categories, sorted, labeled and packaged into different classrooms – students who have a slow  thinking pattern sit together?

Anyways, such homogeneous classrooms do exist in a country like India. It is patronized by many educationists – (that’s how they call themselves). I always ask a question to myself when this debate arises in my school – who are we to classify students and segregate them? Who has given us the authority to do so? Who are we to decide the future of a child? Is there a guarantee that a homogenous classroom provides open-minded students who later on, in life will be able to accept people with differences? Are we providing education for life  or are we achieving the literacy target?

Instead of making the  classroom transaction  interesting, why do institutions and teachers chose the easy way out to make classrooms even duller and shift the responsibility of learning onto the learner in the most barbaric way rather than adopting a creative approach during the classroom transaction?

A heterogeneous classroom is like an Indian wedding feast – it is a feast throughout the year. Homogeneous classroom is like a western  food- bland and leaves the diner unsatisfied.

I have always wondered how to teach Social and Political life. It’s a pretty interesting book. But teaching or rather getting students to think on lines of equality, social justice is quite a challenge.

I went reluctantly to the  classroom – wondering how do i get grade seven to think on lines of equality. I did have the ready-made lesson plan, as required. But lesson plans to me resonate a dull classroom. Something interesting caught my eyes, and it was  a really small passage on the Disability Act of 1995 by the Indian Government.

What went through me that day, I have no clue. I opened the topic just as a magician would open his hat  and pull out a bunny. The wow factor emerged – just like that. It just happend – it was not planned.The bunny did not emerge from my hat but from those of the kids.

Ideas just poured out – I had one child  linking the word disability to Helen Keller, someone spoke about Stepen Hawkins.There was some child talking about Braille, one trying to figure out the appropriate word for ‘the person who writes exams for the blind’ – i had to tell the class such a person is called scribe. One child was busy making chart about how his robo would help the disabled – amazing speed of thought.

The classroom turned alive. While walking out I was wondering If I have to still file the drab lesson plan or just reflect on my class and make note of the reflections. The class did understand the importance of Disability Act – in the right context and in the way they should – so I just had to facilitate and not teach.

Students are not unilateral thinkers like teachers, they interlink -that’s how learning should happen.That’s a lesson I learnt that day.

Is  it not time to change our documentation pertaining to schools – is it lesson plans or reflections that have to be recorded? Let’s reflect.