Taarey zameen par

Wow! finally a master piece that does justice in highlighting children's rights to the masses. A right to express themselves in their own unique way, a right to breathe the air around them in complete innocence, a right to develop into a unique individual with their own strengths and weaknesses. A fact iterated in the movie that I have been talking to Yogita for sometime now: "Forcing children to bear the burden of one's ambitions is even worst than child labor". The worst part is that we do not even realize this.

Anyways, we hope that we would not spend umpteen number of cycles explaning to parents on - why a child needs to have his/her own tool kit, why he/she should be allowed to play around with the science products and not be a user like others, why he/she should be allowed to fail once in a while when he/she makes these products. Obviously, it's not rocket science when Kahaan (a participant of our CP workshop) uses sharpeners as the base for the coils or if Sushant (another participant of our CP workshop) asks how can a man fly using magnetic levitation - products have that unique ability of giving expression to the million thoughts that a child gets in his/her mind.

Our sincere thanks to taarey zameen par for giving us a chance in this maddening competitive world of percentages.

Magnetic Torch!

I remember playing around with a rechargeable torch that David Jung (a good friend at Real Networks, US) had showed to me - i really liked the idea that the torch was using no batteries at all and thought we should mass produce something like that.

During the magneto science workshop at our Central Delhi center, I wondered how can we expose to the real life examples of technology to our participants and then i discovered this torch at Mr. Arvind Gupta's toys from trash list - the product is amazing, very easy to make and can be easily professionalized. For all the science enthusiasts, check the below video and make your own:

Weekly Videos: How to make a magnetic generator?

We conducted our first session with our Central Delhi batch last Saturday - it was a lot of fun and as usual the session was over stretched. We had a great time and so did few of the kids - I was getting calls till late in night as some of the folks were still working on generating electricity:

Here's a video for them and others on how to generate electricity using magnets.

Note: This idea has been taken from Mr. Arvind Gupta after his due permission - ofcourse we have made our changes as well.

Please let us know if you have any questions on this!

bcWorkshop Demo Video

We just created a promotional video for bcWorkshops - this video is for prospective participants, school administrators and principals to give them an overview about the program.

Do drop us a line at bcworkshop at buildingblocks dot in if you have any suggestions for the video:

Weekly Video: egg in a bottle

Another one in the series of weekly videos. You can catch us in action whole of this month at BCL and Oxford Bookstores.

bcWorkshops at Rameesh!

We conducted our Sparks and Shocks workshop at Rameesh International School, Greater Noida. We would like to thank Mrs. Shalini Singh (Prinicipal) and Mrs. Archna Razdan (Physics, PGT) for their incredible help in making this event a success.

We had a great time working with these children talking about static electricity and moving electricity in this workshop. We had a whole bunch of experiments, videos, animations, hands-on activities during this workshop. The children ended up creating their own electricity and their very first products. All in all, it was great day of fun with science.

bcWorkshop: weekly Video

As a part of our bcWorkshop's initiative, we will telecast a weekly video every week to show how science and technology concepts can be taught in a fun-filled and interesting manner to the children.



You can contact us if you want us to conduct this at your school or educational institution.

Latest at buildingBlocks!

Just to give you some of the latest developments at buildingBlocks. We have expanded our wings to make science interesting and joyful for the youngsters. Here's just one video to show how can teachers teach the concept of heat transfer to children:



BTW, you check www.bcworkshop.com to see one interesting way to experience science every week.

Urbanization of childhood in India

Have you ever compared your kid’s childhood with your own? Do you think there has been a significant difference in our upbringing compared to our children’s? Nine out of ten times -- if you are living in urban India – your answer is going to be YES.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to experience the changes that urban Indian neighborhoods have gone through. And these very changes have altered the natural growth pattern of our innocent children.

Changes -- under the pretext of development -- have been induced too much and too soon, and in multiple dimensions: economically, socially and physically, in our neighborhoods. The economical and physical changes are far easier to understand and comprehend than the undercurrent social changes.

We can see malls at every other corner “nukkad” in our vicinity, permanently altering the physical landscapes. The steep rise in the number of vehicles, owned by an average Indian household, has resulted in congestion even in inner roads leave aside the main roads. The problems of rise in pollution level and its relation to global warming, road accidents, bird migration are well recorded and talked about everywhere. Strangely, I am yet to see a serious debate on how these changes have altered the lives of our young ones.

There are no more open spaces where our children can go and ride their bicycles these days. The idea of gully cricket would soon finds its place only in our history books, as most of us are scared to send our children out on the streets either because of traffic or pot-holed roads forget about their rendezvous with gully cricket. The few green areas left in the neighborhoods have been converted into walk-areas with huge signboards of “playing not allowed” hanging in front of them. Hence, the fact that obesity is taking endemic proportions amongst the urban children should not really surprise us.

Economically, the urban India has made long strides and the signs are everywhere – the Ferraris, Hondas, Nokia, Victoria Secret, La Royale have made great inroads in Indian households. This is a clear indicator of the increased levels of disposable income of the middle class. But, all this has come at a cost – the cost that unknowingly our children are paying very dearly. The working middle class does not have time to spend with their children in order to attain this heightened level of wealth, and as a trade-off for time they end up buying some latest model of mobile phones, mp3 player, some new TV channel on their CAS systems or a playstation for there deprived kids. For lack of a better term, let’s use electronic blast to represent all the above gadgets. The observation that our children are very easily distracted these days should not astonish us anymore.

It’s the under-current social changes that are the scariest with far reaching consequences. The breaking up of the Indian Joint family system, K-named television soaps, entry of internet into the young lives and inclination to have a single child has completed altered the social fabric of urban India. Lack of company at home and abundance of nuclear families has essentially sucked out the idea of empathy and tolerance amongst today’s children – the qualities that are responsible to bind our diverse country together. So, don’t fret if your younger one cannot accommodate with his sister who is giving a board examination, because he has to watch his favorite cartoon; so what she has an exam tomorrow.

All in all the changes -- economic, social and physical -- in the urban Indian neighborhoods have turned our innocent young ones to stubborn, individualistic, distracted and physically unfit individuals. Welcome to the Urbanization of Indian Childhood.

Why Indian school system is rote based?

First of all apologies for not posting a relevant post on the school system for such a long time. The first session of blockClasses was on and so were the butterflies in our stomach. Now since the operations have streamlined quite a bit and that project is on a 'auto pilot' mode let's look at something bigger and serious:

After spending countless hours discussing issues pertaining to education with some of the leading school principals of Delhi -- we have realized atleast one thing that the school principals are also equally aware of the issues plaguing today's schools. And honestly most of them are not able to tackle these issues despite the fact that they want to. I plan to write a series of posts on the problems that these schools highlighted and then may be discuss the possible solutions in this public domain so that more and more people can benefit from it.

Problem #1: Rote is rut
If there is any consensus amongst the different stakeholders of the Indian education system (parents, school principals, managment and teacher) it's the understanding that Indian schools are suffering from the parasite called rote learning or in layman's terms the system is geared towards rewarding those students who can mug up a lot of text and vomit it as it is on a sheet of paper. Since, the system rewards those students who can mug tera bytes of information, everyone wants to prepare for that. The principals kind of know this, however, are not able to do anything about it despite their best efforts and we analyzed the reason behind it.

Why is this rote learning pervasive?
Well the first and foremost reason for that is the examination system. This examination system was designed as a means of making children more focussed on learning as it can play a role of motivating them. Unfortunately, over the years it has evolved to become a end in itself instead of the means. So majority of parents send their children to school to ensure that they can crack a certain board examination or a JEE entrance.

To our dismay, these exams always test a student on the kilo bytes of information that they have mugged instead of testing them on application of concepts. So, this is the rootcause of the problem that our children end up becoming cramming machines instead of thinking, analytical individuals.

Some of the principals who talked with us did say that they promote experiential learning in their schools, however, are not able to convince the teachers to go that extra mile. I do not blame the teachers for the failure over here -- the flaws are more systemic than at the bottom level.

Since, the complete schooling is about excelling at examinations -- so are the performance metrics. A teacher is judged on how has class performed in the exam system and not on how much of the class has actually learnt something. So even if a teacher does a great job with understanding of concepts -- there are no performance metrics to really reward her for that achievement.

So, as I said to one of the principals I met -- till you have the current examination system, you need to build a parallel teacher's body that would only be judged on the concept understanding and that's the only way possible that we can come out of this rut. But that would mean the schools would have to shell out a lot of money from their kitty, which they are not ready to do -- so the problem persists and our nation as a whole suffers.

Week 4 at blockClasses

Every week we have gotten closer to our blockkers! It's so satisfying to see how these children are not wasting their time while sitting in front of the computer or TV rather learning about healthy foods while they play a game of snake and ladders.

Week 1 at blockClasses

So, finally the week 1 at blockClasses was over. It was a fabulous week -- the curiosity, comraderie and love that we observed in the first batch of blockClasses has been just tremendous. We are capturing a lot of data about all the activities that we are doing and will see after the program; how much impact blockClasses has on the very first batch. In short! everyone is just having a ball in the blockClasses and learning a lot doing the same :).

ब्लॉक क्लास्सेस शुरू हो गयी हैं

बहुत कड़ी मेहनत के बाद हमने ब्लॉक क्लास्सेस भारती public स्कूल में शुरू कर दी हैं। हमारी टीम ने कड़ी मेहनत कर के इस प्रोग्राम को बनाया हे। और यह हिंदी में हमारा पहला पोस्ट हे। धन्यवाद्

buildingBlocks launches India's first afterschool program

buildingBlocks, a first of it's kind Research organization in the field of Primary and Elementary Education, has launched India's first afterschool program (blockClasses). The program is an outcome of months of research, countless hours of discussion with eminent educationists, analysis and re-analysis of urban Indian neighborhoods, countless hours of brainstorming amongst the Research team, a lot of commitment and most importantly the uncompromising passion to create a NEW India.

The program is getting launched this summer, as a introductory summer workshop at Bharti Public School, Swasthya Vihar. In case if you are interested to know more about the program, kindly register for the introduction seminar in second week of May.

Finally, we are extremely thankful to our team to spend so much time in making all of this possible.

Why not blogging?

Actually, our team has been neck deep with work. The curriculum desing team is working hard on the curriculum to make it the most beautiful and scientifically proven curriculum for all the blockers (children as we lovingly call them) who join blockClasses. The training team is working hard to ensure that our instructors are not only qualified and most eligible but also compassionate individuals as well. The promotional team is working hard to get all things 'right' as far as reaching out to the audience is concerned.

The imom team is working hard on giving shape and direction to imom. And, one of them is busy writing his exams. So, all in all we are very busy right now but we love the school blog and will be back soon.

Environmental Awareness!

How can you make children environmentally aware without putting him/her to sleep?
Let us know -- because sum of minds is always greater than a single mind.

Rain Water Harvesting - II

The other day when we raised the question of rain water harvesting on theSchoolBlog, we got some great suggestions from Pudi, a concerned reader based out of Hyderabad (You can read more about his blog over here). Pudi had created a comic strip to stimulate the thoughts of children about Rain Water Harvesting.

We used this comic strip to create a video to incite the sparks of curiosity about rain water harvesting in our class. We actually showed it to one of the Delhi based educators and she liked the idea behind this kind of usage of ICT tools. However, the real litmus test would be when we play this with children and assess if this has any impact. You can also watch it below:

Quotes and children?

genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration

By Thomas Alva Edison

This quote has impressed on me the most of all the other quotes that I have read. Every now and then when I am reminded of my limitations, I take solace into this quote -- in some sense this quote acts as a guiding light to work hard, to achieve one's goals and not be lured by shortcuts in life.

Can these knowledge nuggets help us in knocking down our internal demons? I wanted to see if quotes should also become a part of child's learning process. Let me know what you think about this in the comments below?

What makes a parachute to float in the air?

While thinking about the experiential curriculum for these young ones, one exciting project that came to my mind was the idea of a parachute.

I am aware of the concept of parachutes and how it works -- however, am confused how would a 7 year old would understand it? If you have any suggestions please write back.

Rain Water Harvesting?

So a follow-up to the yesterday's post:

How would you teach the concept of rain water harvesting to a 7 year old? or do you need to teach this concept to the child's parents?

Let's see if the viewers have an interesting take on this. BTW, these are few of the concepts that would be part of our soon to be launched block Classes -- so let's brainstorm so that the children of tomorrow are the most enlightened, courageous and thoughtful that India has ever produced :).

Children need to know!

While working at the activity aspects of our experiential curriculum, I came up with an idea for theSchoolBlog. Our focus for block Classes (an afterschool product by buildingBlocks) is absolutely on stress free, experiential based learning. So, we are innovating on how we can excite children to understand/engage with day to day scientific phenomenon.

I thought -- may be we can use this incredible power of internet to come up with innovative ways to think about how can we introduce these concepts in the blockClasses?

The first in the series of the several concepts is why can't humans fly? In case if you have an answer which can be understood by 6 year old -- please post it on the comments section. It will be interesting to see how the top-notch schools (DPS, Modern, SPV etc) introduce this concept -- in case if you have an idea.

How Delhites curse the blessings in their life?

After r2i'ing last year, my most precious moments using public services are very few -- actually only two. One when I am walking on the inner circle of Cannaught Place and the second one when I am travelling on Delhi Metro. Both the interactions have something levelling or equitable about them. While walking in the inner circle in CP, I for one time feel that a chaotic city like Delhi can also provide that equitable ambience to its citizens - where one is not rudely reminded of the various classes that exist in Delhi (rich -- people who have big cars and the poor pedestrian).

A similar actually much more deeper feeling of equity can be experienced when one travels in Delhi Metro. It's for the first time in Delhi that one gets a feeling of being equal. No body is rich, poor, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian for one time -- we are all travellers wanting to reach our destinations and enjoying the mode of travel. We are very proud of this mode -- it has inculcated in us the culture of standing in queues, the culture of being respectable to our elders, the culture of compassion towards other travellers, it has saved so much creative energy in us -- some economist can compute the productivity, it has provided much needed freedom for our women. All in all, I think Metro has done something that hundreds of temples, yagnas and political speeches have not been able to achieve for Delhi -- its contribution is incredible and we should be thankful to all those who were involved in the making of the METRO.

So, when I saw this article a desperate plea from a man whom many of us respect from bottom of our heart, I could not wait but promote the plea on this blog -- so I would request all the readers of this blog to contribute in their own way to eliminate the curse looming large on our blessing. May be you can talk about the ways in which we can improve our Metro as well.

Note: The above pic has been taken from the website of Hindustan Times (www.hindustantimes.com).

Very first Holi Celebrations

We had our first Holi celebration at buildingBlocks. The team was presence in full strength and was equal to the challenges thrown at them.

As an organization, we take pride in our collective creativity and our diversity of experiences. So, Holi was a great time for us to see how we can apply our diverse and creative minds to come up with something which has nothing to do with software, websites, educational materials (the usual stuff we produce).

We decided to throw ourselves into the rings of collage making. There were two teams: circle blocks (the communicators: Bharti and Aditya) and triangle blocks (the softies: Yogita and Vinod).

The theme was simple Holi and buildingBlocks/imom. We got some expert judges also involved in the whole process: Upma (Designer of paridhan fame) and our very own Dr. Neha Gupta. The competition was intense and victor decisive – overall we had a lot of fun with some colors, gujia, wonderful salad and incredibly creative collages. Here’s thanking all the members of buildingBlocks team a big thank you for their incredible camaraderie and initiative.

Education breeds Mediocrity

I read this article " Take a Right Turn " in Times of India where the author mentions about the brain tilt in India.I totally agree with his notions that Indians on average are left-minded people i.e they have a better logical and analytical thinking, but lack in terms of creativity and innovation which are the forte of the right-minded people.Why is that so? Do we truly lack original and creative thinkers?
Probably.And the reason for this is our redundant education system and also the upbringing to some extent.All kids are creative, inquisitive, explorers and love challenges.But as they grow up these qualities seem to vanish in thin air.Why? It is because we (society) curb their uniqueness, their creativity and push them to follow the 'safer path' , or a path taken by majority', or a path which gives good returns in terms of fame and finance but never a path which is of one's own calling.
It saddens me to say that most of our schools have become xerox machines which are producing loads of xerox individuals year after year.The kids are losing their originality and individuality.This kind of system breeds mediocrity and in present times we have started celebrating mediocrity! In fact this is the root cause of our failure to produce good leaders.We are conditioning kids from the very beginning to follow the footsteps rather than making their own footprints.Then, how can our nation expect the birth of any leader, forget good or bad.

colors/chaos of India

Yesterday! again I got this question why back to India? I heard about this new Nike commercial on cricket in India. I thought that it may aptly explain the reasons of why I completely belong to India and not somewhere else :).



True! urban India is completely chaotic and we all have contributed to it and possibly we all will solve this problem as well (I sincerely wish in my lifetime). However, you cannot discount the guts and never-dying-spirit of a common Indian who manages to smile amidst all this chaos. And, that's something that brought me back to my motherland.

Kids And Classical Dance - Part 2

In my earlier post I have listed some of the qualities which are imbibed during the training of classical dance.Let me elaborate on each of them.

• 1.Discipline: One can never master any art without strict discipline.The authentic guru always emphasize this aspect.
  
• 2.Regard For Teacher: The art of classical dancing is something which you can never learn on your own or by books or any other help.You are totally dependent upon your guru for that.This teaches you to respect your guru without whom you can never unfold the finer nuances of any dance form.
• 3.Scientific Nature: Classical dance has its own language and grammar.It teaches you to be methodical and organized and to some extent, inculcates scientific thinking.
• 4.Significance of Practice(Riyaz): Practice maketh you perfect.The best example for this phrase is the art of music and dance, where you can see the day to day improvement with rigorous training.
• 5.Graceful Expression: Dance is an excellent way of self expression.It helps you to shed your inhibitions.Classical dance does so with grace and elegance which are rather inconspicuous by their absence in most of the popular dances today.
• 6.Exercise: It is a good form of exercise.I don't think this needs any explanation.
  
• 7.Stress Buster: Classical dance is like meditation.After the dance session one feels calm and relaxed and the thoughts get streamlined.
• 8.Modesty and Simplicity: The authentic gurus are modest and simple.You tend to imbibe these qualities from them gradually.

My dance classes have not only enriched me with the art of classical dancing but have also inculcated in me the wisdom of life.This is my earnest request to the parents to gift their child an opportunity to learn a classical form of dance and open the doors to higher pleasures of life.And sooner the better.

Recruitment @ LSR

We would like to sincerely thank Dr. Rajashree and the entire Department of Elementary Education at LSR for their wonderful reception at LSR. We went to LSR to recruit students of B El Ed program and found them very promising and creative.

Everytime I have been to LSR in last couple of months, I wish for every Indian college be like LSR -- it has an energy of progress, of social change, of intellect and of tolerance -- salutations to the folks who have ensured such an institution of excellence exists and continues to be the beacon of light for the youth of the country.

We would strive hard to make buildingBlocks an institution that is eternal in existence and serves a role model for any institution (school/preschool/playschools etc) operating in the field of primary and elementary education.

Kids And Classical Dance - Part 1

Today I am reminded of my childhood days , when I used to take a short nap after coming back from school and my mother used to wake me up in the evenings for me to go to my Kathak dance classes.I used to feel very lazy and made all kind of excuses.Somehow my mother always managed to coax me, and eventually I used to go with a long face.But once I would start my dance steps, I would feel rejuvenated and would shed all my laziness.

I started my classical dance training at the tender age of five and then onwards it became an obsession and also a stress-buster.I continued till my Guruji died(when I was 15 years old).

This is something I want to share with my readers that classical dancing , be it Indian or Western is an education in itself.The training in classical dance not only teaches the art of dancing, but also the art of living.It endows you with the following qualities:

* Discipline
* Regard for Teacher
* Scientific Nature
* Significance of Practice(Riyaz)
* Graceful Expression
* Exercise
* Stress Buster
* Modesty and Simplicity
I will elaborate on each of these aspects in my next post.

Keeping busy

We have got some good direction over last couple of months and have some tangible tasks to achieve in next couple of months. I feel very excited to see everyone in the team really getting charged up to go out and achieve what we have envisioned.

Taking a step back and looking at our team, I always get the feeling that I got when I saw the movie sea biscuit. Somehow, our team also reminds me of the same -- not that our team has anyone crooked or broken barring me of couse :), just that all of us are from very diverse backgrounds - its hard to believe how we came together under one roof.

In case if you know a thing or two about design or plain simply creative and have an interest to join this team of diverse people, please send me an email at tarun dot bhalla at buildingblocks dot in.

Self Realization

Hello folks.Please excuse my long absence.
Today, lets talk about spirituality, enormity of universe, existence of God and significance of our existence, all wrapped into one. Talking about spirituality, the first step in its direction is letting go of one's self ego.Being spiritual is like becoming a formless liquid which takes the shape of the vessel; like a spiritual person blends himself according to the laws of nature and the voice of inner self.A spiritual being has no entity;he makes himself a channel for the energy of the universe to flow through him and guide him in his actions.

I will try to explain this in another way.Stretch your perspective a bit.Imagine yourself to be on the moon or any other planet apart from the earth from where you can look down upon the earth.How does it look?A tiny ball,isn't it? Imagine your existence and its significance in that tiny ball.Just wonder about it.It makes you realize the vastness of our solar system and this is just one solar system; there are hundreds of solar system beyond ours, in this universe.Just sit back in solitude and absorb the magnitude of the universe.What does that make you feel about your existence? Significant or insignificant? I will say both.

Let me take the liberty to explain this strange answer later.Right now,let me take you into another direction.Just wonder, at this point of time when you are at the zenith of your feelings;does it really matter what kind of a mobile you carry?Or whether you have a Baleno or a Maruti?Or whether your flat is luxurious or what your bank balance is?or whether you wear branded clothes, and so on and on.I guess your answer will be a big NO.You will realize that such frivolous , inconspicuous things do not matter after all.

At this point of time and space when you feel your existence in relation to the vastness of the universe, you will understand the shloka in Bhagwad Geeta about Nishkam Karma; and believe me you will be encompassed with such peace and joy that you have never experienced before; joy which is as vast and infinite as the universe itself.It is at this moment you will experience the true meaning of spirituality.

Now coming back to my earlier question whether the vastness of the universe makes you feel significant or insignificant?I had said both.Let me elaborate on this.It makes you feel significant since you are part of this great existence;but at the same time you are just acting as a channel through which the energy of the nature or say the universe flows.As someone has rightly said "I am God and God is me".So what is God? It is You and Me and the Universe.

Entrepreneurship -- money or salvation?

After reading few articles of contemporary Indian entrepreneurs, I am forced to write about my view of entrepreneurship. The focus of this piece would be talk about where does the power, to handle the ambiguities that entrepreneurship has to offer, comes from. Further, please take the content of this article with a pinch of salt as this is from a struggling entrepreneur who has not got even a single product out of the door yet:).

Several people have claimed that entrepreneurs take this risky venture with a strong motive to accumulate wealth. Fewer others have alleged that the entrepreneurs are after fame and success. Let me first address these two claims about entrepreneurship. I think people who become entrepreneurs for money have it completely wrong – because however money you can earn – their will be someone richer than you – so what’s the point in slogging so much. Now, the second one if entrepreneur is doing it for fame – he/she is more disillusioned than the first one as you are soon going to be a football of other’s opinions and you will have to every now and then live upto someone else’s expectations – I am sure not a good proposition.

Now let’s look at it with another lens – entrepreneurship as one optimal way of attaining the divine. If we read Geeta, it is clear that the first stage of attaining salvation or God is Nishkam Karma Yoga (Yoga of self less action) followed by Jnana Yoga (Yoga of knowledge) and Bhakti Yoga (Yoga of Devotion). One can never be ready for the stage of Bhakti Yoga till the time he/she has become completely detached – the essential outcomes of Nishkam Karm Yoga and Jnana Yoga. So, where does entrepreneurship figure into this complex web of spirituality?

Well if you view entrepreneurship as another way to produce something (product or service) for societal good (without expecting anything for yourself) you are in some sense taking the purest form of Nishkam karma Yoga - essentially readying you to for the future stages of Bhakti Yoga. Entrepreneurship, due to its sheer nature (your choice of products), provides you more degrees of freedom to do societal good. Additionally, higher societal pressures test your perseverance to detach yourself from the results of your venture. So, all in all this freedom that entrepreneurship inherently provides and the testing situation that it produces for you, proves to be a great place to practice Nishkam karma yoga – one of the pre-requisites to attain salvation.

Some may argue that since you are completely detached from the results of your actions, how would you give everything that you have to the venture. I will argue about the pursuit of excellence without expectation of anything in my next post.

Be Yourself

Just the other day , I was going through my collection of old editions of Reader's Digest ,when I stumbled upon an article -Finding Yourself Again By Arthur Gordon. It was a story about a successful man who felt a loss of energy and enthusiasm in his life.He felt despondent without any reason. Have you ever shared the same feeling at some time of life? If the answer is yes, then take a look at this story by Arthur Gordon which I have tried to summarize in my own words.
This man ( say Mr.X ) then consulted the doctor who advised him to go to the beach the next day and not to read or write or listen to music or even talk to anyone. The doctor had given him four prescription notes which were to be opened and read at 9a.m, 12p.m, 3p.m and 6p.m respectively. Mr X , at first thought the doctor must be crazy; nevertheless he went to the beach the next day.He then opened the first prescription which read as follows:
LISTEN CAREFULLY
He concentrated on the sounds of nature.He listened to the growl of sea , the lapping of waves against rocks and wondered about the enormity of nature.It was then that he realized he was feeling and thinking of things bigger than himself and that gave him immense relief. Moreover he found that by shifting his focus from inner problems to the outer world(nature), he is able to it calm his frantic mind.At 12p.m when the sea glittered in the golden rays of sun, he read the next prescription which said:

TRY REACHING BACK
So Mr. X peered into the well of past and basked in the happy memories of his childhood.He realized that by reaching back, he had virtually touched happiness which released little flashes of power and emotional strength.He felt very light-hearted. At 3p.m , he opened the third prescription which read:

RE-EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES
Mr. X followed the instructions and realized that earlier he used to derive pleasure while working ,which later starting fading and what remained was just the material benefits the work rewarded.It was at this point of time that the boredom & lack of energy started seeping into his work life.He understood the problem and pledged to himself that he would work not just for money but also for the sense of joy , sense of contributing to society and also for the sense of productivity.At 6p.m,as he gazed at the setting sun , he read the last prescription which said:

WRITE YOUR WORRIES ON SAND
And that's exactly what he did He then turned his back and walked towards the city with a spring in his steps and music in his heart , as the tide behind him came in and washed his worries.

Parenting- Part 2

First of all , my thanks to Jasmine for her comments. In my previous post I mentioned the essential qualities a child demands from his/her parents are love, regard and discipline. I've already written about the significance of 'unconditional love'.

Lets move on to the aspect of regard. I think that we should be careful not to over patronize the kid.After all he/she is not a moron or a robot who cannot think on its own. Remember, kids have a very independent thinking and we need to respect that. They need our guidance and not our 'fully cooked' thoughts.Moreover, if we respect the child as an individual, that will , in turn teach him to respect everyone irrespective of his status, education and intelligence.
Coming to discipline, do not leave it to the schools.It is true that the child will get a dose of disciplined life in schools. But it should be started at home itself, where it can be imparted with tenderness.Discipline is like love , without which the child will crumble in testing times.

I have already stated that discipline should be endowed with a touch of independence.Give your child a chance to learn from his own mistakes, rather than correcting him all the time.Also try not to overburden your child with activities and strict routine. Give him time and space for day-dreaming and doing nothing

Eklavya Innovations

I promised earlier to talk in detail about some of the innovations that Eklavya is involved with. I have tried to compile the list and apologize in advance if I missed something:

Eklavya School Innovations:

1. No TV day:

The school observes a No TV day on Thursday and to ensure that it is effective, the children are asked to bring art and handicraft items that are displayed in the assembly. This is a very novel idea and is an initiative from the school to ensure that the children who are the most susceptible to fall prey to the highly intoxicating digital media are kept away from it at least for one day. Further, the usage of incentives for children ensures that they do it for the joy rather than being arm twisted into this. And, this was reflected in the quality of the projects that they were able to come up with.

2. No Tuitions:

The school follows a policy that there would be no tuitions by the children or by the teachers. This again takes care of the extreme stress that some of the students are put to these days by their overly ambitious parents.

3. Low Profile Chief Guests:

This school has a distinct way of celebrating any special day in the school. Instead of calling up some VIP (politician or bureaucrat) to the school, the senior citizens of India are called to the school as chief guests. This serves as two purposes:

1. Ensures that children see real life role models.

2. The senior citizens, who are increasingly seen as the burden on the society, get their due position as the wise of the society.

4. Human Resource Development Program:

This was the first time that I came across the concepts of organizational learning or teacher development within a school environment. I have to be honest that the program was far more effective than all the professional organizations that I have worked at (RealNetworks, Wipro, drugstore and Expedia). Teacher learning had a strong emphasis; there were HRD programs for the bus driver and conductors as well. The programs were implemented both in word and spirit.

5. Research Wing and Taleem:

Eklavya has a professionally managed research wing within the school itself that does research on teaching methodologies, curriculum preparation and teaching aide development. Taleem is an initiative in that direction – the teaching aides, which are developed in Taleem, successfully reflect our cultural ethos, are engaging and above all are successful in teaching children through the medium of aides.

6. Lavya – the counseling Wing:

A group of teachers have formulated a counseling wing amongst themselves. The broad objective of Lavya is to provide counseling support to all the parents. This way the parents and teachers form an inclusive program to take care of the psychological needs of the children of today.

7. Open Libraries:

Eklavya has a concept of open libraries, where the books are not kept inside the closet rather children are enticed to books and encouraged to interact with them.

Obviously, there are many more innovations that Eklavya has succeeded in implementing; however, my three day exposure was able to give me these insights only. One learning for many of Delhi based schools could be that not many of these things are extremely expensive to imitate. So, I would just urge the schools of today to step out of the darkness of ignorance and come forward to be the light of beacon to homogenize our society before its too late.

And on a personal end, the trip was very successful as I have found a living role model in Professor Sunil Handa, who is the founder of the Eklavya foundation.

Parenting - Part 1

Parenting is the backbone of the education system.The education of life starts from home itself. The parents are the kid's first and foremost teachers. I think raising children is the most formidable task in today's time of moral and cultural ambivalence.I guess most of the parents would agree with me on this.
To start with, LOVE, REGARD and DISCIPLINE ( with a touch of independence) are the essential ingredients of parenting.So what do parents have to say on this?
LOVE is the most important aspect of parenting. All parents love their kids. But what the young , impressionable one needs is the 'unbiased love' ; love regardless of his/her abilities & incapabilities. Love your kid just because he/she is yours. This kind of wholesome love will instill self confidence in the kid which will stay with him/her throughout life.
I will write about 'regard' and 'discipline' later. Meanwhile , ponder upon this and give in your critical comments if any.

Eklavya Day I

Every part of my Eklavya experience was extremely professional and innovative -- right from pick up at the Core House to the Roshin Apartments to the bus timings. It seemed as if I was picked up from a civilian world to the military world, where discipline and punctuality have an important role to play. Anyways, I checked into the Roshin apartments at around 8.30 pm and the next thing was to get something to eat. I was fortunate to find a dhaba very close to my apartment and got a chance to eat some really spicy food (the amount of spice in bhaaji was a clear indicator of why Gujaratis put so much sugar in all the dishes they eat ;)).

After getting some grub I got a chance to visit the Tata Sky Mall – my god! These malls were exactly similar to the Safeway stores of the US. Probably, the only difference was that they had jalebi instead of donuts or croissant. Well, the government may have been thinking of stopping FDI in retail, however, I am not sure if they plan to do anything with the domestic conglomerates. BTW, I am also not sure if there needs to be a blanket opposition to the FDI in retail – well, it’s a Pandora box with lots of economic analysis involved so I shall keep that for a different post.

Happy Republic Day

It's after almost four years that I got a chance to celebrate the Republic Day in India (i.e after I r2i'ed). It was a great feeling and especially in a very innovative educational institution like Eklavya, the satisfaction quadrupled.

The chief guests for a change were the grand parents of the school students and not your usual run of the mill politicians or powerful people. Well in some sense it was good as the skit prepared by the senior school students would not have gone well with the politicians.

Anyways, as I have already shared with the school authorities about my experience of Eklavya. I thought I must talk about it very briefly on the blog -- it was phenomenal. All the things that a school needs to provide: experiential learning, physical activities, spiritual learning, civic responsibility is happening here. If someone wants to provide holistic education, you just need to buy a ticket to Ahmedabad and you will say what is the practical definition of that. And, mind you the school has processes in place that ensure that the children are not stressed out at all.

Well, if I continue to talk about Eklavya, I would require 2-3 more posts and I will do that once I get back to Delhi. In the meantime, I wish everyone a very Happy Republic Day.

Teachers as Role Models

I totally agree with the views of Mr.Ashok Kumar, that we should emphasize on the 'holistic way of education' rather than holistic education. It is true that children imbibe more from what they perceive rather than what they are taught. The teachers should be role models for children rather than just messengers of education..The education should be more than just books and assignments and grades. It should be a way of life. I want more people to rope in to give their views.

Better Education For A Better Tomorrow

I get very disappointed whenever I read any newspaper; it is always painted with crime stories. And the most frightening part is the exponential rise in crime, not only by the uneducated strata but also by the so called ‘well educated people’ of society. Why is it so? Is it only the economic disparity which is to be blamed or lack of spiritual and ethical foundation are also responsible for the same.

Have you ever noticed the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” and wondered why it is not straight. Simple; because its foundation was weak and as the time passed it could not stand its own weight. No one wants his/her child to be like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

We need to give a strong foundation in terms of ‘holistic education’ to the child in his/her early years, so that he can become a complete human being who can face the adversities of life with integrity and come out a winner in the real sense.

off to Ahmedabad

My posts would be again irregular, as I am flying off to Ahmedabad to find more about Eklavya foundation. I have heard a lot from fellow education entrepreneurs like Aakar and Fountainhead on how much they have learned from Eklavya. I am very thankful to Eklavya authorities for giving me this chance to visit their campus and witness the innovation.

Independent workshops

While brainstorming with the team, I started thinking of another way that we can help the parents. I was wondering if we can organize independent workshops (that involve parents or children or both) with specific themes (for example how to work with abusive children or how to handle violence in children).

Personally, I think this idea would be both in demand (given what the state our society is in) and of great value to the society. Let me know what do you think about this.

Spiritual Education

So, I just ended up a discussion over phone with an expert thoughtful educationist. We were talking about buildingBlocks and what it aims to achieve. Upfront, we shared the thoughts on the conspicuous absence of spirituality from education. I am convinced that spirituality needs to play a role in our education system.

I would love to hear what you think about the role of spirituality in education. It's very important for our curriculum team to use your feedback -- so kindly contribute.

tech team fulfills its promise

yes! our tech team rocks and they deliver on what they say. Our new and improved homepage is up, however, the other links would start working slowly. Let us know what you think!

buildingBlocks website design

Finally it seems that we are getting somewhere close to the release design for buildingBlocks website. Yogita just sent me v1 of the HP design. Please feel free to let us know how you feel about our site design.

BTW, our tech team says that we will ship the v1 of the website by eod tomorrow -- so please check tomorrow.

r2i

the title stands for return to India (r2i) -- I was earlier adamant with Yogita that I would not talk about my background and stay in US on this blog. However, everytime I am involved in a decent conversation with anyone about my stay in US and leaving my cozy job voluntarily -- I have to go through this long discussion of whether the decision was 'right'. To me the decision was crystal clear about what I am getting into and more importantly the reasons behind it. However, what sickens me is the simple fact that why can't a person come back to his/her country and be a contributing citizen in the society that helped him/her shape in what he/she is -- is it so illogical afterall?


The other reason that I have given this heading the importance (see the hdr above) is because I do want to share my experiences with others so that everyone understands that India offers a lot of opportunities -- and not only problems. Even if there are problems, who else is more capable to solve then the educated youth of the society.

If you differ in your opinion on this basic premise, please share your opinions.

(BTW, the above picture was taken by Yogita and I on our last day in Seattle).

Ashish Rajpal's views on child development

Ashish of iDiscoveri was no doubt the star speaker of the day – he had just the right phrases, experiences and knowledge that made him an awesome orator to listen to. In addition to all these things, he clearly had the passion to bring change in the ailing education system.

The topic allocated to him was child’s physique then and now. Ashish introduced himself in the same way as I do: A gatecrasher into education; someone who chose this field because of their interest in it. He identified three underlying concerns that made him compile few observations on what’s happening today and finally five recommendations.

Concerns that underlie:

1. Live in a highly divided society: which child are we talking about? It’s no denying fact that India is facing a huge divide primarily rural and urban. The difference is striking that it disturbs everyone. There is so much celebration about resurgence of India, BPO jobs, H1 B visas. However, the same country is facing the dangers (of epidemic proportions) of AIDS and malnutrition.

2. Age of biology: Last century was of physics, this century belongs to biology. No longer can the education hide behind the hypothesis. All the techniques or methodologies that we bring in our classrooms need to be quantified by the biological responses as well.

3. Role of examples: Children don’t listen to you, they watch you closely. What we see in children is nothing but a mirror.
   

Observations about child Physique:

1. Malnutrition: One of the biggest problems with the children of today is that they do not get any representation in the society. For example, where in the minds of the society, politicians, budget are children. 1/6^th of mankind is children; however, they do not get 1/6^th representation in the newspapers, parliament discussion.
   

2. Obesity: Children are fatter, unhealthier, and less able to do things without being pushed for. Close to 1 out of 3 children are obese – probably 2/3 of these obese children are going to be obese adults. The reasons are not difficult to identify. The problem is because of food that they are eating – parents are shoving packets of chips and coca-cola in the hands of their kids. Packaged carbohydrates have one of the most dramatic influences on the make up of the body. The substitution of packaged carbohydrate has come at the cost of carrots, fruits etc. A child who is likely to have one glass of milk is likely to have 2 glasses of coke or soda waters.

3. Problem of labeling: Another issue cropping in today’s society is the problem of labeling kids. Clearly, it’s an easy solution to say that one child is depressed child and here’s the medication (a bunch of sedatives) to fix that. However, this attitude is prone to a failure as we are not eliminating the root of the problem.

4. Lack of open spaces: The rapid urbanization has had the most dreadful impact on the environment and open spaces for the child. Ashish talked about an example of going to get milk in the morning and related physical activity with that. However, in today’s day and age this is really unthinkable. So, this urbanization is definitely coming at a huge price. He further raised a very important point that the problem in the urban infrastructure is going to get worst before it gets any better. He was rightly able to identify that the mainstream schools need to play a very important role in this aspect. This idea had resonance with the new ideas that we are brainstorming at buildingBlocks (where we plan to have the mainstream schools as a key partner).

5. Cut off relationship with nature: Urban children are cut off from nature – almost two generations now. They are suffering from a disease called nature deficit disorder. Ashish also shared few experiences from the Youreka! Program.

6. Role Model: Children of today have mostly the Salman Khan’s or Hrithik Roshan’s or Aishwarya Rai as the role models. This is a side effect from consuming immense dose of television everyday. The problem with this is that these extreme machos and extreme feminism images can lead to a feeling of inadequacy amongst today’s kids, which will result in growth of an insecure individual.
7. Time: Children need time to grow. It takes time to cook a good dish – and parents these days don’t want to be the chef – the main problem.

Finally, Ashish also gave five suggestions to the audience:

1. There is a crying need for schools to teach food habits to children.

2. Get doctors into schools (the practice of science).

3. Making time to play for the children in the school itself: 10 hours a week.

4. Spend a month in the wilderness: A childhood devoid of adventure is a sad childhood.

5. Teacher Training.

I will post details about other sessions as and when I get a chance in the coming week.

Dileep Ranjekar's views on child development

It was day I of the congress and amongst many highlights Dileep Ranjekar's talk was one:

I was able to reach the congress venue just in time: thanks to a punctual flight take off and landing by the Indigo (I checked out these folks are equipped with CAT III fog proof systems – I am going to fly on them from hereon, interesting what can turn on the customersJ). It took me an hour to reach the venue JD Tata Auditorium at Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore (the aura and the revere of IISc needs a separate entryJ). The conference was inaugurated by Dileep Ranjekar (CEO of Azim Premji Foundation – these were the folks who sponsored the survey jointly done with India Today concluding the dismal inability of even our best schools in educating our nation’s future).

Mr. Ranjekar started speaking wearing a very interesting hat that he had wore in the past – as a HR Manager of the corporate world – the consumer of the product that our education system has produced. The concluding product, as I understand, was an individual (he or she irrespective) who found it very difficult to communicate with others and a lousy team player. Further, Mr. Ranjekar moved on to talk about how the child has changed today? He raised several interesting points on the child of today is different from the past:

1. The child of today is much more fearless: He/she is not scared of his parents or the teachers. Probably something that scares the child of today is the stories that the grandmother may have in waiting. Listening to the story is good as far as the narration is concerned, however, the issue begins when the grannies tries to ask about the moral of the story – Well, the children are not interested in the moral these days, they want instant gratification as much as their parents want – The supermarket syndrome.
2. Socio Economic situation has changed: The social conditions of today have also changed quite dramatically. For instance, the urban children of today grow up in families that are primarily nuclear in nature with both the parents working. Compare it to the times when there were big joint families where 20-25 children were present in a family at one point of time. The children are increasingly spending more time with the electronic gadgets (Television, Computers, mobile phones etc). This has essentially lead to a rise of anti social behavior in children. Further, the economic situation of today has also changed dramatically – people have higher disposable incomes that are getting used for guilt purchases (where a child is compensated with expensive toys for lack of personal time spent with the child).
3. Disrespectful and arrogant: The child of today is increasingly becoming disrespectful to the adults, to the public places, to the society as a whole.

Further, Mr. Ranjekar concluded with couple of interesting points:

He recommended every parent to actively persuade his or her child to believe in God (and he said this despite the fact that he is an atheist). The reason behind this recommendation was the fact that he wanted the children of today to be humble to at least some one – to bow down with respect at least (sounds like an SOS to our society).

Finally, Mr. Ranjekar said that a child is not an empty vessel. There was a view that the child development process is on an assembly line. That myth has been broken. Here, the product is able to contribute to itself. We are realizing that more and more and therefore we need to change our strategy more and more.

After the inaugural speech, I got a chance to catch up with Mr. Rajpal of idiscoveri during the coffee time. He had some interesting suggestions for buildingBlocks^TM and a word of caution as well due to our retail model. We would definitely pay attention to these suggestions as the source is someone whom I have high regards for.

Now the session was moving to individual topics: the first one being child's physique then and now - and we had the star speaker to talk about it. It was a very interactive session and covered quite a few contemporary issues and in order to give it complete justice, I have decided to post a separate entry on this.

where was I? and Indian Montessori Congress

Firstly, I would like to apologize to theSchoolBlog readers for not being able to write about our activities for a week or so. Actually, I was gone on a very important mission and the mission was to find out what’s wrong with the Indian education system at the primary and elementary level. Why do we produce only engineers, doctors and CA’s from our schools and not leaders; why do we produce people who can remember the whole history text book by heart, however, they feel inadequate when it comes to solving a tricky analytical problem; why do the youngsters of today are so impatient and rowdies; why are the school going children of today getting fat and are depressed – Well, the list of grim realities is long, however, as an eternal optimist let me say that as a questioner I was not only satisfied with the answers but I also found some good answers on how to completely eliminate these problems.



So, the thing that kept me busy, for last four-five days, was the Indian Montessori Congress 2007. And everyday I would post about the learning and knowledge that I gained from the congress.

values that guides us

BTW, this video does a good job at describing what are our values*




*Yes! to think differently in the field of education

why not blogging?

I apologize to the visitors of this blog about the reduced frequency of my blogging these days. If I am not blogging then you can assume that I am working to make buildingBlocks a reality. So, if someone asks me my resolution of 2007 -- that's it to make buildingBlocks a reality. You may think that what kind of resolution is this and also advise if this is the right approach to the company or personal life? I am always open to hear about your opinions and also feel free to share your resolutions?