Nivedita Mukerjee
Education consultancy for parents and schools
I can see a Rainbow – a TanaBana story book
‘TanaBana’ is Hindi for the ‘warp and weft’ of a weave. And that’s what it is: a story woven with the ‘Tana’ of ideas, and the ‘Bana’ of illustrations from everyday events in the life of a child. The idea of this series emerged during a conversation between a couple of friends who share the passion of story, of education and of small interactions that can make a meaningful impact on a growing child’s mind.
I can see a rainbow I can see a rainbow (Click to download PDF) is the first in this series. It is free to download on any device. We would love to hear your and your child’s feedback. Let us know what you liked, and what we can improve, be it narrative, or illustration, or how we’re distributing the book.
We hope you and your child enjoy reading as much as my friends and I have enjoyed weaving!
The PDF is a bit large (around 30MB), because it contains several beautiful, high-resolution illustrations that we couldn’t bear to shrink! So it may take a few minutes to download.
An open letter to fellow citizens of Dylan-dom.
Dear fellow citizens of Dylan-dom,
First of all, congratulations to all of us. Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
As the news came in of Bob Dylan’s winning the Nobel Prize for redefining the boundaries of literature, the Dylan-dom rejoiced! In choosing him for the world’s highest honour, the Swedish Academy has exemplified a radical behaviour. Or have they?
Immediately, ‘The Argumentative Indian’ in all of us (a phrase that has become a part of our lexicon now, borrowed from Amartya Sen — another Nobel Laureate, who won it for economics) was up and about on social media and chat groups.
“Wow, that’s great no? Bob da… Ki Dileyn…” exclaimed the Bengalis. A play on his name, implying Mr. Bob, you did great! Arguably, most Bengalis are great fans of Bob Dylan’s lyrics and find no dissonance with the choice of the Swedish Academy.
“But Nobel Prize for Literature? How is he in the same league with that of T.S. Eliot? Or Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Or Samuel Beckett?” said a message in one of my chat groups.
“Why not? Is the question because he is a musician?” I said. Mr. Dylan, 75, is the first musician to win the award. And, in choosing him, a musician from the popular genre, the Academy has raised the debate: do song lyrics stand on the same pedestal as poetry? Or novels? Pitchfork and Vice have both run articles questioning the choice of Dylan for the Nobel.
My husband says, “I am a fan of Dylan, but the question did come to my mind… can a Nobel be awarded to a songwriter? We must figure out whether any other musician or songwriter have gotten a Nobel prize in the past. We must analyse it to justify it”. To that conjecture, my son, a data scientist who also sings Dylan, says “but this is essentially a qualitative decision based on the definition and criteria set by the Swedish Academy. It ought to be subjective and thus cannot be quantitatively analysed.” I wondered. And pondered further. And when I think, I seek more information on the matter, I continue to argue, and every so often, I write.
Here’s a paragraph from the official website of the Nobel Prize:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/literature/espmark/index.html
Nobel’s Guidelines and Their Interpretations:
As guidelines for the distribution of the Literature Prize the Swedish Academy had the general requirement for all the prizes – the candidate should have bestowed “the greatest benefit on mankind” – and the special condition for literature, “in an ideal direction”. Both prescriptions are vague and the second, in particular, was to cause much discussion. What did Nobel actually mean by ideal? In fact, the history of the Literature Prize appears as a series of attempts to interpret an imprecisely worded will. The consecutive phases in that history reflect the changing sensibility of an Academy continuously renewing itself.
Debate on if you wish, for it appears as though debate was hard coded in the definition itself.
While at it, perhaps for the next few days, how about we listen to some more of Dylan and perhaps follow him on social media if you like, as I do.
https://twitter.com/bobdylan?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan
https://www.facebook.com/bobdylan/
Congratulations to one of my favorite poets, Bob Dylan, on a well-deserved Nobel. https://t.co/c9cnANWPCS
— President Obama (@POTUS) October 13, 2016
I retweeted it… I agree with it in letter, spirit and tweet! In 2012, President Obama honored Dylan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dylan was awarded by the Pulitzer Prize jury a special citation in 2008 for “his profound impact on popular muic and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”
Born in Minnesota as Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan’s grand parents emigrated from what is now Ukraine and his maternal grand parents came from northeastern Turkey. Growing up in Duluth and then Hibbing, he listened to the blues and country stations on radio. As a teenager, it was mostly rock and roll. As he moved to Minnesota druing his University years, he got into folk music. He changed his name to Bob Dylan in 1960s.
For 25 things that you should know about Bob Dylan to participate as an authentic argumentative Indian, go to: http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Bob-Dylan-obliges-annoying-fan-in-Berkeley-by-8132776.php#photo-1343528
Also, go on spotify or apple music or gaana.com, enjoy Dylan as he explores the traditions in American song – folk, blues, country, gospel and ofcourse rock and roll. Sometimes jazz and even some Irish folk music. He has toured since the late 1980s and performed with guitar, keyboard and harmonica. Bob Dylan shocked the world of folk music almost 50 years ago, by plugging in his guitar. The puritans of folk music exclaimed. But his enigmatic song writing has continued to confound and engage us unfailingly.
In addressing a question on how he thinks up the lyrics:
“I’ll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That’s the way I meditate. A lot of people will look at a crack on the wall and meditate, or count sheep or angels or money or something, and it’s a proven fact that it’ll help them relax. I don’t meditate on any of that stuff. I meditate on a song.” Said Bob Dylan in 2004.
http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/04/entertainment/ca-dylan04/5
An all time favourite and one of the first on recall is his “Blowing in the wind” song that was written and released in around 1962/63 as a single and In 1994, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 greatest songs of all times.” The song is said to have been originally written in two verses. After its first public performance around 1962, he added the middle verse to the song. He is said to have been inspired from a passage from the autobiography of Woodie Gurthrie, who was his musical idol, in which he had compared his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys. It is understood that his reading of it had been a major turning point in his intellectual and political development. He was in his 20s then. When asked later about it in one of his interviews, he said, “I wrote ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ in 10 minutes, just put words to an old spiritual, probably something I learned from Carter Family records. That’s the folk music tradition. You use what’s been handed down.
Here’s a curated list of Bob Dylan’s songs by Saeed Ahmed, CNN for you to enjoy.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/13/entertainment/dylan-songs-history-trnd/
and a top ten list from youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG8y0rRYjEI
And my personal favourite: Knockin’ on Heavens Door. A song that my son and my nieces sang when they were younger and also something that my son taught some of the primary school kids at my school a few years ago. Heylin, who wrote Dylan’s biography, described the song as “an exercise in splendid simplicity.” Many other artists have played the cover versions of it. One of which is Eric Clapton’s, to which I am quite partial.
Just last month, September 2016, a 36-CD set by Legacy Recordings was announced that covers the recordings starting with the concert in Sydney, Australia and ends with the one at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Then there’s this list of books that might interest you. Written in 1966, Tarantula is a collection of poems and prose that evokes the turbulence of the times in which it was written, and gives a unique insight into Dylan’s creative word & Dylan Goes Electric which talks about the insight of Woodstock festivals and the music movement of sixties. There’s The Lyrics: Since 1962 by him and the picture books, If Not For You and If Dogs Run Free.
Nobel prize or otherwise, we celebrate you. The “little red notebook,” supposedly stolen from you and circulated among collectors, now held at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York with severely restricted access, is hoped to be seen by us citizens from the Dylan-dom sometime. And amidst these treasures, even as Bob Dylan the man remains an enigma for us, here’s a peek into the secret archive:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/arts/music/bob-dylans-secret-archive.html
Yours truly,
Nivedita Mukerjee
Citizen fan from the Dylan-dom
Bullying in school age children-Part 3
“…making fun of the marginalized and the minority is not comedy, it is bullying and I will contest it.” – Said actor Tanishtha Chatterjee of Parched, a recently released film after a television show made fun of her dark skin. I couldn’t agree more. Bullying won’t end unless we stop it!
Note : Continuing from the past couple of posts in the series, that tackled the understanding of bullying and went on to share facts on the act of bullying so as to be able to prevent it, here’s part 3 of the series where I will share my thoughts on what are the possible warning signs of being victim of bullying and how to deal with the same.
Some of the readers of this blog have shared that they strongly feel that bullies learn from their parents/other adults around them. That they know of some adults who behave as bullies and they can see the impact of this learned behavior on how their children behave with others. That’s right! Children do learn all the time from adult’s actions. When they see the adults around them yelling at others, having a show down, overpowering other adults or even oftentimes by being inattentive or unsympathetic or excluding/ignoring, their children’s views on how to manage stress and conflict form. They start to mimic the adult behavior of how to treat their friends, colleagues and families.
To prevent oneself and children from going down this path, it is suggested that both adults and children must take part in activities, interests and hobbies they like. Volunteer out of school/work space, play sports, join a choir. Children can join a school club with students of common interest just as adults can join a common interest group. This consistently builds confidence and friendships to help protect both children and adults (as we all know, adults bully and get bullied too. One of the readers of this blog exclaimed in her feed back – “but Ms Niv! What about adults bullying adults! What do we do about that?” Pretty much the same I guess. Understand, prevent, walk away or stand up and deal!)
Bullying has severe impact on the emotional and physical safety of young children at school. This in turn impacts their relationship with peers, teachers, parents and adults in their lives. The negativity severely impacts their ability to learn and perform with expected ease and proficiency in school. The best way to address this is by recognizing bullying and stopping it before it starts. For that, school staff and parents must be aware of this and assess student behavior closely, to make schools safer. It is also important to engage parents in this assessment and understanding so as to send out a message of zero tolerance for bullying. Awareness campaigns, discussion forums, school safety committee, buddy support systems can be some of the ways that this issue is proactively tackled.
So what should you look out for? Here are some indicators of bullying:
- Visible, physical injuries on the body of the child that the child is avoiding telling about or is covering up by clothes/makeup.
- Child complains of headaches, stomachaches, complains/fakes sickness or nausea.
- Sudden change in eating habits – eating too less or too much, skipping meals or craving for just one kind of food.
- Shows signs of nervous ness, anxiety, and fear for inexplicable reasons.
- Lack of interest in school, schoolwork, homework, group projects and decline in academic performance.
- Child talks about harming himself or running away from home or changing to another school.
Schools are now creating code of conduct, school-wide rules and an escalation process for reporting bullying, with the clear understanding amongst all that bullying is not acceptable. In parallel, establishing a culture of tolerance, acceptance of differences and mutual respect in assemblies, staff meetings and parent teacher meetings. These cohesive efforts go a long way towards reiterating the school’s philosophy of positive social interactions and inclusiveness.
Just as educating the community on bullying has a role in stopping bullying, the response time to bullying also goes a long way to bring home the message. When we as adults respond consistently and instantly to the behavior, the communication is clear. Stop it on the spot! First. Or if the child has reached out to you, then start with finding out what happened and figure out how best to take it from there. The next step, most important to my mind as a parent and educator is to support both – the bullied and the bully. All children, whether they are the victims or the bullies are affected by the incident. This would ensure that the bullying would not continue and the effect would be minimum on the children concerned.
The children and adults both have to know how to be more than a bystander. When we know what bullying is, we are able to better identify, deal with it, stand up to it and report or walk away. We need to give them the skills of how to do all of these. We as parents and educators need to give them time to talk by keeping the lines of communications open. Even a 15 minutes a day conversation about their day and feelings can reassure them that they can talk to us. Some of the conversation starters (that you must be already doing just continue to do more of it, consistently and calmly, besides regularly engaging with school and school activities) could be :
- How was your lunchtime today? Who do you sit with usually? What did you talk about?
- How was your ride on school bus?
- What do you like best about yourself? (and not your subject, not your teacher, not your school)
- Read class newsletters and school communications with your child, talk about these at home, and make conversations around it.
- Meet the class teachers, school counselor, other parents of the school and go to school events regularly.
- Share with the child who makes yourself happy, safe and loved and ask the child to share the same with you.
- Discuss with your child some of these in some form or the other, at appropriate time (not more than one or two at the same time):
- Do you sometimes have fights with your friends? What do you do when you fight? How do you feel afterwards?
- Do you enjoy your time with your friends?
- Do you have one or few best friends? Tell me about them.
- Do you have some one or some children who are not your friends and you are ok to not talk/play with them?
- Do your friends like you when you are rude? Or bossy? Or teasing others? Do you like doing it?
- When at school, greet the teachers, the support staff, the bus driver.
During these conversations, do discuss with your child, the difference between conflict and bullying. Disagreements, differences and conflicts are normal. These situations get resolved over time. When it is a matter going back and forth, when it is he said/ she said, it is conflict. The emotions felt – of anger and hurt are similar or equal. However, when it troubles the child, hurts and/or saddens the child several times, it is intentional and targeted to hurt, it is bullying.
Sharing some resources here that you might find useful to clarify the difference between conflict and bullying with your child:
http://www.erasebullying.ca/bullying/bullying-vs.php
While we made the journey through understanding, preventing and dealing with bullying in school age children, I am sure there is so much more to be said and understood about this vast and complex issue. However, one thing that is clear to all of us is that it needs to be stopped. Please send in your views and concerns, thoughts and queries. Especially situations that according to you were incidences of bullying and how it was handled. Or was it? How else could it have been handled differently and/or better? Please exclude or change names as necessary to maintain confidentiality. Sharing your experiences will help other readers as well to continue to keep focus on this aspect of our growing children. And thus the impact they will have on the society around them as they grow into responsible adults. Empathy and sensitivity is the need of both studentship and citizenship.
P.S. I have not tackled cyber bullying as yet in any of these 3 articles. Not because it is not important or not prevalent or that it is completely understood. But I will do so soon as part of another series, on digital citizenship.
https://about.me/niveditamukerjee
Bullying in school age children: Part 2
Note: The response to Part 1 has been so encouraging that I decided to publish the Part 2 of the series incorporating some of the reactions I received to Part 1 (which was on understanding what is bullying). This article will enhance our understanding and help us tackle some aspects of preventing it from happening at all.
I will begin this part of the series by picking up from what some of the readers of this blog have shared. What construes an act of bullying? What really are the qualifiers of an act or a person that it can be understood as that of bullying and a bully? One thing that is clear from our definition of Bullying in Part 1 was that there is an imbalance of power. That, the people who bully have some sort of unhinged power over those they bully.
Sharing a video here (about 2.16 minutes) as a starter. You may want to watch the 98 minute documentary Bully (PG13), directed by American director Lee Hirsch.
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1682181/
You may also consider discussing the topic of bullying before and after watching movies like : Billy Elliot, The Fat Boy Chronicles, Ben 10 Alien Force, Cyberbully, Hercules, Jimmy Neutron, Justice League Unlimited, Spy Kids, The War and Bully, The Avengers. The 2015 film – A Girl Like Her, with teenage girls, is running on NetFlix now and has been shared by one of the readers of this blog as yet another film that one could watch for evoking strong emotions followed by discussions.
October is declared in America as the National Bullying Prevention Month. Parents and schools in various parts of the world are grappling with this and making efforts to prevent and stop bullying by advocacy and awareness. Today’s PTI news item is in all the news papers mentioning that actress Kate Winslet was bullied for being overweight through her school years. http://www.ptinews.com/news/7904110_Kate-Winslet-was-bullied-for-being-chubby- In Bangalore, a community support page for the victims of bullying was started this July and is actively sharing information to stop bullying –https://www.facebook.com/bullying.is.evil/
Here are some facts that you might want to keep in mind while defining the act or the person:
Fact no. 1 – Bullies usually pick on those who have less of social power (peer), psychological power (knowledge and potential of below the belt hurting capability) and of course physical power (in size and/or strength, training/swiftness).
Fact no. 2 – Often enough, people who bully, have suffered the same at some point in time i.e. they have themselves been victim of bullying.
Fact no. 3 – Sometimes, the people who are bullies and have been bullied, suffer with depression and anxiety. More than if they were only bullies or only victims of bullying. These individuals might need more help and counseling as they are likely to swing in their behavior from delinquency to risqué.
Fact no. 4 – Actions like spreading rumors, name calling, willfully excluding a child or group of children from a group activity, subjecting another child/ren to an embarrassing situation by creating it themselves or making them embarrass themselves in front of others are forms of social bullying that need to be recognized by students and teachers. As school is the place where it happens most.
Fact no. 5 – It is assumed that most often bullying has a bias for boys. More often than not, physical bullying does happen in boys but social and psychological bullying happens among girls as well. More often, as the girls grow older.
Fact no. 6 – Many children who bully are insecure about some aspect of themselves and as such have a sense of low self-esteem, many of them may have poor social skills and are anxious or depressed. However there are enough instances when bullies are actually popular boys/girls and have positive self-esteem. These children often are boastful of their behavior and wear bullying prowess as a chip on their shoulder.
Fact no. 7 – It is known that the act of bullying usually happens in secluded spaces, when no other student/teacher/parent is around. However, there are many instances when students pay attention, collude and laud act of bullying and the bully him/herself. Often times, the adults in the environment rarely recognize it as bullying even if they are in the vicinity of the act.
Fact no. 8 – Very often adults and children ignore the bullying, assuming that the issue will resolve itself over time. On the contrary, bullying reflects imbalance of power and it repeats itself. Ignoring indicates to the bully that their action and intention can continue without any consequence. Adults and children, both need to stand up and speak up about bullies and bullying to ensure an incident does not become a habit.
We have understood what construes bullying and are working on possible ways of preventing it we should keep in mind that one of the best ways is to equip our children with the information in a manner that they can prevent it on their own. By giving them scenarios and vocabulary. And keeping the channels of communication open at all times. For example, when you read story books dealing with the subject together at leisure or at bed time often enough, they tend to open up dialogue and helps you understand your child’s emotions and situations better.
Here are some references for your home library:
The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, for all ages.
This deals with the common peer problems of exclusion and prejudice. The Star Belly Sneetches have a star on their bellies to symbolise superiority and prestige, and the reject the Plain belly sort.
Move Over Twerp by Martha Alexander, for grades 1 to 3
The first day that Jeffrey rides the bus to school, older boys shout at the youngster and remove him from his seat in the back of the bus.
What a Wimp, by Carol Carrick, for grades 1 to 5
Barney and his family move from the city to the country where his mom said that people were so friendly. But, he soon becomes the target of Lenny Coots who targets Barney as his easy, smaller and younger victim.
Bully on the Bus, by Carl W. Bosch, for grades 1 to 6
Written in a “ choose your own ending” format, the reader decides what action to take while dealing with a bully. The reader can choose from many alternatives that including ignoring, talking to an adult, confronting the bully, fighting, and reconciling. There are many options and opportunities for excellent discussions with this book.
Check some more of these popular books listed on these sites:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/bullying
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/books-about-bullying
http://www.parenting.com/blogs/mom-congress/melissa-taylor/best-5-bullying-books-parents
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/book-list/school/books-about-bullying-middle-schoolers
https://about.me/niveditamukerjee
More on bullying, in part -3 when I will be talking about signs of bullying, effects of bullying, talking about and responding to bullying . Please send in your views and concerns, thoughts and queries. Especially situations that according to you were incidences of bullying and how was it handled. Or was it? How else could it have been handled differently and/or better? Please exclude or change names as necessary to maintain confidentiality. I will include it in the next discussion in this AskNiv series on Bullying. You can post your mail id if you want to be notified when it is published.
Bullying in school age children : Part 1
When I started to discuss about writing an article on bullying, the concerns came pouring in from fellow educators and parents of school going children. Not to mention from children themselves. This is not a new issue. Not a unique challenge for schools. Not something each of us has not known in our growing years. However, the proportions it has taken now, take a look at the few of these links below as a sample – I thought of tackling it one step at a time. It does need to be tackled. It does need to be stopped. And for that it needs to be understood.
14 year old leaps to his death after bullying
West Virginia boy 9 kills bullying family
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-187330/Boy-driven-suicide-bullies.html
Lawsuit alleges pervasive violence in NYC schools
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/school-bullying/
As an educator, for any topic that is vast and complex, one which has varied level of understanding and thus tolerance of by children, parents and teachers in different contexts and geographies, I structured the topic of ‘Bullying’ in three parts. That of understanding, preventing and dealing. What else you would like me to include in this series?
What is understood as bullying in schools and what factors lead to becoming a bully or a child at risk of being bullied?
What does it mean?
The dictionary meaning of Bullying, in Hindi, ranges from ‘Badmaash’ to ‘Gunda’ and ‘Dhaunsia’; ‘Harcelement’ to ‘brute’ in French; ‘Acoso’ to ‘abuso’ in Spanish; ‘ Mobbing’ and ‘Drangsalieren’ to ‘Tyrannisieren’ in German… the words range in intensity. However, the common essence is that of unwanted and aggressive behavior.
What does it look like?
Unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power balance. Often, the behavior is repeated. It may be amongst the same set of children or the bully/bullied might change over time. Or, the circle of influence of the bully might expand. Children who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.
How is a situation identified to be that of bullying?
In order for a situation to be considered as that of bullying, besides the behavior to be aggressive, look out for :
(http://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/definition/)
A clear indication of bullying is fundamentally to be understood as an imbalance of power. Children who bully are most likely to use either their physical strength, or access to some secret like an embarrassing information, an escapade, a prank that may be considered unpardonable or unacceptable, a rendezvous that is not acceptable to the family/school/peers of the child/ren who is/are being bullied. Sometimes, children who are popular for their attitude or appearance, or are cognitively sharper etc. use this power to control and /or physically and/ or emotionally/ psychologically harm the other child/children. The imbalance of power can change over time and at different situations, with same or different people. Bullies often make threats, spread rumors, physically attack, verbally abuse, form cliques, exclude the other child/ren from a group.
Who bullies and who gets bullied?
There are several factors that can make a child or a group of children bullies or get bullied.
Some of those who are potential targets for being bullied for example are:
- Children who look different from their peers in some way or the other as obese/underweight, short sighted/astigmatism/wear correction or reading glasses, new to class/section, from different socio-economic strata – poorer or richer, studious/smart/nerd/laggard.
- Children who stammer, appear anxious, have poor body image, exhibit low self esteem.
- Children who have few friends, who are less liked, are less popular, belong less to any group in class/school.
- Children who are annoying, unclean, provocative, smelly or antagonise some child/ren for some reason.
- Children who are depressed, come from in-attentive/broken/separated/ busyfamily, or are over chaperoned and monitored, or are not heard or attended to adequately.
Likewise, there are some factors that can create bullies out of some children. Some of those for example are:
- Children who are very close to their peers over years and are constantly pre occupied towards making themselves popular in any which way they can.
- Children who like to dominate, who like to steer conversations, who like to talk but not listen, who want to compete but not collaborate, who do not like to acknowledge contribution or give credits where due.
- Children who are aggressive, get easily frustrated, think less of others, think of themselves as more competent than others, cannot tolerate those who they or others think are more competent than themselves in any way.
- Children who have contempt for rules, have friends who break them, who want to rebel continuously on every matter and also bully others.
- Children who have seen and experienced verbal and/or physical violence as a way of expressing their views and asserting themselves.
https://about.me/niveditamukerjee
More on bullying, in part -2 . Please send in your views and concerns, thoughts and queries. Especially situations that according to you were incidences of bullying and how was it handled. Or was it? How else could it have been handled differently and/or better? Please exclude or change names as necessary to maintain confidentiality. I will include it in the next discussion in this AskNiv series on Bullying. You can post your mail id if you want to be notified when it is published.
An open letter to fellow educators. Happy Teacher’s day!
Teacher’s day – 5th September.
Dear fellow educators,
Jem and Scout want to build a snowman after it snows for the first time in their lives, but there isn’t enough snow to do it. Jem has the idea to build the base out of mud and cover the outside with snow. Their father, Atticus, is tickled by their ingenuity and tells Jem, “From now on I’ll never worry about what’ll become of you, son, you’ll always have an idea… I can’t tell what you’re going to be – an engineer, a lawyer, or a portrait painter.”
This paragraph from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a mocking bird” now resonates with each of us – the educators of today… It reiterates of the enormously onerous task that is upon us in preparing our students for the next century. From engineers, doctors, lawyers – we added the profession of software engineers over the last few decades. What about the next few decades? For students of 2020 school leaving batch? The workforce of 2030? The rise of entirely new careers such as data scientists, social media strategists, and UX designers (user experience – demolishing the hubris of the architects of user interface) or, some other? I have in my life of 50 years seen the professions of telephone operators, travel agents, bank tellers, video parlor operators, printing press managers going obsolete. DIY (Do IT Yourself) kits, cheap and accessible digital printing on any surface, digital 3D printers for anything from spare parts to making prototypes are available to amateurs and professionals alike. Control with specific skill related dependencies has shifted to variable, applicable, ingenious and idea based creativity.
The World Economic Forum recommends that the educational system be completely redesigned to emphasize skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, collaboration and digital literacy. It’s no longer about preparing kids for a particular career, but it’s about teaching a mindset, a behavior, and a skill of lifelong learning. According to the US Department of Labor, 65% of today’s students will have careers that don’t exist yet.
I initially started writing this by trying to imagine what careers of the year 2030 might look like. I would be an octogenarian, as would be most of the parents of my generation of educators whose age today range from 40 to 50 years. Our parents are wading through satellite TV, skype calls, using video face time across geographies and time zones, sharing photos on “what’s app” of their travels and grand children… I started to wonder what my students would be into when I would survive to that age, three decades from now. We will be there in all likelihood given the gene therapies, organ transplants and growing spare organs of one’s own from stem cells – the pace with which medical research and technology for health and wellbeing is moving. I began with applying existing careers to newly created technologies (Animatronic Veterinarian?) and then extrapolated other careers based what new discoveries can afford us (Celestial Fashion Designer?). I realized I could just as easily play this for a mad libs game – not tried yet but aspiring to do that soon…( http://www.madlibs.com/), that combined different nouns and adverbs in infinite different ways, and come up with a list that is just as likely to happen as any well thought out and researched list. How about a Drone Rancher, a Holoportation operator, a Visualization consultant, a Virtual Tapestry designer for Evacuated Tube Transportation Technologies (http://www.et3.com/), a Gamer DE addiction Therapist, an Avatar relationship manager… go ahead, make up a few with your students in your next class!
(http://www.futuristspeaker.com/business-trends/55-jobs-of-the-future/)
As educators, we can now comfortably stop fretting about managing classrooms (http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/swedens-classroom-free-school-the-future-of-education.html) or for that matter swing from one prescribed curriculum to the other and lesson plans for creating the next generation of engineers or teaching kids to be coders; what we want to do is help ignite kids’ passions, unleash their inner inventor, build up their own creative confidence so that they can be the ones to invent the world they want to live in. Schools as makers space? Educators as collaborators? The STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) is gathering a different velocity with STEAM (STEM + Arts)…
What we can do is work together to help children tap into their ingenuity and build their snowmen. From then on we’ll never worry about what’ll become of the next generation; they’ll always have an idea.
Yours truly,
Nivedita Mukerjee
A fourth generation educator, an aspiring MadLib gamer and plans to live to see the future careers today’s students would be creating for themselves.
https://about.me/niveditamukerjee
Save Me a Seat – A book review
Authors : Sara Weeks and Gita Varadarajan
Published by: Scholastic Press, May 2016
What starts with a lunch room scenario, becomes soon a story of two young children, two families, two countries… while sharing perspectives on food, culture, rituals and unraveling an understanding … of relationships. Of parenting styles. Of overcoming obstacles. Of assumptions.
I totally enjoyed the vocabulary that ranged from ‘to throw chunks’, to ‘kan drishti’ and food items as diverse as apple crisps and cumin flavored nan khatais. It’s a story told in first person by two 5th graders with nothing but the SCHOOL in common. Then there is Dillon. The story is set in the all-familiar school routine, in the class room, in the resource room and the lunch room. Amidst all this is the intrigue of dealing with Dillon Samreen. This is about one child who is ‘FOB’, another who has ‘APD’ and a third who is ‘ABCD’. The narrative gathers a certain pace, such that you want to read through to the end at one go. There’s enough momentum built up to make you want to continue reading the glossaries and recipes well after the story ends.
As the school week unfolds, so does the story over 49 short chapters and 216 pages. Class topper rah – VEE (not RAH – vee) has moved to America with his family from Bangalore, India. He studied in an English medium school, but no one can understand his accent. He is asked to go to resource room by the class teacher Ms. Beam. He is shrimpy, brings home lunch and is vegetarian. Joe has lived in the same town but his best friends are not with him in Grade 5. He can understand all that’s going on in the class room but finds it all very noisy and is very shy. Joe is also asked to go to resource room by class teacher Ms. Beam. He likes to talk to Ms. Frost there. He is very big, is always hungry and can eat a lot. Both Ravi and Joe don’t think they have anything in common and neither of them have anyone to eat lunch with.
It has the emotions and plot that can very well lend itself to deep, reflective discussions. While the main protagonists are three 5th graders but it is equally enjoyable for children of a couple of grades lower or higher.
“These candies have four layers. Most people assume there are only three, but assumptions are often wrong. There is more to them than meets the eye”. This can be easily said about ‘Save Me a Seat’. Sarah and Gita, both the authors have portrayed their protagonists with humour and authenticity and given us a refreshingly good novel to read. This could well be the beginning of a genre!
A.P.J. Sir, RIP. 1931-2015
Subject: An open letter from a teacher.
Dear A.P.J sir,
This is a letter from me, a teacher, to you, the quintessential teacher. And while you are Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Bharat Ratna, (ex)President of India… I also know you for being the student who never gave up education despite the meager means of family. I know you as a career scientist, as a reluctant politician, our 11th President and the one who always inspired the youth to dream.
I want to ask you some questions sir, and I want to think aloud. More than anything else, I want to reminisce in the era, that was you. You are the politician that one would aspire to be, the scientist that one should study to be, and the teacher that one can try to be. I want to learn from you to be the youth to rise above difficulty, the professional to be capable, the leader to acknowledge the team’s contribution, the genuine human being to connect with people around, to be humble and stay away from hubris. I also want to know some of what you felt at those cross roads that came along your way.
Was it warm and windy in Thumba’s cattle shed A.P.J sir? or was it “cool” to hang out there, the shed being the house for India’s first rocket launcher! Thumba Equatorial Rocket launcher – must have been a fine name plate for the cattle shed to boast of being the laboratory to work on sounding rockets. You must have been quite a creative scientist to have trained from NASA on sounding rockets and then see the potential in Thiruvananthpuram’s little coastal Thumba’s cattle shed. Kudos to Dr. Vikram Sarabhai to have seen that twinkle in your eyes. Or should I say he saw Rohini! India’s first satellite to travel to earth’s orbit on the SLV3 you designed, developed and built at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Center.
Sir, this summer you tweeted – “Today, I remember the hot day of 1998 at Pokhran: 53C. When most of the world was sleeping; India’s nuclear era emerged.” It took my memory to the time when the defining moment happened in the Thar dessert, 17 years ago. As the Chief of DRDO then, you supervised the 5 detonations – first a fusion bomb and the following 4 fission. How was it to camp for a fortnight with your team of 58 engineers and then on the bright night of Buddha Purnima, 11th May, 1998 conduct the explosions? Undetected by all intelligence agencies around the world… to be then recognized as a nuclear weapon state.
This Eid, when Iftaar parties were doing the rounds of the homes of people and politicians alike, where were you A.P. J sir? Which orphanage’s children were you sharing your ‘sevian’ with? While you were at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the country felt the sprit of a real ‘Iftar party’ with you as you donated the savings every year by skipping the party, to the orphanage. You knew and followed your traditions and scriptures in letter and spirit. The first occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to connect to the masses directly, particulary the children and youth. Reaching out in person and through technology.
A.P.J. sir, or shall I call you Dr. Kalam perhaps? What with some 40 universities bestowing honorary doctorates to you? Wondering how would that sit along side your award by MTV, twice over (2003 and 2006) for being the Youth Icon of the year J? … where ofcourse sit many other very important and otherwise diverse range of awards – Indian ones – the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration (1997)the Veer Savarkar Award by the Govt. of India (1998) and some of the international ones – Royal Society, U.K’s King Charles II Medal (2007), or for that matter, the International von Karman Wings Award by the California Institute of Technology, U.S.A (2009), besides the Hoovar Medal same year by ASME Foundation, U.S. A. Closer home, from Chennai, the Alwars Research Center recognized you with the Ramanujan Award (2000). While you were much recognized by the world wide community of Engineers as the IEEE made you their honorary member (2011), the teacher in me finds October 15th recognized as the world’s student’s day by the United Nations (on your 79th Birthday), very befitting. For I would love to be your student sir. I would like to learn from you how to teach my students the five lines you always taught to yours, to speak to them selves every morning:
- I am the best
- I can do it.
- God is always with me.
- I am a winner.
- Today is my day.
– A.P.J.
I want to be able to tell my students more often:
“All of us do not have equal talent. But, all of us have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.” A. P. J.
I want to learn how to convey:
“It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone” A. P. J.
How do I embody as a teacher what you said :
“Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness” A. P. J.
Teach me A.P. J. sir how I can implore my peers that:
“ Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life.”
And the hard truth:
“Without your involvement you can’t succeed. With your involvement you can’t fail.”
Thank you Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma, for your precious gift of Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam to the nation. The village of Dhanushkodi in Rameshwaram, Tamilnadu is a special place in the geography of the country. It gave us a teacher to inspire generations of students, teachers, scientists, politicians…
“Learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking. Thinking provides knowledge and knowledge makes you great” A.P.J.
Rest In Peace dear sir, or perhaps, Reply If Possible?
Sincerely,
Nivedita
Teacher
28th July
Nivedita Mukerjee 