Category: Editorial

Teachers in a leading role

When ‘teachers’ are the focus of attention in a mainstream Hindi film, it is time to celebrate even though some of the characters in the film are stereotypes. ‘Chalk and Duster’ is a simple film with a simple story but makes teachers feel good about being in the profession.

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Viewing the big picture

Teachers have the difficult yet important task of readying their students for the world tomorrow. While we are fulfilling our responsibilities by making them literate, our teaching practices are yet to train them in applying their knowledge for the society’s growth. We are yet to train our students to become sensitive to the situations in the world today, identify its problems and find practical solutions. Reading and writing is important but they alone don’t make the word ‘education’.

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Recovering basic education

In this issue we explore the model of education proposed by Mahatma Gandhi — that of the unity of the head, heart and hand. Does this idea continue to hold relevance today? Can Gandhi’s ideas offer us a different vision of education? While some of the essays argue that it is not impossible to recover those ideals, others stress that these ideals have to be recovered if we have to combat the divisiveness in our society.

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The logic of learning

What is the point of learning something when you are never going to use it in life. Surely, all of us as students have wondered about this at some point. As teachers now it is our duty to show our students, wherever possible, the applicability of what they are learning to life situations. Everybody needn’t be good at everything but it is important that we help them understand that everything is worth learning.

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Building a response to crises

In recent times, there has been an increasing emphasis on schools and teachers to impart life skills or soft skills to children. These include empathy and conflict resolution. Most of the times, these skills are touted as being important in the job market and less about how essential they are in everyday life as well. With a lot of political turmoil happening in countries around us, may be it is time children are taught about interdependence and empathy and to respond to crises with compassion.

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Can we learn to reflect?

Every experience we go through and every situation we face we can learn from. As teachers we must be particularly aware of this and look for learnable moments so that we can pass on this knowledge to our students. Apart from learning to reflect ourselves we must also device ways to help improve this skill in our students as well.

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Can freedom reign?

Are teachers bound by the school curriculum and the text books that are prescribed for students? Do they have the freedom to go beyond the text books and impart learning in new ways so that they can open up children’s minds? How does politics impact school practices? These are questions for which everyone needs to find answers so that those who deliver education can resist intrusions into their space.

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Towards “welcoming” classrooms

As schools and teachers are we happy simply producing academically brilliant children? Somewhere aren’t we also responsible for the ‘kind’ of individuals our students will turn out to be when they grow up? Let’s make our schools a more caring, sharing and compassionate place and show our students through examples the kind of human beings they must be.

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Editorial

Physics is one of those ‘hard’ sciences and like math, can evoke strong feelings of fear and dislike. Unless the subject is handled by a capable and inspired teacher, it can put off most children. This issue on physics has a different approach, showing how the subject can connect to our everyday lives and environment.

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Staying afloat

Usha Raman

Access to information is quick and easy these days. There is no dearth of information or the ways in which we can find it. Therefore it is easy to become overwhelmed, get lost, and be confused. As teachers it is necessary that we tell our students how they can sort through and use the right kind of information to further their learning. But to teach our students that we first have to develop our own strategies of dealing with information overload.

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