When Preserving Sanity becomes a Privilege!

Last week, a professor of a Ghatkopar college shot himself dead on the campus. While the reasons haven’t been clearly stated, reports mentioning him to be withdrawn, aloof, not participating in any extra-curricular activities/events paint a melancholic personality; perhaps suffering from a depressive disorder. It is also notable that none of the students or faculty members sensed anything was amiss the day he took his life.

Mental health disorders are a silent killer. And especially in the teaching profession, such cases are on a rapid rise with stressful working conditions, poor paying scales, almost nil personal time and nonstop responsibilities especially with the corporatisation of the education sector. Ironically enough, the nature of job is also as such that teachers can’t afford to get depressed!

Students look up to teachers and respect a calm and confident exterior. Teachers are the primary guardians of the children at school with the most important role of shaping young minds. Their temperament needs to be humane, patient, encouraging. Each period or session needs to be delivered spot on since that it might be the only time the topic will be dealt in so much detail. If you are a preschool teacher, there is the added stress of looking out for communicating and relating to 20-25 odd children, each of whose communication skills and means vary! To add to this, there isn’t any fixed bracket of symptoms to ascertain if one is suffering from depression.

Depressive disorders come in different forms and are manifested differently. The 3 most common types are major depressions, dysthymia and bipolar disorder. Major depression is manifested by a combination of symptoms that interfere with the ability to work, study, sleep, eat and enjoy pleasurable activities once pursued. Not everyone depressed experiences every symptom. The severity of symptoms varies from person to person and also over time. Hence, spotting depression isn’t an easy task as spotting a fever or a cold or a headache! There are trained doctors and specialist counsellors who can spot one. And yet in India, we hardly acknowledge the need to visit a psychologist or psychiatrist, partly due to social stigma of being seen as ‘mad’.

Depression can also affect children. In such a situation, a child may pretend to be sick, refuse to go to school, cling to a parent, or worry that the parent may die. Older children may sulk, get into trouble at school, be negative, grouchy, and feel misunderstood. Because normal behaviours vary from one childhood stage to another, it can be difficult to tell whether a child is just going through a temporary "phase" or is suffering from depression. If there has been a marked change in behaviour and physical ailments have been ruled out, it would do good to get the child evaluated by a mental health professional.

A training session on Narrative therapy at Ummeed

As in the case of physical ailments, it is critical to catch a mental ailment early on since a simple depression can turn into a major one, later on in life. Schools must mandatorily check the mental health of teacher/staff regularly as we do for any health certificate. We must work actively not only to promote mental health awareness programmes, but it is the need of the hour for each school to appoint an in-house certified mental health professional or counsellor for students and teachers in each school. One of the ways to work on depression is to 'externalize' the problem, a technique used in narrative therapy which has often been associated with good humour & playfulness as well as careful & thoughtful practice. It is best summarised as 'The Person is not the problem but the problem is the problem'.

I have had the privilege of attending the one-of-its-kind ‘Mental Health Training Programme’, at Ummeed Child Development centre which is doing commendable work to train professionals from all fields of society like teachers, heads of institutions, professionals dealing with children, adults, doctors, developmental paediatricians, social workers. It’s a speck in the ocean but at least a START somewhere… Preserving sanity isn’t a privilege but is a necessity!

Saina, Sania, Shreya – The New Age Princesses

Yay! We have much reason to cheer the growing spotlight on the impact dynamic, feisty, young and empowered women are having on our society. Shreya singhal, a gritty 21 year old is being considered an international hero for her fight against a draconian law that allowed people to be jailed for online posts found to offend the so-called sensibilities of any moral or religious or national brigade. The Supreme Court just struck down section 66A of the IT Act and its achievement solely goes to Shreya who chose to do something about it rather than just rant on Facebook. The country also cheered Saina Nehwal on as she went on to be the first Indian woman to be ranked as the number one world woman badminton player. It was also the month when Sania Mirza grabbed her spotlight by bettering her world doubles ranking. 

Of course each of their victories isn’t an attribute of their gender and shouldn’t be showcased as one but it shows the remarkable times of the changing mind sets of viewing and defining the role of a woman. For any society to progress, each individual must contribute and must be empowered. How can any nation progress when half of its population is expected to lead a life in the background? We have been talking of inclusion since the time we achieved independence but we have yet to really take each child and walk ahead, make realise each family to support and take the other ahead.     

If there is a common thread that has undoubtedly helped Sania, Saina, Shreya and other such successful women reach their potential, it is their family – the support, encouragement, acceptance and understanding extended.  This isn’t rocket science of course. We have the privilege of witnessing the changing dynamics of rearing daughters at our school too. A confident child, especially a girl, come from the most encouraging and unbiased family set ups. You know that the parent values the child, her opinion, her dreams as against looking at her in terms of a liability. We now have parents who rejoice at hearing that they have been blessed with a girl, their princess, and leave no stone unturned to empower them. 

Our little princesses shone at our annual concert ‘A Twist in Time with Cinderella’. We also had a spectacular display of talent by the girls and boys of Teresa Humanity Foundation (an NGO teaching street children) with whom we have associated with. While we always ensure the children from TOHF participate in all our curriculum-related events ever since we partnered with them, this one was special since it was for the first time they got to share the stage with other students at such a huge platform. It wasn’t just their parents who cheered the most for them but each of our parents. And so, it is true that when we look at bringing about change, we need to look at every stakeholder and involve him/her in the process. It begins with every family. And I believe, the change has begun.

The notion of raising a daughter is changing. Now, we are looking at raising princesses who can slay dragons by themselves rather than rely on a shining armoured knight. These are our Sanias, Sainas, Shreyas of the future - who will propel a country, that revers the feminine energy not just in temples but at their own homes. Let’s get set to paint our towns ‘pink’! Let's rejoice this 'Twist in Time'!

India’s Budget for its Children

We just witnessed one of the country’s most interesting fortnights. One, it entailed the much-anticipated, first full-fledged, NaMo budget. Not soon after, the nation witnessed skeletons tumble out of its closet in the form of a BBC documentary – India’s daughter. Why mention both in the same breath, one might wonder?

The documentary, India’s daughter, as any educated, liberal mind would opine, is a clear reflection of the gross inequalities that persist in our system. From gender discrimination, abuse, poverty, closed and crude mindsets, it has reflected all and how it’s interlinked. It isn’t surprising then that the government (though of course one expected more from the current government) clamped down on viewing the documentary.

Why truth must not be faced as it is and when will we stop pretending to believe that all is well with our society? The country has one of the largest number of unemployed youth, one of the largest number of people living below poverty lines and in despicable living conditions, one of the largest out-of-school children in the world, and an alarming decline in the sex ratio especially during a period of unprecedented economic growth.  In the same breadth it also has the lowest spending on education in the world!

Educationists and activists were hence eagerly anticipating the budget wondering if the government ‘for change’ would finally allot the requisite funds towards educating the country’s children? Our future.  So, do we have reasons to rejoice? Unfortunately, not many.

Though some nominal measures have been undertaken that must be rather appreciated, such as  - Skill India Programme, the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojana (for increasing employment among rural from 18-35 years), the Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme (part of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' campaign), proposal of setting up a fully IT-based Student Financial Aid Authority to administer education loans and scholarships to poor and middle class students for pursuing higher education.

There wasn’t much of a mention of a planned roadmap to tackle critical issues in school and higher education. The quality of education from school to higher education, dearth of qualified and trained teachers, Lack of crucial policies, lack of clarity on existing ones such as the Right to Education Act and the political will to implement them. We require increased and mapped outlays for sure to get the vast population of youth and children under one roof and a review of work done to ensure if we are on track or dreaming things up. Merely allotting an IIM or AIIMS is far from over when the current IIMs and IIT s are struggling to get qualified teachers and some, even students! Hence, the budget seems to have looked at the macro issues while being impatient to dig in deeper, which is required on an urgent basis.

A 16% cut in the outlay to education (compared to last fiscal) is a tad disappointing since now is the time to increase outlay to education and ensure to strengthen groundwork at schools, tighten and make the transition between schools to college and higher education thereafter more smooth and dynamic. Vocational education and skill building courses undoubtedly should be encouraged.

While we may choose to close our eyes and pretend all’s well, the truth is that depravity will only continue to thrive among inequalities or the varied ‘degrees of unfreedom’, as Amartya Sen would put it. We need to truly empower both India’s daughters and India’s sons to reach the best of their potential by working alongside and respecting each other and work toward a FREE and EMPOWERED Nation, free of biases, rituals, intolerance, poverty and self-fulfilling prophesies.   

To be a Rocket Scientist OR a Sailor?

One of our kindergartners’ parents recently made an important but typical remark about our assessment procedure, as we concluded one.  “It reassures me that my child’s progress is being studied in such detail but how should we make the most of this assessment,” she asked. 

It wasn’t the first time a parent wanted to ‘act on’ the assessment. It is an eagerly awaited day by parents as they browse through the progress their children (as young as 2 years) are making within the curriculum. Often, parents who join us after having their brush with other preschools are quite taken aback with the methodical processes and in-depth analysis across every sphere of learning we follow.  Learning Assessment is crucial to us. However, assessment programs are hardly about if the child is on course to becoming a rocket scientist or a curator and providing cues to the parent accordingly!

Assessment, ‘assidre’ in Latin, means to sit beside. At Kangaroo Kids, the focus is always on the process rather than the ‘product’.  This encompasses to literally ‘sit beside’ a child and while observing him/her, guide his discovery and learning and finally assess his/her progress across various dynamic parameters.  It is a 360 degree approach of understanding a child and his learning needs. Observation is an important skill at every stage of schooling – be it teaching or learning.

For e.g. to observe in a two year-old the curriculum aim of 'uses tools for writing and drawing and visualises & represents ideas (on paper, slates, easel etc.)’, the learning objective is - holds a crayon with thumb & 2 fingers (palmer grasp). Here, the teacher will observe children at the activity centres while they are doing their activities either on slates or at art activity. Since each child develops at their own pace, observing and supporting each child is critical.

Undoubtedly, it’s the teachers that are the primary facilitators in this cycle, which is why they are empowered with the maximum training and support to handle each child. To maintain daily progress of each child with respect to physical, cognitive, social, emotional and personal development, is no mean feat, since each growth is inter-related. Extend couple of extra layers of focus for children identified as afflicted with learning disorders, it’s easy to see why it is absolutely essential for us to maintain a teacher-child ratio of 1:6 (playschool) or 1:8 (an industry benchmark), along with a support teacher for each child identified sometimes with learning or behaviour challenges.

As we see it, child assessment is as definite as science and as evolving.  Though, it is hardly a tool to know who has the makings of a rocket scientist. But it is about who would love rocket science and who would rather sail a boat. And between the both of them how to get them interested in the boat and the rocket respectively. We truly believe each child is unique, gifted and had areas of strength. We don’t believe in labeling children or sorting them but believe in ‘igniting that spark for achieving human greatness’.

It goes without saying that parents are equal partners in this process of discovery, learning and outcome.  Without them, it is impossible to realise the vision of raising a child as true to himself/herself.  Although it does take a while for some of our parents to accept the thought that one needn’t compare to understand. But all who have been with us have supported this wholeheartedly, to only come back later and thank us. Our vision for our children is simple really. It remains to celebrate what each child has to offer and to ignite his interest in achieving his potential.  

There is hardly any satisfaction than watching little rocket scientists agreeing to cruise with little sailors and watch little sailors give the rocket the benefit of doubt! 

Patriotism - Just Being!

The 66^th Republic Day celebrations this year were special indeed with the world’s most influential person, Mr. Obama, sharing the stage with Mr. Modi, touted to greatly influence India’s destiny as a ‘superpower’. While the visit quite predictably got embroiled in political polemics, it can’t be denied that there seems to be a more cohesive effort in establishing a stronger identity for India and Indians on the world map. We are in midst of a sort of a conscious community awakening working toward this goal which now seems attainable. So yes, we have reasons to be proud. To be an Indian.   

On the other hand we also have various fundamentalists and hardliners, found across the world, who believe that being a patriot is a special prerogative of those who belong to a particular religion or follow certain set values and customs or belong to a particular race/ethnicity. So much so that any divergence from a criteria usually results in misplaced acts of intolerance such as war and terror attacks at an extreme level and crimes based on differences in race, ethnicity and even religion. Perhaps it has to do much with the interconnectedness of patriotism with not just sharing a common culture, history or geographical boundary but also belief systems like religion, customs and ideologies shaped over time by its influential societies and communities. 

Therein lays the conundrum. The word ‘patriotism’ in itself has so many hues that it might heed well to think of what patriotism means to us. It’s since the time of Greeks that such a sense of attachment and purpose could be sewn in within the context of a citizen’s role in a society and nation at large. However, it can also be a tool to propagate exclusivity and preferential treatment. Haven’t many a war been fought under the pretext of love of nation? 

While America justified its ‘War on Terror’ as a necessity to protect the rights and liberties of Americans, rights activists and intelligentsia have criticised the massive destruction in terms of lives and resources it has caused innocent civilians in Iraq while questioning the motive. It isn’t to say of course that patriotism is bad, many wars have been won for just causes due to it but in an increasingly borderless world is patriotism helping bridge the divide or creating a deeper wedge?

The answer of course is subjective and really depends on what we derive from the term. Our association with the emotion. Patriotism grows slowly and is ingrained within us. As an educator, I would like to believe that the foundation is laid in schools. We might not teach patriotism implicitly but when we teach history or when we form early morning assemblies and recite the pledge, celebrate national festivals and independence, represent the country at any sports or other event or do social work or clean our streets we are sowing the seeds of this emotion. It is undoubtedly a powerful, flexible and a great moral sentiment.  

The trick is to propagate its most sincere form. One which doesn’t tear apart rights of one community while seemingly building the ramparts around another community. It is as much in showing respect for a national flag but also respecting another’s just the same; it is not just in shouting slogans and being willing to give life for your country while taking an enemy’s but also to preserve life in all its form and to promote growth; It is as much in cleaning one’s mind of biases as much as it is cleaning our streets. It is about being conscientious, dedicated and giving our 100% to our job. But most importantly, it must also mean we need to respect another being's right to just BE.