Reserving vs. Preserving Leadership

This month, a city shone while another burnt, ironically highlighting the success and failure of our education system. Even as Ahmedabad was held to ransom for demands of reservation from an affluent community, Chennai celebrated, having bred a world class leader – the new CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. The rags-to-riches story of a shy, studious boy from a middle-class family (whose engineer father earned a modest Rs. 3000 per month) captured yet again the minds and hearts of not just Indians but people worldwide.

People were fascinated to know more about Sundar Pichai, given that he was now amongst the most powerful leaders leading a world renowned company, Google. Report after report cited friends, family members, colleagues who knew Sundar to be extremely hard working and intelligent. By the usual yardstick of academics, while Sundar was brilliant in subjects such as science he wasn’t a ‘topper’ in school but went on to top his game later, winning a scholarship at Stanford. An alumni of IIT Kharagpur, even though now worth an estimated $150 million dollars, back then his parents had to really make their ends meet to put Sundar onto a fight to the U.S. Sundar’s story isn’t by any means an exception. In fact, we have numerous great minds who have striven hard against even more daunting circumstances to shine brightly. Education being a powerful leveller.

Which is why starkness of another city burning in the name of reservation also stands out equally. What is it that a young lad from a middle class family do so differently that another lad from another community can’t, who is perhaps even more affluent than him? What would happen if every community demanded amendments for the ‘prejudices’ it has to seemingly endure? How do you reserve jobs or seats for one candidate of a particular community/caste even if s/he is less deserving or less capable? Till when should a nation make its citizens forfeit their right to be treated equally for its own failures to provide basic services and facilities for ALL citizens?

The Patel-community (among the most affluent ones in Gujarat) standoff seems to be just a small trailer. We will have hundreds such communities across India that wake up and start demanding rights to be treated as special, or more equal, if we don’t revisit the feeble and outdated policies of caste based reservation. The government should earnestly review the reservation policy and relook factors that have perpetuated this politicisation of backwardness. Yes, it is true that development remains much skewed among regions and communities in India and that reservation has indeed been a great push to brining many communities at par with the rest of the society.

But now, even as the world has started wooing the great minds we breed, to develop their towns and nation, to feed its soul and grow its power,  it is more than imperative that we raise our leaders and give them the impetus to own their genius. In every field. To make every child want to pursue what s/he does best. That’s when our towns, our institutions, our organisations, our polity, our society, our nation will be replenished to thrive. If we really want India to be a contender as a world leader in the coming centuries we need to do away with the concept of Reserving. We can revel in the success of our many Sundar Pichais but real success would be to not have them to leave the country in order to reach their highest potential. The idea is to Preserve and Promote Leadership – the highest kind; rather than reserving leadership. Since anything achieved without merit is neither cherished nor preserved.

When the Teacher and Student is One!

For a ‘shining’ country whose annual celebrations of attaining freedom is just a fortnight away, however non-inclusive its development may still remain after nearly seven decades of independence, a leader’s demise has unified India, even if by a sense of an irreparable loss.  Binding in its grief not just the common man but even the usually warring politicians, a pall of gloom descended upon the length and breadth of this vast, geographically diverse, democratic wonder when the sudden demise of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Azad was announced on 27^th July. A visionary scientist and former President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, was an inspiration to many youngsters and an ideal (even if a reluctant) politician. Not only was he an esteemed man of science but also he was an exemplary humanitarian. 

The media is flush with anecdotes -- from young students, his assistants, in fact, any person who had the privilege of even sharing a fleeting moment with him – unending testaments of Abdul Kalam’s extraordinary intelligence, compassion, dreams, ideas, inspiration, humility and action. A particular one captured my heart. His assistant, Srijan Pal Singh was with him on the fateful evening when the country’s 11^th President suffered a fatal stroke while delivering a lecture to students at IIM Shillong. Singh mentioned on a FB post that Dr. Abdul Kalam wanted to be remembered as a ‘Teacher’ over all the other luminous distinctions he had achieved over his eight decade lifespan!

To take an excerpt from his FB post, Singh writes - ‘Often he would ask me, “You are young, decide what will like to be remembered for?” I kept thinking of new impressive answers, till one day I gave up and resorted to tit-for-tat. I asked him back, “First you tell me, what will you like to be remembered for? President, Scientist, Writer, Missile man, India 2020, Target 3 billion…. What?” I thought I had made the question easier by giving options, but he sprang on me a surprise. “Teacher”, he said.’

That speaks volumes of a person’s dedication and passion towards learning and teaching and most of all, his humility. Even when he became President in 2002, Abdul Kalam didn’t let go of teaching. He would reportedly grab any opportunity to teach youngsters and children. Even when he retired gracefully from the President’s post, he went back to living with his brother in his humble apartment and went about meeting children, answering questions while seeking answers. He believed in the promise and brilliance that the children and the youth hold and dedicated his last few decades of life to ignite their brilliance in his hometown, Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. He believed that every child could achieve what he did too as a small town lad. 

In his book Wings of Fire, he elucidates his remarkable journey - “My story—the story of the son of Jainulabdeen, who lived for over a hundred years on Mosque Street in Rameswaram island and died there; the story of a lad who sold newspapers to help his brother; the story of a pupil reared by Sivasubramania Iyer and Iyadurai Solomon; the story of a student taught by teachers like Pandalai; the story of an engineer spotted by MGK Menon and groomed by the legendary Prof. Sarabhai; the story of a scientist tested by failures and setbacks; the story of a leader supported by a large team of brilliant and dedicated professionals. This story will end with me, for I have no belongings in the worldly sense. I have acquired nothing, built nothing, possess nothing—no family, sons, daughters.”

Well, unfortunately the story has now ended but it is immortalised by inspiring, sparking, motivating and directing another thousands of remarkable stories. APJ Abdul Kalam, while being one of our greatest teachers, will remain to be known a most inspiring student. This legend’s entire life is a lesson whose truth has rung in since eternity – ‘Karmade vadhikarsya maa phaleshu kadachin’- keep doing your work without thinking of its fruits. He had once mentioned that it would be greatest honour to continue doing what one loves till the last breath and what a befitting farewell he bade while doing what he loved the most – Teaching! 

Now it is up to us how we choose to carry forward his legacy. Especially at this crucial juncture as the nation’s education system stands shrouded in corruption, inefficacies and scams. What are we willing to do to ensure that our coming generations will have the freedom to simply do what they love to do? When will we achieve that sense of true freedom even if for our children? So that we get to ignite the greatness within each of us and each other… 

Can’t think of a better way to conclude as for one of the most powerful truths of Dr. Kalam  -

“We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness.”

Collaborative Learning Spaces in Schools – Merely being ‘Cool’?

Collaborative workspaces are fast becoming the norm across corporates and are slowly being imbibed within sectors like education and government across developed nations. The corner office privilege is gradually becoming obscure as companies realise the importance of designing spaces which allow more room for socializing, exchanging of free ideas in an environment more infused with trust and transparency. It’s about the empowering feeling that all are working together for a common purpose. 

Recently, an Australian school, as a first, unveiled a collaborative working space for Teachers which has led to a happier staff and a more conducive and collaborative environment (Refer - http://www.educatoronline.com.au/news/a-collaborative-working-space---for-teachers-201572.aspx). A lot of research has already been undertaken with striking observations on how such human-centred designed spaces have successfully bridged achievement gaps across systems globally. Hence, even as some of these visionary schools have borne unwarranted criticism on attempting to appear ‘cool’, fact remains that such spaces are the need of the hour given that we are grooming the next generation of entrepreneurs, thinkers, artists who need to work amongst each other to understand and deliver together new-age solutions and models.

  

The idea undoubtedly requires a paradigm shift in thinking – Instead of Teaching or Creating being a ‘Learnt’ skill, it needs to be brought about collaboratively. The essence should shift to Team Work and Creativity. And this needs to be ingrained since kindergarten! We have seen much of these benefits on holistic learning at our preschool, which if extended to other similar schools will benefit students to grow into collaborators. There are NO assigned traditional ‘classrooms’ for each division or grade which is in-line with the Kangaroo Kids Education vision of imparting holistic education, keeping in mind different learning styles - Auditory; Visual, Kinesthetic. 

Education is imparted through four ‘Developmental zones’ (Physical, Social Emotional, Cognitive & Language Development and Cooperative Zones) that cater to developmentally appropriate activities based on Brain development of Children. Physical activity Zone affects learning and movement which stimulates connections in the brain. Social/Emotional development is essential for self-awareness and development of healthy self-esteem which is a prerequisite to be a ‘successful’ person. The Cognitive & Language development zone impacts the way children think, develop understanding and apply these to reason and solve problems. The Cooperative learning zone focuses on how children apply the knowledge that they have acquired.

These four zones synergistically impart holistic learning for young minds in order to provide them with the right start early in life. It also leads to Collaboration among Children, Teachers and Amongst Themselves. Of course, for such spaces to thrive there needs to be an amalgamation of synced methodology and curriculum. Every aspect of schools - from infrastructure to activities needs to be designed within the framework of a globally benchmarked curriculum, to encourage diversity and globalisation. This can be achieved by designing an integrated, interdisciplinary and theme based curriculum, sequentially developed to increase in complexity – in the manner corporate workspaces are being designed to stimulate creativity and delve into complexity of tasks.

The focus must be on experiential learning rather than rote memorization to ensure learning is fun and is retained throughout life as happy memories are life-long. Learning, as a matter of fact, must not be limited to the ‘school space’. Activities like field trips, interaction with resourceful people or participating in performances, create episodic memory and emotions trigger the memory of episode. It thus helps learning and openness to receiving knowledge, training, and experiences in later working life – as a professional. Corporate workshops/seminars are devised increasingly to bring about learning together with activities like Learning centres and Circle time (by sitting in a circle everyone is visible to everyone like collaborative spaces where each one’s participation is important) which helps create an environment conducive to real consultation, shared responsibility and decision making. 

In fact most evolved preschools have already implemented such, understanding the importance of helping the future learners grow and contribute seamlessly as professionals. We then wouldn’t need to pump in so much money to retrain graduates, postgraduates to make them industry-ready! In this Conceptual Age, we need to ensure every learning space across K-12 and universities adapt to the collaborative-space designing model to effectively deploy and ingrain learning as do industries to tap learning at workspace. Else, we will keep reeling in the mismatch of the relevance of knowledge retained and the essential skill-sets required of an expert professional in the 21^st century.

Reviving Traditional Sports

In India, if one were to ask any child (or person) his/her favourite sport/game, the answer will usually be cricket (of course, now there are the likes of angry birds too in contention!). The recently concluded IPL mania is a testament to that fact. Cricket is almost a religion in India, having gained its status unfortunately though at the expense of other sports. Except for some sporadic feats, the country’s sporting progress over the last five plus decades has been dismal. In fact, various traditional Sports and Games (like khokho, kabbadi, malkham) that once had its roots entrenched within our country might soon just represent an obituary in the annals of our sporting legacy. 

It’s for this reason that we need to cheer the launch of the newly launched Pro Kabbadi League which will surely be a shot in the arm for improving awareness, re-establishing the status of such traditional sports while also acknowledging the skills of the sportspersons. Personally, it also touched a special chord with the sheer coincidence of the league being announced with our decision to introduce Kabbadi within the SPA curriculum at our preschool (placing us among a handful of leading preschools to do so, nationally). 

Perhaps it was a tryst with destiny that I attended a presentation by Charu Sharma, the co-founder of the Pro kabbadi league at the prestigious college of design – ISDI, while I was toying with the idea. My thoughts got wings and I decided to go ahead with introducing Kabbadi, a sport that is in our DNA, as Charu Sharma puts it.  

 

Kabaddi might not rank as the most popular sport but the skill sets required to play the sport extends beyond that required just during the game.  It is a combative team game and everyone is a part of winning and losing unlike some other sports where one or two players can help the team to win or lose. Also the use of 'Yog' - mind body, soul and self -control forms an important part of Kabbadi. 

In fact, such skills are best inculcated in young tots since it not only helps in the holistic development of the child but sharpens children's skills and will power. Since Yog is an integral part in Kabbadi, it helps in overcoming anxieties, developing focus, presence of mind, observing smallest details while inculcating the right spirit of playing the sport.  The benefits of Kabbadi are too many and often surpass other games/sports due to its nature of developing the mind, the body and the spirit. We have observed children have benefited tremendously in terms of developing controlled speed, presence of mind, stamina, team work, discipline, loyalty. For all its benefits, Kabbadi is extremely simple.  It is easy to comprehend rules and doesn’t require any sophisticated equipment. It is also very popular in developing nations and can be practiced by all. 

We had the challenge of course to change the mind-sets of parents and even teachers into believing in the benefits of traditional sports (we had introduced khokho in the last bit last year) but through persistent and constant interaction we have been successful in showing each stakeholder the value these kinds of games can have about for the children, our youth and our country. In the coming years, we will strive to spread the benefits of such sports and can only hope other schools also help in taking this forward collectively. We must all work toward that day when such jewels in our sporting legacy find the rightful place and well-deserved respect at international prestigious tournaments.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer!

I recently overheard one young mother tell the other about the summer camp activities she had enrolled her 3.5 year old daughter in. ‘Thank god for the summer camp Trisha has been attending. What do they do whole day at home but watch TV or play with a smartphone?’ The other lady, who was strolling with her infant, seemed a tad mortified. ‘But where did we go to any such camps? Isn’t carefree playing also important? Won’t a two-month break from school actually help?’

I smiled to myself as I quickly darted across the street. Both mothers had a point which echoes in the mind of most parents. It is true. Summer vacations have assumed a different purpose and identity of its own! No longer is it synonymous with a complete break from school or idle pastime. It is almost the norm nowadays to enroll the child into a summer camp.  Even before the end of an academic year, announcements of various summer school activities have parents scurrying for the best choice. While for older children it would of course do good to heed to their preferences, how do you choose a good program for a pre-schooler? Or do you even opt for one?

Ideally, summer vacations must be best used for experiences that a child wouldn’t perhaps be accustomed to. A vacation, trips to the museum, spending time with other children or relatives, having idle fun, browsing through books, traveling in public transport, doing any activity of interest or plain lazing around. However, with increasing work pressure and enhancing lifestyles parents aren’t able to spend that quality time to direct their child’s interests or help in diffusing their energy. 

Children, especially younger ones, come with very short attention spans. They move on from one activity to the other in the blink of an eye.  Unfortunately, the only thing which perhaps keeps their attention while also (over)stimulating their minds and are readily available these days are tech gadgets. The iPhone/iPad or it is the television. This is perhaps the saddest outcome of the technology obsessed generation. The only cows or goats or horses we interact with are the ones played on Farmville on FB! Everything is digital. Unfortunately, the learning in only this form of media is extremely limited and sometimes even damaging.  Numerous research studies have proved it. 

I am not totally against using digital media and it has its benefits in learning when used judiciously and in a relevant manner, but learning through hands on experience is irreplaceable. When it comes to socialising with people or getting dirty to understand how a plant grows from a seed or playing with the flour to make dough or watching water metamorphose through its three stages. It is here that well-thought, developmentally appropriate and fun programmes come into the picture. 

I also cannot stress enough that even when selecting summer camps, it is imperative to take into account not just the child’s interests but also if the program is developmentally appropriate for the child. Having fun is absolutely essential but hygiene, safety and a good, researched framework against which such activities are designed are critical. 

Of course, it cannot be denied that there is no substitute for parental attention and involvement. That must be the number one priority. Skip the camp but get ready to get down on your knees, be a child and rediscover the world with your child again, and not just this summer!