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.