Let us make education a pleasure and not a Parrot’s Training!

As we move into yet another academic year, its time to take a pledge as educators that we will ensure that education is a pleasure and not a pain for the children in our schools and colleges. This story written, The Parrot’s Training,  by Rabindranath Tagore, a satire on the education system is sadly relevant even today.   Let us together ensure that it is no more relevant in our education system.

THE PARROT’S TRAINING

Once upon a time there was a bird.  It was ignorant.  It sang all right, but never recited scriptures.  It hopped pretty frequently, but lacked manners.

Said the Raja to himself.  “Ignorance in costly in the long run.  For fools consume as much food as their betters, and yet give nothing in return.”

He called his nephews to his presence and told them that the bird must have a sound schooling.

The pundits were summoned, and at once went to the root of the matter.  They decided that the ignorance of birds was due to their natural habit of living in poor nests.  Therefore, according to the pundits, the first thing necessary for this bird’s education was a suitable cage.

The pundits had their rewards and went home happy.

A golden cage was built with gorgeous decorations.  Crowds came to see it from all parts of the world.

“Culture, captured and caged!” Exclaimed some in a rapture of ecstasy, and burst into tears.

Others remarked: “Even if culture be missed, the cage will remain, to the end, a substantial fact.  How fortunate for the bird!”

The goldsmith filled his bag with money and lost no time in sailing homewards.

The pundit sat down to educate the bird.  With proper deliberation he took his pinch of snuff, as he said: “Textbooks can never be too many for our purpose!”

The nephews brought together an enormous crowd of scribes.  They copied from books, and copied from copies, till the manuscripts were piled up to an unreachable height.

Men murmured in amazement: “Oh, the tower of culture, egregiously high! The end of it lost in the clouds!”

The scribes with light hearts, hurried home, their pockets heavily laden.

The nephews were furiously busy keeping the cage in proper trim.

As their constant scrubbing and polishing went on the people said with satisfaction : “This is progress indeed!”

Men were employed in large numbers, and supervisors were still more numerous.  These with their cousins of all different degrees of distance, built a palace for themselves and lived there happily ever after.

Whatever may be its other deficiencies, the world is never in want of fault-finders; and they went about saying that every creature remotely connected with the cage flourished beyond words, excepting only the bird.

When this remark reached the Raja’s ears, he summoned his nephews, what is this that we hear!”

The nephews said in answer: “Sir, let the testimony of the goldsmiths and the pundits, the scribes and the supervisors, be taken, if the truth is to be known.  Food is scare with the fault-finders, and that is why their tongues have gained in sharpness”.

The explanation was so luminously satisfactory that the Raja decorated each one of his nephews with his own rate jewels.

The Raja at length, being desirous of seeing with his own eyes how his Education Department busied itself with the little bird, made his appearance one day at the great Hall of Learning.

From the gate rose the sounds of conch-shells and gongs, horns, bugles and trumpets, cymbals, drums and kettledrums, tomtoms, tambourines, flutes, fifes, barrel-organs and bagpipes.  The pundits began chanting mantras with their topmost voices, while the goldsmiths, scribes, supervisors, and their numberless cousins of all different degrees of distance, loudly raised a round of cheers.

 The nephews smiled and said: “Sir, what do you think of it all?”

  The Raja said: “It does seem so fearfully like a sound principle of           Education!”

Mightily pleased, the Raja was about to remount his elephant, when the fault-finder, from behind some bush, cried out: “Maharaja, have you seen the bird?”

“Indeed, I have not!”  Exclaimed the Raja, “I completely forgot about the bird.

Turning back, he asked the pundits about the method they followed in instructing the bird.  It was shown to him.  He was immensely impressed.  The method was so stupendous that the bird looked ridiculously unimportant in comparison.  The Raja was satisfied that there was no flaw in the arrangements.  As for any complaint from the bird itself, that simply could not be expected.  Its throat was so completely chocked with the leaves from the books that it could neither whistle nor whisper.  It sent a thrill through one’s body to watch the process.

The time, while remounting his elephant, the Raja ordered his State Ear-puller to give a thorough good pull at both the ears of the fault-finder.   The bird thus crawled on, duly and properly, to the safest verge of inanity.  In fact, its progress was satisfactory in the extreme.  Nevertheless, nature occasionally triumphed over training, and when the morning light peeped into the bird’s cage it sometimes fluttered its wings in a reprehensible manner.  And, though it is hard to believe, it pitifully pecked at its bars with the feeble beak.

 “What impertinence!” Growled the kotwal.

The blacksmith, with his forge and hammer tool his place in the Raja’s Department of Education.  Oh, what resounding blows!  The iron chair was soon completed, and the bird’s wings were clipped.

The Raja’s brothers-in-law looked black, and shook their heads, saying: “These birds not only lack good sense, but also gratitude!”

With text-book in one hand and baton in the other, the pundits gave the poor bird what may fitly be called lessons!

The kotwal was honoured with a title for his watchfulness, and the blacksmith for his skill in forging chains.

 The bird died.

Nobody had the least notion how long ago this had happened.  The fault-finder was the first man to spread the rumour.

 

The Raja called his nephews and asked them:  “My dear nephews, what is this that we hear?”

The     nephews said: “Sire, the bird’s education has been completed.”

“Does it hop?”  The Raja enquired.

“Never!” Said the nephews.

“Does it fly?”

“No.”

“Bring me the bird,” said the Raja.

The bird was brought to him, guarded by the kotwal and the sepoys and the sowars.  The Raja poked its body with his finger.  Only its inner stuffing of book-leaves rustled.

Outside the window, the murmur of the spring breeze amongst the newly budded Asoka leaves made the April, morning wistful.

The pencil box

One of the ‘first day of school’ gifts that every parent gives their child is a PENCIL BOX. A child’s true friend in school!. It has pencils, a sharpener, a ruler, an eraser, and as the child grows older some geometry implements too. We never take this pencil box seriously, we buy the best brand, best colour and that’s it, we don’t think about all that the contents of the box can teach kids for life. This blog is dedicated to the pencil box of every child. Enjoy.

Every parent buys a pencil box for their child for school and unknowingly gifts many ‘values’ of life to their child. It’s like a treasure box, a box that has everything that will help them with everyday school life, learning and living. Point out to your child the hidden treasure in every item of the pencil box and then observe how lovingly your child handles each item, with renewed respect and love.

The pencil teaches your child that-

•       You can make your mark in life
•       That you decide whether the mark will be light or dark
•        A pencil mark can be erased so it teaches kids that mistakes can be erased, so there is nothing to worry about.
•       A pencil has to be sharpened to perform well. It must be painful to the pencil to face that blade in the sharpner,but when it emerges it looks elegant, with a new point. This teaches kids that they will face criticisms, corrections and maybe even punishments but they should not be disappointed as they will emerge stronger and sharper to face the new challenges with renewed vigour and intelligence.

The eraser teaches kids-

•      To be ready to rub away mistakes so that they do not stay with you forever.
•      Eraser teaches that whatever your form or shape or size you should be good at what you do.
•      If you are not careful then you will also erase important things, so be careful.

The sharpener teaches kids –

•      That sometimes sharp things also bring about needed change
•      The sharpener keeps everything important upto date and that’s how children should be with important things in their room or cupboard.

The ruler teaches kids-

•      That whichever way you hold a ruler you will always get a straight line. So whatever task we do it should be done correctly and truthfully.
•       The ruler can measure accurately and so teaches kids to be accurate in their work
•        A ruler can draw lines, measure, so is a multitasker and teaches kids that multitasking is an important life skill.

Together the items of a pencil box teach kids that each one has a value and a role to play in life and together they can all be successful. So even though each item in a pencil box plays a different role, together they contribute to a child’s success in school.

The pencil box is indeed the child’s ‘school treasure box’ so gift it to your child lovingly and with a lot of fanfare so that kids understand its importance and learn to respect and use each item for their success.

Parable of the Pencil - Author Unknown

The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box. ‘There are five things you need to know,’ he told the pencil,
‘before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.’

‘One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow
yourself to be held in Someone’s hand.

‘Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but
you’ll need it to become a better pencil.

‘Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.

‘Four: The most important part of you will always be what’s inside.

‘And, Five: On every surface you are used on, you will leave your
mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write.’

The pencil understood and promised to remember and went into the box with purpose in its heart.
I think we sometimes forget our purpose. We stumble through the day, doing what has to be done without thought to what needs to be done. Henry Kissinger is credited with saying “the urgent takes all the time from the important.” We need to get back to the important. Like a  pencil, we leave our mark on each life we touch, especially our kids .

Chandigarh your parenting!

Parenting is like a city, observe one and you can get immense tips about your parenting style and how to enhance it. Sounds crazy? Well, here is how to go about it.

I recently visited Chandigarh, the first planned city of Independent India. It has been designed by a French gentleman, so your question, ‘why not an Indian’? The answer is because it is the first planned city and ofcourse no one in India would have had the experience of planning a city! What does this teach you about parenting? Well, when it comes to important issues, decisions, choices in your parenting, go to the experts and do not rely on friends, relatives, or books and websites. Take an experts opinion who can weigh the situation with knowledge about your child and family.

The city has very wide roads with roundabouts at every intersection. This helps the traffic be organized and controlled. How is this related to parenting? Well, kids have an information highway in the brain, in their education years it’s all about learning, knowledge and memory and to do this effectively the brain requires strong neural connections, almost like strong roads. So how does one ensure that the neural connections of the brain are strong enough for knowledge and learning to flow in an organized manner? Simply allow children to question. Questioning broadens their thinking and helps them analyze, relate and use logic. Try not to trivialize your replies by giving flippant answers to their queries. ‘It rains because god is doing susu’, or ‘it thunders when the gods are fighting’, these kind of replies do not help their brain think or relate knowledge. You need strong neural connections that are built by helping kids think about their choices. Help them connect cause and effect. ‘If you sit there, you may fall, if you fall you will get hurt and it will pain, but if you sit here then you will be safe’, etc.  Just like it makes sense for a city to plan for wide roads keeping in mind that traffic will grow in the years to come, similarly it makes sense to help kids reach their ZPD (zone of proximal development) which means stimulate their brains with facts, knowledge and play that is slightly above their thinking level, just slightly, not too easy and not too difficult. This will keep their neural pathways strong and their attention focused and interested.

The wide roads in Chandigarh are lined on both sides and in the middle with a strong green cover. Maybe to keep the city oxygenated and the pollution levels in control. Similarly your child requires some ‘green cover’, which means oxygen. Kids get oxygen from two sources, water and plants. So ensure that your kids are hydrated and ensure that you have some plants in the home and around your home. Give your child’s brain some ‘free time’ so that the brain is not always involved in learning and gathering knowledge. Play games, board games are the best as they help the family bond and the brain exercise without the burden of achievement. So keep the games light and friendly.

Chandigarh city is divided into sectors, easy for administration, for locating an address etc. divide your child’s day and life into different sectors so that the emphasis is not always on one part only and the child gets all round development. Education is important but then so is nutrition, exercise, health and hygiene. Understand which ‘sectors’ you want to divide your child’s growth into and then ensure that you are giving equal attention to all the ‘sectors’, each day, each week and every month.

The city has a collection of gardens, open spaces and even an artificial lake. You will see people walking through this green cover and the elderly are seen walking and exercising in these parks. Overall the city is quite clean and does not have the problem of rotting garbage or sewage problems. In your parenting ensure that your child gets enough exercise, sometimes when we are staying in congested cities it becomes difficult to give kids the required exercise, so then look for simple ways, walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator with your child. don’t use the remote for changing channels, do it manually with your child. and clean your child’s system often. Deworm your child and also ‘deworm’ his behavior. Find out positive ways of disciplining rather than threatening, hitting, shouting etc. remember your kids needs to be happy and healthy in mind, body and spirit.

Most importantly Chandigarh is the capital of two states, Punjab and Haryana, so one can imagine what it means to share the same assembly building the secretariat etc. this teaches us that a child and his overall responsibility is shared by both the parents equally and without conflict. Learn to coexist and correlate your parenting, for this you will have to discuss debate and agree to disagree for some issues but never in front of the child. Also ensure that your child does not become ‘a tug-o-war’ between you, especially if you are involved in a separation or divorce.

The rock garden is one of the most famous landmarks of Chandigarh. I was disappointed when I visited it as it was dirty, had a lot of litter, stale and stagnant water pools infested with flies and no one to show directions or even a signage of where to go or how to move around. So how did the rock garden reach this state? Well, tourists that don’t care and not enough maintenance. Now let’s relate this to parenting. There will be many ‘tourists’ in your child’s life, friends, neighbors, bullies who will ‘litter’ your child’s life with bad habits, bad words, bad deeds, well, if you keep up your ‘maintenance parenting’ then you will be able to clean up every time there is litter. Don’t allow the ‘litter’ to become stale or stagnant. Therefore, talk to kids often, relate to them, help them use logic in their decision making and help them choose right from wrong. Develop a conscience in your child. and this can be done only by giving your child a good, strong role model…YOU.

And the last thing to learn from Chandigarh city, from the ‘safeda’ trees (really don’t know the botanical name). these trees regularly shed their brown bark and become completely white and thus called ‘safeda’. Its relation to parenting? Well, change your parenting style as your kids grow older, young toddlers need understanding, and good role models as they learn through imitation.  young kids need rules and repercussions clearly defined and young adolescents are most impressed with money and open channels of communication. So ensure that the ‘money’ comes from pocket money and try not to spy on them as they will only ‘close up’ and hide things from you.

Simple city facts related to simple aspects of parenting. Well, parenting is never easy but then it is not difficult too if one understands, relates and enjoys the journey. Happy parenting.