Anticipation cannot be taught - Vijay Amritraj

Motivational speakers may eloquently extol that skills, talent, and abilities, can be learnt, honed and polished. However, certain characteristics are probably tightly wired with the genes and the individual. Hands-eyes-legs coordination is one such aspect of human abilities that is bestowed in varied degrees to different individuals. John McEnroe is one achiever who comes to mind, with respect to his deft touches, understanding of angles, etc. He demonstrated in his domination in 3 events of each tournament - singles, doubles, and mixed-doubles. Instinct, gut-feeling, etc., are used to describe an extra edge that some individuals have over others, in making decisions that lead to success.

Vijay Amritraj in
Wimbledon Center court

Anticipation, in my opinion, is one such ability that is wired based on the very minute observations, sub-consciously done by the brain over months of practice. Some players have better hardware and software (brain and the neural network) to defeat opponents by making right moves in anticipation.

To explore this theory further, here are some back-of-the-envelope calculations for distances, angles, and speeds, on the tennis court.

Mathematical Analysis and physics

Using the dimensions of the court, of 78 feet length and 27 feet width for singles matches, and modern players able to use sharper angles by topspin and wider shots, we can work out the angle difference between a down the line stroke and a cross court shot as approximately 20 degrees. It can vary from 18 degrees for deep baseline shots to more than 24 degrees for drop shots.

This means that the racket has to meet the ball earlier in depicted crosscourt stroke to change angle of return. If we assume that the sweet spot of the racket is at 21 inches from the hand, and another 24 inches of the arm used in playing the stroke (overall rotation arc), the 10 degree angle means approximately 8 inches difference in contact point.

When we search the internet for information on racket speeds, we get values from 50 mph to 85 mph depending on skill level, gender, etc. With a 60 mph racket speed, the difference in contact point is just approximately 0.01 seconds.

The opponent, would swing only a few milliseconds early, if (s)he wishes to go crosscourt (for given diagram / location of ball), compared to a down the line stroke. Yet, there are a few talented players who guess correctly, on a majority of points.

This is anticipation, and the difference in timing of the swing compared to the location of the ball heading towards the opponent gives a clue to the sub-conscious mind that processes all the information and takes right decision. This is based on the brain learning from years of practice, along with its ability to differentiate inches and milliseconds from its input (visual cues)!

The players are not working with these numbers of physics or mathematics in real-time. These are only used here for the analysis, & to explain the nuance of anticipation as an ability, which is similar to people gifted with better hand-eye-leg coordination.

Carlos Moya in Chennai 2006

Many players may be guessing the direction of a shot, 50-50, as many times as a goalkeeper guesses the direction of the penalty kick! Federer and Djokovic (based on commentators) may have better anticipation, while others have to use other skills to compensate (athletic abilities, better serve, playing end-to-end, etc.). 

Disguised shots

Does better anticipation mean the players with that natural ability always succeed. Not necessarily. Disguised swings are also part of the game of deception. The earlier the opponent is prepared with his/her back swing, and holding at the end of the back swing, the better the option of swinging at different speeds or timing. This will help change contact point & angle, to the latest possible for the specific shot.

Though this is not a scientific study, the approximations, I think, are good enough to understand the differences of distances, angles, speed, which the brain has been trained to assimilate. Later, the brain executes sub-consciously, given each situation, with the visual inputs, by activating the necessary muscles of the body.

Thomas Berdych in Chennai 2011

One's brain has the ability to differentiate inches, and milliseconds, or it is weak in this aspect. Anticipation cannot be taught by a coach - unlike tactics, strategy, etc., which are taught in academies.

What do I anticipate about the future? War, AI, Energy issues, Global warming (or not) - no idea on most topics - not been gifted with that ability to anticipate! 

DO NOT FAIL ANYONE FOREVER

Why do we say that? Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Let fishes swim, and let the birds fly. If one stream is not suitable another is. If one job is not suitable another is.

Assess the knowledge / Performance only

We think that everyone's assessment can be provided to them, without additional qualifications on the performance. Let the person, group, company, organization or educational institution decide their own criteria to take the individuals depending on their particular needs, at the time of selection.

A person going for a marketing position may have 70+ in languages, but 5 out of 100 in geography. That may be OK with the organization hiring him/her.

A student aspiring to be a mathematician may score 90+ in Mathematics and good marks in languages. However, if he scores poorly in Biology or History, it may not matter to the research institute hiring her/him.

Each institute, company or organization or even each MSME will have different criteria anyway - and the criteria will change for each stream or job they offer!

As we all know, scoring high marks have not been any great indicator of the achievements in later life, nor is it assuring the person to be a good human being.

Let us remove the stigma of a pass or fail - fail is very relative and in a very narrow sense - one can succeed in 100s of other things.

Also, we should allow students to repeat on their own volition and improve their marks / grades. It only bolsters the view of their preference to learn and prove themselves.

If someone scores 8 out of 100 in biology, but scores 80+ in other sciences, let him go into the appropriate science/ engineering stream. On the other hand if another scores 90+ in biology and has good language marks, the medical stream should be open for that person!

In our society, we are using arbitrary rules of pass-or-fail to "reduce" the list of candidates, to be able to handle the issue of heavy demand and low supply - be it in education or in jobs. The rules have become too arbitrary - an open Pandora's box - without any basis for the criteria set by various folks.

Let us just award the marks / grades. Let us not have arbitrary "standard criteria" across the board - at time of completion of any step. Let us leave the selection to the group that takes people in - to particular stream that the person aspires for.

Plethora of opportunities are available and the people should be able to enjoy learning and working on what they want to learn and perform.

Future business of Engineering education in Tamilnadu

Now that the business of opening engineering colleges has been well entrenched and lot of money has flowed into this area, the question is how to get good returns. Since too many people jumped onto the bandwagon, we have a glut of engineering colleges. There is excess of supply in comparison to the demand. There is some opinion that there is demand, but due to the lack of quality of the supply there is lot of vacancies in jobs - or substandard recruitment.

Anyway, coming back to the profitability of the engineering colleges, the marketing and sales of the seats were initially pushed hard. Candidates were drawn from other states as well using incentives offered to existing students who bring in such candidates. There are some states, where parents have a view of paying high amounts and getting a degree for their wards. Hence, this is being tapped. But then, this is not sufficient to fill up all the seats available with the glut of colleges.

The next step was to attract more people by giving higher marks in their qualifying examinations. Children who usually got 70 or 80 were given 90s and hence indirectly induced to aspire for an engineering seat. Their parents were also enticed by the bigger picture of the IT and BPO sector employees earning high salaries right out of college. Still, this was not enough - as was seen in this year's engineering college admissions - about 70,000 vacant seats in Tamilnadu.

This evening, I heard on the news that a minister was giving a speech announcing 12 more engineering colleges to be opened. How are we going to put these into good use? Is there a plan for the government? Is there a practical vision / mission for these college management? Are the parents and children who are going to come out of schools in the coming years likely to get a good education that would lead to jobs?

Let us look at the effect of this education for the aspiring students and enticed parents. The quality of education in many engineering colleges are not great in transforming such students (those who have been given liberal marks). Hence, many of the students when they come out of such colleges, which cannot provide true education, with a degree, are not better off in comparison to what they would have learnt if they had not been to such colleges. Moreover, their parents' hard-earned money has now been spent with very little progress to show other than adding a degree to their resume. When they are turned down from many job interviews, it is too late and hits the whole family hard. The business has successfully taken out some hard earned money and given little in return in the colleges that lack the facilities / faculty.

What is the next step in this business? My friend from BITS days, Sreedharan, came up with a simple point. Next year they will introduce Financial Engineering in engineering colleges! What is the goal? The only goal will be to entice even Finance, Accountancy and Commerce students from schools into their colleges, now that they have invested heavily in these engineering colleges! The bigger the candidate pool, the chances of filling up the seats are higher. That would indeed be a master-stroke - the only fear being that it is likely to be true than fiction!

Jai Hind.

Business of College education

College education has become a business. We are not sure whether this is true all over India, or whether it is only in Tamilnadu. Some of the points further below are likely specific to Tamilnadu, but the overall sentiment is that the quality of college education is on a heavy down-slide. The unfortunate thing is that sometimes we feel it still has some more way to go (down) before we can expect any change. Of course, there are exceptions and those who are lucky to be associated with such exceptions are likely to do well in getting jobs, becoming scientists /entrepreneurs, etc.

So, what ails the situation now. It is all about the money, honey! Tamilnadu saw a big boom in Engineering colleges in the past few years. Whenever there is a huge leap in quantity, the question of quality immediately rises. General suspicion is that many of these colleges are not likely to meet the minimum standards of facilities and faculty. Now, in that case, don't the students and parents think and analyse before taking decisions of college choice good for them, in the long run? Definitely, they do, right?

Then, why should we worry? Well, the problem is that people are being misled in a web of deceit. After seeing the engineering boom of 1990s and 2000s, some wealthy people and/or those with political connections thought it best to open engineering colleges to make a long term profitable business for their family. This galloped away like a runaway horse, due to greed, where the planning and organization were given a go-by and only up-and-running at-all-costs was put at the forefront. Some colleges lacked facilities and majority of them lacked good "educators".

Naturally, the "business" has fallen flat, especially as seen in this year's 70,000 vacant seats in Tamilnadu Engineering colleges. This is "in spite" of the liberal marks being awarded in the higher-secondary examination. It is not difficult to surmise that the motivation for "encouraging" students with liberal marks is only to fill up the engineering colleges, now that the "connected" people have invested heavily in them!

A few years ago, the same person, who has now got 90s, would have got only 70s or 80s and chosen to do a bachelor's degree in science / arts / commerce. Alas, the parents and children have been misled from top down - high-paying jobs in engineering (more so in IT and related fields) seen in early 21st century, peer pressure and status playing on their minds, and the "sudden boon" of high marks scored. Everyone is hence "subtly coerced to be eager" to get into an engineering college. People had and have fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

Now, what happens to the (college) business, when so many seats are vacant, in spite of liberal marks encouraging students? All is not lost for those who have invested in such engineering colleges - because they are connected & they can think and work hard to make further (deceitful?) changes. These changes will be again from purely business angle - with no two-hoots given for the students, families, society or nation. More about this, especially, a nice misleading business idea, suggested by our friend from college days, in the next post.

Underpaid teachers - a global phenomenon?

Recently, we were pointed to an article in the Hindu Teachers... glorified, yet short-changed where, the story of a few generations of people taking up teaching in different countries & finding it hard to make ends meet, is given. In fact the article ends with the statement "I had always thought that underpaid, under-appreciated schoolteachers were particular to our country. But it definitely is a global issue."

No small sample should be taken as the "general" case. Just like the situation where not every IIM graduate earns 12 Crore rupees a year (as they tout the top salary in all and sundry magazines every year), there is no generalization that all teachers are living a life of difficulty and stress.

One may ask about the various professors in tens of universities who are well paid / well-off. Yes, some people are well-off, but I would also like to point out that many of them are actually doing two jobs - they get grants for doing research work, other than teaching. Hence, strictly speaking, if one were a teacher, in a full time capacity, one would find either a decent living or many times find it difficult to make ends meet.

So, how does that affect India and its education system. Unless some financial stress is reduced, the motivation to build thinkers, leaders, business-men, etc., is deflected towards "covering the portions and going home". Unfortunately, we also see the other end of the spectrum. Professors in plump university jobs who are simply pocketing half-to-one lakh rupees per month, who do not really imbibe knowledge or innovation or curiosity into their students. They are actually, overpaid for the job they do (many of them probably have the knowledge and probably deserve good money - but not when they don't do the job). Having said this, the sad state of affairs in Indian schools is that most teachers are under-paid.

Teaching comes from "within" as a passion. And if this passion is not there, then the pay probably does not matter. For those without the passion, if they are paid less their attention is less & if they are paid more, then they love to squander their attention. So, it leads to the next level (and possibly infinite regress), that teachers need to be trained to build the future thinkers, leaders & business-men. This needs a drive at the Teachers training level curriculum and agenda. The passion must be drilled into them in those years, especially for those who are looking to just get a job. Change the mind-set and for that, those teachers' colleges have to set the higher goal.

Back to the original title of story - teaching invariably means an underpaid job, unless you innovate and get into research in parallel & get someone to pay more for your other contributions. On the other hand, seeing someone's face suddenly brighten when they have understood a concept which was eluding them, is very very satisfying, at least for me.

Education standards in India

Recently I was pointed to an article in Economic times which talks about the above subject. Here the root of the problem is thought to be that the Teachers need to inspire students with out of the box thinking. I beg to differ with respect to suggested changes to the education system. I have given some views earlier in this blog too - on the parents' role in education for children.

The root cause that has to change is that of parents' understanding of what is required for their children in long term perspective, rather than a short term view of a lucrative job. Parents' understanding that they need to build some leaders for tomorrow rather than a bread-winner for their old age - that is required for the education system to change.

The reasoning goes like this - whatever be the system we invent, due to sheer population, one ends up with means of testing the children against some questions. This needs to be simple to check (simply because of lack to time to check everyone's performance), unambiguous (to avoid issues of favoritism and subjective marks) and covering all subjects. Now, whichever solution one may come up with, the immediate knee-jerk reaction of the students & parents (and due to parental pressure for results, schools and teachers) is to "master the system", rather than master a subject (or subjects). They want to get the top marks at any cost, including rote learning, coaching classes, etc.

Unless the thinking of parents (and through them their children) changes to "life-oriented" learning instead of "job-oriented" learning, any education system is bound to fail with the pressures of population, lack of time, etc., because the testing system ends up being a "simple-objective" oriented one.

Parents in urban India are busy with their jobs and all other house-hold chores. They have very little time to teach their children and "schools, teachers and education system" are blamed. One can change schools, change teachers, change education system - but difficult to change their children or their own attitude towards learning/ life.

Now let us come to another aspect of learning - when does one get set on their course in terms of their attitude to learning, discipline, creativity, curiosity, inspiration, etc? It is only partly in school and partly by teachers. The parents can and have to set these strongly in their wards before the age of 5. The children have been watching, listening, copying, repeating, flattering the parents from the earliest possible age. If at this time there is less discipline, inculcation of wrong attitudes, role models have wrong habits, etc., they are easily imbibed by the children. If the parents are not able to answer the children their interest towards curiosity and learning reduces - parents should have "learning" attitude (that they will quickly learn even if from internet and answer them). The schools & teachers are now left to "undo" all the learning upto the age of 5, if they have not been set on the right path. With the population, there is little special attention possible to correct these things & likely has little effect (because the role models continue on their wrong paths).

Now, unless the Parents demand that the system change for better and they want to be part of the education, any system is going to be just "a hurdle to a job", rather than a stepping stone for success. Will this happen easily? No. So many parents complain that X or Y question was "out of portion"! Out of portion, if not allowed, there is no creativity. If one does not know to think out of the box, based on his learning (out of box is fought by the statement out of portion), then teachers or education system will not be able to do anything. The parents want to stoke the children's ego that they are the greatest on earth, while the teachers do not know "how to ask questions".

One aspect of the article I have not addressed is the "language" of teaching - whether mother tongue based education would make a difference. Again, with job oriented approach from students and their parents, it is difficult to avoid English as medium of instruction. I will comment further on this after gathering my thoughts (if I can)...

Since every parent wants only their wards to do well in exams, get top marks, get their engineering or medical degree, or fly to foreign countries for higher studies, with least effort from parents side.as well as the blame to put on the school / teachers / education system, any change in these 3 is not likely to make a better mark on the next generation of students.

Samacheer Kalvi - Equal education utopia

The concept of Equal Education to all is definitely an utopian dream. It is also a useless goal. It is like everyone trying to be a part of every conversation on earth. Such equality is not necessary, not useful, not practical and total waste of energy in trying to plan and implement such a dream.

It is moreover, unfair to 90% of the people. One size fits all does not fit 90% of the people. The same goes for education.

There are differently abled children. They need different levels of education, speed of progress in education, etc. To survive in this world & to provide some service to fellow people (in order to earn for daily bread, shelter and clothing) different people need different skills.

We cannot have 1 billion prime ministers. We need all kinds of people performing different tasks working for a united mankind. For that, the belief has to be that many people are born with different skills. Those skills need to be honed by education - and for that we need different types of education. Moreover, there are slow learners, autistic children, dyslexic children, mentally retarded children and others who need special care and education at a more relaxed pace.

For these to be catered for, we need State board syllabus (easiest and simple base education) to Matriculation, to Anglo-Indian, to CBSE to ICSE boards of education, along with National Open School (more flexible for people who wish to take up other professions at early age, like sports / acting), International Baccalaureate (not to be confused by International school term, which is used intentionally to confuse & which usually follows CBSE / ICSE syllabus) and local language schools (most important, in my opinion).

Better still is the Gurukulam style of education where every child is given more focus (again not to be confused with modern Gurus "collecting" disciples).

One other drawback with equal education is that the brilliant students are dragged down to an average level, while the slow learners and others feel pressured and left out of "learning". We will spoil the children and reduce the chances of having great leaders, scientists, philosophers and other great people required for our country.

I hope, pray and request the appropriate authorities to not look into Equal education as a goal. We should look into strengthening the strong points & improving on the weaknesses we have in the different systems.

VRVD

Living in Denial

The current generation of parents with children in school and colleges seem to have higher expectations of everybody and everything. The parents contend that their children must be the top scorers, the school must ensure they are the top scorers & the teachers must also have the same goal for the children.

If the top score is not achieved, then it is the school's fault or the teacher's fault. The child is not at fault & the parents are not at fault. The abilities of the children are exemplary and the parents have done outstanding job in raising the kids. This seems to be the attitude.

Parents live in denial that their children could be above average or average. They live in denial that they also need to put in some effort. They live in denial that the children probably are not paying attention in school. It is also possible the children are not really getting the attention from parents themselves. The child may need some special assistance - but no, that is not at all possible in the eyes of the parents.

When people live in such denial, they are postponing the in-evitable - that is the results that come out showing the true colours of the children & parents' efforts and abilities. The earlier people realize their own abilities and efforts, along with the children's abilities and efforts, the better they can shape the future. That is why it is said "Wise are those who understand themselves".

Improve on the child's strengths and bolster the weak points to make it stronger - that should be the goal and for that people have to get out of denial that the child has weaknesses and the child's real current capability is not assessed properly.

For a better future, we should be open to understand ourselves first & ensure the next generation is given a good chance for a bright future.

VRVD.

Why we blame others

One of the bad habits that the parents and relatives teach children even before they can learn to speak is that we should blame others for our mistakes.

A simple example, is when the child stumbles while walking and falls. It is the child that made the misstep. Or it did not see an obstacle (or observe, if we wish to split hairs). The immediate reaction of people around is to say "It is the floor that made the mistake, let us beat it." This is just the beginning. Just to stop the child from crying, or from feeling bad about its mistake, we start teaching it to blame others.

Of course, when the child grows up and blames the lack of motorcycle, or expensive jewellery on their parents, it comes back to roost where it started.

Right from young age, children should be taught to be responsible for their actions. They need neither fear the floor, nor blame the floor for their missteps. Children should be educated about taking care for each step, responsibility, etc.

Moreover, any excuse from parents citing lack of time, or quick solution of quietening the children's cries, then they are spoiling their children in the long-run.

VRVD.

Practice makes perfect

"Not all of us have to possess earth-shaking talent.  Just common sense and love will do." - Myrtle Auvil.

To be good in any field, one has to practice whatever has been learnt. One has to practice many variations and applications of the learnings. That is the simple, common-sense based method of learning to be an expert or even a master.

If we talk about programming, it is important to practice developing small tools, applications or components, even if it has been done before. Each of us have to learn the basics and fundamentals with examples to be able to equip ourselves for the challenges in executing projects. The more examples we work out, we are exposed to lot of algorithms and data structures. The more variations we are aware of, the better the chances that we will come up with efficient solutions to the real-world applications.

Here I would like to point out how this concept of "practice" was incorporated and ingrained in us at school. Our teachers of English and Mathematics used this concept to ensure not only the bright students, but all students get to know the basics of the subjects.

For example, the mathematics teacher would teach a concept, say solutions to quadratic equations. Later in some of the classes he will hold impromptu tests where in he would dictate 25 problems in 5 minutes and ask us to return the results after another 5 minutes. By repetition of many problems, even the average student was good in solving the problems and the bright students were able to solve all problems very quickly.

In English, grammar exercises were given special importance. Even though the lessons had only a dozen exercise items, our teachers used to give us 100s of challenges for various concepts including (a) convert from active voice to passive voice and vice-versa (b) convert from direct speech to indirect speech and vice versa (c) metaphors, similies (d) idioms. These were covered so much so that we had learnt conjugation of pretty much all transitive and in-transitive verbs and ability to deal with these language elements with ease.

Not only did we learn the basics and fundamentals well but an important lesson that 'Practice makes us perfect' was inculcated into most of us. This has been valuable and stood by our progress in life as the foundation to help us develop into solution providers for challenges in our jobs.

VRVD

Long term view is more important

All parents want their children to be successful in life. But success itself is relative. For the children to be successful in their own way, parents need to give the necessary tools in life for them to be reach their goals (not the parents' goals for their children).

1. Basics and Fundamentals are more important than marks.

2. Improve creative thinking of the children. Only creative thinking will help children to solve life's problems.

3. Set good role models for the children to follow.

4. Virtues that will help the children in long term must be imbibed into them.

5. Give good guidelines for the children and ensure it is ingrained into their brains.

6. Show love and affection in a balanced way to provide them self-confidence.

7. Build trust in the children and ensure they trust the parents first for all issues, problems, etc., that they face.

8. Success in 1 step is not guarantee of life-long success. Failure in 1 step is not a life-long failure. So, marks in 10th or 12th or College is not the only criteria for success in life.

So, give "education for life", instead of "rote-learning for marks".

VRVD.

Short term view - the reason for chaotic schooling

The reason for the state of education, especially the schooling upto grade 12, is the short term view of the parents (primary), teachers & school management (secondary, but quite close on heels of first) and easy route taken by students who don't have good role-models.

Parents are the first role-models. Hence, if the parents are going to have crooked views, short-term blind plans, etc., the children take that as the "life-time goal". First damage is done there. Secondly, the parents hand-in-hand with teachers look at just the number of marks & the number of students who pass the exams (100% pass) as the goal to be reached. Learning for "life" is forsaken in order to learn for the sake of marks. Next generation has learnt the wrong ideals and not only dont fare well, but they also follow same methodology with their next generation.

With high population, it is difficult for the limited supply to be apportioned to candidates. Hence marks have become the only way to win the race. No one seems to look at the fact that most students who are at the top in school are not so in life - they end up being pretty average in performance, goals, position, earnings, etc.

Many of the students who were scoring average, but had learnt the important points in life - communication, networking, being part of a team, natural leadership, etc., have become the leading lights in every sphere.

So, parents and teachers should really build the "citizens of tomorrow", rather than use that term only as a cliche in every public parade of their wards, while practising otherwise. One generation has to start this education of all 3 sets of people parents, teachers+school management and students. Then future generations can reap the fruits - fruits don't come on 7th day after planting a Mango sapling...

On top, add 25 marks for everyone for the tough question paper

As a sequel to the last post, here was a scenario where all the parents and some of the teachers thought that the paper was inappropriate in many ways. Either it was too long, or had questions that could not be understood by average student, blah, blah.

After so much pressure it was decided that 25 marks be awarded to all students. I am at a loss at the logic for this decision. What if some students had solved those questions that were being discussed & scored full marks on those questions, but their total is 175. They would get the full 200, in spite of having scored 0/25 other marks.

What happens to the really good students who may have scored 195 or 199 or even 200? Will they get 220, 224 or 225 out of 200?

What do these decisions help? Who is it helping? Just to keep away from the angry parents, some decision is made. What happens to the really good students? They are bracketed with the kids who have slightly lower abilities (not solving the tricky / out of portion questions) - is that fair to them?

Merit must be rewarded and India needs to find the brilliant kids to promote them up the ladder and make them good leaders in their areas of strength. Others can do with the next rungs - not everyone can be a PM or President - we need ministers, officers, guards, peons, coffee boys, farmers, sports persons, cooks and other kinds of service providers too. Let us work towards each individual's strength and stop going after "marks" (2nd only to going after money & status).

VRVD

Out of Portions - Hilarious

In the past few years, I have been hearing from parents that "The paper was very tough," or worse still "Some of the questions were out of portions, the children could not even understand."

Many times I find that the questions are clear and need the application of the mind, using the concepts and fundamentals taught in class. Sometimes the application of multiple concepts in sequence or in parallel is required, which is somehow not being encouraged at home (in most cases) and at school (in some cases). The fact that they ask the questions in first place makes us feel a little better that the school wants the children to think about the subjects learnt.

Some teachers explicitly instruct the children to learn the answers by heart and award marks only on exact reproduction. This is directly killing the thinking brain in the children. We are explicitly encouraging memorization and discouraging understanding of concepts and fundamentals.

One incident in my college in the very first year, about 25 years ago, was with first test of Modern Physics. The first two chapters had been taught in about 15 classes (3 classes per week) and all the freshers (mandatory subject for about 500+ students) were eager to tackle the paper. There were only 4 questions, where the application of the concepts had to be done either repeatedly or combined across the two chapters. We got to know the school education that had blunted the brain, in the results, where-in 108 students scored ZERO and the average for the whole batch was 4 (out of 18). There were a few who scored full marks having applied the concepts learnt rather than wonder why the question does not resemble anything that was taught singly.

Life is not going to give us lessons and then ask questions within the portions. So, to prepare children for life, application of mind is important and to be encouraged. Creativity to be encouraged by making them think over-and-above the portions.

VRVD

Fundamentals and Concepts are important

Education in India has become more and more tuned towards rote learning, rather than learning of fundamentals and concepts. This is leading to a dangerous trend as the creativity of children are suppressed. When importance is given to repeating the given answers, then children learn them by-heart instead of learning the fundamentals and concepts.

As we move into higher classes, application of concepts should be encouraged, but is not, in Indian system of education, especially the majority of education boards like the state level boards. In real life, can we say that we are facing ONLY the scenarios that we have learnt answers for? We have to work with the fundamentals and concepts we have learnt to deal with the situation.

It is the same for technical areas, commercial areas, business areas, financial areas, etc. We take the concepts and fundamentals and use them to build our work / solutions using them. The people who can do this well are usually successful, while the others who learnt only by rote learning will have to adapt and start learning from scratch.

Hence, it is important to imbibe in children the requirement of learning concepts and fundamentals instead of rote learning. They will be more successful in life and in dealing with life's variety of scenarios.

VRVD

Talking proudly about negative characteristics

One of the frequent mistakes made by parents is talking proudly about their wards' negative aspects. This usually reinforces the ward's thinking that it is OK to be like that.

For example, one mother may say "My son does not listen to his father at all. But he will never cross the line I draw. He obeys me all the time." The son then takes more advantage of the father in not heeding his words. He also takes advantage from the mother by having a good name - sometimes we never know whether the child is just abiding time as long as he needs mother's care.

Sometimes the statements are with other qualities. For example, "My son is clever in saving money when dealing with barber / flower deliverer, etc." In effect, the son uses some devious methods to trick or even cheat the others from their due. This is being encouraged and many times comes back to roost as a very negative character, which the parents rue after a few years.

Parents should have the wisdom of highlighting only the good points in public and chide the children in private when they take the wrong path. This is the best for the long run for the children.

VRVD

Parents must have all answers

In the long run, for the children to trust their parents, the parents must first win the confidence of the children. One of the important steps in that is to have all the answers for their children's questions. There will be tough questions, embarrassing questions, questions in areas that we are not exposed to, new progresses in science, economics, geographies, civics, etc.

Irrespective of our knowledge in the area, we should have an answer that will continue to keep the bond with children. If we are not familiar with the area, we can always look it up in the world wide web and respond to the children. If it is embarrassing questions we should have the clear thinking on whether it is time for the child to learn the truth behind certain areas - is he/she of appropriate age to start learning these things.

A sure way of losing children's confidence is dismissing their questions with any kinds of answers like "Don't ask me all this, ask your teacher", "I don't know these things", "Ask Maths to your mother" or "Ask Science to your father", etc. Since the parents are the main support for the children long into the future, it is important that they be seen as role models.

For that, build confidence by giving as many answers as possible and keep the candle of creativity in the child burning bright. And for the rest "Please wait, while I look it up in the internet, so that I can also learn" would be a good way of reinforcing the feeling that they can come to the parents for any items / issues.

VRVD

Education at home - with an anecdote

What is the role of education at home?

Now-a-days, many people think that education is done only in schools and colleges. Parents would love to just dispatch the children for this grand purpose of education at schools. Can the teachers / professors really complete the education of children? I think not.

Education starts at home, even before the child reaches age of attending school (which varies from 2.5 to 6 years, depending on the country in which the child is growing up). Children are mostly learning every minute that they are awake. Hence, education starts at home and continues with relatives (second most influence), friends, schools & colleges.

Recently during a discussion a parent was complaining that the school was not teaching maths properly because the boy could not do the specific portions as part of home-work. When asked whether the parent could not have taught him themselves, the retort was "Then the school will take credit for what I teach the child." Whoa! It is your child that needs to learn - if the specific method of teaching this particular aspect of Maths has not been grasped by child, don't you think the parent needs to add to it? For the sake of own child? God save the child! Or maybe the child will automatically at some point, by not depending on parents for learning!

Such episodes open our eyes as to how parents are viewing schools and education of their own children. In Tamil we could say "இப்படியும் சிலர்" (such people too exist).

VRVD

Uncles of Boy born in Rohini star will get ill effect is it?

One of the superstitions with respect to boy born in Rohini star is that the mother's brothers would have ill effects. Also the mitigation of ill-effect is supposed to be, by not looking at the boy directly. They see the son in a reflection of oil.

Now, let us get to the reason for this superstition. Kanha / Krishna killed his own uncle Kamsa for his bad deeds.

Can't we look at the moral of this story, rather than come to superstitious conclusions? In our culture the maternal uncles are placed in high pedestal and given lot of importance. The relationship is special. The moral to be learnt here is that any person should be willing to punish a person doing ill deeds against self or family, even if the person happens to be own maternal uncle. That is the moral that people should learn from the story of Krishna & Kamsa. Hope the superstition dies out some day... and sons born in Rohini star are boldly looked at by their maternal uncles...

And anyone born in any star be bold enough to punish even revered persons if the mistake is grave and against the self or family.

VRVD

Out of reach - increases curiosity... kills the cat?

A small experiment we have done with our child has worked out well. We never took anything from their normal places & placed them higher, as the child grew. The child could reach all the items and curiosity is usually immediately satisfied. A careful eye on the child to ensure that things are not broken, etc., was always there & a firm loving disapproval in case of wrong actions (like hitting things with the item in hand) was enough for the child to learn what not to do.

Our computer, printer & wires were all strewn at ground level. After the first venture received a firm "No", the child did not go near that area at all. A glass top tea-table was our choice knowing we had a 1 and 1/2 year old - nothing hit on it or broken at all. Luckily this kind of treatment left a level of "satisfaction" for the child's curiosity. There is less urge to get somethings at all costs - as the child is assured that if required it will be provided. Needs will be provided - wants may or may not be provided.

Overall it has left our home like, just our home, instead of some homes where we see things go higher and higher as the child grows and is able to grab things...

Like I said in the beginning - it just worked out well in this case. We believe the character of the child and the models around them are also important on how such actions are taken forward as lessons, learning, experiences, prejudices, etc... But if curiosity is increased, does it change the character to increased wants, rebellious nature, etc? We don't have the answer... others should comment, I guess...

VRVD