Education

Sometimes you have to write to figure it out

 

Sometimes you have to write to figure it out…

This advice wasn’t just savvy guidance for how to write — it might be the wisest advice I know for how to live… The way to be okay, we all believe, is to have a specific plan — except may it’s not…

The smartest, most interesting, most dynamic, most impactful people … lived to figure it out. At some point in their lives, they realized that carefully crafted plans … often don’t hold up… Sometimes, the only way to discover who you are or what life you should lead is to do less planning and more living— to burst the double bubble of comfort and convention and just do stuff, even if you don’t know precisely where it’s going to lead, because you don’t know precisely where it’s going to lead.

This might sound risky — and you know what? It is. It’s reallyrisky. But the greater risk is to choose false certainty over genuine ambiguity. The greater risk is to fear failure more than mediocrity. The greater risk is to pursue a path only because it’s the first path you decided to pursue.

 

If philosophy is queen is technology for cattle class?

 
I had the opportunity of motivating a group 
of students in DAV Mogappiar to look beyond 
the now.  Like always one comes out enriched 
after such sessions. It gets you to think, 
let me share my thoughts out here. 

Philosophy the Queen of Sciences

Yesterday I mentioned to the students  about Philosophy being in the top of the learning hierarchy and Technology at the bottom.  A lanky  bespectacled lad walked up to me at the end and said I want to become anengineer and I love philosophy.  I was quite intrigued.  Something snapped within me and I said ‘You ought to be both‘ he just picked up my email id and went away smiling and he seemed happy.

I recalled the Swayamvara ceremony of Sita. The one who could string Shivas bow and shoots wins the princes. Rama attempting to string the bow breaks it displaying his strength and wins over Sita.

Philosophy requires a great amount of intuitive understanding, instead of just empirical data to come to a full understanding of it.  Its the combination of both that will be meaningful.  Knowledge and strength that is acquired with technological pursuit needs to pursue the queen (and win her over).

What would this mean?  Any engineering or scientific pursuit a vast array of  facts and figures that are so much apart have  contradictions  woven into it, unless we rise above its level it will be impossible to bring together  these contradictions and grasp them.  (stringing the bow)

This in simple language may suggest that Technology is an urchin running around at the base of the pyramid, far from it.  Its not the heirachy in the power sense, its more on the distribution of resources and capabilities.  The progress of a society would surely rely on those who toil at the bottom but for the toil to be meaningful there needs to be ‘swamyamvar’ that will set you face to face with the queen.  The queen needs it too, to find meaning it is not meet for her to choose a partner from her own  setting, lest the Bread and Cake gets blurred and she becomes a power hungry beast fit enough to be slayed some day.

As a nation we have set our mind on philosophical thought. Today the flavor seems to be in pursuit of  technology and commerce. Children like lemmings are blindly running towards the steep cliff, mindlessly and thoughtlessly pursuing a life of comfort and not a life of meaning.  Its time we organize Swayamvara ceremonies.  Win over Sita boys.  Only she can get the best out of you.

Classical Music to avoid stress.
Indian classical musician and master of sarod ...

Image via Wikipedia

I handle the importance of classical music from two angles one as an activity to develop listening skills and the other is for dispelling stress.

Listening skills:

Listening is a commodity today, ‘listen carefully’ would mean – be all ears to gather or assimilate what I tell you.  Well this is a basic form of listening.  As you progress in life, you need to be able to listen on a karmic level, which is to be able to process the target sound even without actually paying attention. And then be able let the information or thoughts get into your brain (cognitive areas)  and toy it around the and then be able to link it, match it or interact with what you already have in store and create something new around it. And all this must be done simultaneously, without compromising on the listening process (sustained auditory attention)

A good listener is trained to be able to handle complicated sounds in quick succession effortlessly.

How is this possible? You ought to know that a word in itself is a combination of phonemes or sounds that are delivered to you in various tones, volume and frequencies.  A good listener is trained to be able to handle complicated sounds in quick succession effortlessly.  And embody the relevant thought or knowledge or instruction into ones system so that doing and functioning becomes a natural process or in other words it just happens.  Which means you would be doing something because you can’t but do it.  You are not programmed you have quickly wired yourself for that task. This is opposed to the stressful external ‘to do’ lists that kind of take charge of us and govern us.

Listening activity

Typically in a training session, I play beat loaded movie music and observe the body movements and the flutter in the group. Suddenly I switch to a classical tune; most of them will start displaying boredom in less than 30 seconds of playing.  I would play it for not more that 2 minutes and then I shut it down (cannot bear to see the boredom in their faces). Now why do you like the movie music, the response will invariably be – “because it’s interesting” and why not the classical music?  – ‘because its boring’.

I end the activity with a thought – so you walk into an elite hotel they play boring music right?  And the music played on the road side is good fun, it’s interesting.

Its deconstruction time.

The word boring should actually be read as threatening or incapability.

What did the participants mean by interesting and boring?

Interesting in this context would mean:  I am familiar to these sequence of sounds that are simple and are repetitive and hence I am able to process it easily so I can relate to it.  Or it would mean that the sounds make me want to dance and it makes me want to dance or tap my feet in other words it makes me respond.

Classical Music is boring statement would actually mean.  I am unable to process complicated sounds delivered in quick intervals, hence my brain is threatened and shuts off the sound.  You need to realize the word boring should actually be read as threatening or incapability.

Threatening sounds

Whatever is given to brain it will either take it as a challenge or a threat.  Challenge is brains feast; it gobbles it up, and threat it rejects.  What happens in most cases is that, as individuals who have this inclination to pleasure and ease tend to indulge in trite and thereby brings down the ability to handle challenges. Over a period of time our brains threshold level of handling challenge diminishes and it gravitates towards banality and finds meaningful interactions as ‘boring’ and un-stimulating.  This would mean that our mind has started deteriorating and that we are being reduced to a normal living organism.

How do you develop listening skills?

I hate to say this but in this context you need to bear with me. Classical music helps develop listening skills (western or eastern).  To reduce Classical music to develop ones listening skill pains me, for it’s much more that that.

Classical music delivers complicated sound sequences in quick succession.  Music like language is something what is inborn in us, we grow up the rhythm of the heart beat and start uttering sounds on birth and acquire language skills for survival.  Human endeavour need not end with a need for survival with basic skills, in order to live a life to the fullest it’s important that we strive.  And if there is anything one must to pay attention, invest energies and strive for let it be on acquiring language skills and music.

Why language and music?

Latest findings on neuroscience indicate that the under girding of the brain sounds and words. This would also mean that our brain responds and rewires only when it’s provided with a continuous feed of language.  Music is language in that sense. When we apply our mind to these primary skills we, by default, develop a whole lot of other skills, like Memory, Processing, Attention, Sequencing etc.  And these skills in turn will prove to be of help to acquire other skills or develop and strengthen existing skills there by making our challenges easy to handle, relieving us of stress.

In summation let’s say, good music can help you develop skills and help you live a stress free life.

Weakness is strength

Notice the expressions in the girl.  She hands over the toy and looks at the eyes of the boy anticipating the expected reaction and the boy fell for it.

 

KUNG FU PANDA

When you think “survival skills,” you just don’t think “panda.” A large carnivore subsisting almost entirely on a nutrition-poor grassy diet affording little energy for anything but copious eating and sleeping isn’t exactly a role model for disciplined physical and mental achievement.

 

"Lets not reinvent anything"

I managed to catch up  with two of my old friends yesterday. One of them said ” Chennai has too many events that I have decided not to attend any of them” ( so TiECON, I understood cannot be classified under an event, and that makes me happy) now the other one said “Well its better to have some event or the other happening than to have nothing at all”.   So when Vishy told me about the assignment at TiECON, all of me screamed  ‘God why me?’ yet one little gut  kept pleading within me to be part of this group.  The soft whisper of this little gut was louder than the screaming NO..

I’am glad I heard my gut.

To sum it up, only on  two occasions did I feel terrible about being part of this project.  That was when I had very little to do and then last evening as the God’s daughter, the dark night, spread its  canvas across the sky.

I remember the night I sat for the pages of Economic Times.   Hard work combined with sleeplessness should have made ordinary mortals crumble. Not so here.  The logical preciseness of JK, the overarching vision of Ramraj, the humor of Chandu and the design prowess of Uday came prancing now and then like the elves who helped the shoe maker turn around his enterprise.  So lesson:  Even when you are tired keep up the good cheer with some great company around.

There is no greater joy to see the youngsters engaging and committing their time for the conference.  Dorai Todla, has this ability to attract sensible and committed ones.  The team he put together under Sorav Jain‘s charge showed commitment and I am sure they are enriched after the conference.  Through them TiECON CHENNAI 2010 will echo and ripple for a while.

I have read that the Generals of Napoleon used to dread every victory, for Napoleon used harass them to find out what are the right things they had done to ensure victory.  And all they had to do was to repeat the right things in the next battle.

I can hear JK say “LETS NOT REINVENT ANYTHING ” . These words have become entwined in my neural pathways for I have heard this say this a million times.  When we sift the right things that were done, the ones that need improvement will stay behind for us to be addressed  next year.

Thank you guys for the great journey with TiECON CHENNAI 2010.

PS:  I actually read this blog again after publishing and found 6 mistakes and corrected them.  A small big lesson from TiE Chennai.
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Cathedral of Learning

Image via Wikipedia

21st Century can present a whole lot challenges to everyone particularly.  The rate of changes will be far more accelerated in the time to come.  So in order to be relevant then one needs to be prepared for the ‘then’ right now.  Hence the ability to see into the future and design current life stream to be able to handle the future that should in turn be able to feed your present is the key. If not you become a dreamer of sorts, living in future and being relevant to the present at any point in time.

Most learning, particularly in Indian context, comes to an abrupt standstill after university.  But they you may argue there is no Learning happening in the university either. Partially true, since most education systems are teaching driven and does not give the freedom of learning to the students.  They are structured giving very little scope for pursuit of passion or interest.

Nevertheless there is a learning process happening, without the active knowledge of the participant in the process.

But then how does this cease after university?  Should the student find an employment soon after then it becomes auto mode in 365 days.  The focus shifts to DOING and DELIVERING.  Hence all ‘learning’ is only toward achieving a particular end.  So what ever learning happens is very transactional not transformational.

Learning happens when the participant is committed to the subject with high interest and motivation and does so for acquisition of knowledge only.  I was chatting with my friend who had lost her father and two brothers over the past 3 years.  She is able to handle the loss while at the work place but when she comes home she feels the intensity of the loss.  The sun rises again off to office she is back on her feet.  Reason she likes what she is doing at work, there is purpose and once she reaches home she is purposeless.

Counseling and Medication may me a temporary fix but her permanent solution will be to accept the loss, and get herself in learning pursuit while at home.  It is said that ‘nothing is more emphatic as the one you are trying to forget’.  The more she tries to overcome her sorrow the deeper she will sink in it.

The reason for all this is a life that is lived on auto mode, without any self imposed learning challenges.  The competitive environment of the future is sure to eject her from the work place in the next 5 years and she has all day to worry about.  That’s my fear.

So we need to gain fluency in a host of areas – in information, media, solution, creativity, collaboration etc.  This I would call are the peripheral fluencies, they are important but the core  is Language Fluency.  The ability to read fluently, write, speak and think.

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Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire

People do not believe me when I say that I taught Shakespeare’  Hamlet to few 6 yr old kids who have labeled as Leaning Disable by their school.  When I first took them on I looked at them with the same eye, I took them for walk in the block, had fun observing lots of stuff and on the way back tried getting them to recall all the stuff they had seen.  They were amazing, they seemed to recall most of the stuff and displayed amazing processing skills.  Yet, silly me, got them to a room and tried teaching them some simple stories for 2 days.  It was real hell, I wanted to cry.  Then this idea of teaching Hamlet hit from out of the Blue.

Next day, I kept the Hamlet on the table. It was magic.  All the kids converged on the book.  The book did not seem very colourful or inviting (afterall its Hamlet) yet they gravitated towards it.  This was an eye opener for me.  I started reading the characters in the book –  Claudius, Polonious I went on.  They seemed to absorb it liked rain on parched ground.  They wanted the story.  I read Hamlet to a group of brilliant minds over the next 10 days.  My eyes were opened.

Now this book –  Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire.. waiting to get my hands on it

The Methods And Madness Inside Room 56  by  Rafe Esquith  (Author)

From the man whom “The New York Times” calls “a genius and a saint” comes a revelatory program for educating today’s youth. This work is a brilliant and inspiring road map for parents, teachers, and anyone who cares about the future success of children.

From one of Americas most celebrated educators, an inspiring guide to transforming every child as education
In a Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by guns, gangs, and drugs, there is an exceptional classroom known as Room 56. The fifth graders inside are first-generation immigrants who live in poverty and speak English as a second language. They also play Vivaldi, perform Shakespeare, score in the top 1 percent on standardized tests, and go on to attend Ivy League universities. Rafe Esquith is the teacher responsible for these accomplishments.

From the man whom “The New York Times” calls aa genius and a sainta comes a revelatory program for educating todayas youth. In “Teach Like Your Hair as on Fire ,” Rafe Esquith reveals the techniques that have made him one of the most acclaimed educators of our time. The two mottoes in Esquithas classroom are aBe Nice, Work Hard, a and aThere Are No Shortcuts.a His students voluntarily come to school at 6: 30 in the morning and work until 5: 00 in the afternoon. They learn to handle money responsibly, tackle algebra, and travel the country to study history. They pair “Hamlet” with rock and roll, and read the American classics. “Teach Like Your Hairas on Fire ” is a brilliant and inspiring road map for parents, teachers, and anyone who cares about the future success of our nationas children.

On standards gained and lost

I had been to my old school last Saturday for an informal Alumini Meet with my 1975 class mates.  For those couple of hours we felt we are one.  The when the plan for the school  articulated by the ‘boss man’  bordered around constructing the building (for good indeed) the tongues were confused.  Personally I wondered that in a Information age, after transcending the Industrial era,  and as we are dusting our feet in the doormat of the Bio Tech era, why does one still have to place the trust on Brick and Mortar model.

To me the Brick and Mortar model is a total Industrial age phenomena, when mans energy has to harnessed with a disciplined, process driven effort to mass produce.  Schools, like prisons, were also designed for that.  So when the founding fathers  built the school they did it with that mindset indeed.  Do we build on that?

Few months ago, I took upon myself the task of designing the logo unit for 175 years celebration of MCCHS.

I took a close look at the actual logo the anchor and the ‘in hoc signo’ (which would mean “with this as your standard you shall have victory”) Standard ?   The moaning of the school was so loud Iam moved to tears so often.  I found myself dragging my feet to the school this time, may not have felt the same way if our meet up had been in another venue.  Pitiful.

I was sharing this with Alfy yesterday, I was recalling Proverbs 29: 8  “Where there is no vision, the people perish” I have heard Syed say this before and on Saturday  Jasper said this again.  WE NEED A VISION.

I have this itchy uneasiness,  that within us lies that vision.  Its in bits and pieces scattered all over.  The challenge is to put ’em together.  After all this glorious institution gave us the standards by sacrificing its own in the process.

Steve Vatz and his interview



Those who learn from him will be fortunate indeed, for Steve basics is advanced stuff.  The flight of stairs you can take with Steve can put you on another level.  Warning : he is very demanding.
The questions and the drilling he does to understand the student commitment and potential is not a picnic of sorts.  He sure is not the guy who would take up a student for the sake of money, neither does he want huge number