38. Another X’mas, Another Message

 

My college celebrated the x’mas season today (22 December 2011) as Communal  Harmony Day. Religious leaders representing the three main religions- Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, were the invited guests. The General Lecture Hall where the programme was conducted and the college corridor adorned a festive look.

Fr. Noble V. Jacob:

“ Remember ...rationality  has got its own limit...Try to be a human at least  for a minute...Its this,  which will save our  great nation...”

Imam Jamaluddin Mankada:

“ Today more and more students get educated...but, more and more criminals  are on the rise... Ones  goal in life seems  to have shifted from the ideals of ‘Bapuji’ to ‘3G’...Education  will achieve its true objective only when it  guides a person from knowledge to self-knowledge...”

Swami Guru Njana Thapswi:

“ Towards the end of his life,  Sree Narayana Guru who preached ‘One Caste, One Religion,  One God for mankind’ consecrated a temple with a mirror as ‘idol’ to symbolically suggest  that one should know oneself to perceive God...It is a law of Nature to bestow one with what one deserves...and so  it is meaningless to force children to take up Engineering and Medicine as the only two professions worth pursuing...”

Well..., another message for the Curriculum Committee!! [Please  read Post # 27 in this Blog]

Any comments dear reader?

37. Who is likely to be the best ?

·      * A poet becoming a teacher

·      *A novelist becoming a teacher

·      *A dramatist becoming a teacher

As a student of the English Literature  Course offered  in H. H. The Maharajah’s University College, Thiruvananthapuram in the late 1980’s, I had the good fortune to be taught by  a  popular  poet, a renowned  novelist and an acclaimed actor-cum-dramatist.

Each one of them,  I must admit had their own unique approach to teaching.

I did however perceive an edge  in the dramatist!  Naturally too, for what does a dramatist,  who is also the director of a stage performance do? He would try several tricks up his sleeve to get the best out of a potential actor. And while teaching... how can  a dramatist be any different?... Won’t he try to get the best out of a student?

Well... do you  agree with me?

36. Does verse allure the mischievous ?

A Practicum submitted by one of my trainees (Ms.Anila) of the academic year (2010-11) is entitled  “A study on the extent/level of poetic creativity among high school students”. The following is an extract :

While teaching  poetry in the classroom...have witnessed one constant and surprising occurrence. It is amazing to see that poetry has touched the most unexpected of the students in the classroom- those with the weakest language skills and worst behaviour problems. The reason is that the world of imagery gives them freedom to communicate in a new mode and releases these students from the confines of Standard English and allows them to say the undesirable as imagery in Poetry.

Any comments?