48.Whither Catharsis?

The  entry  on Audition (Odishon) Japan, South Korea, 1999,  in the Handbook of the 18^th International Film Festival  of Kerala 2013, reads:

Takashi Mike provides the viewers a paradoxical movie experience that leaves one  grasping for superlatives while simultaneously grasping for  breath...The film portrays the changing role of women in a society that remains gender- regressive and packed with male protagonist.

Unlike in previous years, this year,  twice  I failed to find  a seat in unexpectedly over crowded theatres. So I was forced to choose  the late 8.45 PM show on a Sunday. Half way through the film, Audition, when the gory scenes of mutilation flashed on the screen,  couples in their late fifties started leaving the theatre. I stayed   on  abstaining  from  looking at the screen for minutes together even as the groaning pain of the tortured victim reverberated in the theatre. Then  in a  horrendous scene, the ‘heroine’ a  retired young ballet  artist, paralyses the person who has expressed his affection for her and  mounts his body. Next,  she begins   piercing his face and body with needles  each time with   the sound a love bird makes ‘ku,ku,ku,ku,ku.’ To my utter shock, the  vast majority of male audience,  mimicked the ‘ku,ku,ku,ku,ku’ sound, relishing  the performance even as she  dismembers the feet of the  victim  using a  metal string!

In  the dark,  I managed to jot down in a piece of paper, the words of the  ‘heroine’ :

Prior to the mutilation, she tells the person who is all  adoration for her “...When I dance, it purifies...” and when the mutilation commences “...words create lies, pain can be trusted...”

The film over, I left the theatre asking myself “Whither Catharsis?”

Won’t  you dear reader, enlighten me....

47. Models and its uses

Sometimes  serving as  examiners  for  the  Practical  Examination    of the BEd. degree course  can be  an enriching experience.   Many trainees  submit  painstakingly prepared  aids.  Most aids usually  serve a pedagogic purpose.  The  following  is   a  model of  the  Trivandrum Central Railway  Station made  by  a trainee this  year.

A mere look at the  model may not suggest any pedagogic purpose.  But real  learning  happens when  one  teaches  vocabulary related to   a Railway  station/ journey using a toy train which runs over the rails one sees in the model.

Well... some of you may still be sceptical... What follows is the theory related to  the use of models and  the  activity of making models:

“Language is a code restricted to those that are familiar with it. To non-users, it is mysterious and complex. For good understanding therefore, teachers must be aware that learners are abstracting. Meaning does not exist in isolation or in the words but in the context which the words are used. L₂ users/learners must be well exposed to usages of words through teaching aids as guides to learning grammar, concepts, spellings and even pronunciation.”

[Asokhia MO (2005). What is a language. In: MO Omo- Ojugo, BN Egede (Eds.): Basic English Language Course for Tertiary Institutions. Ibadan Nigeria: Satmos Publishers, pp. 143-160.]

Rays and Thomas (1973) recommended manipulative materials as teaching aids. Manipulative materials here mean objects or things the children are “able to feel, touch, handle, and move.”

[Rays R, Thomas R 1973. Consideration for teachers using manipulative materials. In the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Laboratory. Inc. Virginia, pp. 101-108.]

According to Anyakoha (1992) the involvement of teachers and learners in improvising materials gives students and teachers the opportunity to concretize their creativity, resourcefulness and imaginative skills.

[Anyakoha EU 1992. Development and Utilization of Facilities for Home Economics Programmes in Nigeria Schools and Colleges for Manpower Development. Vocational/Technical Education and Manpower Development. Nsukka: NVA Publications.]

*There appears to be a relationship between  preparation of teaching models and  the trainee’s  own  pedagogical  acumen.    The model can  become a tapestry of the  trainee’s grasp of a particular pedagogic strategy.  In preparing a model, a trainee is putting an idea related to pedagogy to a new meaningful context... something visual and tangible to solidify the  pedagogic strategy in ones own mind.  Further,  in preparing  models, trainees are polishing  their fine motor skills- using  a pair of scissors, cutting  and folding  paper, learning  the abstemious use of glue etc. Sometimes   colouring and  painting  become essential which provides  an invaluable opportunity to  stimulate creativity. In fact, creating concrete or visual representations of information  provides scope for  developing  Visual-spatial intelligence.

Well...  are you  convinced of  the usefulness  of making models and using models for teaching?...

Please feel free to offer your comments...

46.Weddings and Education

From  A news  feature entitled  Lights,  Camera...I Do   which appeared in the Sunday Times of India   on  09 June  2013

From  a news item in the Sunday Times of India 22 September  2013

  

Is this the  ‘Unity in Diversity’ we should  crave for?.....

Would  the  conduct of weddings   become  a  cause for concern for educationists?

Any  Comments?

45.Use and misuse of PowerPoint

PowerPoint  is   a craze among  presenters.   A couple of months ago, during an academic  exercise which  I  attended,   a speaker  prepared  slides  similar to  the ones below:

During the presentation,  someone in the audience  quipped .....don’t make us asses!!!

This  incidentally, is a cause for concern for  both teachers and students. Many  of us are unaware of  things that should be avoided while preparing   PowerPoint slides.

The  following link will lead  you to an article  entitled  ‘Disappearing Notes’ which appeared   in ‘The Hindu’, Education Plus in January 2013,   and is worth reading. It can be accessed at the following link

 http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/disappearing-notes/article4305637.ece

For  those of you who prefer watching videos, do  view  Don McMillan’s  presentation entitled  ‘Life After Death by PowerPoint’. It can be accessed at the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbSPPFYxx3o

So...what is the message?....   Avoid  over use of  PowerPoint  or  avoid   misuse of PowerPoint  or  both?

44.When quality matters...

A recent news item expressing concern about ‘quality  issues’.... 

The objectives of Higher education may be different from  school education. But quality issues cannot be ignored. A sign of  quality of products of educational institutions is  the acceptability in the employment market. Are our  Graduates  employable?   Are we  really addressing  issues related to  quality in  Higher Education?

Any  Comments?

43. Remembering a Teacher-Poet

My   friend and Librarian of the college  where I teach, Mr. Sudheendran  went on Emergency Leave on the afternoon of 11 February 2012.  By morning the following day this  news  appeared in the Malayalam Daily,  Mathrubhoomi.

It was only when Sudhi, who is himself  a  writer of  essays and  fiction  returned after  the funeral and  Condolence Meeting  held in  the late Poet’s  home town, did  he  confide in  me the special  relation he had with the Teacher–Poet,  Sri. Vinayachandran.

It led me to recall the 1980’s  when I was a student of H.H.The Maharajah’s University College, Thiruvanthapuram.  Then, the Second Language  which I  had chosen for my Under Graduate Course was Malayalam and twice  every week Sri. Vinayachandran, would  engage Poetry class quoting avidly from classic literary pieces. 

As  a student of Literature,  I found every class which  he engaged, a  literary treat. He had the  unique ability to communicate  something of the  spirit of  the literary work  which he was assigned to teach. And the kind of adoration, the students  displayed for the  Teacher-Poet’s literary acumen could  have easily drawn  the  envy of  lesser teachers!

Last year,  on 24 August 2012,  Sri. Vinayachandran,  was the Chief Guest for the Onam Celebration in my college.  When  he  spoke, I could perceive  a  sense of  gloom. As he spoke about the celebration of Onam in  God’s Own  Country in yesteryears and  the normal   practice in which he rounds off his  speech with  a   rendering of his own composition, there was a perceivable  absence of the magnetism  which  he  is capable of generating through  his voice. I doubted it to  be  ill health... now  I  realize,  it was the commencement of his swan song...  

The following are notes which I made during the talk on 24 August 2012:

Perhaps  the earliest reference to Onam is available in Sangham Literature (AD 825). It is a pity  that   today,  how  Onam is to be celebrated is dictated by the Visual Media and  large companies!

In a book written by a British writer, one hundred years ago,  it is mentioned  that almost every house in Thiruvananthapuram city had in their front yard,  scores of coconut trees, banana  plants, mango trees and  Jack fruit trees.

Years ago,  men with good physique,   wearing  the  mask  of   a tiger would  emulate the  moves of a wild tiger  in ‘Pulikali’. Today, in its place we perceive the shaking of pot bellies creating  more of a comic effect!  

His advice to the trainees  of the college: “Only a love of the mother tongue can help you grasp the essence of  Malayalee culture... We have had great scientists who were lovers of music and  language...”

A poem  of his which he recited from memory at the end of his  talk, had for its theme  thoughts of a girl when  she returns home, and  what her mother thinks  about her.  The imagery  was one of  a baby  in  the innermost circle surrounded by its mother, father and grandparents in the outer circle and the society  in the outermost circle...  

Today,  I wonder whether the  imagery of  the ‘baby’- an  uncommon theme  in  poems which  I have  heard him recite,  was  anticipating the return of the Poet’s soul to his Creator...

May his memory ever remain with us... filled with a charm a  baby is capable of evoking...

Posted by Dr. C. Praveen

42.Teacher or Counsellor?

“Are you a Teacher or a Counsellor?”…This was a question posed by Prof. Murthy of  IGNOU, New Delhi during  an Orientation Programme for  the faculty  teaching in different centres of IGNOU.

Then,  Prof. Murthy  went on to narrate two  touching personal incidents  related to the role he had to perform  as  Counsellor.

Once he received a letter from a chap residing in a  rural village in North India. The chap had registered for a Post Graduate course  in IGNOU.  A fortnight later he complained to  his Counsellor and  Co-ordinator of the Study Centre Prof. Murthy, that his friends  have come to know that he is studying for a PG course offered by IGNOU and is making fun of him and is not allowing him to study. 

Treating the letter as insignificant, Prof. Murthy threw away the  Post Card and forgot all about it. A fortnight later,  another Post Card arrived from the chap inquiring why Prof. Murthy had not replied to the mail. Now  the Professor knew, that this is a serious matter. After all in a close-knit society like a village, every one knows what the other person is doing. So  he cogitated on the matter for  a whole day and then send the chap the  following advice:

The first thing you have to do is to give your friends the impression that you are not going to continue the PG course offered by IGNOU.  Find out when your friends go to bed and when they wake up.  Spend the normal time you usually do with your friends and  make them feel happy. But wait each day for your friends to go to sleep. Then, study for two hours. Likewise get up three hours before your friends and study for three hours. Five hours  a day is more than sufficient to study for the course.

After mailing the reply, he had forgotten all about it. Two years later while working in the New Delhi office,  a  chap walked into his office and offered ‘pranam’. He thanked Prof. Murthy for the advice which he gave and   told  him how the advice  helped him to complete the PG course!

The second  incident Prof. Murthy narrated related to an incident in  a war torn country in Africa.  A team from India was despatched to  help set up  a centre of IGNOU in the country which was fighting a pitched battle for nearly ten years. The  building in which the  centre was to function was ridden with bullet holes and the roofs  had cracks. Finally when the students arrived, they  said that they had travelled two days without proper food and  requested for food before the commencement of any  academic session.  So  food was served  to the   students  before the commencement of classes.  Five days later, when the contact classes were over, one of the students  asked Prof. Moorthy for his wristwatch saying that he had nothing  at home to call his own and if he had to submit assignments on time, he needed a watch to know the time. Realizing  the plight of the student,  Prof. Moorthy  removed his watch and handed it over to the student who thanked him profusely.

The two incidents were narrated by Prof. Murthy to make the participants realize the simple fact that there is a lot of difference  in being a teacher for the  students in the normal stream and for students   taking the IGNOU course  who are designated  ‘Counsellor’. 

Now…  a good Teacher we know, is a Counsellor too… But how many of us  are a model  teacher  like Prof. Murthy?

41. Does Education empower ?

I completed my schooling in Trivandrum  in the 1970’s. In those days, reading comics was  a passionate  past time for school-going children. One could hardly come across children without  their own personal collection of comics particularly in middle class families.

The house I lived during my schooling was pretty spacious and was  adjacent to  a compound  where a Badminton court was set up. During holidays and weekends, children from the locality would crowd in my house with their personal collection of comics which they keep exchanging and relish reading them before their game of Badminton. It was a give and take punctuated with love and affection.

In the mid eighties, my sister narrated an incident. A colleague’s family with their children visited their  uncle living in a flat in Mumbai. There, the children befriended  other children living in the block of flats where their  uncle lived. It so happened that  a kid living in one of the flats offered to give a comic book  from his personal collection to read to the children visiting Mumbai for a small  fee for each comic book. When the children rushed to their mother for money, she was quite stunned and could never come to terms with the fact that children in Mumbai are (in her own words) ‘money-minded’!

A couple of months ago, I was taking stock of  the list of Online publications submitted by  me for free reading. Around that time,  a friend of mine commented  that these are days the youth in their twenties  are eager to make  a lot of  money ... and those in their thirties never ever part anything for free. Only those in their  forties would ever show any willingness to offer something for free!

Why do children and the youth display a pronounced acquisitive instinct? Why do they  become ‘money-minded’? Why does our education system fail to address this issue? I was pondering over such material issues when I came across an article about  the effects of education miles away in America. It was entitled ‘Class Divide Widens in School’ (Sunday Times, Trivandrum, dated 30 December 2012). Given below is an extract:

“One of the assumptions on which modern society is built is  that education is a great equalizer; that poor kids with access to education will be launched on a life of upward mobility. In  India, stories of poor children who through sheer brains and hard work earned places in elite institutions and went on to become multi-millionaires, is the stuff of legend.

This belief was borrowed from western societies, especially America. However, worryingly, recent evidence points to the reverse impact that education is having: its role in enhancing class divide; of keeping the poor, poor while making the rich, richer: In an article in The New York Times, Jason DeParle writes about “the growing role that education plays in preserving  class divisions. Poor students have long trailed affluent peers in school performance...”

Well ...Education  no doubt is  serious business...Any comments?