What is better? – CHOICE

Ever since the dawn of life, CHOICE is what has set us apart! Humans have an innate ability to decide for themselves. We make life-sustaining choices and even destructive ones. It’s the power of choice that truly decides one’s destiny. But what is this choice, when do we choose right and when do we choose wrong? Who even decides right from wrong? Let us look at a few mantras that talk about the relevance of CHOICE in our lives.

THE POWER OF CHOICE –

I once read about a phenomenon about the Butterfly effect which hints at a theory that a small action/choice at a point of time can dramatically affect future outcomes. Just as a tiny action – a flutter of the butterfly’s wings can eventually lead to violent weather conditions in the Earth’s atmosphere resulting in something as severe as typhoons. Similarly, a tiny choice made by us at some point in life may result in a huge change of events in the future. Though its true that the future is infact unpredictable to a certain extent, the power of choice always lies in our hands. Making the right choices and standing up to your decisions is what makes a human, HUMAN.

ONE THING AT A TIME –

A famous Japanese saying goes – Chase two hares, catch neither. If we lose focus and try to tackle too many things, we end up winning at none. It’s often better to dive very deep into one area or pursuit than to go wide and shallow in many. When we try to be all things to all people, we end up being nothing to no one. We sometimes try to find a middle path because as people say, choices can be tough, and we will go to all extents from simply sticking to one. But in the end, you may lose both! Get your PRIORITIES right!

WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT’S WRONG? –

Life in today’s world is turning more grey than black and white. The boundaries between right and wrong are blurring because of circumstances, motives, and intentions. One of the biggest moral dilemmas of all time being the great Robin Hood himself – Steal from the rich and provide for the poor! Does that go to show that stealing was the right thing to do even if the ultimate motive was pious at its core?

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART –

“Dare to listen to your heart. It will guide you back to your Truth and back to living the meaningful and fulfilling life you deserve to live.” ~Luminita D. Saviuc

Ever tried to close your eyes and let your heart make the choice for you? We look for peace, we look for guidance, we look for contentment, the solutions to big problems. all on the outside, but what we don’t realize is that it all lies within us. The questions we ask ourselves have answers that lie within our own consciousness. After all, who has been closer to us than we ourselves? The reason we back out of making the right decisions is out of fear. Fear of rejection by the world, fear of being misunderstood, fear of sounding silly or foolish. Fear is an intangible gamechanger in each one’s life! The point to remember here is that Fear is in fact the monster each one must battle with on our own, victory over this monster is truly the path to self-discovery!

“Your choices decide your fate. Take the time to make the right ones. If you make a mistake, that’s fine; learn from it & don’t make it again.” ~ Robert Kiyosaki

A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there.” “The wonderful thing about life-the most magnificent thing about being these sentient human beings is that we have been given the power of choice.” “Only you can decide what you become.”

There may be a hundred reasons to run away from the truth, but just one is enough for you to stand by it. Never let fear, guilt, or want for approval… ever let you deny facts that stare at your face. Trust that the Almighty has given you the weapons to fight all your fears, you must stand up and face the world you have created around you. Trust and have faith. If HE has brought you to it, HE will also bring you through it! Make the RIGHT CHOICES AND STAND BY THEM – ALWAYS!

Change in Education Leadership Norms – Need of the hour!

“Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think.” Albert Einstein is famous for being one of the greatest minds of our time.

Education needs to change, it needs to evolve. Today almost everyone agrees with this statement. But what areas of change are we looking at? Have we covered them all? Where is the point of highest impact?. I penned down this article with a humble request to the leaders and heads of the institutions of various schools to kindly read and look into this aspect that needs a dramatic change.

                 Education is a field where change is rare and does not percolate to the grass-root level of a classroom with a student and teacher effectively. Policymakers make policies, written commandments are handed down, but how many of these are actually implemented and hence evaluated in day-to-day life?

                                       Another lingering issue is parents who constantly complain about the teaching standards. With the advent of online education, classrooms have opened up to the parents of the world. We constantly have complaints talking about how limited the teacher’s outlook is, or how their vocal delivery of the subject can be better but have we looked at this complaint in its real context? When all of us know that no one is perfect and teachers today are more of a facilitator than subject matter specialists, why does this keep cropping up again and again? 

                             To a teacher in a classroom setting, it’s a child out of a class of 40-60 students, but to every parent that is their only child. The fact is that the teacher needs to understand this and empathize with the fact THAT PARENTS WILL BE EXTRA SENSITIVE ABOUT THE WAY THEIR CHILDREN ARE TREATED. Though teachers may need to help parents become less sensitive about their own children and be more aware of the class of students. Do you think any parent would love to see their child being condemned? At the same time, how many students feel the need to go and own up a mistake they have made to their teacher in class? Did we ever wonder why a student would rather lie about not completing his/her work than feel the need to confide in the teacher? How are we encouraging students to tell the truth when all they get in return is a punishment for it? When did we start accusing someone of telling the truth? 

                           Childhood is the right of passage through which each and every one of us has passed and it’s also a fact that not a single one of us has been perfect. Maybe not in every aspect but an unapproachable teacher is the worst punishment to a student. Do you blame only a frustrated (scared in the guise) parent alone for beating up the child for poor marks, or is an unapproachable teacher to blame for it too? I urge the leaders of various educational institutions, policymakers, and educationists to ponder over the issue to see if we can find ways to deal with this in a practical manner.

                                The teacher is not a smart device that needs to relay just subject-related information to the child. This is predominantly the most highlighted point that is raised when there’s a debate about how robots can never replace teachers in classrooms. The Human and Humane element! Ironically, the biggest example is that a child, who grows up to be alumni or an ex-student who comes back to his old teacher, most often does not remember a teacher for his/her academic lessons, but remembers every time the teacher supported the child and believed in him/her.“We do not care how much the teacher knows… we want to know that the teacher cares….” is what students feel.

                           The real change will happen when the teacher is actually evaluated for this. (Citing – chapter 1 section 1.14   of the NCFTE document) . How approachable are you to your students? Give situations where a student needs a teacher’s help and based on the responses one could evaluate the teacher. Peer Review is another powerful tool that provides the right environment to learn, share and grow. Collaboration is the key and all of these values nurture in the life-giving shade of HUMILITY. A wise person rightly said – ‘When you light another’s candle- you lose nothing of your own. You just produce more light!’

                      These kinds of questionnaires when given to students will help maintain a balance and also provide accurate feedback about the unapproachable teachers. Rooting out the teachers and counseling them will provide a much more effective percolation of the “teacher as a facilitator” “teacher as a mentor” “teacher as a guide” “teacher as a nurturer” concept.

                    Hence, the crux of my article is a plea to the leaders of education. Unfortunately, it’s a fact that conventionally, only experience is given the highest priority in this industry. The senior-most faculty are the demigods. Is it a prize for them to have survived the torture in the system the most? Why do we question the fact that the mindset of the teachers does not change despite the innumerable seminars and webinars arranged for teaching faculties everywhere? Until this vicious circle is broken and practical solutions for better evaluation of teachers in their teaching methods, their approach towards students are not made, this cycle will continue forever. In fact, I wonder if it’s become such a commonly accepted fact that no one has started questioning this so far? Have we just accepted this and made it an endemic right of passage in a student’s life? How do we expect our children to accept their school and participate in it willfully if we refuse to adopt nurturing their happiness as our responsibility?

From the desk of a mother and teacher.

The globe is our village – A Global village!

 

The ever expanding world of today is also shrinking considerably in terms of connectivity and approachability. Life is becoming a web of contradictions and possibilities..

 

A similar concept is that of a Global village! A quaint,serene and closely knit community of a village being compared to a huge network of the world and it’s interconnected countries is a thought provoking contrast. It successfully gives us the idea of how closely the world today is connected. No place is too far, no country unreachable!

The explosion of technology and mass media has given it the ideal platform for its expansion. Like the unspoken connection of the members of a community, the countries have developed a bond bound by common goals towards development and growth.

Availing the best of what is available is not an impossible dream. The world of online marketing has made that vision a click away! The ambition of a new entrepreneur is not a lakh rupees far. With the dawn of the online market, business opportunities are within everyone’s reach. Profits are gained at both ends, where the customer gets the convenience of online markets and the sellers get the ease of selling products with unlimited online marketing opportunity. Bid goodbye to those hectic days of strangling out time to go shopping in crowded stores and malls and awaiting the much awaited seasonal sales. Online marketing rocks!

 

A homesick soldier guarding his country on the border missing his new born child growing up to reach his milestones..A lonely old couple celebrating Diwali..lighting up their house with diyas and missing the hustle bustle of the kids, now all grown up and earning their livelihood far away from home..unable to make it back for the celebrations, don’t have to feel so lonely anymore. Video calls and amazing applications like WhatsApp and Google Duo have provided options for video calling that makes distances feel nearer…

The global community has a lot to offer. The good and the bad..all wrapped up in one. You get to choose which one’s your package!

 

Missing out on Phonics

I sat there..tutoring my little girl who had suddenly entered the world of huge spellings, question and answers and compositions… She was now in a grade where she was expected to start writing and learning spellings that still puzzle many adults today…

I was wondering what magic would help her understand and get confident with her written work.

The tunes of this amazing phonics program that I had taught and learnt kept ringing in my mind…a..a.. ants on my arms.. yes! It was truly remarkable how the little tiny tots could guess the words and their spellings by listening and guessing the sounds of the letters.. Truly, phonics is what rescues us from the clueless rote methods of teaching and learning.

The magical interactive and fun program of jolly phonics was my way out!

Learning the letter sounds enables children to figure out and guess the words which they probably have never seen or heard before.It piques the interest of the child who learns by doing. It turns figuring out words into games and puzzles. The sounds and their related actions makes it a non stop fun filled experience.

Colourful and informative learning material makes it suitable for all ages and is a sure shot at getting the attention required.

My little clay pots

Today, amidst a frenzy of technology I sat reflecting about my innocent childhood..the things that made me happy and sad! I remember those little things we did that didn’t quite require much for us to feel blissful and occupied.

My grandpa’s words still echo somewhere in the corner of my mind. He used to say,” boredom is just a state of mind..u can learn to occupy yourself with just about everything.” “Look at the possibilities and not the problems” he would say and I believed him.

I believed everything he ever said to me whether I completely understood it or not. That was childhood..my little innocent childhood which even today makes me happier when I’m down.

I loved playing in our little garden. My little corner filled with vivid pinks and different shades of mauves and sporadic yellows and lush green leaves. But the part that I loved most was the wet mud that I could mould into all my little playthings. ..from tiny spoons to the larger pots. I shaped them without worrying about the germs or bacteria I was apparently getting exposed to. To me it was magical wet clay, that I could mould into a picture I saw in my mind’s eye!

That was the birth of imagination for me.. magical with no boundaries. My delicate little clay pots that stayed there drying in the sunlight were proof of it. #little things that give us faith..

Dream someones reality

If you want to be a dream..be the kind that shapes others reality.

Be the change!

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There’s never a day which passes by where we don’t think about how things could be different. How badly the world is treating us and how we don’t deserve any of the stuff we are going through. But do we ever really reflect on what we did that shaped our day to day in the way it happens to be at present? No, in fact we don’t! Life is a mirror of Truth and lies, we reap what we sow.

Most of us sadly, are unaware of where they went wrong to begin with! These clueless ones among us blame their fate and destiny and what not? Interestingly, aren’t we the ones who actually are the architects of what we call our ‘destiny’?

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   BE  KIND

LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY

The only way to change what’s around us is by changing what’s inside us. Be the change you wish to see. Foster happiness in your life, to enable yourself to be a happy person. You cannot be something you choose not to be.

Harness the courage to be kind from within you. Yes, kindness takes courage, love takes a selfless heart and lots of willing sacrifices. Try to be the one to deserve your PRESENT! (Which is also your most precious present 🎁)