Mind and the Student

 

 

Mind and the Student

Mind Power and Students

 

Rachel (name changed) did not turn up for a birthday party hosted by my daughter. The occasion was to celebrate and unwind. Unfortunately, she performed below par in a preparatory examination and was mentally distraught. Come on, even Sachin has a bad day at office! Personal space was lost and innocence sacrificed at the altar of competition.

While the brain is an organ that serves as the centre of the nervous system, mind is the faculty of consciousness and thoughts. It is an individual’s intellect, memory or the attention span and will, whose potential needs to be enhanced.

It is pre-board time, followed by the final examinations and then the frenzy to seek admission in a top rung college. Unless students have been regular with their scholastic pursuits, last minute mental wrestling will lead them to an abyss. There is no substitute for regular and hard work and only a trained and smart mind can take up the challenge.

During examination time children suddenly suffer from physical and psychosomatic maladies especially when the benchmark is to excel at any cost. A raging debate is taking place on tolerance, while the stakeholders have become intolerant to the student without understanding their mind power.

Parents begin planning the careers of their offspring as bureaucrats, doctors, engineers, academics without appreciating the ability and interest of the child. I am reminded of the film Vicky Donor where an infertility specialist is in search of a versatile sperm which can produce either a Dhoni or an Aaishwarya, before conception.

Human mind can be divided into two hemispheres. The left and the right. The left hemisphere is all about logic and the right one focusses on creativity.  Those with a predominant left hemisphere pursue sciences and allied areas and students pursuing humanities are governed by the mechanics of the right hemisphere.  The gifted ones (Einstein) have both the hemispheres equally developed.

Parents and teachers should identify the proclivity and interests of the child from a young age and accordingly guide them to join the correct stream. That is smart parenting and teaching.

A child learns through visual, auditory and the kinaesthetic medium. Do teachers and parents impart such techniques scientifically?

Mind if trained properly can improve concentration, faculty of recall, speed reading and memory which produces desired goal results.

Speed reading is paramount as it helps in absorbing facts, numbers, data, with felicity and focuses on concepts without losing basic information. The teacher should educate a child to look everything afresh, trigger such a thought process to be creative, recall fast, master new languages and skills.

A student needs to be challenged or else he will get bored and drift. Only through proper counselling can anxiety be reduced and cobwebs be eliminated.

Detox and distressing are equally important in enhancing mind power. This can be achieved through a proper diet, rest, physical exercise and proper relaxation. Few students are aware that alternate nostril breathing helps in infusing fresh energy and balancing both the hemispheres of the mind.

Mind power is dissipated the most by distraction. This can be arrested through the process of visualisation (remember names, places, dates, colors so that information seeps in the subconscious mind), conditioning memory (adding landmarks, events and incidents in daily lives) to enhance recall and the usage of electronic gadgets like computers, smartphones and calculators to provide intelligent information. The idea is to stretch without straining. The mind should be kept fresh like dew on petals.

Finally as Zig Ziglar writes, “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brick, in, Break the wall- Teacher -Student relationship

 

Last  friday  , after  school , my  daughter stormed  into the  house(  it was very hot ,she was sweating and did not  secure good grades in English) . Instead of being greeted by me or by my father , she was questioned about her performance in English. That infuriated her further and my daughter skipped the customary evening  snack and locked herself in her room  only to appear for tuitions later in the evening.

How did I forget my childhood? Why did I not recall , Pink Floyd’s classic ,” Brick in the Wall”. And how did I not recollect  our very own school  production  with Barry John called KIDSTUF , staged years ago  which highlighted the  travails of children  at school and at home.

President Kalam opined that to be a unique human being , an individual needs to possess four qualities , namely  a great aim, continuously acquiring knowledge by reading great books and keeping great company , hard work and great perseverance.

Are   parents , schools , administrators and  teachers  nourishing this dream of  creating   unique children fired with passion , imagination and talent  or producing marionettes from factories ? This needs to be deliberated by all stakeholders including children.

In this age of SMAC( Software , Mobiles, Apps and Cloud) and not SMACK , teachers and parents  need  to navigate the field of technology  adroitly  so that they keep  pace  with the latest information to challenge  the mind of the child and not confront them.

Today  education is imparted in three ways. Face to Face, Correspondence Courses and On- Line. A  student/child/learner expects the  teacher/educationist is respectful( to the demands of the learner),responsive,knowledgeable,approachable,communicative,organised , engaging , professional and humorous  in disposition .

Teachers, need to look at this inventory  list and  do some soul searching . Without, any doubt , a child expects  moments of wonder in the classroom . Students crave for that  AHA! moment to break the monotony of non-stop classes . The educator today  needs to navigate pop culture and understand the lingo of being”cool”, and understand the mind of the child. Mutual trust between students and teachers is absolutely paramount . There should be no politicking, favouritism etc . Studies in Organisation behaviour ,  clearly  indicate that many a times teachers pay attention to certain children or certain columns  in the classroom,  neglecting others at their own peril. This results in resentment and poor grades of the lot  ignored . A bit of humour, being witty , that lighter moment immediately attracts  a child towards the teacher . As Gail Goodwin says,” Teaching is one-fourth preparation and three fourths theatre.”.

Teachers need to  master two secrets to be successful  in their careers . The Law Of Attraction and The Law Of Acceptance . Law  one  makes  a teacher radiate energy, liveliness ,inspire students, invoke positive vibes and thoughts in the classroom .  The second law encourages a teacher  to accept  the learner  in all respects .  The student  is taken seriously, feels  recognised and challenged, develops  special skills  and their  creativity gets harnessed   . Besides the teacher needs to  understand the difficulties, complexes, sexuality and  hesitations of the child . A student is to be embraced not humiliated.

Today  the teacher today is harassed , has odd timings, plenty of corrections to undertake , rear children at home ,  manage  two fronts(home and school), invariably carries school to house and home to school, does not have time to exercise , yearns for that  Sunday or holiday to relax and unwind .  In such a scenario teachers  have  certain expectations   from children, administration, fellow  teachers  and their  spouses and families .

From  Students- Teachers expect  children are prepared , committed to learn, motivated , respectful , understand their strengths and weaknesses , respect each other and  do not become bullies .

From Parents- It is expected that  the parents do not become super teachers . The common goal is the interest of the child . Parents need to be participative and not coercive . They need to inculcate habits which  need not be moral policing but  to encourage their children to blossom.

From Administration- Not to play petty politics  amongst teachers . Inculcate discipline among the fraternity , provide good packages , encourage  them and support them during crisis . Invariably the  home front  impinges upon the circumference of the school , but the school is so tied up with the TRPs of SRPs- Scholastic Report Performance Schemes)  that they lack the ability  to hear out the teacher, forget even listening to them.

From Co- Teachers- Need to be collaborative, professional, supportive , respect differences among them and also accept unity  among some groups  gracefully.

From Family- To be  warm and proud of the profession and provide that extra space  in their lives .

All this may appear to be altruistic , but  is perhaps essential for the teacher to sport a SMILE to the child  and GREET and be GREETED everyday by  the children. And most essentially to increase the SPAN OF ATTENTION of the child  in the classroom.

This  piece covers  the spectrum of public schools  which have reasonable resources . There  are millions of children who are illiterate  and several schools in  India which do not have  necessary infrastructure , including TOILETS ,which  leads to large drop outs especially among  the girl child.

In the final analysis as Kofi Anan put it  “ Knowledge is power , information is liberating , education is the prism of progress in every society , in every family.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT Vs INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT

Bhutan ( Bhota- Anta in Sanskrit)  nestled in the peaks of Himalayas  is known  for no smoking ,  Gross National Happiness in comparison to Gross Domestic Product.

Students of economics now currently preparing for board examinations may wonder as to why they learnt the formulae of  GDP if it is happiness that is the index of growth of the country. GDP= Consumption +Government Expenditure +Investment – Imports. 

Lord Macaulay   imparted us the 3R’s and our education system is management intelligence quotient and nor the emotional quotient of students. 

However as an advice to parents, schools unequivocally mention that a child’s performance is judged by both curricular and co-curricular activities.  My friend I were exempted from appearing the class 11^th final examination as we  were performing in an estimable musical  directed by noted theatre personality. The Principal was to chair CBSE.

A student performed reasonably well in her class 11 , but the performance plummeted in class 12! The teachers and parents could not identify the reason. The pedagogy did not alter, teachers were of high calibre and the student was obedient, diligent and attentive in the classroom, yet had gone adrift.

The evaluation of a student is purely on scholastic performance , on the results of the examinations  and various project reports submitted.

Was the child suffering physically , mentally  or was  the environment of the household  was too demanding  that impaired the performance of the student?

George Washington Carver writes,” Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”   Perhaps the student who was an achiever in class 11 , suddenly lost the plot for inexplicable reasons  and became a loser in class 12.

The cynosure of the stakeholders ( student, parent, peers, teachers, administration and society ) of the Progress Report or Report Card  are marks secured .  And in those columns the performance in  classes  11 and 12 are reflected . That  numerically and mathematically  indicates  the progress or decline  of the student . This is the intelligence quotient .

Seldom  do stakeholders pay attention to the Students Profile . This  lucidly explains  the psychology of the student. The profile captures personal traits of the students , which like a mirror can detonate the academic performance of the child.

This includes academic motivation, academic self discipline, leadership qualities, integrity, manners , habits, concern for others, ability  accept criticism, respect gained from peers , academic creativity, self confidence of the child, originality in thinking, sense of responsibility, emotional maturity , tolerance levels, frustration levels  and respect from the faculty.

These are  important  psychological parameters and personality traits  of any student.  These get transmitted  into superiority in studies , success in studies , leadership in activities , accomplishment in activities , interaction with peers and overall personality of the student. To my mind this reflects the emotional quotient  of the child reflecting the level confidence and happiness levels.

The student is either scored average or good  in the personality traits mentioned  and is based on the judgement of the teacher . This is Lord Macaulay’s legacy we follow  which seems to be pristine and unrivalled . The child is boxed in the categories willy nilly based on academic performance  and not in the reverse format. Further more , these traits are only  for the current academic year or term and does not compare  with the previous year.

Martin Luther King Jr  wrote,” The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character  -that is the goal of education.”

So true education  should be typically emotional quotient plus intelligence quotient.