Public schools in the 1960s and 70s

Some of the public schools in our country, really had excellent facilities. My school has 2 games fields, tennis courts, swimming pool ( In my days, we had to share the pool with the boys' school. ), a good gym, all with good coaches. The neighbouring boys' school had much better facilities. It had 7 fields, a superb gym, cricket, football and hockey fields, swimming ....

The standard of sports and even the march past was excellent. We would get hit with a baton if we did not march to time. Nowadays, no school has a good march past. My children's school had a very ragged one. I was no good at sports, but could see the high quality. The boys' schools had a even higher standard than ours.

At that time I would have been horrified if I had to be given marks for sports, since I would have barely made a C grade, but now I think it is a good idea. There are some children who fail in academics, get berated by teachers.. but they are sports champs. Their day in the sun comes during our sports meet. This ensures almost all children get some sense of achievement.

In those days, such schools ensured everyone got something to achieve at.

In fact, the year I joined the school, I got an ovation for not wasting stationery-- (I had bought the least number of excercise books)!! I also got an end term prize for progress!!!. You got the progress prize if you improved.....even if you moved from last in the class toe to say just 15th position out of 30 children.

That is how rewarding should be done.

On the first day of the ISC exam, the Principal accompanied us to the exam centre, and gave us chocolate and her usual piece of advice..."Keep your wits about you"! She was good at her job.

The Standard Bearers

The NDA at Khadakwasala is an impressive establishment. I have always known that it makes a "man out of a boy". People who have gone through that training are able to multitask easily in their professional life. They do more varied stuff with their lives. They are not demotivated by criticism. But watching the film made on the NDA, is a wonderful experience.

Those who think IITs have a hectic schedule, need to see this.

Their academic curriculum is a little technology oriented, as perhaps is the need of the day, but I think they should include more psychology. Afetr all, their whole career is some form of HR management or the other.

Another thing is all colleges both regular and professional must have rigorous courses on ethics..with readings and case studies --not just question-answers like we do in other subjects.

Is that feasible? Maybe not!

entrance test

Amidst all the drama of the 'mutiny' from IITK and so on, my two bits worth is--

How does anyone think having all ones hope riding on one day one exam is less stressful than writing 3 or 4 exams, one of which may click?

jobs

In continuation of my previous post, as Julie points out, getting a good job is tough.

In college, we may focus on academics, but that may not get us the job we want.

In fact, very often, the 9.8 GPA person is not the one whose career graph soars for the next decade. The required skill sets are not totally similar....barring the basic need for reasonably high intelligence to get 9.8 gpa, as well as for doing well in ones career.

Sometimes, we don't know what the 'good job' for us is. The problem is, we need to decide this at an age when we are not experienced enough to know.

Sometimes the job we had to take is actually the right job for us........or maybe we grow into it, like a shoe.

Bioscience careers other than docs

I am supposed to talk to students who have passed their Inter/XII class in the bioscience stream about possible careers open to them other than becoming doctors or dentists.

Many children and their parents believe that if one does not get admission into an MBBS course or at least a BDS course, life is over. So we hold a set of talks every year to show them other possibilities. We invite these children from neighbouring schools and junior colleges.

The point is, how convinced am I that biosciences offer good career opportunities?

Yes, a few of my students are doing very well in research labs. Some in related areas...hospital management, biotech management etc. But what of the not so good ones?

But the same question can be asked in any field. After an MBBS, will you get a good job? Yes the good ones get into Fortis/AIIMS/CMC , but many end up as duty doctors in small time nursing homes.

So, just as there is no guarantee after an MBBS, so too after a BSc+ MSc.

Neighbourhood schools

I don't know how I have not seen this before, but here is an initiative by Dr Reddy's foundation.

Pudami neighbourhood schools.

teaching math

A teaching resource for school math thanks to milieu