'Why is it dangerous to feed children as they watch TV'.

(DNA - Front page - 25th April, 2012)
Click on the image attached below or click on the link http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_parents-too-busy-to-talk-to-their-kids-finds-study_1680315, to read more.

Educationists need to rally together and forge ahead for the RTE Act to be implemented successfully.

Click on the link below to read more-

Mumbai Mirror epaper - 13th Apr 2012, Page 22

Desperately Crying To Be Heard In The Budget

As India celebrates yet another budget, a small section of this country, small maybe but very important, has been left out once again. After all how many people can a government please? The budget is well defined and has allocated enough to all concerned, maybe we in the early childhood community are not vocal enough about our needs or advocate enough to the government about the support that we require.

An all India appeal to all the ministers, members of parliament and all in the government - we  appeal to you to support more initiatives for early childhood education as they are the future- the future voters, the future citizens and the future youth.  

Through the little ones you connect with the parents, as ‘pester power’ works. This was proved when we used pester power this election and asked all our little babies to check for the ‘black dot’ on their parents fingers. They not only checked it on their parent’s fingers but they went a step ahead and harassed the life out of every adult they came across to get that black dot!  The adults that voted this year are adults that grew up in quality early childhood programs and are now functioning as effective citizens.  Without the kind of start we helped them obtain, they might not have cared who got elected.    

Early childhood education deserves its rightful place of respect in the community both in the country and city and your support to this initiative will help us bring about awareness both about the teaching profession and the right respect among parents and future teachers.

The budget must provide not only for nutrition - the ICDS scheme of the government has got some barely two or three percent more than last year and that also will only cover the nutrition needs of the children, then what about the other needs? The early years are the most important, we need to sanction money for parent education, teacher education, teacher training, setting up crèches for all strata of working women, educating women about pregnancy and parenting. What about all this?

We want what the American President gave America; we want this for India and early childhood education in India. As new president, Barack Obama said in his first address to the nation: “It will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. Already, we have made an historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan. We have dramatically expanded early childhood education and will continue to improve its quality, because we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life.”

In our culture when a family shares its resources among the family members, first they think about the children and allocate resources for them. But the budget tends to ignore this very cultural practise; let’s have a budget that will allocate more funds to the future of this country.

I would like to end by quoting brilliant educator Ivan Welton Fitzwater. When asked, this well known icon had said, “I am a teacher! What I do and say are being absorbed by young minds who will echo these images across the ages. My lessons will be immortal, affecting people yet unborn, people I will never see or know. The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad. The pliable minds of tomorrow's leaders will be molded either artistically or grotesquely by what I do.

Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy. I must never forget these same young people could be the thieves or murderers of the future.

Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow.”

So by allocating more in the budget for the early years the government will just be doing its bit for future members of parliament and ministers. Think about it.

 Friends, let’s think of ways to involve our policy makers more in early childhood education initiatives: Any ideas?

Fool’s Gold or Tools of the mind? The technology twist...

Kids are fascinated with all kinds of technology not only because it fulfills their need for 'exploring' but also fulfills their need for 'independent exploring'. This is where we adults lose touch with them, we are unable to share their enthusiasm for this kind of quick learning and hence are unable to talk about, share, discuss/debate  the uses or abuses of technology with them, and end up nagging, lecturing them on the abuses which drives them away deeper into their technological cocoon.

We adults accept and celebrate all technological advances like face book, twitter, blogs, laptops, ipads and iphones in our daily work; we claim it has brought the world closer and in touch. But somehow when it comes to the school or the teacher and child using it, we have our many, many reservations.

Many may say that these are 'adult' technologies and hence not for kids. If parents are really worried about the tech gadgets leading their kids astray, then lets recollect it is parents who first give the child the mobile phone in their hand when they want to 'keep the preschooler busy', or keep the television on while feeding the baby or 'to stay in touch while the parents were working', or to keep track of where the child was. It was the parents who gave video games to the kids may be as guilt or materialistic parenting.

Brain research gives some very important points about why kids and adolescents find technology so 'addictive', two simple facts the 'eye and the hand need each other' ( and not to just boringly copy from the blackboard)  and that is what you will notice has worked for project based schools, learn while doing etc Another simple fact is R.A.D learning (R= reticular activating system, which means the more visual stimuli that the brain gets, the more it can play attention.  A= amygdala's filter, technology tends to keep children stress free and involved and so the amygdala in the brain is not stressed and so no 'flight or fight' reaction needed.  D= dopamine, happy chemicals that mean more focus and attention). If we equip today's teachers with brain research and how to implement it in their classrooms you will have a successful and empowered teacher who knows when to use the blackboard, the smart board, books, field trips, digital photos and Google maps, live streaming  videos and  'teacher presence'. 

Why do we always want to keep the teacher handcuffed to the age old traditional formats of teaching and learning in the class? Why does all the 'teaching' have to be by the teacher? Traditionally it has always been that teachers write on the board-children copy, teachers help kids unravel the textbook, teachers will operate the smart board-kids to sit back and look at it in awe. Now suddenly gadgets like an ipad has put both teacher and child on the same side. The child/student can explore and jump ahead of the teacher and this will really bring a unique transformation to the teacher student relationship, where teachers have to stop teaching and start collaborating, learning and discussing with students. Suddenly the limits of the textbook and blackboard are no more, children can see, visualize, create, explore and learn, after all academic success requires focused attention, listening, persistence and innovation so what's the difference if the teacher achieved it with the blackboard/textbook or the computer/ipad?

Technology is here to stay and it will enter our classrooms and our homes, what we need to understand is that, we should not be those who have blind "faith in technology to solve the problems of education", and nor should we have "blind faith that technology spoils kids". As given in the research report, Reply To Fools Gold, 'there is a middle path, a path that needs schools to train teachers and parents in understanding the healthy use of technology and a path that understands that the teacher can never be replaced and it's time to stop feeling so insecure that any innovation in the classroom will result in the teacher being replaced'.

This middle path as experts say, is about making kids netizens, practice netiquette and technology literacy. Yes, kids idolize the net, and that is why we need to educate them about technology as there are far too many cases of students saying, "It's on the Internet. It must right", 'that should be the goal, to enable children to develop their own 'creative and critical capacities in relating to technology, not to train them to be machine operators or machine slaves'.  Children today are overawed by the workings of sophisticated hardware and software. Basic education and understanding of these technologies will help to counteract the awe and help them realize that any technology gadget still needs the human brain to make sense of it all.    
 
Teenagers are die hard users of electronic media; they are busy on their computers, cell phones, and ipads.  Experts (in programs like futureofchildren.org) propose 'meeting youth where they are-riding the airwaves-with positive messages that compete with and offer attractive alternatives to the negative, unhealthful, or illegal messages they are exposed to every minute'.
 
What are we afraid of? Early sexual activity, drugs, violence? Then it's time for parents to speak up, get in touch with research and face the reality that technology is here to stay and so what is required is a change in parenting styles, in educating ourselves and our children. We need to stop trying to keep our children away from it and start educating our children about it. And yes about cyber crime and plagiarism, it happened without technology too and it will happen now, if moral values in society are lacking.   It's time to change, change our 'ways of looking at technology' rather than 'thrashing technology'.

 I would like to quote from research and suggest that Schools adopting technology in their classrooms should understand that-
      i. It should support meaningful, "whole" development and learning for Children. When technology contributes to development, it should be used. When it does not, it should not be used.(ref-Reply To Fools Gold)
     ii. Technology can help children with disabilities.
    iii. Alan Hedge, professor of ergonomics at Cornell University, recommends that children take a break from computer work every 20 minutes and spend no more than about 45 minutes in any hour at a screen.
    iv. There is a need for human connection which should never be replaced.
 
Remember you still need that human finger and brain to operate technology!

Why is teaching not an ‘Attractive Profession’?

Why was teaching attractive?

1. A tension free environment, most parents did not like their daughters working in an office hence school was a safe and honourable place.
2. Teaching was considered a noble profession and had respect and reverence and was almost considered as social service.
3. You worked only a few hours a day and hence were able to look after your home.
4. You had all the holidays, summer, Diwali, winter, bank holidays and were paid for it too.
5. You associated with children and hence your happiness quotient was always doubled in your interactions with them.

Then what happened to this utopia?

1. Other more lucrative professions came into place.
2. Society changed its perception about allowing girls to work in other professions too.
3. Even a doctor can work part time and enjoy holidays.
4. Society started loosing respect for teachers as tuition racket and teachers accepting gifts rackets increased.
5. Children became more and more difficult to handle and there was no happiness only stress.

Who is to be blamed for this?

No one and everyone! If teachers want to gain back respect and good salaries then somewhere two things need to be done, one at the educational level and one at the national budgetary level.

Respect, recognition and monetary benefits are the issues out here, of which the last one is an issue even abroad for teachers and they tackle it by involving politicians and the government in raising the standards and bars, see how Barack Obama has already voiced his support for early childhood and elementary school policies, Canada has recently passed an education bill for the same. But what does India do? In any of the politician’s speeches do they make any strategic commitments about policy changes? No. we have the sarva siksha abhiyan, crores are kept aside for it, but where does the money go? To publishing houses to print books and fancy materials, but yet the abhiyan does not get teachers. Why? Because they have not earmarked good money for it.

What about the educational qualifications angle?

All professional courses are for at least 3 years or more after graduation. What about teaching? It is just for a year. Yes, B.ed (bachelor in education is just for a year!!!! whereas abroad it is a 3 to 4 year if not 5 year program. how can you train quality teachers in a year? how much of internship are these teachers getting? Very little. Almost as good as naught and when they pass out they do not know the science of teaching to implement in practice? And that is why you have teachers beating, threatening, abusing children. You have teachers who grumble about large numbers in the class, but sit through their lesson and you will feel like tearing your hair, as they are so dull and boring.

PRE PRIMARY IS EVEN WORSE- Now you have courses that run for 3 months, 6 months, great brands are running them and students get hoodwinked, they feel they can get jobs earlier, not realising that when you do a course like this you will get a job but you will not get the right salary and further because you have incomplete qualifications you will be a failure as a teacher.

There are plenty of women and men out there who still want to come back to teaching but things need to change. Schools need to understand that staff attrition which is killing their quality and affecting children adversely too will only stop if you raise the bar of your salaries. And educational department needs to look into the qualifications, raise the bar of the teaching profession, and change the redundant curriculum.

Are teachers also to be blamed where growth is concerned?

There is plenty of growth if one looks creatively and again here the education department needs to put its foot down. There are so many publications, workbooks etc in the market that need educational consultants, but are designed by novices, or a secondary teacher is designing primary material so on. If teachers used their talent they can link up with design houses whether it is c.d roms, educational channels they need consultants, have teachers looked at this?

It is definite growth. but here again first teachers need to work on their knowledge base of the science of teaching, half the worksheets we collected from various ‘top’ schools in Mumbai and Delhi had basic reading and writing errors and these were being used by the school.

Even the Cambridge published book on reading and spelling has a major error- all the words are printed in all capitals. Think about it, the child has to convert all capitals into small in his mind and then remember it!!!!!!

Do teachers know the reasoning behind why they use a four line book to teach children to write when ultimately the child will have to use a single line book? Won’t the child get less confused with a three line book where the middle dotted line will disappear over time and the child is then easily writing on a single line?

Erik Erickson, Kohlberg are theories that all teachers must understand to be able to practice behaviour management, do they even know these names after doing B.ed or an Ecced?

Do they know the connection between physical-motor and cognitive development? If they did they would not insist that children fold their hands and put their fingers on their lips when the teacher is teaching.

Till teachers do not understand their teaching and the science behind it teachers will not get any growth. Just like a doctor will never grow if he cannot diagnose his patients if he cannot understand and cure them.

New Zealand has one of the best practices to ensure that all professionals are up to the mark and keeping in touch with latest research in their field, so here all teachers and doctors have to give an exam every year and get their new qualifications. Now that’s called quality.

How many of our teachers read about their profession or subject?

Friends lets change the way the world looks at teachers, let’s bring respect back to the profession. Any suggestions?  

Why Should Children Not Be Interviewed

Are they applying for a job? If the answer is NO then why should we interview them?

In fact parents should be interviewing the school to find out whether the school will be suitable for their child.

Does this kind of interviewing harm children?

Yes it does.

First it creates a stress in the parent, the stress of ‘performance’ that my child must not fail. And so in their anxiety parents end up putting undue pressure on the child, start getting irritated with the child, get tense, worried and end up completely ‘anxiety ridden’

Having an adult in this frame of mind especially an adult that is your mother or father can cause undue damage to the child’s emotional development and brain development. It can also harm the child’s social development.

Let’s understand the emotional damage-

So what are the emotional development stages or growth that a preschooler goes through?

AGE	STAGE	STRENGTH DEVELOPED
0 TO 1 YEARS	TRUST V/S MISTRUST	HOPE
2 TO 3 YEARS	AUTONOMY V/S SHAME AND DOUBT	WILL POWER
4 TO 5 YEARS	INITIATIVE V/S GUILT	PURPOSE
6 TO 12 YEARS	INDUSTRY V/S INFERIORITY	COMPETENCE

As you can see above, most children of the age from 2 to 6 years are being interviewed and that is the age when hope, willpower, purpose and confidence are developed in the child.

So when you interview a 2 to 3 year old and the child  is unable to answer, he/she develops a sense of shame and doubt about his/her  own abilities, and  you end up hurting the child’s self worth for life

When you interview a 4 to 5 year old and the child is unable to answer he/she  develops a sense of guilt that ‘I let my parents down and I am worthless’,  and so this child will never take initiatives in life

When you interview a 6 years and above child and if the child is unable to answer he/she develops an inferiority complex and zero self worth.

How else does interviewing harm children?-

It makes the children scared, nervous, frightened, terrified, and edgy, all these are negative emotions and negative emotions bring to fore the ‘fight or flight’ tendency of the brain. So either the child feels like hiding behind the parent, or bawls his/her head off, or acts aggressive and throws a tantrum

Negative emotions also release ‘bad chemicals’ in the brain which affect learning and memory.

This kind of unnerving experience also leaves a long lasting wound on the child’s personality and the child can get scared of meeting strangers, or learn to avoid going to places with the parent.

In many children the whole experience leads to nail biting, tantrums, upset tummy, fever and bed wetting. Nail biting and bed wetting are vicious cycles, once entered into can cause a long term burden on the child.

After Reading all the above should children be interviewed?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Here is a quote-

Sam Meisels (HEAD START PROGRAM) offers these tips-

   

·       Young children should never be challenged during assessments by being separated from their parents or familiar caregivers.

·        An unfamiliar examiner should never assess young children.

·    Assessments that are limited to areas that are easily measurable, such as certain motor or cognitive skills should not be considered complete.

·         Formal tests or tools should not be the cornerstone of an assessment of an infant or young child.

LETS JOIN HANDS AND BANISH ‘INTERVIEWS’ FROM THE LIVES OF PRESCHOOLERS, LETS INSTEAD START INTERVIEWING THE PEOPLE WHO ‘INTERVIEW’ KIDS, LETS FIND OUT WHY THEY DO IT. LETS WORK FOR HEALTHY PRECHOOL EDUCATION IN INDIA.

DO JOIN US ON eca-india.org 

Anxiety in Children

Anxiety means to be anxious about something, severe, regular anxiety can lead to stress and prolonged stress can lead to depression and other problems. There are three broad stages in a child’s life (Rudolf Steiner) infancy, childhood and adolescence. So let see how each stage is affected by anxiety and stress.

In infancy the first anxiety that children exhibit is ‘separation anxiety’ and that manifests itself when ‘object permanence’ sets in at the age of 6 to 9 months. This is when the child realizes that the toy you hide and he cannot see is still out there somewhere and now the child is anxious to find it. Separation anxiety is the most important cause of ‘settling issues’ in playschools. Children do not want to be separated from the caregiver (mother, father) as they are unsure of where they will be and whether they will come back. So both the teacher and the parent have to play a joint role is reducing this separation anxiety, mother by talking positively to the child about the school and the teacher, telling the child where she will be after she drops the child at school and then being on time to pick up the child. And the teacher to support the child by sticking to a known routine and keeping the child interested and reassured. (Check Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, safety and security is the second need before the child can concentrate or learn).

As child enters primary school or the childhood year’s anxiety is about the unknown, about bullies and about belonging as social development has just set in. Infact the childhood years are about socialization as they have just emerged from the ‘I, me, myself’ phase and entered the group play stage. So suddenly friends become important. Preparing children for what comes next, giving them breathing transitions, listening to them all helps reduce anxiety in these children. School can help by keeping things common for all kids as comparison is high during this stage. So common uniforms, bags, bottles, shoes all help bring about uniformity and help them belong. Tests are another thing that worries these kids as winning and losing is important to them. It helps if tests (dictation, oral tests, and exams) are completed in the early half of the school day as it helps them focus on learning once the anxiety is removed. Bullying is very common and a common reason for school anxiety, it helps if school and home teach kids about conflict resolution and talk the same language. Otherwise home may teach child to go and hit the bully and school may teach him to ignore the bully and child is now anxious about whom to listen to. Self esteem needs to be nurtured at this stage so ridicule, sarcasm, punishments are all detrimental to the growing self image and may put the child on a vicious cycle of punishment- retaliation-misbehavior-punishment.

In the adolescent years anxiety is due to peer pressure (another form of bullying, here it is bullying to fit in) self image, succeeding, scoring points in the social group. They have loads of secrets and hate to be spied on; half the anxiety is about holding on to their own and friends secrets. Anxiety for them sometimes also works like adrenalin so they thrive on risks and risk taking. Parental pressure to succeed, schools inability to guide at the right time and ‘fitting in’ to their social circle’s idea of ‘success’ all send the anxiety and stress levels for a toss in this age group. Incorrect diet (junk food, less water, more coffee, dieting) only enhances the inability of their body to handle stress.

What can schools do about anxiety and stress in children-

1. Teachers to have knowledge about child psychology, child development, emotional development and brain research, it’s time to stop putting the blame on B.Ed colleges and schools should themselves equip their teachers with training and workshops on understanding and recognizing anxiety and stress in children

2. Knowledge about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs does help a teacher as it clearly shows the requirements in an individual before any kind of focus, attention and learning can take place.

3. Teachers need to work on knowing their students, their temperaments, their home atmosphere as anxiety is related to Insecure attachment between mother and child may be a risk factor for the development of anxiety disorder in childhood (Bernstein, Borchardt, & Perwein, 1996).Shared environmental influences are thought to play a greater role in the development of separation anxiety and specific phobias, implicating a role of parental and family factors (e.g., Eley et al., 2003; Muris & Merckelbach, 2001).

4. Ability to handle anxiety depends on ones temperament (Rudolf Steiner- children’s temperaments- Sanguine, Melancholic, Phlegmatic and Choleric) so teachers to handle and interact with kids as per their temperament and not use a ‘one size fits all’ technique.

5. Anxiety and stress in kids can lead to learning problems and behavioral issues, so here teachers to use the Anne Copley method of a dynamic structure called the Learning Zone Model, four behavioral zones in which students and teachers operate:

• The Safe Zone: where students feel a sense of safety, self-worth and physical and emotional security.
• The Learning Zone: where students are challenged but at the same time      supported to learn.
• The Anxiety Zone: where students begin to experience negative stress about the learning experience, and low-level misbehavior happens.
• The Stress Zone: where students react in the classroom, are violent or uncontrollably abusive.

6. Knowledge of brain research is a must if a teacher wants to understand about anxiety and help in stemming it before it reaches a stressful level. Brain based training facts as this knowledge is extremely important in handling agitated, upset and anxious and frightened children, adults etc. As human beings we think with our prefrontal cortex which is the front part of our brain, (the area behind our forehead) all higher order thinking, logic, planning, intelligence association is done in this part of the brain. But all inputs to the brain first go through a part of our brain called the amygdala, so for any information to go to the prefrontal cortex (the thinking brain) it has to pass through the amygdala. Now the information passes smoothly during happy and positive experiences, but when the human being is upset or scared then the amygdala can hold the information and take its own decisions. Amygdala has only two decisions, fight or flight, so either the person you are trying to handle in a stressful situation will start fighting, arguing or get aggressive with you or will start crying, hiding or not want to meet you or talk to you. In this situation you as the person in charge have to realize that the brain required dopamine chemical to function smoothly and calmly, happy emotions can trigger dopamine. So talk calmly to the child, talk positively to the child, allow the child to drink water (water has oxygen and oxygen is one of the requirements of the brain, it helps calm it) and do not shout or ridicule or blame the child at this point. Or amygdala will hijack the functioning of the prefrontal cortex.

7. Based on the above Teachers should consciously use RAD learning in the classroom- (R- reticular activating system, A- amygdala’s filter, D- dopamine).

8. Schools should have a zero tolerance policy for teachers using sarcasm, ridicule, threatening and demeaning punishments as it directly harms self esteem, confidence, and self image in kids and creates unnecessary fear that leads to stress.

9. Schools to complete tests, dictation in the early half of the day so as not to heighten anxiety in children.

10. Have school buddy system in place where there are specific children who are buddies for children identified with personalities that need more support and nurturing.

11. Teachers to be alert and vigilant about bullies especially in the school bus and help kids to talk about the bullies and teach them positive and successful ways of dealing with the bullies.

12. Anxiety also depends on how a school day begins, if a school day begins with ridiculing ‘me’ because of scruffy shoes or a tie gone askew then the day begins on a negative note and then……. read point no 6 above.

13. Teachers to use stress busters throughout the day, these can be small jokes, ice breakers, deep breathing, stretching postures or just a surprise classroom  jig (everyone is talking about the mob dances at railway station recently)

Details about RAD learning-

Reticular activating system

• Keeping the eyes interested so,

• Multi sensory activities to get the brain’s attention

• Reticular Activating System alerts the brain to change and gets it primed to interact with new information.

Amygdala’s filter-

• Is a part of the brain, which first catches all information before it reaches the prefrontal lobe.

• Games and activities that reduce stress and increase pleasurable associations help keep this brain filter from blocking information.

Dopamine-

• With pleasurable experiences comes this neurotransmitters release.

• With dopamine there is Increase in focus, attention and executive functions in the frontal lobe.