I recently wrote a small piece on the controversial ‘Hole in the wall’ project for a UK-based magazine called Green Futures. Controversial, because of endless questions about its relevance in a country where primary education rates are dismal, and sustainability over time and place. And even more so, now that Sugata Mitra has won the… Continue reading A hole in the wall, a spark in the mind
Category: Children and youth
Education, child labour, youth trends and more…
(N)oh, to be young again!
No, it’s not fun to be young now. I was browsing through television channels idly at my hotel and came across a programme telling people what not to wear. This young girl of 21 – 22, pretty but plump. Wears loose clothes and covers herself with a stole all the time – it’s become part… Continue reading (N)oh, to be young again!
About Zeeksha
My blogger-photographer friend Chitra Aiyer in Bangalore is involved with a project called Zeeksha. They are now looking for more contributors and participants. I am posting here the information she has shared with me. Do hop over and see if you can be a part of this interesting and extremely useful website. *** Zeeksha.com is… Continue reading About Zeeksha
I never let my schooling…
interfere with my education. and when it is a question of exams… Mumbai Mirror gave six Class XII toppers a simple GK test. Most of them didn’t even come close to getting a first-class – and so the newspaper calls them rather cruelly, floppers in its cover story of Friday June 13th. The questions we… Continue reading I never let my schooling…
Now virtual education…
The last time I wrote on this, I had over a hundred comments, most of them from “post-graduates with teaching skills” (but not terribly good spelling skills, I may add), all of them asking me for details on that – but here goes anyway, from new York Times – Hello, India? I Need Help With… Continue reading Now virtual education…
Dropping out of school
I found 1 in 10 schools are ‘dropout factories’ on my yahoo homepage. Not surprisingly – The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn around, because their students face challenges well… Continue reading Dropping out of school
Go on, sing…
I am feeling very happy today. I finally started music lessons – after years of learning Carnatic music as a kid (as any good Tambram girl of my generation) and then years of never ever singing, followed by years (yeah, I know, that makes me sound so old) of agonizing over resuming music lessons, I… Continue reading Go on, sing…
street kids, street acrobats
Now that the Kala Ghoda arts festival is over, I can finally take a break from all that hectic blogging at the KGAF blog and give my own blog the attention it demands and rarely gets. (If you have been regularly reading the Kala Ghoda Gazette or drop by there now, you will probably figure… Continue reading street kids, street acrobats
Attack of the tech-savvy toddlers
Kids as young as 2 years old are downloading content to cell phones, computers, and portable digital music players according to a report from NPD Group – says this report on InformationWeek. Two year olds! I got my first mobile phone when I was 27; the study says, about 15% of 2- to 5-year-olds and… Continue reading Attack of the tech-savvy toddlers
Oh, by the way…
So long as we are telling you what not to do, we thought we may as well tell you this too – do not abuse children I mean… what? Spotted across Goa beaches and snapped at Palolem finally… Snapped in more than one way. Picture this – group of drunk bare-chested, beer-bellied, white under-weared (yuck,… Continue reading Oh, by the way…