| ஒத்திசைவு | प्रत्याह्वय | resonance |

Very many years ago, we had a meeting (the participants were mainly teachers,  parents and teacher-parents) at our earlier (Bangalore) school and the following is a set of notes / discussion pointers that we used to kindle thoughts, seed discussions and to thrash out various vexatious issues and stuff…

The whole context for the meeting was circumscribed by the idea that – parents and schools are NOT on the opposite sides of the child, pulling the poor child literally apart; that these two stakeholders are on the SAME side as that of the child, helping and assisting it to realize its potential to the fullest extent possible.

Off: http://www.bristol.k12.ct.us/uploaded/Mountain_View/Docs/global-curriculum.gif (thanks: bristol public schools – mountain view)

Anyway, I thought it would perhaps be a good idea, to share the quick notes (from our archives) — that we made for ourselves, when we went for this meeting/discussions — with the readers of this weblog.

Of course, by no means, any claim is made about this listing being reasonably complete or even being logical; we would like to revisit this – so, feel free to comment on it.

It is reproduced hereunder verbatim – it is kind of dated, sketchy and in a ‘telex kind , of incomplete language,’ but probably would be useful, as long as there are decent schools and responsible parents… Oh, the hope.

—- begin —-

Parents meeting : The roles of home and school – a complete partnership
20th July 2008

‘Aims’ of education:

• Aid for life (or IS life)
• On-going process for life
• In childhood, they are meta-formalized / unconsciously internalized within a given child

As adults, we need to help the child develop the following three:

• Strong sense of self – to help the child deal with present and future challenges in life
• Right values towards self, work, one’s life, fellow human beings, and fellow living things and the material world around us – to build a sense of a loving, respectful, thinking, evolving community – given to accepting feedback and gracefully growing along as many dimensions as possible
• Skills and meta skills to live one’s life fully at every stage – to find joy and meaning in work

School’s role in education:

We think that the school should provide the following:

• Strong sense of self and the right values
• Reinforce what comes from home – provide everyday examples of valued behavior and responses to the world
• Skills: School is the other complementary & supplementary main influence in the child’s life with respect to the development of various kinds of interpersonal and academic skills. While meta-skills are more important than skills, we feel that meta-skills cannot be learnt in isolation – they have to be learnt only through – and in the context of the underlying skills

Some key meta-learning skills:

• How to learn
• How to work alone
• How to work with others (including other adults)
• How to set goals and outcomes
• How to plan to get the outcomes and work for it
• How to be flexible and roll with the punches
• Exposure to diverse occupations, terrains and folks
• How to identify and set standards, evaluate oneself and course-correct as necessary
• To develop a sense joy and wonder in learning

Some key skills:

• Basic languages, math, science, geography, history, civics background
• Physical prowess
• Creative expressions
• Ability to connect and weave webs among these separate topics

Parents’ role in education ( – as a set of expectations from the school):

• To be role models, live the values that are preached, especially the work-ethic
• To learn along with the child
• To respect and love the child – most importantly, to listen to the child
• To keep the channels of communication constantly open with the child
• To provide a richness of environment to the growing intellect
• To have regular and meaningful dialogues with school
• To provide a set of meaningful choices to the child and to respect the child’s choice
• To take responsibility  for child’s education and not outsource it completely to the school
• To pitch in – aid and help the school as necessary and appropriate

Hope this listless listing is useful, or phenomenally useless as the case maybe. In any case, of course YMMV.

JounrnalEntry#

A listing of other offending posts on the beastess…

• ‘education’ – big picture vs details 11/09/2014
• we expect way too much from teachers…19/08/2014
• ‘education’ – this, i believe… 16/08/2014
• education: a taxonomy towards understanding the beastess! 21/12/2013
• what is education? 18/12/2013
• James Clavell on Education 17/07/2013
• spirituality, education & andre gregory 28/06/2013
• a very personal list of books on ‘Education’ 27/06/2013
• time ‘spent’ on education(!) 20/06/2013
• our daughters, education, choices 15/04/2013
• we expect way too much from teachers… 19/08/2014
• popular astrology for children – 101 (hic) 18/06/2014
• the magical child 25/09/2013
• the legend of matajuro 20/09/2013
• planetless night, wendell berry, notes 22/08/2013
• wendell berry on children, stewardship… 25/07/2013
• ‘rote learning’ is bloody important! 06/07/2013
• rote memorization is important 05/07/2013
• assessment tests for children considered harmful… 24/06/2013
• … அல்லா டீச்சருங்ளயும் நிக்கவச்சி சுட்ணும் சார்! 20/04/2013
• the school of ‘helicopter parenting’ 09/04/2013
• a lesson in history… 04/04/2013
• …