What would one do, oh what will one do, if a beautiful event, that doesn’t happen or come-by often times (because it is such a rare exhilarating thing) – just happens to happen near one’s very doorsteps?
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eclipse, brain damage
April 22, 2016
a zoology lesson
April 5, 2016
When I grow up, I want to be a little boy.
— Joseph Heller, Something Happened (1974)
It is quite possible that in that family: Read the rest of this entry »
a real school for adolescents: a ‘context framework’
March 30, 2016
For the past few months or so, my spouse & I have been working with a ‘small’ school, to help it setup/structure a robust & meaningful adolescent programme for its learners – rooted in our Indic traditions and grafting in the best of what the Orient and the Occident have to offer, in a Montessori background as we understand it. Read the rest of this entry »
susan engel: playing to learn
March 25, 2016
I love this. :-)
Ma’am Engel, you say so many things, so very eloquently! I really hope, my fellow education-racketeers would listen to folks like you. Hope we all would soon internalize the fundamental fact that, efforts at ‘reductionist education’ based on mere assessment tests & measurable outcomes are really harmful to the children and to the society-at-large in the long run, yes.
bumbling ball in a box and humbling math…
March 24, 2016
Let us say we want to measure the volume of a sphere, fitting snugly in to (or ‘bounded by’) a cube. Read the rest of this entry »
maria montessori said so…
March 23, 2016
There was this series of 12 lectures, that was delivered by Ma’am Montessori in the year 1948 – and broadcast from the All India Radio Station, Chennai. Read the rest of this entry »
a handout for my lovely learners…
March 21, 2016
I have a following kinda handout that I distribute to the adorable high-school boys and girls (sometimes college students), who want to make the utterly disastrous mistake of becoming my hapless pupils; normally, the handing over happens during our second session… Read the rest of this entry »
ashokamitran, kalyan raman, two new translations
March 11, 2016
I have always been fascinated by the way my beloved Ashokamitran – delicately weaves & writes remarkable stuff — without resorting to any literary ‘device’ embellishments or verbal hijinks or melodrama or self-flagellation or laboured constructs or faffing roundabouts or philosophical blather or put-on erudition. Read the rest of this entry »
mallasandram megalith site – visit plan, notes
February 23, 2016
Once in a while, I organize trips to interesting historic / geographical / sciencey kinda of places, for young learners, in association with small schools. This blog-post is one example of what gets organized around these visits – and is posted in the hope that, based on this data, any adult can take a group of kids on a field-trip of pure and tiring joy! (please do read the postscript too! and of course, this post is also only some 1900 words loooong!)
… come, walk with me in the mud*… Read the rest of this entry »
anony_mice = anonymous_cowards: some notes
February 2, 2016
This post is about what a commentwallah blathered recently, and my lengthy (~1300 words) rejoinder to it:
the imfartance of being aravindan kannaiyan
January 28, 2016
The first part here: the importance of being aravindan kannaiyan.
Rushpucted Saars & Meydums – unfartunately for you, there is no speeling mushtake in the tightle; so, interpret it if you must, on an ‘ass is where is’ basis, though it is gastly.
The thing is that, slander happens rather too easily in the world of Tamil Literature, what with its half-baked & clueless charlatans running amok – but to set it right, to show the twisted bent of mind behind the slander, takes a bloody loooong essay.
the importance of being aravindan kannaiyan
January 13, 2016
(OR) HH Aravindan Kannaiyan, Asokamitran, Boris Pasternak, Indira Gandhi, Mel Brooks and little else
Dear Sirs and Ma’ams, this settles it. It is rather unfortunate, but we have to take the bullshit by the barns, am sorry.
Unless the most Venerable, His Holeness Aravindan Kannaiyan, by hook or crook (or by some goddam IT socialmedia revoltingution, and bending of the rules by #trending #twitterstorm #goingviral or some such #brain_dead_fever; or by exploiting the loopholes of the US immigration rules much like the H1B/Greencard scams; or…) becomes the next American President, there is no hope for the feudal society that is India. Read the rest of this entry »
october sky, the shining, matewan and um, the shawshank redemption
December 29, 2015
Yesterday, a short 10 day break for the Erdkinder (Montessoriese term for adolescents) began – and we thought, may be they could see a couple of films (not merely high brow, not cryptic Arthouse, nor very mainstream, but reasonable flicks) that they can reflect on and get back to the School post their holidays.
The first was ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ – not exactly great, but a reasonable film (story of that pulp ‘horror’ fiction writer – Stephen King) directed by Frank Darabont; however, I would consider the rendition more melodramatic than what the storyline warrants, and I would tell you why. Read the rest of this entry »
the spirit of christmas
December 25, 2015
As usual, the day before the ‘actual’ Christmas, it was celebrated with much gusto at the School – on 24th December itself.
‘circular ruins’ vs ‘taare zameen par’ & ‘tinkle’
December 1, 2015
Circa 1972/73, as a little boy, I read a Tamil translation of this mind blowingly beautiful short story of Jorge Luis Borges (JLB) – one of the finest littérateurs that inhabited the earth, an Argentinian – a remarkable essayist and a fine poet too.
This translated ‘circular ruins’ was Vattach-chidhaivugal (=வட்டச் சிதைவுகள் – made available on the web by that fellow-curmudgeon Vimalaadiththa Maamallan, hat tip to him) – artfully and faithfully done-up by a remarkable Srilankan Tamil – Dharumu Aroop Sivaramu (AKA Pramil Banuchenran, Bramil … …) – who, in my opinion, is/was one of the finest littérateurs too. I remember to have been completely bowled over by the translated story and recollect that I tried to hunt for more of JLB’s outputs – not with much success though, as my world then was limited to whatever that was available in the local government lending libraries. Read the rest of this entry »
wrong day, basandhi ! @ ~ &^ $#
November 30, 2015
See, I do not normally write about anything that I do not pretend to know about. But, the truth is that, I have been a reluctant witness occasionally, to what passes for learned TV discussions, in the hysterically farcical Indian TV channels, mostly courtesy: youtube.
macaulay’s progeny, education macht frei, of course!
October 2, 2015
Even after more than some 180 bloody years, the Macaulay’s legacy happily and sordidly lives on in India – what with the mushrooming ‘English Medium’ schools all over our Indusland and ‘Cambridge / Oxford / Berkeley / MIT / etc affilicted Royal Concorde[1] Internotional Public Residential type ‘school’ entities, promising the clueless parents of ultimate deliverance of their hapless and rather sad & stymied children…
Yeah! HotAir -welcomes – you – on – board – flight – 911 – to – touts’ universities -where else -but-in-USA – please – fasten – your – seatbelts, we-are-ready- to-take-off – what? -don’t – you – know – we – have – two – swimming – pools – and – provide – horse – riding – training – also – conduct – meditation yoga – classes – suit coat blazer ties caps shoes must – we ‘accent-neutralize’ your children’s – speech – so – they – sound – like -yankees – when – they – visit – the – localmalls – in – hordes – and – wear -polo – caps – with – their – bills – turned – sidewards – yeah – they – FightJEE too! So we all can then, happily die ever after! Yippee!!
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of whine and woeman…
September 28, 2015
Long ago, lost in the twirling mists of the memories past, I wrote a series of rants on ‘talkers and doers‘ – more with a sense of disgust towards myself than with others… The links to the updated versions of the series are at the bottom of this offending post, for your edification.
…and pardon my soliloquy. (you can look at the other meanings/connotations too!)
JournalEntry# October 30, 2008 + updated on 28th September, 2015
I have long since come to the conclusions (not that they are a great revelation or whatever) that:
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doubteronomy and numbers
September 13, 2015
This is a reflective piece written (some 5/6 years back or so, for me) on ‘doubt’ by my dear friend, a fine educational philosopher and Ms Guide – K. Rama – a respected colleague of mine and a fantastic Montessori teacher. Of course, this is not a hyperbole.
Let me say that, fantastic teachers are generally very hard to find and then – when you add the mighty Montessori twist to it, oh well…
Elementary age children – really, really love her, for the magic that she manages to weave in the impressionable minds of the children – in the process, enthralling the gawking adults like yours truly too…Of course, my kids benefited immensely from all this magic.
I really miss her & the Montessori Magic these days. *sniff*
othisaivu.in 