Mindfulness: The Power of Words

To Heal or Hurt ... it's all in your hands... oops ... 'your words'

 

It’s been a few days now, since a colleague remarked ‘You, should mind the tone of your voice ...’ or words to that effect! Despite my rebuttal, ‘it could be mutual’ and a quick private word with her, immediately after the incident - we ‘assured’ each other ‘no offence meant and none taken’ ... but I must admit long after that, her ‘words’ still had me in knots!

It was not hard to imagine the multiple ways that such a situation could ‘degenerate’ into, I came up with the following: ‘Ok, you’ve had your say, I’ll get back with you...’, ‘Seethe with anger’, ‘Feel insulted/slighted’ ...

I also realized the reactions to such situations significantly differ according to contexts - when ‘played out before an audience’ and when ‘sans an audience’.

What, if any, is the learning from such ‘sensitive situations’, it is not as if such ‘situations’ will not arise in the future, and most particularly, keeping in mind the dangers of such situations ‘degenerating’, and the potential to set off a vicious ‘eye for an eye’ cycle.

 ‘You, should mind the tone of your voice...’ the implied ‘imperative’ and the ‘modal’ ... could connote tones and meanings quite unintended by the speaker, but acknowledging the ‘dangerous possibilities’ ... here’s an attempt to ‘rephrase’ the same ‘accusatory phrase’!

‘You know ... your tone comes across to me ... as....’ or ‘When I hear the tone of your voice ... I feel ...’, or ‘I am not quite sure, how I feel, hearing the tone of your voice ...’ And all of a sudden, such a proactive, ‘I’ squarely places and accepts the responsibility for what ‘I’ am hearing and ‘my attempts to describe my feelings’ and removes the ‘sting’ of the ‘accusatory’, ‘you’ and ‘should ...’ ‘The Power of Words’ to ‘hurt or heal’ … have immense implications! 

Not quite sure, whether it was Mohandas Gandhi? or Louis Fischer? or Henry Powell Spring? or Martin Luther King? who famously remarked, ‘An Eye for an Eye Will Make the Whole World Blind’ – I, for one certainly do not fancy a ‘blind world’ given the ‘tools’ at our disposal to ‘see better’!

One Fell Swoop: Pull the Plug on Public Expenditure on School Education

One Fell Swoop: Pull the Plug on Public Expenditure on School Education

 

Anthony Joseph

Doctoral Scholar

CIE -DU

 

The provision of good Public Education as a critical obligation by the Government of India for its most needy citizens leaves, much to be desired!

 

Despite measures to ensure top priority to fiscal discipline, one wonders whether public expenditure on School Education is top priority. Drawing on the current emphasis of funds released under all welfare schemes be linked to project execution and payments made directly in to beneficiary’s account to plug pilferages, one wonders whether such a model could apply to public expenditure on School Education.

 

Government jobs in the School Education sector may have caused more damage than perceived! The ‘security’ provided by these jobs has precious little to show, by way of learning and learning outcomes, both by its benefactors and of its beneficiaries.

 

With plaintive cries and threats to “Give it up” from gas cylinders to black money in India and on the international front, issues of neoliberalism, educational democracy, cultural politics, public education,  and seeing teachers and administrators as critical transformational leaders demanding urgent attention, what if, any, are the implications of such issues on public expenditure on School Education in India? Asking, Government functionaries in the Indian School Education system give up their jobs, forthwith?

 

What if by one fell swoop, someone decided to pull the plug on public expenditure on School Education - all the Government functionaries of School Education system in India were to be instantly laid off and at the same time, money meant for  public expenditure on School Education was handed over directly to beneficiary’s (student’s – from nursery to Senior Secondary) account. What would be the impact of this ‘one fell swoop’ on learning and learning outcomes? Let’s hazard a guess, the Government exchequer would be left with a lot of spare money even after the ‘directly to beneficiary account’ transfer!

 

If the ‘one fell swoop’, sound crazy … then the morass that is synonymous with Public Education in India is scary! Your choice! ‘crazy’ or ‘scary’?

 

This is not to argue for the merits of ‘private education’ and or the ‘voucher system’. I am convinced, there are clear evidences (read, Transformative Researchers and Educators for Democracy (2015) Edited by João M. Paraskeva and Thad LaVallee) the free market model of education can never be a hope for good public education. I am not quite sure, whether I’d like to live life, ‘crazy’ or ‘scared’.

Key Words: public education, school education, public expenditure