An ode to Shaktiman - A horse with a name
The parable of the 'boiling frog' Put a frog into a vessel fill with water and start heating the water.
As the temperature of the water begins to rise, the frog adjust its body temperature accordingly...
This is one of my favourite stories ... the import of its meaning is powerful ...
If you truly want to 'destroy' people ... never put them in boiling water .. but gradually ... 'kill' their souls ... 'kill' their will to 'live' ... start with sops ... give them 'rice' at 'dirt' cheap rates ... help them forget to work ...remember the water has just begun to boil ..
When you come to think of it ...Quite a few of our 'policies and schemes' are not quite unlike the 'gradually boiling water' ... take for example the 'no detention policy' a master stroke ... to kill 'curious minds' ... In our country 'no detention' has long ago degenerated into 'no teaching' and thereby ensured, 'no learning both for the teacher and the taught' ...children 'pass' right up to class 8 ... and their ...'foundations' are so tenuous.. that ... ASER has to constantly revise and revisit their findings ...even before the ink has dried. Then to the utter 'delight' of the teachers we now have 'CCE' ... so up to class 10 ... we have 'no detention' and of course 'no learning' ...
Well, incase you missed it ... listen to this ...'Govt plan: Must meet minimum standard for promotion to Class IX' (The Sunday Express, April 17, 2016, p.1)... you get the drift right ... could the minimum standard be the plan to ensure .. fodder for the success of the much touted 'Skill Development' that vows to 'Transforming the skill landscape' ... now that's not right ... flunked children fodder for the skill landscape ... and why not ...history is replete with famous college/school dropouts ... who've 'made it to the top'...
Reductionistic and myopic policies ... with the promise of 'instant gratification' may be destined the 'Shaktiman way'! ...The brave 'Shaktiman (a horse with a name!) learns to walk again - with a shoe, prosthetic leg from US' (The Sunday Express, April 17, 2016, p.1)... and then before we even know that the water is boiling.. too late ...'Kids would peep in, ask how's Shaktiman ... now he's gone' (The Indian Express, April 21, 2016, p.1) ...
It is hard to ignore the screaming ASER by PRATHAM ... which unequivocally declares how the head, hearts and hands of the majority of our children condemned to partake of the education doled out by the nearly 1.5 million Goverment Schools in the country, are hacked down, drained physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually and mentally ... not quite unlike the brave and powerful Shaktiman ... ... the time between Shaktiman '....learns to walk again and ....now he's gone' is scary!
As the temperature of the water begins to rise, the frog adjust its body temperature accordingly...
This is one of my favourite stories ... the import of its meaning is powerful ...
If you truly want to 'destroy' people ... never put them in boiling water .. but gradually ... 'kill' their souls ... 'kill' their will to 'live' ... start with sops ... give them 'rice' at 'dirt' cheap rates ... help them forget to work ...remember the water has just begun to boil ..
When you come to think of it ...Quite a few of our 'policies and schemes' are not quite unlike the 'gradually boiling water' ... take for example the 'no detention policy' a master stroke ... to kill 'curious minds' ... In our country 'no detention' has long ago degenerated into 'no teaching' and thereby ensured, 'no learning both for the teacher and the taught' ...children 'pass' right up to class 8 ... and their ...'foundations' are so tenuous.. that ... ASER has to constantly revise and revisit their findings ...even before the ink has dried. Then to the utter 'delight' of the teachers we now have 'CCE' ... so up to class 10 ... we have 'no detention' and of course 'no learning' ...
Well, incase you missed it ... listen to this ...'Govt plan: Must meet minimum standard for promotion to Class IX' (The Sunday Express, April 17, 2016, p.1)... you get the drift right ... could the minimum standard be the plan to ensure .. fodder for the success of the much touted 'Skill Development' that vows to 'Transforming the skill landscape' ... now that's not right ... flunked children fodder for the skill landscape ... and why not ...history is replete with famous college/school dropouts ... who've 'made it to the top'...
Reductionistic and myopic policies ... with the promise of 'instant gratification' may be destined the 'Shaktiman way'! ...The brave 'Shaktiman (a horse with a name!) learns to walk again - with a shoe, prosthetic leg from US' (The Sunday Express, April 17, 2016, p.1)... and then before we even know that the water is boiling.. too late ...'Kids would peep in, ask how's Shaktiman ... now he's gone' (The Indian Express, April 21, 2016, p.1) ...
It is hard to ignore the screaming ASER by PRATHAM ... which unequivocally declares how the head, hearts and hands of the majority of our children condemned to partake of the education doled out by the nearly 1.5 million Goverment Schools in the country, are hacked down, drained physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually and mentally ... not quite unlike the brave and powerful Shaktiman ... ... the time between Shaktiman '....learns to walk again and ....now he's gone' is scary!
Labels: critical thinking, Horse, myopic, Reductionistic, Reflexive Pedagogy, Shaktiman
posted by aquarian at 1:05 PM
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