Just_give_it_a_thought

Exam or No Exam

The topic investigates the pros and cons of the sudden dictate of conducting no exams. The article highlights the danger involved in non conduction of exams at present.  

https://www.researchgate.net  , https://link.springer.com , https://pz.harverd.edu ,

Whatever pedagogy the world education system is following, all of them are written exam based. Years of practice has firmly instilled the same in the understanding and behaviour of educationists, teachers, parents and students.

Sudden arrival of Covid-19 has put a big question mark on our exam system. Everyone is compelled to think ‘out of the box’ of other and innovative ways to promote the students to the next standard. This raises many doubts : Are we ready at the moment to promote the students without exams? Is our education system  that much equipped to  change and adopt a new system overnight? Will it be proper from the students’ point of view to do so?

A system without written exam would require entirely a different approach; a special set of tools to assess and check the progress of the students. We will have to follow a task oriented system of education. The tasks should be easy to observe and translate in terms of numbers or grades through out the curriculum.

At present, internal marking focuses on providing maximum benefit to support a ‘good’ final result. We can’t change this mentality overnight. We will have to create new generation teachers, who are good at task management; who know what to observe; how to observe and when to observe; who know how to keep the record in the form of data and transform it for grading.

It is quite clear the current text books should be transformed to Task books or Manuals where learning takes place by accomplishing the graded tasks. The student will ‘learn by doing’ utilizing enquiry and research while completing the given task.

Task based system would also demand removal of time pressure. At present time pressure implies completing the tasks and projects misguides the student to copy-paste or to copy from their friends’ notes.

Dear reader, I hope it is quite clear that at present we are not ready to adopt the new system having no exams or end of the year exam.

In the given circumstance it seems  that we are denying the students the opportunity for their proper growth and development by not letting them appear in the end of the year exam. It is a very lame excuse that we have removed the stressful situation the students were in by promoting them on the basis of internal marking.

Teaching stress management is of prime importance. If the student is ill-equipped he will fail to deal with real life situations. At present we have a workable system of class test, unit test, midterm etc, that help the student to prepare and deal with stressful situations. Geologists know that if a system of induced small earthquakes is generated it can avert a catastrophic earthquake in a fault region.

It is a proven fact that the best in a person surfaces in  a challenging situation. As the exams come closer we observe a marked change in the students. He becomes more focused; he summons all his mental and physical energy to focus on learning. His maximum learning takes place while preparing to face the exams. 

Removal of exams from an exam based system would harm the students more than do any good. It might help the Governments, the planners, and executers to relax  but it will render the system useless for the student. Who would no longer summon up his ability to stretch the horizon of his understanding and learning by preparing for the exam , moreover, he will not at all touch those topics which are important but he has no interest in.

The students from whom we have removed the exam stress might be happy today but, ‘dear all, what will happen tomorrow when the same students will face various entrance exams and fail?’ No one will be able to control their shattered harts; no one will be able to control the suicide rate.  Or this is how we plan to reduce the weaker youth population followed by Covid-19 deaths?

Just give it a thought.

A Letter to Crim-Nulls

 

A Letter to Crim-Nulls

Dear Bereaved                                

I extend my heartfelt sympathy.

The whole world is deeply affected by your diminishing presence. You are no longer lurking out there. The police is turning into couch potatoes. I am really worried about the sordid situation. No, I am not talking about the lax law department, I am rather concerned about your handicap, this ugly master criminal called Covid-19 has wrought.

You may think you have even lost your identity mask, but it is not so. Please don’t nurse any grudge . In fact the mask they are wearing is to show their wee feeling, for your activities are far more innocent games than their tempering with the nature and robbing it off its wealth, polluting it, and stifling it to an early destruction and demise.

Oh! Who would have thought that the situation would be so grim?? However the consolation is: we all are sailing in the same boat; we are losing our livelihood on which you thrive. We had read; ‘All work no play makes Jack a dull boy’. Now it should be reframed; ‘No ply, no work makes Jack  a dead boy’.

Yes my friends we are one in this; ‘Crime of the people, for the people and by the people’. Every one has to pay for his crimes, for the wedges of sin is death. We are quite advanced on this damnation path.

Dear friends, though it seems what we have done cant be undone. But there are things which can still be ‘accomplice’ in, no not the regular blue-collared and the white-collared cr…er! Creative acts . Yes, we can maintain the status quo, we can replenish the pockets we thrive on for no pocket leads to no pickpockets. And who likes famine, manmade or otherwise.

If you agree, we all will have to stop for a while and nurse the situation back to normal to enjoy the good old days. We will have to take a pledge; no more crime against mother earth.

If we do so, I assure you there wont be any capital punishment for the crimes we have committed. No leagally  illegal activities will get our leagally illegal consents. If the environment takes a U-turn to health our invisible enemies the dreadful alpha, beta, etc… will not get a chance to disguise it and become even more dreadful.

It is in the interest of all to join hands to nurse our common mother earth who is like an outcast looking at us expecting help from her own children.

Rest is not fine.

Please do not convey my sympathies to any sharp shooter. Keep practicing social distancing with your famous masks (your high posts , and higher offices you hold).

Closing with affection

Your  Brother  in crime.

Rock of Ages and Religion at War

Religion versus God

˂https://grottonetwork ˃

˂ https://www.researchgate.net ˃

˂www.plato.stanford.edu˃  

  

 

Religion has become so prominent that God has vanished in the background. 

As religion comprises of the beliefs, values, and practices in an organizational way; god is lost somewhere in worldly adherence to one’s religion.

According to sociology; a group of people having similar beliefs, values and practices form an organization. All the human organizations are controlled by human beings only. In most of the cases the whims and wishes of the heads of organizations are imposed on the masses and considered to be religious practices. ˂https://www.meriam-webster.com˃   

The whims and wishes of the religious heads get translated into the Canons of the organization. Years of practice establishes them as religious practices and most importantly makes the heads more powerful. The biggest drawback of such practices is corruption of mind, body and spirit.  People start thinking that the man-induced beliefs, values and practices, that they are following, are the only paths of righteousness. Devotees think that God can be appeased only by following the ways established by the organization (No one wants to consider what god wants). This makes people shortsighted and they get segregated into different groups. Each group thinks their set of beliefs, values and practices are good and true but those outside the group are not following a true religion. This further leads to group rivalries and conflicts. Sometimes the group rivalry becomes physical and results into religion based atrocities. This all happens in the name of religion. ˂ https://www.intouch.org˃      ˂https://en.m.wikipedia.org˃     ˂ https://www.bbc.co.uk˃  

No religion can separate itself from the human bias. As long as there are religions there will be wars in the name of religion (Middle East for example, and Tribal wars in Africa). There will be civil unrests in various countries. There will be Hindu Muslim issues. There will be issues of high cast and low cast. There will be mob lynching. There will be demolitions of church buildings, Temples and Mosques. In short, no part of the world is free from internal to external affairs, which are free from religion based issues.

Why is it so?   

The answer is crystal clear. Back in the history religion started as a quest for God. Saints and sages focused their mental and physical meditative energies to learn about God from God Almighty Himself. And God blessed them with his revelations in the form of Holy words. As a result most of the ancient religions have their holy scriptures which give a clear idea of a living God and His expectations. The saints and sages have simply written the words they received from God the creator. Any one who reads the holy scriptures can learn the path laid by God and be blessed by His holy presence. All would have been well if the holy words of god directly came to common man. Somewhere along the path monetization and commercialization crept in and a whole lot of middlemen came between man and god. The quest turned into a mockery of offerings for the sake of absolution. The holy words became silent, the words of avarice became more prominent. In some cases the self imposed keepers of religion tabooed the personal handling of the scriptures by the people for whom it was meant by God almighty. In other cases, religious heads   became supreme and corrupted the freewill of the masses. (https://britannca.com Rigveda, https://overviewbible.com , Hebrew Torah, https://quran.com)

Today people think doing what others are doing, following what others are following is religion. No body is concerned what God has already said in his eternal words. No one wants to follow god or no one knows God’s will and follows it. The years of practicing ‘religion’ has created a great gulf between man and God. Religion has blocked the free, rational mind created by God as used by saints and sages.

 

Making Religion Compatible with God the Creator

Knowing God is making religion compatible with God. 

It is very difficult to match religion with God because we do not know about god. There are few steps to know god.

1.       Consider God as the only one who always accompanies you.

2.       Consider God as the one who can listen, understand your words of praise or complaints.

3.       Learn to talk to Him at the level of your conscience.

4.       Consider god as a pure heart who can’t be approached with vested interests.

In short, simply start talking to God and he will guide you himself.  talking to God may mean meditation or Prayer . In reality God knows each and every thing that goes on in our heart and mind. God follows our stream of consciousness, God knows our every instinct. This means whether we are talking to Him or not he is in constant touch with us. This means our thoughts should always be appealing to God. God the creator may have many names according to our religion but is the king or the ‘prajapati’ who has given us free choice to follow or not to follow him. Dual nature is unacceptable to God. It takes human will to follow god.

5.       Reading of scriptures is very important for seekers of God. It helps to understand His nature and moulds us accordingly.

When a person establishes a relation with God by listening to Him and starts thinking and performing as His ambassador, his religion becomes compatible with God.

I think now it must be clear to the reader that it is easy to follow a religion but very difficult to follow God. God works individually with each person without a mediator. His voice can be heard through our conscience. Each one of us is a living temple of God. When we hear His voice and open the doors of the temple wide God enters and takes place in the throne of our heart. 

If a person has not experienced God personally, he will keep on following the worldly ways taught by his religion without having any everlasting peace and happiness. When God takes hold of person he makes him a true seeker, a true follower, a true servant of fellow human beings. 

Vaccine War

 

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines-myth-versus-fact

Newspapers are filled with lot of information these days regarding  Covid Vaccine. You may come across information as given below.

NBT: According to WHO experts the corona virus vaccine is less effective against delta and Delta Plus virus due to Mutation. On the other hand, according to the newspaper,  Navbharat, India Sputninik Vaccine claims to be more effective.

Dear reader, I feel we should not pay heed to all such news items but should understand the facts. What are the facts.

1.      In the past various vaccines have been used to treat many deadly and other diseases effectively. This means that vaccines have proved themselves. They are time tested.

2.      We know that vaccines are made from the virus itself. Virus is made so weak that it is no longer powerful enough to cause the disease. But the weak virus triggers the immune system and makes antibodies to fight it.

3.      After vaccination, while the war inside is on between antibodies and the weak virus, the patient might experience fever which tells the inside story that antibodies are fighting and overcoming the enemy that is weekend virus.

Dear reader, the conclusion is vaccines are always good without doubt. The only precaution to be taken is one should go for vaccination if his general health is sound. If not one should take it with proper medical guidance.

I hope the above will dispel your doubts about taking or neglecting vaccination. We should not pay attention on any negative rumor being spread by media or other source. We should not even think which vaccine we should go for because it is just a commercial war between the companies that are producing vaccines.   We should just focus on strengthening our immune system by making it familiar with the Corona virus.

 <https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines.html> 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/how-they-work.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fvaccines%2Fabout-vaccines%2Fhow-they-work.html

All vaccines are safe. Go for the one available to you.

Home Schooling: Challenges to Overcome

 

How to prepare our children to face the current situation?

#https// boardofsecondaryeducation.com # www.pbse.nic.in # https://www.ed.gov/ # https://www.idp.com/india/study-in-australia/education-system/ # http://government.ru. # edu

Soon the schools are going to open in India and many other countries. Is everything going to be the same as it was before the pandemic? Will the schools and Children be able to follow the guidelines of safety? Will all the parents be able to send their children willingly to school? Will the hands of parents be shaky while signing no objection certificate to attend schools?

Yes! Everyone – excluding regions and countries where scientific literacy is yet to spread – is afraid of taking any social step, especially about sending their children to schools! Reason? Covid-19 has proved itself to be the deadliest of all the contagious diseases so far. Covid-19 came like a thief and made a mockery of all the super powers. Even if mankind is redeemed of it, the phantoms of death and devastation are not going to let us escape into ‘utopian’ peace of mind.

Hygienic living: some future considerations

The quality of sanitation will decide the admissions in a school. To study in a zero virus, zero bacteria, zero fungal environment will become costlier than today.  Moreover, the aim to achieve a super hygienic environment is impossible even for the most developed countries. This fact will influence a considerable percent of people to go for home schooling. In those countries where home schooling is already being practiced can and will easily spread their business tentacles to those countries where parents are not satisfied with the prevailing unhygienic conditions of classroom teaching. 

Home schooling has its own drawbacks.

The basic purpose of schooling is to produce socially equipped individuals who can fit into the network of contemporary society in a natural and productive manner. This is only possible when children have freedom to play and learn together. They must be free to develop personal friendships, group leaderships, and fellowships for the sake of building a healthy nation. These goals have been better achieved in off line school environment.

This brings up the Question:                                                                                                                                                                  Is the home schooling around the world suitable to prepare the children to fulfill the requirements of education?

I have met some US & Australian students undergoing homeschooling. They seemed to me—excepting few – as   dumb as any ‘driven cattle’. The children were unable to strike a normal relationship even with the relatives!??Home schooling isolates the children from the rest of the world. This system is more likely to promote asocial and even antisocial behavior in kids and growing children. This does not mean that homeschooling is of no use at all. It is definitely useful when social distancing seems to be, and probably is the only option to make a difference between life and death of individual and the community.

 We must understand that homeschooling is not ‘something is better than nothing’, because homeschooling is a time tested system that is full of potential and possibilities of improvement and improvisation to suit the future needs. If it gives proper opportunity to the students to interact and grow together by participating in online group work like presentations, and all the online ways to pair and share and even PE Practical in live class mode, it can definitely be recognized as the second best option.

 At present, students have to sit in front of the screen almost in a passive mode to attend the classes. This means a lot of improvement is required. Some of them are, as suggested below.

(a)    For proper online classes the syllabus has to be revised and reduced. The global aim of the online schooling should be to equip the students with tools of learning with research oriented quarry into the topic being studied.

(b)   Health and Hygiene should be given priority in the syllabus of school and college. These topics must also be merged with other subjects as much as possible.

(c)    Teaching –learning time should be reduced to 3 hours per day. Rest of the free time at home students can be kept engaged in H.W. project work and reading the listening to the videos of previous / next lessons. The purpose of home work should be self study in and interesting way with research orientation.

(d)   Each day at the end of the lesson four to five SA questions should be given for class work evaluation and internal marks. The purpose is to make each class important. For the purpose Google forms or like applications/teaching platforms should be used.

(e)   Instructional strategies like Flipped Classroom should be utilized to promote student engagement and learning. It makes the class more meaningful.

(f)     Use proper tools like Google Voice, Zoom, Whats App Groups, live lessons video chatting, etc.

Homeschooling is impossible without parental participation at home. Parental education is the need of the hour. Parental education is a very touchy subject, especially at present because Covid-19 has affected the household economy overnight and changed the whole world order, requiring new values to adjust at such a short notice to the challenging demands of making the education system better in a progressive manner.

The role of family has become even more important. It is only well oriented parents who can create a positive environment that is conducive for the overall growth of children. Parents are responsible for maintaining a balance between study time and other activities. Other activities must include sports, Yoga, spending quality time with kids instead of sitting and watching television. 

https://www.albert.io/blog/strategies-fo-teaching-online/

Reduced Working Hours: Home study has put an added responsibility on the parents. Now the parents require more free time at home. The governments around the world can help in reducing / relaxing the office hours/ work at home hours for the proper growth of children undergoing home schooling.

 

Unified World Education System: The Only Answer

# https://youtu.be/e46mR7v5yvc # https://en.unesco.org. #

To restore and maintain the health of our sick planet our children require developing stewardship. This is not possible if the world education system is left to take its own course. All the children should be enlightened and active participants in promoting the health of mother earth like Greta Thunberg and the like.

To say anything—except in China—is easy but when it comes to do the same we forget it like the ‘flaunting’ poly-bags held in our hands.

Let us wipe the future tears of our children by mending our ways today through whatever education we may give to our children today!

 

 

 

https://youtu.be/KFIq3TX4tcw

Dear student, there's  much to learn about useful sites from this vedio #student#learn#exams#results#direction# future courses

The Best & The Worst Job: Babagiri of Ramdeo

The Honey Trap:

It is very easy to earn in millions by becoming a Godman, especially in India. The Indian masses are very religious in nature therefore it is extremely easy to play with their sentiments. So they are ready to spread their clothes for any 'wolf' who presents himself in the garb of a sheep'. 

The whole world knows people like Acharya Rajneesh, Benny Hin and the like. we know, they might be what they claim but essentially they all are international businessmen with a huge turnover. They know how to mislead or be-fool people to make money. The money involved is really too much. 

It is true that the most lucrative job toady is to become a god man.  The job of 'Babagiri' or  Using Sainthood for Desired Ends, doesn't require any formal training or education. One has to learn about his her religion properly and practice some tricks of the trade like giving the devotees gifts like Rico Watches, Fruits, Sacred Ash contrived from thin air. The jugglery is enough to trap anyone for ever, securing a steady income. 

Some people like Baba Ramdev have found a more convenient  way to impress and attract the masses, that is, to use a name resembling a deity. The Yoga Guru, for example,  uses  'Baba' as a prefix  to indicate that he is a Saint .  

No one could ever question him for his name, because he was teaching Yoga which is considered as a known religious way to control the carnal body through certain body postures and exercises, and reach God-almighty through 'asnas' (various body postures) and meditation. The word 'Yogi' is also a synonym for a 'saint'. So it is quite obvious that Ramdev has used some key words; 'Baba', 'Yoga' , 'Yog-Guru', etc., to build his huge clientele and money making factory by playing with the popular religious sentiments of the people. 

The Danger of Babagiri:

It is very difficult to have one's proper balance if  one has risen from rags to riches.  Baba Ramrhaim, Chandra Swami, and many such godmen have fallen in the 'honey' trap of 'stardom'. Same is the case with Baba Ramdeo. He seems to be drunk with his huge success. He is so intoxicated with his success that he has forgotten the decent office providence has bestowed on him. He is one of the Gurus the world has admired. He has lost his mind to such an extent that he is no longer within the strings of Constitution that has given us Rights as well as Duties. Arrogance is not going to serve him long.

As a businessman he has tried his hands at several things including Ayurvedic Medicine. Every thing was going on well till he made those irresponsible comments on Allopathy. He tried to attack the time-tested treatment in a reckless manner. the way he speaks against the doctors and the whole system of modern medicine is quite shocking. No one expects such derogatory remarks from a person of his stature.  A guru is expected to speak in a civilized manner using proper scientific explanations. He should not present himself like a 'pampered' child. 

His remarks prove him to be an ugly businessman who simply wants his 'Coronil' to be used as an effective medicine against Covid19.   Anyway, he has misused his tag, 'Baba'. The word has different meanings. It is a decent word to address a small boy.   It is also used for a god-man. The word also means 'Father', 'Grandfather', or 'Saint'.