I sat this Sunday with Jispa to ensure that she is up to
speed on her school work. 8th grade has started amazingly well for
her. Her first set of exams have her scoring lovely marks in almost all
subjects, except math. She is now working on her math as well and she is trying
to score well there. The teachers are quite nice and are putting an effort in
explaining the concepts to the students. They have tons of research and very
little mugging up. A lot of explanations of terms and concepts and lots of interesting
home work. She has to write a 1200 word essay on the French Revolution after
researching whatever she wants on the internet. Now that is cool.
This is the right way to study rather than learning by rote.
This is life. You will not know most of what hits you but you are expected to
read and understand on the internet and then you are expected to synthesize the
same in a short and efficient manner.
So when I sat to study with her, quite frankly I was quite
lost. I had nothing to teach her. I just went through most of the work and
asked her if she understood. She did and so I just went on and closed almost all
the studies in 30 minutes flat. It was a smooth process. She studies on a
regular basis, she researches and she manages her homework. I introduced her to
Khan Academy.
Jispa now days is getting interested in her school work. She
wants to do well and shine in the classroom. I find that very heartening. So I try
and use that in motivating her to do better. I have told her about Khan academy
multiple times but she hadn’t every really used it. This time while studying I spoke
to her about it. I told her that since it’s a US based thing and you have an
international curriculum you should be able to love what they do and you will
find it relevant. That struck a chord and she was at it, watching videos and
learning from there.
I was telling Jasmine that seriously, I don’t understand anything
and I can’t really add value to her studies. The fact that I am sitting and discussing
stuff with her is enough. Just show that her studies are important and her
successes at school are important and celebrated. I keep telling her that she
has done well and that we wonder how but we are happy that she is managing her
studies and her swimming together.
So while finishing off her studies, I could really add value
to only two subjects – Geography and English. In geography we were talking
about over population. Here I completely dissed her studies. Over population to
my mind is a mythical monster created by people with low imagination and will to
do good work. There is no such thing such as over population. Cities have dense
populations and in many ways its good for living as people are able to stay together
and us mass transportation and fundamentally reduce the footprint. You can
efficiently design living, transport, communications, leisure, recreation etc. People
are better when they are dense as opposed to being completely spread out. So
the problem is not over population but that of under infrastructure. The government
tries to solve the problem by labelling it wrong. There is definitely a larger
population than what the infrastructure can support but the problem is not the population
but the infrastructure. Hence the problem is that there is less infrastructure that
what the people need. That’s all you need to do. Reframe your issues. Jispa
also completely agrees. She said that in class she also spoke about that as
once I had spoken to her about this. People have ingenuity and enterprise. They cannot be the problem. They are the
solution. When we were growing up, I remember having this discussion and
debate. I too firmly believed that over population is an issue. China’s one
child policy is the solution that must be emulated. As we have seen, China has
now devolved policy as it creates a various set of issues, that are also weird to
handle – such as too pampered children, an ageing population and preference for
males. You cannot see population as a problem but that as an opportunity. People
can solve their problems, you have to give them freedom to express their
enterprise. One will rise and feed a hundred. I look at my previous firm where
one man’s dream took his company today to a height where they have over 40,000
employees. In effect feeding – directly over 120,000 people at the minimum. The
ripple effect is much larger. One man’s bull headed vision. She said she tried
explaining but she is one fighting many and also the teacher. I think this Thursday,
in the parent teachers meeting, I am planning to have a smallish but healthy
discussion with her geography teacher. It should be good fun. I might have
Jasmine nudging me under the table to stop. Let’s see where that one goes.
The other subject that I help her and we have amazing
discussions is English. Here I am learning as much as she is. And with which I am
teaching her to go further. We had a few discussions about her homework and the
stuff that she had to do. I took the paragraphs and completely pushed the
envelope on its meanings. We started discussing and reached meanings on the
stuff that we hadn’t thought of before. In English its awesome, we can go as
far as we want to go without being right or wrong. Jispa then gets a few ideas
and then she notes it down. Annotations and notes is something that her teacher
has taught her as the way of studying and I think its completely awesome. This
way she makes small notes on the side and then discusses it in class, or with
her teacher or uses it in her essays/ work. It’s super cool. I wish I studied
like that when I was in school. This
gives her an amazing edge. The only worry is that while talking, I put in more
things in her head that I this is right. Not that she cannot process it and
hold it, but it’s the equivalent of doing your kids homework. And then I think
again. It possibly isn’t. It is just a new and different way to look at things.
When I read books and see the authors point, I keep it or reject it to use
again. So I guess, right now, Jispa is simply seeing various different points
of view and possibly mine are very strong and powerful. She does keep rejecting
bad ideas or she uses my ideas to challenge existing norms or challenge my
ideas as well. Together we reach further than where we were. So in the end, I assume
it’s a good thing.
This is another question to ask the teacher at school. How
much should we discuss the home work. It seems to be helping her, but how much
is the question.
Lets see…. But one thing I did do soon enough. I thanked
Jasmine. When the school forms for admission were being given out, I was the
one opposed to this school. It seemed like a ladida school and I was afraid it
would be too expensive and that we would meet people from different high end
backgrounds. It would be impossible to blend in I felt. But Jasmine insisted
and we took the form and applied. Then we got through round 1 and then round 2.
In the end, looking at everyone who did not get through, there was no way we
were going to say no. This level of teaching and this manner of the teachers is
worth spending an arm and a leg to get through. We have been lucky. Jispa has
been awesome.
Here is one forward that her English teacher put on the
whatsapp group. How do you find any fault with a teacher who sends this to the
kids.
I so wish that someone taught me stuff like this when I was young and impressionable. I had lost faith in studying and teaching at the time. This is serious.
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And now some random lovely video that justifies the title of the blog. I love the video and I love
this song. I can’t have enough of these guys.
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