February 29th, 2008 Jo
The Concessions Mela was a success at one level. Just about everyone got their certificates. The clerks who came along with the doctors were busy from the moment they arrived, and it was hard work. They barely got a chance to breathe, let alone look up from their papers, stretch their legs or sip a cup of tea.
But while we appreciated their efforts, and we were delighted with the results (nothing like getting a certificate after waiting for hours!), what happened in the days leading up to the mela was an outrage.
The date for the event had been decided by the Chief Medical Officer weeks beforehand and had been communicated to the doctors well in advance. But right up until the morning of the mela, we were unsure whether they would actually attend. The day before, several doctors informed Shipra that they had no intention of coming, and their behavior was both rude and insulting. Shipra said she had never in her life been spoken to as they spoke to her.
It was only with enormous effort and diplomacy that she was able to persuade them to make an appearance. As a professional, she was able to take their ill-mannered comments in her stride but for parents already hassled and upset by thir child’s disability, such treatment is unforgivable.
We were not asking for favors. Granting of disability certificates is part of the doctors’ job, for which we, as taxpayers, pay them. Camps such as the one we organized are also part of their mandate and in fact, are welcomed because it helps them spend the money they have allocated for the purpose and never used (though this didn’t stop them hinting that a little “gift” would not go amiss).
As citizens, we have a right to expect courteous treatment and the prompt issuance of the certificates we are entitled to.
Posted in Government Blues (and Greens) | 4 Comments »
February 29th, 2008 Jo
First off, WELL DONE Awareness Team! What a fabulous performance. The Concessions Mela was an unbelievable show of organization, dedication, festivity and accomplishment. Nearly ninety children and adults came, with their parents and brothers and sisters, to apply for their disability certificates in another “One Stop Shop” approach to what is normally a painful and lengthy procedure, often taking weeks of repeated visits to obtain. Staff were everywhere at the event, answering questions, helping parents fill out forms, shepherding people to the right counters and playing with the children who were fed up from waiting in lines.
For the children, it was a combination of a holiday with friends and a chance to be with their parents on a school day. In familiar, friendly surroundings, they seemed to enjoy the excitement and the chaos. Toys were inside Latika Vihar for anyone who felt like playing, there was plenty of water available and an endless carnival of activity to observe and be part of.
By the end of it all, we had a lot of sleepy children, ready to go home . . . and a lot of happy and relieved parents with certificates in hand at last!
Posted in Little Notes | 4 Comments »
February 28th, 2008 Jo
Brother Dominic Jacob is the headmaster of St George’s School in Mussoorie. But before that, he had the same job at St Joseph’s Academy here in Dehradun. It was at his request that we started the Early Intervention Centre there and with he has been an invaluable advocate and friend ever since. Concerned about some of the children at St George’s who were consistently having difficulties with their studies, he asked us to come up and do a two-day seminar on special needs and learning disabilities.
Tara, Sreedevi and I went up this morning and spent several hours with a marvelous group of teachers from St George’s and several other schools in Mussoorie. We found them to be committed professionals who are genuinely concerned about how to best serve their students, particularly those who are struggling to keep up with the class. They brought up many of the questions we also ask ourselves: How to help parents accept their child’s limitations, and to understand that academic achievement is not the only measure of success? What to do with the child who is simply not able to cope with the burdens of the syllabus? What about the child who is not particularly good in anything?
Our session was philosophical in nature, exploring the basis for inclusion and analysing the education system as a system of exclusion. Tara ended the day on a passionate and inspiring note when she challenged the school to make its buildings and campus more accessible to children with physical disabilities. The seminar continues tomorrow with Manju and Savita adding the practical bits: giving teachers the concrete, real-life strategies they are looking for to make inclusion work. Hats off to St George’s for being willing to confront such a vital and important issue.
Posted in Out of Dehradun | 1 Comment »
February 25th, 2008 Jo
I spent the last few days editing a book which Paula has written for us (watch this space for the release date!). It’s about teaching maths. It’s a wonderful and practical manual, full of simple ways to teach very difficult concepts, but its real beauty is the attitude which pervades it: an attitude which was part of Paula’s whole being and which, we believe, she transferred to all of us here - the idea that children really want to learn. With that attitude firmly in place, the role of the teacher is simply to facilitate a process. There’s no need to convince the child or to fight with her: if she doesn’t get it, assume there is a reason and work on THAT.
There’s a quote from the book which I love: “Don’t let children practice mistakes by withdrawing the visual reminder too soon. If they are struggling to remember without it, it means they still need it.” Don’t let them practice mistakes! Often without even realizing it, we test children, trying to catch them doing something wrong. Paula’s Precept #1: Believe the child wants to learn!
Posted in Serious Stuff | 1 Comment »
February 23rd, 2008 Jo
Here’s a boy I admire. Every time I see him, he’s got a new game going. The last one involved a marble in a little hole he had made in the ground and a ball which he aimed carefully at it for reasons known best to himself. He has a brother and two sisters and recently I saw he had made them a swing out of a collection of old bicycle tubes, tied artfully in a long row and hung over a tree branch. He makes his own fun and though he would surely qualify as a poor child, there are things he has that money cannot buy.
I heard an interesting story on the radio the other day about children and the decline of imaginative play. It seems that with the advent of television advertising and the need, in a consumer society, to sell things, toys have become more and more of a central player in the way kids play. Nothing wrong with toys. I love them, and I want to bring more of them to India (more on that later). But according to this story, most Western children are now so dependent upon toys that they have forgotten how to play! Back in the olden days, kids had toys. But a doll could be made from a popsicle stick wrapped up in yarn. A telephone could be constructed from two tin cans and a long string. Walnut shells were tea cups. Toys were accessories to what was going on in the mind of the child. They weren’t the whole story. Now I’m not so sure. The experts have some advice, of course, because there are:
Better Ways to Play!
Self-regulation is a critical skill for kids. Unfortunately, most kids today spend a lot of time doing three things: watching television, playing video games and taking lessons. None of these activities promote self-regulation.
We asked for alternatives from three researchers: Deborah Leong, professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Elena Bodrova, senior researcher with Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning, and Laura Berk, professor of psychology at Illinois State University.
Here are their suggestions:
Simon Says: Simon Says is a game that requires children to inhibit themselves. You have to think and not do something, which helps to build self-regulation.
Complex Imaginative Play: This is play where your child plans scenarios and enacts those scenarios for a fair amount of time, a half-hour at a minimum, though longer is better. Sustained play that last for hours is best. Realistic props are good for very young children, but otherwise encourage kids to use symbolic props that they create and make through their imaginations. For example, a stick becomes a sword.
Activities That Require Planning: Games with directions, patterns for construction, recipes for cooking, for instance.
Joint Storybook Reading: “Reading storybooks with preschoolers promotes self-regulation, not just because it fosters language development, but because children’s stories are filled with characters who model effective self-regulatory strategies,” says researcher Laura Berk.
She cites the classic example of Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could, in which a little blue engine pulling a train of toys and food over a mountain breaks down and must find a way to complete its journey. The engine chants, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can,” and with persistence and effort, surmounts the challenge.
Encourage Children to Talk to Themselves: “Like adults, children spontaneously speak to themselves to guide and manage their own behavior,” Berk says. “In fact, children often use self-guiding comments recently picked up from their interactions with adults, signaling that they are beginning to apply those strategies to themselves.
“Encouraging children to be verbally active—to speak to themselves while engaged in challenging tasks—fosters concentration, effort, problem-solving, and task success.” — Alix Spiegel
All true, no doubt. But another option might just be to find some kids on the street and watch how they have fun. They’re the real experts, after all!
Posted in Serious Stuff | 1 Comment »
February 22nd, 2008 Jo
Fridays are workshop days at KV School. The staff enjoy the new ideas and discussions, but the kids could think of better ways to spend an afternoon. So we’ve started a creche for staff kids in which some of the kids are as helpful as staff themselves. Here’s Miss Diya entertaining the little ones,
and a thoughtful young Aditya considering his options . . .
Posted in Little Notes | 1 Comment »
February 21st, 2008 Jo
I went to visit my friend Vina’s garden because she is away in Dubai and everything is coming into bloom and I didn’t want her flowers to be lonely and unappreciated. She has an amazing array of things happening there - a camellia tree which is dazzling and heavy with beautiful, rose-like flowers, pansies just about to open, cinneraria all winking and improbable in full shade, roses of deepest yellow and red, and then this cactus here which stopped me in my tracks. What the heck is going on? Delicate, exquisite little blossoms perched bravely at the top of the most harrowing range of thorns - how does this happen? How does such beauty emerge from such fierce and formidable stems, stems guaranteed to be intensely painful (it almost hurts to look at them)? The flowers are fragile and sweet and inseparable from the suffering. You can’t get one without the other. Vina’s garden is full of wonders, full of mystery and delight, but nothing there moved me like these bright courageous blossoms, full of hope and glory.
Posted in Serious Stuff | 1 Comment »
February 21st, 2008 Jo
Wheeee! We were all over the moon when we got our new bus, courtesy of the Sir J R D Tata Trust. It arrived on Children’s Day and we decorated it with balloons and streamers, packed all the kids in and took them for a picnic at the Forest Research Institute up the road.
But TODAY, we got our own name printed on it and somehow, the excitement is even more unrestrained. It’s a school bus, it’s yellow and it’s OURS!!!
Posted in School Days | 1 Comment »
February 21st, 2008 Jo
How can you work well if you are worried about your children? We don’t think it’s possible. As an organisation, we have a family-friendly philosophy. We encourage young parents to bring their children to work and have them attend sessions at the project which is appropriate for their age and development. We have had many staff children grow up in the Foundation this way and everyone benefits. The staff kids get a warm, loving, inclusive education with plenty of time to play and learn as well as a chance to meet children with special needs; the KV kids get typically developing peers to imitate and interact with; the teaching staff get to experience what normal child development looks like and the parents can just relax, knowing their babies are in good hands while they work.
Posted in Little Notes | No Comments »
February 20th, 2008 Jo
I spent the morning at KV Junior today and got a little glimpse of the creative approaches the staff has developed for a group of very young chi
ldren not quite sure they want to be in school yet. Most of them have come straight from the EIC where the day is much shorter and their parents are often around. KV Junior is their first taste of what real school is like and it’s a challenge both for them and for the staff. So everything is made fun and entertaining - physiotherapy, for instance, happens in a circle with postures held to the count of ten and everyone - kids and teachers - participating.
Here, Jatin is thinking about whether or not to put his yellow skittle back in the basket. In the game he was just a part of, each child got the chance to roll a ball at a row of skittles. Each one participated at whatever level they could. The skill the teachers use to make the activity work for every child never fails to astonish me. For one, just being willing to accept holding the ball is the goal for today. For another, it’s letting it go. A third may be working on the eye-hand coordination that proper aim requires and a fourth may need help staying focussed. The teachers are like Zen masters, always present in the moment, alert to nuances and small achievements the rest of us might miss. It’s hard work, and highly skilled. We take off our shoes when we enter the classroom. We stand on holy ground.
Posted in School Days | 1 Comment »
