Learning through Role Reversal

I am roughly putting forth my idea of creating an effective learning institution. The imaginary system won't be perfect, but it can be highly instrumental in replacing ''mugging'' with ''understanding'' in several minds.

Most students tend to procrastinate their studying schedule. The time-table they chalk out is never followed! And then the time turns the tables on them, when the day of the battle with the question paper ensues. Then their mind loses the track of the times and the tables! They finally end up swallowing their notes and vomiting them out on the answer sheets. Exams get over and all the non-understood or even the misunderstood knowledge just vapourizes from their minds!

What remains is just a residue of wisdom, which backfires when they finally enter the industrial world, where their understanding and application of knowledge is put to test. Time to present my idea. It can be put across in a few words- Teaching is learning.

Assumptions:
Consider any course of four years, with each batch having their exams a month prior to the previous batch. Each batch will contain equal number of students.

Idea:
The final year students, the earliest free birds, will teach and help the third year(TY) students prepare for their exams. It would be a win-win situation! Both the parties will have a better understanding of the subject. In fact the FIY students will gain even more through teaching, the concepts and fundas hammered permanently into their brains. In the same way, the TYs will teach their juniors and so on...

It won't even be a deja-vu for the seniors because they will see their ex-subjects in new light. And the best part about it would be, that they won't be studying under the pressure of exams. But for the sake of making it clear to their successors.

I am sure that the understanding of subjects will reach new levels through this system. This is just a rough sketch of my plan because there are still many loopholes and flaws to be taken care of. For example, it depends on the teaching and grasping abilities, the intellectual levels of the students. After all, each plan has its own pros and cons...Our job is to optimize...

Regards,
Rati

The ''D''eciding Factors

Mankind flourished with the two D's working together- Development and Division have been allies since man started his life from scratch.

Sign language, I believe, must have been the oldest universal language used to communicate in the primitive times. It is the development of different languages that ushered in the first degree of division- communities. People who spoke the same language, shared their own set of beliefs, preferences, needs, risks; which cumulatively metamorphosized into a community. Countless languages, countless communities.

Man was already struggling for survival, clueless about, but still exploring, the boons and the banes of nature. And then, he found a simpler way. The communities systematically developed and alloted different job functions (hunting, gathering firewood; later- education, farming, business etc.) to different groups. Survival became easy. Job functions developed into occupations and occupations into industries. And based on occupations, the caste system raised its ugly head- lethal division for the sake of further development!

People yearned and mutually toiled for years, to know the shape, the size, the topography of the earth! And when their knowledge and abilities developed to the level of accomplishing the seemingly impossible task, it gave birth to different continents, nations, states, cities. The division, of course, proved to be convenient for many purposes- ease of administration, tracking etc.

The division led to the ultimate endless quest- the quest for being the superpower...which is measured in terms of (again) development..the underdeveloped, the developing and the developed nations.

Development has given rise to many convenient and harmless divisions too! But this chain reaction of the D's has been too fast and furious for man to grasp, and decide what kind of division was essential, mutual and beneficial. The alter-egos will keep on acting as the driving forces for the progress of humanity; sometimes symbiotically, sometimes viciously.

Regards,
Rati

Gen-Ex + Gen-Next = Gen-Net

Have you ever wondered about the web scenario 40 years later? All the social networking sites will be inundated with us oldies and yet another generation-Next! Presently, all the 50+ individuals hobnobbing with their children, grandchildren on networking sites are touted as very ''cool'' and ''net-savvy''.

But after a few decades, a child may be ashamed of the fact that his mom/grandpa has no profile on facebook/orkut...Or maybe, many teenagers will gleefully rejoice about their ignorance ;)...At least the new bf/gf in their life can be hidden safely in the chat-boxes, scrapbooks and walls from the prying eyes of their parents, prevalent now in countless cases. Though they can't be totally fearless, for there is some mom's best friend on orkut or an uncle on FB to spill the beans...

''Mock'' profiles of an 80yr old granny spring up every other day on orkut, intended to spread humour amongst your friends. But 50 years down the line, the mock profiles will be a reality!

The sites will be splashed with communities you won't imagine even in your wildest dreams but you may find yourself to be a part of them sooner or later-''60/70/80 year olds'', ''born in 1980s'', ''I love my grandchildren'', ''Feeling lonely after my daughter got married''...so on and on...:D...It gives me goosebumps!

Plethora of new developments will crop up here and there! I am already lost in my own world of thoughts...I am leaving the rest to your imagination ;)

Ciao!
Rati

Law of Conservation of Stress

Grass on the other side looks greener, goes the adage. The moment the opportunity to explore the so-called greener pastures knocks on your door, you grasp it and bid a hasty good-bye to your zone, which you later discover, is as cosy as any damn place on earth.

You mull over all the cons of your habitat, outweighing them with the pros of your destination. With a rosy picture of a stress-free new lease of life in your mind, you cheerfully settle into your nest and then the reality hits you!

You start afresh with your routine and ''stress'' gropes its way through your brand new agenda, albeit in a new form. It proves my new Theorem: Law of Conservation of Stress!

Irrespective of where you stay:

1. Stress can neither be created nor destroyed.

2. Stress can be converted from one form into another.

3. The total amount of stress on planet earth remains constant.

I have my own life's example to put forth, in the support of these statements. After staying for two decades in Mumbai, I moved to London. As compared to my feat (sarcasm intended) of travelling unharmed in the chaotic Mumbai locals for years, commuting by London rail was a piece of cake. Transport stress was erased!!! But not destroyed. It raised its ugly head in my house, in the form of daily chores, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) et al...You are the master and you (yes you!) are the house-maid!...Life in Mumbai started appearing more luxurious in this perspective.

The greens on both the sides started appearing in identical shades! Stress had conserved itself, converting its boring-commute-form to repulsive-chores-form! Never budging even a wee-bit from its initial magnitude. And I guess same applies to all the places in the world. Stress will keep peek-a-booing in your life in the form of house-management, work, weather, transport, cooking, seclusion, so on, so forth...

I feel, each place has its own balanced state-of joy and stress. It ultimately depends on what kind of joy and what form of stress you prefer :)

Cheers!

Rati