Reading this post may make you blind

We’ve all made fun of Americans and their crazy law of torts. That’s why you have such gems such as “Contents Hot” on a coffee cup or a “Remove baby before folding” sticker on a pram. In that same vein is the recent move in California that may soon have the warning “Coffee Causes Cancer” in coffee shops !  Granted that the land of the free scores somewhere mid tier in the international rankings of IQ, but still …..
A news item about P&G and Tide laundry pods however made me pause. P&G has released an ad featuring  Rob Gronkowski, the New England Patriots’ star exhorting people not to eat Tide laundry pods ! WTF ? 
Apparently some teenagers have started a campaign called the ‘Tide Pod Challenge”. You are supposed to eat a Tide Pod and then post the video online. Reportedly some 40 cases of this nonsense have already happened in the first 15 days of 2018. It became serious enough for P&G to take note and issue the aforementioned ad exhorting people to wash clothes with their Tide laundry pod and not eat it. Without a doubt, their legal department opined that if they kept quiet, it was only a matter of time before they were slapped with a class action suit from a parent that the company was liable because they did nothing to prevent their children from eating the damned pod !
The purpose of this post is not to rail against the stupidity of on line antics. There is enough and more written on that. But where does personal responsibility end and where does company liability begin ? We seem to be living in a day and age where there is no personal responsibility whatsoever and its always someone else to blame. If its a rich juicy company, then great. Blame them and sue for a zillion dollars.  Is it the job of a company to monitor every nonsense that’s happening on social media and guard against them ?


I am taking no chances. I am a poor man and will be bankrupted if you sue me ! Please therefore take note that reading this post on a screen may be injurious to your eyes. Please also note that if you are sipping coffee at the same time it might spill and burn your thighs as it is hot !!

Missing the Aim(s) of Education!

It\’s a perennial struggle to define what we really want out of education. That is, it is a struggle for those who are vested with the responsibility of developing the curriculum, materials, evaluation and the like. For others, such as parents, things are reasonably clear. Which is where part of the problem lies.
The common man, or the consumer, or the parents of children who come to a majority of our schools, have no doubt at all that the purpose of education is to prepare children so that they can get a job (and be a worry off their heads). Many others – such as owners of private schools – boast that they get hundred percent results in the various examinations. Implying that the purpose of education is to get children to pass through examinations with flying colours (and what the purpose of the examinations is of course well known to all!)
And if you ask teachers in government schools, the ones who actually teach and are considered \’sincere\’, they will usually come out with statements such as: \’to develop a citizen, for all round development, someone with values, someone who can be called an educated person.\’
But when it comes to developing the curriculum we are somehow so reluctant to agree with these commonly held perceptions. We want something better, higher, more durable (our own approximation of the Olympics motto?) \’To produce someone who has a deep sense of values\’ is one of the most common aspirations. But what kind of values? And what to do about the fact that values are so relative (e.g. in certain situations, you actually get a medal for killing a man!). What is needed in order to be able to exercise values appropriately in a contextual and relative manner? And is that more a cognitive rather than ethical function (e.g. identifying options, weighing them against each other on various criteria, etc.)?
\’Education should develop the right kind of sanskars / culture in the student\’ is the next most popular choice. But whose culture are we talking about? A teacher trying to teach children how to use a handkerchief to blow their nose was left aghast when they reacted with amused horror as he put his handkerchief back into his pocket – they said they always threw things away after blowing their nose with rather than putting them back into their pocket! In a context as diverse as ours where the good manners of one group are easily the bad manners of others would we not end up simply extending the social control of dominant cultural group/s?
Unable to resolve this we move to discussing: what kind of society do we want to see? What would we consider a developed society? Where everyone has a job and the per capita income is high (back to jobs as the most important criterion?).  Slowly the discussion moves to recognizing the diversity in society and the need for each group / person to respect the \’other\’ and cherish, even celebrate this diversity. The need for a dynamic society that is able to overcome the divides of caste and class, race and gender is emphasized. A society where collaboration is valued and practiced, where resources are more equitably distributed and opportunity is available to each person to better his or her lot is portrayed as the desired one.
So what are the qualities needed in the children emerging from our schools in order that this vision come close to reality. Now a little more concrete set of indicators emerges – self-confidence, autonomy, decision-making ability, the ability to accept one\’s own shortcomings and confront / improve them, a more scientific attitude that helps them question given conclusions and arrive at their own inferences, and so on.
So how would this impact the subjects we are teaching? Here again we run into difficulties – since, despite our best efforts, we continue to be the prisoners of our past. The kind of ideas that come up are: include a lesson on self-confidence and one on self-dependence as well, have guidance and counselling, do scouts and guides\’ activities, and the like. As if a lesson in self-confidence or the description of a great person\’s life will help attain self-dependence!
When this is explored further, the true import of some of these \’small indicators\’ begins to sink in. To ensure that children develop self-confidence, for example, they need to experience challenges as well as successes, repeatedly.  This will generate the necessary self-belief. Clearly, then, instead of simply teaching in the regular way and appreciating the child\’s efforts, the teacher instead needs to challenge the child – by introducing tasks of which some part children can do, along with others that they would find difficult. Then it would be important to ask children to plan it by themselves, share and justify their plan to a larger set of friends and finally implementing it on their own. The experience of this implementation needs to be discussed so that lessons may be drawn for the next time. It is repeated experiences of this kind that lead to self-confidence.
For each of the changes / developments we want in our children, identifying its implications is a harrowing task. Not only is it difficult to know what to do so that the desired outcomes happen (e.g. how do you \’teach\’ to accept one\’s limitations and also go beyond them?), the emerging discussion tends to doubly challenge long-held notions and deep-rooted practice. (Such as supporting children as they learn on their own rather than teaching them as we are used to.) And if these are the qualities we desire in our children, we are really left wondering why it is that we should be teaching things such as physics or chemistry or past participle and geometric progression.
As we progress further in defining the aims of education, we seem to be moving further away from \’education\’ itself as we know it and into something that is still quite undefined and yet to be evolved. Somehow even as we define the aims, we seem to be missing them.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Unexpected and Unintended – Consequences of Curriculum and Material Development Processes

What started in Nagaland…
It was in the fourth workshop in Nagaland, in 2000, that participants stopped me and said they had something to share. All the education stuff they were learning was certainly very useful but what they valued far more was this: People from all the 16 tribes of the state were present in one room and, for the first time, they said, were not fighting! The process had somehow led all of them to feel like a family and they cherished this even more than the curriculum that was emerging from it.
How did this happen, I wondered. It was not being attempted (and in fact there was not even the awareness that something like this was required in the first place). So what went right? A little probing led to the realization that not being aware of who was from which tribe or occupied what social / professional position, the facilitation process could not distinguish between participants – no one was treated as being more ‘important’ or ‘different’.
A second feature was that much of the process revolved around generating a common set of experiences such as activities, school observations, classroom trialling, and intensive group discussions around key questions that had a larger canvas while also affecting state-specific decisions and implementation. The opportunity to evolve a common vision, agree upon the aims and objectives around which the curriculum would be built and developing consensus around the practical means to be adopted – all this led to ‘feeling like a family.’
Could this effect – that had happened ‘by mistake’ – actually be deliberately implemented? That is, could disparate groups who believed they had conflicting interests be brought together to ‘feel like a family’ through a consciously implemented version of this process?
It was not long before an opportunity to test this presented itself – in Afghanistan.
…Continued in Afghanistan
‘My brother from India,’ said a fearsome-looking senior member of the National Resource Group in Kabul, part of the Teacher Empowerment Programme, in 2003-04. It was the first effort to implement a country-wide in-service teacher training programme after the war. ‘My brother from India, do you know that we have in our group some people who are bandits! And we have to develop training with them!’
Before I could respond, another equally fierce gentleman thumped his desk, stood up and bellowed, ‘Our professor from India, when we were fighting the Russians in the mountains, some people were sitting in luxury in the USA!’ No one else seemed discomfited by this except me. How do you work with a group where members seemed intent on settling long-standing personal scores through you?
Once again it was really useful not to know who was exactly what. During the security briefing, I had been given a small chart depicting the various factions that had been at war with each other and now comprised the post-war nation. I had carefully put the chart away without looking at it. And had then thought about the kind of questions would work with this gathering of conflicting factions.
Therefore, as in many other places, the first question the participants got to work on was: ‘What games did you play as a child? And can you name at least 40 of them?’ In just a few moments the mood in the group had changed dramatically. People were gesturing, doing actions of the games they were describing, prodding each other to remember the names of the games they could recall, smiling more and more as their childhood seeped up and transported them into another time when they didn’t have this animosity. From then on, over the next several months, the process continued, with the fearsome gentlemen becoming less and less ferocious till they were actually good friends, and contributed greatly to the outcomes. Along with them, whatever factions that might have been there within the group also shed such reservations as they might have had about the ‘others’. By the end, in fact, it really was difficult to make out the groups that might have been there earlier….
And in a very different setting
Could there be a more difficult situation than Afghanistan? Actually, there could. During the thick of the LTTE-Sri Lankan Army war, I found myself in a workshop for writers, about half of whom were Tamil with the other half being Sinhala. Tamil writers arrived late to the venue, a few hours away from Colombo, as they had been held up again and again along the way by police and other security authorities – on the ground that they were Tamils moving around. One of the writers had just learnt that his brother had been arrested by the Sri Lankan police, on suspicion. Tamil and Sinhala writers were clearly unwilling to mix; in fact, there were many who did not know the other group’s language or English. It was the sensitivity displayed by the organizers and all others present that enabled the workshop to be held at all. However, a sense of awkwardness and whispered conversations pervaded the atmosphere and made it difficult to start.
Working through interpreters, one for each language, the challenge was to have a group that achieved some degree of comfort with each other and would relax sufficiently to enable a creative process to flow. Listening to lectures from the facilitator, however wonderful, was unlikely to achieve this. In this case the strategy of not knowing who was who was obviously not going to work…
What did work, however, was the use of ‘idea triggers’, which are ways to get people to think of things they otherwise would not. For example, take two completely unrelated words (such as ‘rocket’ and ‘goat’) and see if you can make a long and interesting sentence (at least 10 words long) that contains both the words. (Try this out a few times with the same two words and see what happens). Or, take an ordinary object – such as a spoon – and think of a place where it will usually never be found (e.g. on a branch high up on a tree) – and think of how it got there, what happened afterwards – and you will soon begin to get a story in your head.
As these ‘triggers’ began to be used, the ‘writer’ in the participants began to come to the fore. They bounced ideas off each other, laughing at the ridiculous and funny juxtapositions that were cropping up, teasing them into ideas for stories, applauding each others\’ creativity and slowly forgetting that that they were two peoples affected by being on the opposite sides of an ongoing war…
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

President of India Inaugurates Constitution Day Celebrations; Says Interpretation of the Constitution is a Work in Progress, and it will be up to the Youth of the Nation to Carry Forward the Task of Realizing its Ideals

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the Constitution Day celebrations, organised by the Supreme Court, to mark the 70th anniversary of the adoption of our Constitution, today (November 26, 2019) in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the Constitution is the scripture of our nation that has to be read in a sensitive and delicate manner. The Constitution gave this onerous task to the judiciary. Keeping the role of the Supreme Court as final interpreter of the Constitution and the laws enacted under it, the judiciary assumes the role of its guardian. The authors of our Constitution took extra care in providing it the necessary powers and freedoms to function without any undue influence. Over these eventful seven decades, the judiciary has remained alive to the high responsibility placed on it.

The President noted that the Supreme Court has initiated several innovative measures to reach out to people. But for a large section of people, justice is still beyond reach.

Pointing the issue of making justice accessible to all, the President said that one way out of the high cost is the provision of free legal aid. Remembering, veteran lawyer Ashoke Sen, he said that in the multiple roles Shri Sen played in the field over a long career, his sole objective was the pursuit of justice, for one and all. He expressed hope that more and more law professionals will take inspiration from the example of Shri Sen and distribute freely the fruits of their knowledge among the needy. He said that the task of making justice more accessible to all has to be a collective effort of all the stakeholders in the bench and the bar.

The President said that the question of access is not limited to the cost factor alone. Language too has been a barrier for many, for a long time. He was happy to note that the Supreme Court has started making its judgments available in nine regional languages. He said that another hurdle in the way of justice is the delay and the resulting backlog. Clearing this bottleneck requires detailed deliberations and systemic efforts. Information and communication technology can bring about amazing results in this domain. He was happy to note that beginnings have been made to take help of technological innovations.

The President said that we should strive to spread the awareness about the making of the Constitution, its provisions and its fundamental principle of equality. We need to especially narrate to the young generation the grand vision of our founding fathers. After all, we stand as a mere link between two generations in the continuing saga of this nation. Interpretation of the Constitution is a work in progress, and it will be up to the youth of the nation to carry forward the task of realizing its ideals.

 

 

*****

When Is It GOOD To Get Angry?

Have you ever noticed that we get angry (or at least show it) only with those who we think are weaker than us? Thus it seems OK for parents or teachers to be angry with children, for officers and trainers to shout at teachers. But if children are angry with adults, even if they are in the right and the adult is in the wrong, it is considered NOT OK! And teachers, when upset with their so-called \’superiors\’ either keep quiet or make some sort of mild protest. Only occasionally does it boil over, and when it does, it is again considered NOT OK!
So what is the view we should take? Is it a good idea not to get angry at all? This is the advocated position of many. In fact there are training programmes (including those for teachers) on anger management (i.e., about managing the anger we show to those who we consider our \’inferiors\’). These include things called \’positive discipline\’ and \’emotional punishment\’ – as if it is OK to do the same old thing in another way.
 In case this is not clear, the \’same old thing\’ means the belief that it is OK for adults to have power over children, or for some to be considered \’superiors\’ of others. The \’anger management\’ and \’positive\’ approach does not question this right to discipline or punish – it only says \’do it less violently please, but do it because you have a right to do it.\’ Something wrong there, isn\’t it?
The other approach would be – get angry wherever you should! That is, if you are in the right, get angry with your boss or with the adult (if you are a child or an adolescent), if they are in the wrong. Do I hear you clicking your tongue again? Something doesn\’t sound QUITE OK about this, isn\’t it? How can those who are \’below\’ scream at those who are \’above\’? You fear it will lead to conflict, division and general breakdown of order (i.e. of who should listen to whom).
Hmm, perhaps this kind of all-round getting angry business won\’t really help. We\’re too scared of it anyway.
But it also seems there are areas where we SHOULD GET ANGRY – and we don\’t. When a child is molested or deprived or hurt or demeaned – we don\’t see much anger. When teachers who really want to teach better and teach differently are ridiculed to the extent that they give up trying to improve – we see NO anger. When a girl is brutalized (or even killed) because she refused to get married at 14, we don\’t seethe with anger! When an education system is run year after year and the children who\’ve invested their entire childhood in it, emerge without any learning to show for it – we are simply not consumed with anger!
IT – IS – NOT – OK.
WE MUST – REPEAT, MUST –
GET ANGRY!

Go out. Get angry. Preserve this anger. Don\’t let it dry up. Spend it – drop by drop. Keep at it. And at it. Till that which makes you angry is snuffed out. Totally.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

References on Islam

The contemporary literature on Islam is rife with ideological and religious bias. It is difficult to wade through the mountain of books on Islam and get to the truth. In the last several decades, the newly created Mid-East Studies departments of American universities are dominated by multi-culturalism and post-modern political ideologues. The vast output from academia – virtually all pro-Islamic propaganda – is completely useless with a few rare exceptions. Today, true scholars and objective writers exist either outside of the academy or in other departments. We must look to these brave few who are willing to stand up for the truth.

I highly recommend Ibn Warraq’s “Why I Am Not A Muslim”. Raised as a Muslim, Warraq now lives in the West and is an outspoken critic of Islam. He has a secular humanist approach. The name of the book is deliberately similar to Bertrand Russell’s “Why I Am Not A Christian”. Since the punishment for Islamic apostasy is death, he, like many other ex-Muslims, uses a pseudonym. There are several informative websites run by ex-Muslims: Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Society, Ali Sina’s Faith Freedom, Apostates Of Islam.

Robert Spencer’s, “Islam Unveiled”, is an excellent book for people knowledgeable about Christianity. He contrasts these two religions – a very effective way to get a sense of the magnitude of Islam’s inherent flaws. See his website: Jihad Watch.
Serge Trifkovic’s, “The Sword of the Prophet,” reviews the full bloody history of Islam with a no-holds-barred approach. Read, for example, the horrific Muslim invasion of India. Historians have described it as the bloodiest atrocity prior to the 20th century. Remember, Hindus and Buddhists do not practice a “religion of the book”; strict Islam requires their conversion or death. Read his interview.
Bat Ye’or’s, “ Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide,” gives a voice to the suffering of non-Muslims forced to live under oppressive Islamic rule. Bat Ye’or, a leading Islamic scholar, rejects Islamic mythology in favor of sound historical analysis. Her website is an excellent source of information on Islam: Dhimmitude.
The above are excellent introductory books. For more indepth studies see Andrew Bostom, Bruce Bawer, Paul Sperry, Steven Emerson, and Sam Harris.

The land of the dinosaurs

The dinosaurs missed a trick when the comet (asteroid ?) hit the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago. They should have taken refuge in India. They wouldn\’t have gone extinct. India is veritably the land of the dinosaurs.
Well, at least corporate India is. In India, no company ever dies. It is extremely difficult to shut a company down in this country. They will live on for ever. Take the case of Andrew Yule.
If you had lived in British India and looked for a job, the bonanza would have been a job in Andrew Yule. It was one of the largest conglomerates of that time with businesses in jute, cotton, coal, tea, engineering, electrical, power, chemicals, insurance, railways, shipping, paper and printing, in addition to being a zamindar (land owner). The company was founded by, yes, a Mr Andrew Yule in 1863. He and his family ran it until India\’s independence in 1947.  The Indian government took majority control in 1948 under circumstances not very clear – perhaps it was socialism, perhaps the family decided to leave. It became a government majority owned company and then under the wave of socialism that Mrs Gandhi championed, the government took it over entirely.
It today is a pale shadow of its British India days. It currently does some engineering business and also owns some tea gardens. Long ago it became \”sick\” – Indian euphemism for bankrupt. Dinosaurs which fall sick come under the umbrella of the Bureau of Industrial and Financial Restructuring (BIFR), which is Ramamritham\’s idea of socialist utopia. Today , it has a turnover of Rs 400 crores ($ 70 m) and is still lumbering along. This year it managed to turn a small profit and declared its first dividend in 21 years.
Companies like this abound . Many have been taken over by the government under the misguided view that nothing should ever be closed down. The taxpayer funds this indulgence. The accumulated losses of such dinosaurs is Rs 60,000 crores ($10 bn). Veritable luminaries adorn this list. Air India is of course, numero uno, but there are other stars like Hindustan Photo Films (which still makes  the old film rolls), ITI (which presumably turns out analog telephone exchanges) and HMT (which makes mechanical watches). I have little doubt that there is also a company existing which makes music cassette tapes, or the telex machine, or something like that.
India is a culture that believes in the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Regeneration is intrinsic to the belief of the Hindu faith. And yet, when it comes to companies, we do not accept the same philosophy. Maybe the companies are not Hindu !
And yes, in case you wondered, the East India Company is very much alive. In a nice twist of fate, it is now majority owned by a Mr Sanjiv Mehta !
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Reading this post may make you blind

We\’ve all made fun of Americans and their crazy law of torts. That\’s why you have such gems such as \”Contents Hot\” on a coffee cup or a \”Remove baby before folding\” sticker on a pram. In that same vein is the recent move in California that may soon have the warning \”Coffee Causes Cancer\” in coffee shops !  Granted that the land of the free scores somewhere mid tier in the international rankings of IQ, but still …..
A news item about P&G and Tide laundry pods however made me pause. P&G has released an ad featuring  Rob Gronkowski, the New England Patriots\’ star exhorting people not to eat Tide laundry pods ! WTF ? 
Apparently some teenagers have started a campaign called the \’Tide Pod Challenge\”. You are supposed to eat a Tide Pod and then post the video online. Reportedly some 40 cases of this nonsense have already happened in the first 15 days of 2018. It became serious enough for P&G to take note and issue the aforementioned ad exhorting people to wash clothes with their Tide laundry pod and not eat it. Without a doubt, their legal department opined that if they kept quiet, it was only a matter of time before they were slapped with a class action suit from a parent that the company was liable because they did nothing to prevent their children from eating the damned pod !
The purpose of this post is not to rail against the stupidity of on line antics. There is enough and more written on that. But where does personal responsibility end and where does company liability begin ? We seem to be living in a day and age where there is no personal responsibility whatsoever and its always someone else to blame. If its a rich juicy company, then great. Blame them and sue for a zillion dollars.  Is it the job of a company to monitor every nonsense that\’s happening on social media and guard against them ?


I am taking no chances. I am a poor man and will be bankrupted if you sue me ! Please therefore take note that reading this post on a screen may be injurious to your eyes. Please also note that if you are sipping coffee at the same time it might spill and burn your thighs as it is hot !!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

An emerging mystery in education reform

Over the last two decades, the number of professionals / resource persons / 

researchers / academics has dramatically grown in two areas related to 

educational improvement / reform — planning and evaluation — but not so much 

in the part that comes in between: IMPLEMENTATION! We have more and more 

data on learning outcomes, provisioning or the lack of it, \’non-performance\’ of 

personnel, expenditure incurred and the like, but comparatively very little on, say, 

emotional incentives that help teachers change, or practices that enable diversity 

to become a resource rather than constraint, or ways in which debilitating 

hierarchies and lack of equity can be addressed in large scale, or how systems 

learn to be more responsive…


In particular, the ability to evaluate children\’s learning as well as programme 

\’outcomes\’ has seen the greatest degree of rigour and academic/professional 

depth. Suddenly, there is a large number of agencies undertaking research, assessment and evaluation, and \’data\’ related activities such as monitoring / tracking. And we have people who have studied in places such as Harvard / Cambridge etc. evaluating the work of those who went to somewhat less distinguished schools/universities, studied courses that didn\’t really prepare them to design or execute brilliant programmes…. And who, of course, are not really able to get teachers to be more committed or display innovation or even basic professional capabilities. Interestingly though, the various studies / data bases + analyses by the highly qualified minds come up with results that their less qualified counterparts can quite accurately predict beforehand!


So why are the highly qualified academics/professionals so involved with 
evaluation and planning rather than actually getting things done? I believe 
because it is EASIER – easier to point out what is going wrong than actually 
make it better, easier to give \’recommendations\’ than nitty-gritty details that might 
lead to improvement (and which you can learn only if you really dirty your hands 
and undergo the deep frustration that teaches you what works or doesn\’t).

Perhaps all this is doing a disservice – certainly more and more people in the 
system are coming to believe that whatever they do is not going to work, and will 
probably not stand up to the \’scrutiny\’ of these \’intelligent and knowledgeable\’ 
people. There is also a tendency to focus on what will \’please the researchers\’ – 
hence some states devalue all-round education to emphasize only reading and 
writing and numeracy; or are forever \’piloting\’ aspects that should be well-known 
after so many decades and therefore diverting energy from larger systemic 
reform that is required post-RTE. Looks like the law of unintended consequences 
is beginning to operate…

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

CEOs sacked for conduct don’t deserve severance pay

This blogger has been fascinated with lululemon for some time. The Vancouver based company has been peddling fashion wear for yoga and been successful at it. Firstly this blogger is amazed that you have fashion wear for yoga. Secondly, can a company really be named lululemon ? And spelt without a capital L ? There was also the business of yoga pants that, er, revealed too much, a few years ago. With that sort of pedigree, it is a “must follow” company !
(Wunder Under Hi-Rise 7/8 Tight Full-On Luxtreme 25″ for $98.00 USD – Note the price !)

They are in the news again. They fired their CEO yesterday. The gobbledygook announcement they put out said “lululemon expects all employees to exemplify the highest levels of integrity and respect for one another, and Mr. Potdevin fell short of these standards of conduct.” In plain English, the Board fired him. He did something wrong, relating to employees, and they fired him. Plain and simple. Nothing earth shattering about that – CEOs are fired for a variety of reasons and this happens all the time. But clearly he was fired, not for poor performance, but for something he should not have done with employee(s), but did. We should not speculate further.

So far nothing spectacular. But what got my goat was also the statement in the announcement that “Potdevin will receive a cash payment of $5 million, including $3.35 million upfront and an additional $1.65m over the next 18 months, according to a separation agreement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.” This is outrageous. He’s guilty of misconduct and you pay him $5 million ? I’m gobsmacked. Yes, there must have been a separation payment in his employment contract. That’s standard in almost all CEO contracts. Why CEOs – any employee’s contract. You have to be paid a severance pay (however measly it may be) if you are fired.

But this guy is being fired for wrong conduct. Would any low level employee guilty of the same conduct as Mr Potdevin ever be paid a severance pay ? No chance ? Then why should he be paid simply because he was the CEO. If there was an iron clad clause in his contract that said he would be paid no matter what the reasons for firing are, then the guys who drafted such a contract must be fired and made to pay a fine equal to this severance pay.

This sort of action is why companies are hated by the general public. Any corporate action must not only be fair, but be seen to be fair. The Board of lululemon deserves to be fried , roasted and hauled over coals. It is a listed company. What are the shareholders doing ?

CEOs are exactly the same as any other employee of a company. I have no problem with them being paid handsomely for the work they do. But they should not be paid for conduct that necessitates a firing.

Using Performance Standards to Improve Teacher Effectiveness

Here are some of the key principles that emerged from the ADEPTS experience over the last few years. ADEPTS (or Advancement of Educational Performance through Teacher Support) is an approach or a way of working, based on the use of performance standards. [More details and the standards themselves can be shared with those interested! In the meantime, here are some of the insights that emerged – feedback and your views are welcome.]
  

              1. The most important way to generate teacher motivation is to enable them to experience success in the classroom. Hence a set of minimum enabling conditions being in place make a huge difference. 
              2. Teachers change when they experience the standards, rather than simply being told about them – towards this, the in-service courses themselves need to incorporate the standards expected of teachers. (A few of the states have begun this process of improving their own inputs to teachers.)
              3. There is a sequence in which teachers learn (and indeed institutions and systems learn). It is also better to avoid overcrowding expectations. It would therefore be best to plan improvement in terms of stages of teacher development, broken down into three-month phases, each of which has a very limited number of indicators to be attained (4-8). As teachers attain one set of indicators, this motivates them as well as prepares them for the next, higher order, set. The support institutions, too, learn along with the teachers and grow phase-wise in turn.
              4. Standards and indicators can tend to be vague! It is important to convert them into concrete steps that can actually be implemented by teachers. Thus, if an indicator agreed upon is ‘children ask questions freely, without fear’ there is a need to make clear exactly what the teacher needs to do for this to happen. Hence, as part of the roll out, all teams need to detail the concrete steps involved in converting the expectations into actionable steps.
              5. Implementer choice and partnering with teachers is more likely to yield results than passing on a set of instructions. In sub-district meetings, teachers should get to choose the indicators they want to attain (from a given list of potential indicators for that stage, though) and identify / develop the steps needed to attain these. Their performance will be assessed against the indicators chosen by them. If possible, peer assessment will be introduced.
              6. ‘Target setting’ in terms of the degree of improvement in performance can now be practiced. Teachers and their resource persons can use the standards document to fix the degree of change they seek to bring about over, say, a year or six months. They can then assess their progress against this. As this was not possible earlier, improvement efforts tended to lose their way very soon.
              7. Taking a ‘low-interference’ approach helps – that is, there is no pressure on the system to change curriculum or textbooks or introduce new model of teaching. It is more a case of ‘doing the same as before, but a little differently’; this reduces systemic stress and enables rapid implementation.
              https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

              Have You Been Un-Hindu Today?

              Once in a while I recall that I am born a Hindu. This is usually around times when a whole lot of people are suddenly finding the need to defend Hinduism.
              1. This is a little ironic. Why do you need to protect that which cannot be destroyed? Can the words or images of another person kill or harm your religion? To those who believe in God/s: even if all the people who believe in God should cease to exist will God/s cease to exist? Similarly, does Hinduism need the acceptance and support of all those being fought against in order to exist and flourish? It seems very reductionist and belittles Hinduism for anyone to say that the religion needs protection.
              2. This business of religious sentiments being hurt is even more ridiculous. Why are Hindu religious sentiments hurt only by words and images but not by un-Hindu actions such as rape, murder and the racism being practiced against people from the NE in Delhi, or the displacement of Muslims in Muzaffarnagar or a thousand such atrocious acts? We are a religion that believes in the whole universe being a family, isn’t it? Why are we not religiously wounded by such major offences that hurt millions of the universal family but hugely traumatized by minor pinpricks such as a book that will be read by a few thousand people?
              3. Being the transcendent religion that believes animals and trees and various forms, animate and inanimate, have the element of the Divine running through them and are therefore nothing but mere manifestations of the Unified One, how can we even distinguish between ‘ourselves’ and ‘others’? Surely the distinction is impossible and the very idea of ‘not tolerating’ someone or some view would be inadmissible – for even the so-called offender is nothing but another manifestation of the same ONE divine. So the idea of ‘getting upset’ so militantly at someone’s view is, in my view, very un-Hindu.
              4. In an ecological worldview that goes well beyond the physical world, the notion is that every component have a just and fair place, the justness and fairness of which is determined by the degree to which it links with others and desists from eating into others’ space and resources. Which is the idea behind being ‘content’ – to occupy that which fulfills your need without competing with another’s, thus maintaining the ecosystem.  Wanting more than this justifiable space and resource takes you into the realm of that which does not (because it should not) exist – maya. And we are taught not to want more than our remit for this reason. This is a key principle by which the universe maintains its balance, and disturbances take place when this balance is upset. Every time we seek to dominate or attribute to ourselves the right to determine others’ activities in their spheres (such as what they may think or write), we are guilty of going beyond that which is justly ours – and again, being very un-Hindu!
              5. And finally, like all great religions, Hinduism too believes that real victory is one that is over oneself. No matter how much you ‘defeat’ your enemies, if you are unable to overcome yourself, that is, your own limitations and the un-divine aspects of yourself, you cannot be considered a victor. So if anyone is claiming victory at having ‘vanquished’ something offensive, do desist, for you have not won.

              https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

              Address by the Hon’ble President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind on the Occasion of the Inauguration of the Constitution Day

              1. I feel honoured to be here today to inaugurate the Constitution Day celebrations. Today I feel doubly blessed as before coming to the Supreme Court, I addressed a joint session of parliament on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of adopting the Constitution. I have the rare privilege of being associated with both the institutions, Parliament and the Supreme Court, which are temples of our Republic.
              1. On this occasion I also feel humbled when I recall our Founding Fathers. Guided solely by the light of liberty and justice, they sat down to write this document of our destiny amid historic events and challenges. They created institutions and designed the right balance among them to ensure that their core objectives are not compromised. The co-existence of our fully independent judiciary with a vibrant parliamentary democracy is a testimony to their sagacity and foresight.
              1. These sages put in words the noble vision of our Republic in the Constitution after marathon deliberations over three years. The nation will always remain grateful to all the members and office-bearers of the Constituent Assembly, particularly its President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, and the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, who is rightly known as the architect of the Constitution. Their zeal and devotion to meet the task of such magnitude was matched by contributions from the titans like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. They headed various committees and sub-committees, along with ‘Acharya’ Kripalani, H. C. Mookerjee, Gopinath Bordoloi and Amritlal Thakkar.
              1. I would like to also pay homage especially to the 15 women members of the Constituent Assembly. They included Sarojini Naidu, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Hansaben Jivraj Mehta, Sucheta Kripalani and G. Durgabai, who spoke of equal rights for one and all, when women in many parts of the world were denied basic rights.
              1. In his speech before the Constitution was adopted, Dr Rajendra Prasad rightly noted that the successful working of democratic institutions requires willingness to respect the views of others, and capacity for compromise and accommodation. He said, [quote] “Many things which cannot be written in a Constitution are done by conventions. Let me hope that we shall show those capacities and develop those conventions.” [Unquote] Seventy years later, we have reasons to believe that the nation has lived up to his hopes to a fair degree.
              1. As Rajen Babu, Babasaheb and many others pointed out that day, a Constitution is after all a mere document, recording in words the inspired ideas. It can come alive and enter our world only when it is translated into life of the nation and its ideals put into practice. It is the scripture of our nation that has to be read in a sensitive and delicate manner. The Constitution gave this onerous task to the judiciary. Keeping the role of the Supreme Court as final interpreter of the constitution and the laws enacted under it, the judiciary assumes the role of its guardian. The authors of our Constitution took extra care in providing it the necessary powers and freedoms to function without any undue influence. Over these eventful seven decades, the judiciary has remained alive to the high responsibility placed on it. I am aware of the fact that it has initiated several innovative measures to reach out to people.
              1. But for a large section of people, justice is still beyond reach. While we celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, let me refer to his views on the issue. Neither was the Father of the Nation a member of the Constituent Assembly, nor do we know his views on our founding document. What we know for sure is that he had played a crucial role in the making of the Constituent Assembly and blessed this historic endeavour. In a sense, the Constitution is the product of the values inspired by the Freedom Struggle. It, thus, very much reflects the democratic virtues Gandhiji lived by. Still, the closest we have as his views on a possible Constitution is a book called ‘Gandhian Constitution for Free India’. Shriman Narayan Agarwal wrote it in 1946, based on his understanding of Gandhian principles. The book had the benefit of being read and approved by Gandhiji himself, even though the words are not his.
              1. The book is critical of the British judicial system in India. In panchayats of the old times, it says, [Quote] “Justice was cheap and fair. Modern courts, on the contrary, are very expensive; even very ordinary cases are disposed of only after months, if not years.” [Unquote] What I wish to point out here is that Gandhiji would have been unhappy at the high cost of justice.
              1. Indeed, the Constitution itself calls for making justice accessible to all. Consider the Preamble, which is the ‘seed text’ of the whole document. Why did ‘We, the People of India’, solemnly resolve to constitute India into a republic”? Obviously this pledge seeks, “To secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE—Social, Economical and Political”. Like any religious scripture, this grand statement or “Mahavakya” of the constitution aims to secure liberty, equality and fraternity along with justice.

              Ladies and gentlemen,

              1. On today’s occasion, let us deliberate how we can make justice accessible to all. One way out of the high cost is the provision of free legal aid. Pro-bono service is a subject close to my heart. As many of you know, during my days as a Supreme Court advocate, I provided pro-bono aid to weaker sections of society in general, and women and the poor in particular. I remain grateful to veteran lawyer Ashoke Sen who showed me the way. In the multiple roles he played in the field over a long career, his sole objective was the pursuit of justice, for one and all. I hope more and more law professionals will take inspiration from the example of Shri Sen and distribute freely the fruits of their knowledge among the needy. I would like to stress here that the task of making justice more accessible to all has to be a collective effort of all the stakeholders in the bench and the bar.
              1. The question of access is not limited to the cost factor alone. Language too has been a barrier for many, for a long time. On this count, however, I am happy that the Supreme Court has followed up my suggestion and started making its judgments available in nine regional languages. In the days to come, the list can include more languages, so that common people can read the verdicts of the highest court.
              1. Another hurdle in the way of justice is the delay and the resulting backlog. Clearing this bottleneck requires detailed deliberations and systemic efforts. I also understand it is an ongoing process. Information and communication technology can bring about amazing results in this domain, and I am happy to learn that beginnings have been made to take help of technological innovations. In this context, I am glad to learn that three apps for mobile phones are being launched today. This litigant-friendly move will bring the portals of the apex court closer to the people.

              Ladies and gentlemen,

              1. In listing the obstacles before the delivery of justice, I have in mind the words of Dr Ambedkar. In his concluding speech before the Constituent Assembly, he exhorted us not to be tardy in the recognition of the evils that lie across our path and not to be weak in our initiative to remove them. He said, [QUOTE] “That is the only way to serve the country. I know of no better.” [UNQUOTE]
              1. To answer Babasaheb’s call, we should also strive to spread the awareness about the making of the Constitution, its provisions and its fundamental principle of equality. We need to especially narrate to the young generation the grand vision of our founding fathers. After all, we stand as a mere link between two generations in the continuing saga of this nation. Interpretation of the Constitution is a work in progress, and it will be up to the youth of the nation to carry forward the task of realizing its ideals.

              Ladies and Gentlemen,

              1. Let me share something with you on a personal note. As I mentioned before, I come here after having addressed the Parliament. Standing before you, I recall that in 1993-94, I had made a journey from here to there; from being an advocate here to being a member of the Upper House. Such journeys have enriched my perspectives on the functioning of the republic. The framers of our Constitution rightly underlined the doctrine of separation of powers among the organs of the state. This, however, was not to be a hurdle in serving the people. Indeed, it was meant to serve the people better. Observing the life of the nation from more than one station in my journey, I now better appreciate the vision of our Founding Fathers.
              1. I thank you for inviting me to share my views. I congratulate the nation on the occasion of the Constitution Day, and extend my best wishes to all of you for the celebrations.

               

               

              Thank you,

              Jai Hind!

               

               

              *****

              What is (more) \’Educationally Responsible\’?

              What is more educationally responsible from among the alternatives below. Anytime you feel it\’s all very clear, don\’t ignore the possibility that there may a trap somewhere…

              • Encouraging someone to ask questions or give answers to questions no one is asking?
              • Helping learners discover worlds of fascinating and worthwhile knowledge around them versus providing them information from books?
              • Setting challenging tasks versus \’telling\’ children, giving explanatory lectures ?
              • Encouraging reflection or ensuring memorization of the right answers?
              • Preventing errors or letting children discover for themselves when they\’ve made a mistake?
              • Giving feedback versus giving marks (and remarks)?
              • Ensuring all children get the same opportunity versus ensuring different children get different opportunities?
              • Doing everything oneself (if you\’re a teacher) versus passing on some of your tasks to children (e.g. marking attendance, ensuring participation of peers)
              • Maintaining all provided materials in good shape or using them at the risk of their getting spoilt, torn, etc.?
              • Asking community to help with their knowledge heritage versus asking community to contribute to improvement in mid day meal?
              • Using a textbook as a resource versus using a textbook as a definitive material (i.e. assuming it is the curriculum)
              • Reading this blog or reading a useful book on education?!

              So what is more educationally responsible? Let me have more such pairs / alternatives to choose from, and also your views on the above!
              https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

              What is (more) \’Educationally Responsible\’?

              What is more educationally responsible from among the alternatives below. Anytime you feel it\’s all very clear, don\’t ignore the possibility that there may a trap somewhere…

              • Encouraging someone to ask questions or give answers to questions no one is asking?
              • Helping learners discover worlds of fascinating and worthwhile knowledge around them versus providing them information from books?
              • Setting challenging tasks versus \’telling\’ children, giving explanatory lectures ?
              • Encouraging reflection or ensuring memorization of the right answers?
              • Preventing errors or letting children discover for themselves when they\’ve made a mistake?
              • Giving feedback versus giving marks (and remarks)?
              • Ensuring all children get the same opportunity versus ensuring different children get different opportunities?
              • Doing everything oneself (if you\’re a teacher) versus passing on some of your tasks to children (e.g. marking attendance, ensuring participation of peers)
              • Maintaining all provided materials in good shape or using them at the risk of their getting spoilt, torn, etc.?
              • Asking community to help with their knowledge heritage versus asking community to contribute to improvement in mid day meal?
              • Using a textbook as a resource versus using a textbook as a definitive material (i.e. assuming it is the curriculum)
              • Reading this blog or reading a useful book on education?!

              So what is more educationally responsible? Let me have more such pairs / alternatives to choose from, and also your views on the above!
              https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1