Author: Arun Elassery
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The white sahibs in India
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At SIDH we are thinking of publishing some books that we consider very important, that are not very well known and are currently out of print. ‘The white sahibs in India’ by Reginald Reynolds, first published in 1937, is the first one we hope to publish in this series. The author in the preface dedicates…
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The science delusion
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(The following is an excerpt from the first part of the talk…) The science delusion is the belief that science already understands the nature of reality in principle, leaving only the details to be filled in. This is a very widespread belief in our society. It’s the kind of belief system of people who say…
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Seeing through the brain fog
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Pawanji says that he sometimes wonders how the illiterate see the world, because he finds himself forced to read everything he comes across – Billboards, road signs, shop names, books etc. We appear to largely live in a mental world created by words and images that we confuse with reality. To see things as they…
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Learning at Bodhshala
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This week we look at some excerpts from a SIDH publication, Learning at Bodhshala, that chronicles a unique educational experiment. I think that, in times to come, this book may become required reading for anyone trying to re-imagine a truly Indian education. Excerpt 1: (The eye of commonality, page 1) I soon realised that, with…
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Learning to learn
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In the accelerated digital world we inhabit today, not many people seem to be doing any serious reading. It is easier to passively watch a YouTube video (at 2x speed) than to read something which forces us to think. The two books on ‘Learning to learn’ try to address this problem by using images and…
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Understanding history
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This week we take a look at another SIDH publication – ‘Understanding history’. First published in 2003 in Hindi as ‘Itihaas ki samajh‘, this small book looks at the importance of history teaching and provides the teacher some tools to make history relevant and interesting for children. Here are some excerpts to give you an…
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A matter of quality
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Over the years, SIDH has published more than 40 books in Hindi and English. This post highlights one such book, first published in 1998, which was based on research done by SIDH on what people from the Tehri-Garhwal area wanted from education. Here are some excerpts from the book. Excerpt 1: (Preface to the first…
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SIDH Vision
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Note: This is the modified SIDH vision statement. The earlier version is available as the first post on this blog. Introduction: When we look around, we see that modern systems – economic, social, technological, educational etc. – appear to be aligned against the fundamental human need for peace and happiness. They seem to inexorably lead…
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Physics for entertainment
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This is an article about my favorite books on physics that I wrote for TeacherPlus magazine. The original article is available here. I think that it points to something more than just Physics education. Take a look and see! The mainstream educational discourse stridently insists that science and mathematics are the most important and also…
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The pond and the swimming pool
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Some years ago, we lived in a house with a pond and our two boys spent long hours swimming and lounging around in the water. It was like having a private swimming pool of our own. However, there is a fundamental difference between a pond and a swimming pool, and in this post I would…
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Understanding modern education – Online course
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Registration: Visit https://learn.aslishiksha.com -> Signup -> Verify email (Check spam folder if email not in Inbox) -> Login -> Buy course -> Launch course For bulk registration (more than 10 participants): http://www.aslishiksha.com/bulkregistration.html For other queries: Email us at learn@aslishiksha.com Course details are as follows: Time investment: 6-8 hours (40 minutes of audio-visual presentations, around 3 hours of reading material…