Author: Arun Elassery
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The Isa Upanishad illuminates an aspect of modernity
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This post is offered with a head-bowed pranaam in the manner of the Isa Upanishad when it says…इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस् तद् विचचक्षिरे(This we have heard from the wise who have expounded it to us) I don’t remember when I first started reading the Upanishads. I think it was probably just after I came…
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Infinite energy
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(The following was written as an entry to a story writing competition. It doesn’t deal with education but is a satirical look at modernity and so is 50% on topic for this blog. I hope that it breaks through the grimness of our virus-related predicament and succeeds in making you smile) Dr Ramdas Verma, a…
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Two poems
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This week I thought of sharing two poems that I like very much. They have their setting in very different world-views, widely separated in geography and time. One written by a modern English poet and the other from the Tamil Sangam era (>2000 years ago). I think both the poems point to some aspects of…
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A slightly disturbing idea about education
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I have a slightly disturbing idea about education that I want to present to you in a slow, roundabout manner that resonates with the leaves dancing and shining outside my window against the backdrop of a bright blue Bangalore sky… Two days ago, I was on a call with some close friends and the question…
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Drawing the attention or dhyaanakarshan vidhi
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Last week I shared an extract from our soon-to-be-launched online course on understanding modern education. Today I thought of sharing some more information on how it works. The course is meant for parents, teachers and other interested adults. It will take some 6-9 hours to go through (depending on whether you follow or don’t follow…
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The problem with modern education
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This week’s blog post is extracted from an online course that we will be launching soon. The course is designed to make a participant contemplate on his/ her educational experience and connect the dots to better understand modern Indian education. The course is made up of short audio-visual presentations, reading material and self-reflective writing exercises.…
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Schools: Anand Niketan
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This is the fifth post in a series on alternative learning spaces. The original article appeared in the Teacher Plus magazine and is available here. I don’t think Gandhiji will be pleased to see what they have done to his ashram at Sevagram. Everything is manicured and tourist-ready and there is a souvenir shop. To…
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Schools: Manzil
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This is the fourth post in a series on alternative learning spaces. The original article appeared in the Teacher Plus magazine and is available here. I met Ravi Gulati, the founder of Manzil, at a learning conference in Delhi where he was one of the speakers. The gentleness and wisdom that shone through his words…
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Schools: Indus World School
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This is the third post in the series on alternative schools. The original article appeared in the Teacher Plus magazine and is available here. (Note: The article was originally written in 2017 and many things have changed at the school and its parent company, but the radical experiment that the article chronicles is worth implementing…
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Schools: Aksharnandan
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This is the second post in the series on alternative schools. The original article appeared in the Teacher Plus magazine and is available here. Hope you like it… “I would have our young men and young women learn as much of English and other world languages as they like, and then expect them to give…
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Schools: Muni International
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I visited many alternative schools and wrote short articles about them as part of a fellowship I had with Wipro Applying Thought In Schools (WATIS). These articles were later published as a regular column in the Teacher Plus magazine. I will post some of these articles here to highlight the variety of experiments going on…
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Hind Swaraj: M K Gandhi
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Mahatma Gandhi’s collected works — writings, speeches, letters, interviews and telegrams — have been meticulously compiled with appendices of relevant background material by the publications division of the Government of India. The collected works runs into 100 volumes of some 500 pages each. The people who have read through or sampled these writings say that…