Today, we close our sociology classes for the academic year. The group of kids (13-14 year old) with whom I have shared classroom time over the year were introduced to ideas of society, groups, norms and rules, sociological perspectives and institutions in a society. This was meant to be an introductory course. In two sessions … Continue reading Learning with Tanzanite Group
Tag: Poorna
Understanding Children & Feeling Naked
Last week in school, two incidents forced me to think about what does one really know about a child's mind. A better question would be to ask what do we know about a child through his years of growing up, until an acceptable, complying adult is formed out of her by years of joint work … Continue reading Understanding Children & Feeling Naked
Observations from parent-teacher meeting
Last week at Poorna, we had parent-teacher meeting (PTM) spanning over two days. I was looking forward to this since the current academic year began. I wanted to see and get to know the parents of the kids I was spending time with in sociology classes. At Poorna these meetings have an unhurried and informal … Continue reading Observations from parent-teacher meeting
Teaching – Year 3
This isn't how it was supposed to be! Two years of teaching sociology and economics to senior secondary students was to end this year. The students have graduated and most of them are looking forward to the university now. I thought I have had enough of those everyday realizations of my ineffectiveness in classroom and … Continue reading Teaching – Year 3
Freedom of a real education
It has been a month since I left my teaching job at school. Since, this move was to make more time for other things I was doing, instead of a sense of relief, a constant sense of loss has prevailed over the last several weeks as I finished classes and bid farewell to the kids … Continue reading Freedom of a real education
What is alternative education?
A few weeks back, a university professor in course of a conversation asked what "alternative education" means. She hazarded a guess - that it is about educating those who are differently-able. I figured she was hard at work making sense of the word "alternative" beginning with the typical process of ascribing "mainstream" or perhaps "normal" … Continue reading What is alternative education?
A year as a high school teacher
This seems to be a month of anniversaries. This month I complete a year as a high school teacher at Poorna. Besides this, I figure that our little startup which took off from a small house in a small college town is now a fledgling company which is over 7 years old. The business has … Continue reading A year as a high school teacher
Contested Realities 