Identifying passions and teaching the value of hard work July 31, 2009

The past few weeks, I’ve read two books – “The Element” by Ken Robinson and “Outliers” by Malcom Gladwell. Reading these books have raked up many conflicts in my mind about parenting and education.

Ken Robinson in his book talks passionately about finding one’s true passion – whether it is in math, science, history, business, music, art or sports, whatever it maybe. His book is filled with examples of how people who have identified their true passion and pursued them with hard work and determination lead meaningful lives. The book ends with a call for educators and policy makers all over the world to  reform education in a way that children get to explore a variety of interests and identify their true passions. Every child is born and nurtured differently and may not be equally passionate about the popular subjects (like math and science) that the schools teach. Yet, most education systems all over the world, through their rigorous assessment methods, test all children on a narrow set of skills and tag every child with a label called “intelligent” or not.

As a parent, there is nothing more satisfying for me than to raise a child who will not only make meaningful contributions to the society but will also lead a life which will be meaningful to herself. These two things definitely go hand-in-hand because only if work is meaningful to someone will the person be able to make a meaningful contributions to the society. And work can be meaningful only if you are passionate about what you are doing.But this book left more questions in my mind than answers to previous ones.

How does a parent figure out this true passion in a child? What if I completely miss it, given the many many different spheres of influences that a child experiences in her life? A child may say, she is interested in something and a parent can provide the opportunities. What does it mean if the child loses interest in that activity at a later time? What do I make out of it?  Sometimes, a child may become passionate about something only after being exposed to a skill deeply. Until then, the passion may be buried somewhere else. How do I figure out as to which area of interest the child should pursue in depth ? As a parent, am I thinking too much about these issues? Can I leave it all to chance or should I do my due diligence? And how do I do my due diligence in a way not to pressure my child too much?

Wait! My thought process doesn’t end there. It has become even more complex after I’ve read Malcom Gladwell’s “Outliers”.

Gladwell focuses on how demographic advantages, unexpected opportunities, hardwork and ethnic cultures play a big role in achieving something big. He gives examples of many outliers like The Beatles, Bill Gates, the big lawyers in New York City. He even talks about Chinese as a society, who have achieved deep expertise in math that other societies haven’t and why it is so. Most of us parents don’t set out to make our children become outliers. Apart from the priority of their leading meaningful lives, one of the topmost priorities on our minds is to make sure that our children would grow up to be economically self-sufficient.  The lessons that Gladwell imparts in his book would hold good not just for outliers but even to lead a reasonably “successful” life. In today’s world, you would still need demographic advantages and the right opportunities in order to be economically self-sufficient. You only have to look around at a person graduating from college when his/her country is in deep recession to know the value of “demographic advantages” and “opportunities”. And we as parents know all too well about the importance of “hard work”. Gladwell, in his book, talks about how it takes 10,000 hours of practice in total (which usually amounts to 10 years of time) in order to become an expert in any skill. This 10,000 hour rule is not a new concept and has been referred to many times within the realm of scientific research in the field of education.

As a parent, again I’m having a hard time coming to grips with how to have my child understand the value of hard work. The struggle is more to do with having my daughter understand the value of hard work without taking away the “joy of learning” in her. The rule of thumb in the field of education is that if a child is interested and motivated to learn something, the child will work on practicing that skill automatically. Yes, I agree but it is not as simple, is it? For, as the tasks start to become tougher, the natural human tendency is to give it up. This is where the value of “hard work” kicks in. But the more I push my daughter to pursue a skill through “practice”, the more I’m nervous that it may backfire. I’ve had some reasonable amounts of success balancing my urge to have her practice a skill and still retain the “joy of learning” in her. But sometimes I feel this balance slipping away right in front of my eyes and all I can do is throw up my arms in frustration (thankfully, not in front of her).

I guess if the child is “wildly passionate” (as opposed to just being “interested”) about something he/she would be lot more inclined to work hard. I know that some children, begin to exhibit their deep passions at an early age. But many children don’t and I feel that these conflicts that I’ve described are more relevant in these situations.

I want to close this window to my web of conflicts with a final set of questions . As an adult, it is a matter of balancing two things – pursuing one’s passion and at the same time, finding ways to be economically self-sufficient. What if your passion doesn’t fit in well with economic realities of the time that you live in? How do I make sure that my child is able to achieve this balance between these two things, when she grows up to be an adult? The first thing I can think of is that she should definitely have opportunities to pursue a variety of interests so that she develops competency in a range of skills that will help her find meaningful careers. Now, the conflicts in my mind have just multiplied. Identify multiple interests and motivate her to work hard on all of them? This is a full-time job. I’m definitely passionate about parenting but I’m not sure that this will lead me to economic self-sufficiency .

Natural growth versus Concerted cultivation July 28, 2009

I’ve been reading the book “Outliers” by Malcom Gladwell. In one of the chapters, he contrasts two parenting philosophies – natural growth v/s concerted cultivation.

Research has shown that some parents follow the philosophy of natural growth. They think of their responsibility for their children as one where they have to care for their children but let them grow and develop on their own. They are not involved in intensive scheduling in the lives of their children. These children spend a large amount of their time making up games on their own with other kids. The second kind of philosophy is of concerted cultivation. Here the parents are heavily involved in their children’s free time, shuttling them from one activity to the next, quizzing them about their teachers and coaches and peers. The parents also talk things through with their children, reasoning with them.

Gladwell talks about how research says that there is nothing to show that one philosophy is better than the other. The children who experience the natural growth philosophy are more often than not, better behaved, less whiny, more creative in making use of their own time and have a well-developed sense of independence. Where as the children who are heavily scheduled and experience the concerted cultivation philosophy are exposed to a constantly shifting set of experiences. They learn teamwork and how to cope in highly structured settings. Depending on the different environments that they are exposed to, they are taught how to interact comfortably with adults and to speak up when they need to.

With my daughter, I’ve found that I feel the urge to strike a balance between both these philosophies. Since she attends a Montessori school, I feel pretty comfortable that she is getting the freedom to explore her personal interests and hence experience natural growth,  for a significant amount of time within the school setting. At the same time, the structure within the Montessori environment, gives her a good space to  collaborate with her peers on different tasks, interact with the adults to express her needs and pursue academic activities – in short, experience concerted cultivation. She gets off school at 3.00 p.m every day. After school hours, I do take her for after-school classes at least 3 days in a week during the school year. These are pretty structured settings where she has to learn/practice new skills. Alternatively, we also have playdates with other kids quite often where she usually has an unstrcutured setting. At home, again we have a mix of both – unstructured time and structured activities.

I still remember what my professor at my graduate school (of Education) once said – “Children need to get used to boredom”.  When they grow up to be adults, they need to be able to figure out how to make use of their own time. They need to be able to independently figure out their interests and pursue them. What my professor said really struck a chord in me. Since then, I’ve tried to control my urge to engage her in too many structured activities. Even then, I find that my daughter comes to me once in a while and says, – “Now, what do I do? How do I spend my time now?”. I find myself struggling to give her an answer. Sometimes, I try and find an activity that she can do. But most times, her asking me that question is an indication for me that she hasn’t learnt to manage her time on her own . Hence I shoo her off to find something to do. After all, mommies need their own time too – especially time for reading . The best times are when, she decides that she wants to read a book sitting next to her dear mommy. Those are the times when I feel that all my dreams have come true. Mother and daughter sitting cuddled next to each other and reading their own books while the whole world passes by .

A lesson in courage and perseverance July 6, 2009

We had been eagerly waiting for our road trip in Colorado and Utah for many months. After we landed in Denver, Colorado, we spent our first day of the road trip at the Rocky Mountain National Park. My daughter had displayed amazing patience on the previous day, at the airports and in the airplane, on our way to Denver. Our frequent travels has molded her into a patient traveler. Her only whimper had come when we had finally landed in Denver and she had found out that our hotel was still an hours worth of drive away from the airport.

On our first day at the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), we were looking forward to indulging in pristine nature, watching the beautiful scenic views, hiking among wildflowers, watching the wild animals and trying to spot the beautiful birds among the trees. We definitely got to do all of this and much more.

As we started our first hike, I knew that this was not going to be easy for my daughter . It was a 5 mile, moderately difficult hike. But I thought that this was an opportunity to not only be a little adventurous but also to teach her some perseverance. I knew that she would start complaining as we hiked further into the trail. The first 1.5 miles of the hike was beautiful. She hardly stuck to the hiking trail. She hiked most of the first 1.5 miles by jumping from one rock to the other and watching the least-chipmunks and the marmots play games with their friends. But complain, she definitely did after that . For a while, her complaints sounded very artificial and it was very easy for me to keep her going by telling her about how she could do anything if she just made up her mind.

But finally, the moment she was waiting for, arrived , when she tripped on a rock and fell flat on the ground, hurting her knee – giving her the perfect excuse to turn back home. It’s a wonder that there were no landslides on the rocky mountains, considering the shrill cry that she let out during the next 5 minuntes . I managed to calm her down. Stories from my childhood when I had nasty falls, seemed to convince her that her wounds had nowhere else to go but be cured. She actually started to trudge along the trail again giving her best shot. By now, we were a couple of miles into the hiking trail. But luck was definitely on her side as dark clouds started to kick in and it started to drizzle. We had not prepared ourselves for rain had to hike the 2 miles back to our car in pouring rain. We finally, reached our car about an hour later, thoroughly drenched and with no hope of changing into dry clothes because there were none. The temperature had dropped to upper 50s and we were shivering. The next couple of hours were spent drying ourselves and feeding our hungry stomachs. I think that a lesson in courage and perseverance in the face of bad weather and a persistent mother respectively, had already unraveled for my daughter that day.

What she hadn’t expected was the threat of another hike – a shorter 2 mile hike this time. She initially resisted it but knew that it was in vain. It turned out to a easy hike this time in spite of her “why do we have to hike so much in one day” complaints. But what we encountered during the hike blew us all away – a big black bear, right in the middle of our trail. Luckily, we had some smart fellow hikers who knew what to do when a big bear is staring right at you. As one of these hikers started shouting at the bear, the bear decided that the best thing to do was to turn his back on us and carry on with his life.

The bear encounter, however, was enough to leave a lasting impression on my daughter. The remainder of the day was dedicated to talking to her about whether bears attack humans and what can be done when that happens. The inexperienced ‘bear’ person that I am, I had very few answers to her questions but managed to appear courageous. As for my daughter she came back to the hotel and journaled her fears away by writing about it.

It had been an eventful day for my daughter. She had a couple of lessons each on both courage and persevence. As for me, my horizons on experiences related to raising my child had only widened.

Homework for summer June 12, 2009

Summer is a time to enjoy time off from school and nourish the soul with life-enriching experiences. It is a time to spend more time with family and friends than at school, more time outdoors than indoors, more time amidst nature than disconnected from it. I have been looking forward to spending long, bright summer days with my daughter.

In the US, many children get almost three months off from school during summer. I read a statistic recently which said that counting all the vacations, holidays, weekends and the number of hours in a school day, children in America spend only 14% of their time in the year attending school. They spend close to 33% of their time sleeping and the rest 53% at their home and communities. This statistic made me wonder about what I could do to help my daughter be in touch with some of her schoolwork during summer. Going back to school for first grade in September and realizing that she has forgotten many concepts that were fragile in her mind and having to re-learn all of them again would not be a good thing, not just for her academic progress but also for her self-esteem.

Montessori children spend a large part of their school day doing “real” work and practicing their academic skills. As a result, most children in the lower grades don’t get any home work from school. Moreover, Montessori children learn many concepts through real life experiences and play. Hence I knew that it was imperative to use every day life experiences and play to enrich her learning during summer, so that her joy of learning is not compromised. At the same time, I also knew that there were some things that she needed to learn which can only be done through repetition and practice. For example, in order to progress in math, it is very important that the basic math skills and operations become second nature for her. For this, she needs to develop mental math skills. As she starts to write more elaborate stories and experiences in her journals, her handwriting needs to become more refined. She is a prolific reader, but it is also important to make sure that she is comprehending more and more of what she reads and building her vocabulary by understanding the meaning words that she reads.

My daughter loves to learn new things, be it  a new sport, new song, new concept about the world around her – you name it and she will have a million different questions about the things around her. But if it was left to herself she’ll probably not spend time practicing and refining some of the skills that she has newly learned. Her teacher had informed me that her favorite thing is to try new things. She would rather not spend time repeating what she had already worked on.

So, my thinking was that I should help her realize the value of practice and the importance of learning something really well, when it comes to academic skills. I popped the question to her about spending an hour a day during the summer doing “homework”. She knows what “homework” is – it means doing school work at home. To my surprise, she was thrilled with the idea. So, on the last day of her school, we visited a store nearby which sells many curriculum materials to schools in our area. We browsed the shop and I let her choose journals, workbooks and hands-on math materials that she could work on during summer.

The next day (yesterday) I marked a few pages in the different workbooks and journals that she could work on. She seemed very proud to be working on these. She wouldn’t move on to anything else until she finished her “homework”.  Today, before I could come back from the gym in the morning, she had woken up, picked up her journals and workbooks, chosen her homework and started to work on them. When I went to talk to her in her room, she even complained that I was “disturbing her” and not allowing her to “concentrate” on her work.

I’m not certain how long this motivation to do her “homework” regularly will continue. I’m sure that as the summer progresses, I’ll have to find ways to re-motivate her. As is the case with her fascination to try new things, this many be just one of her new fads which may wear off after a little while. But so far, I’m very happy with how happy she is, to be doing her “homework”.

What kind of basic education would I choose for my daughter? May 9, 2009

I recently watched the documentary -” Two Million Minutes”. The time between the moment a student enters ninth grade to when they graduate out of twelfth grade is about two million minutes. The documentary compares how a a few students in India, China and U.S spend these “two million minutes”.

While the documentary doesn’t make any conclusions at the end, it  seems to drive home a message that students in India and China are spending their time more fruitfully. It seems to say that compared to Americans, Indian and Chinese students seem to be  more serious about careers in math and science and are hence better off. It seems to conclude that America is not doing enough to compete with the rest of the world in the areas of math and science.

Ok, I agree that given what I know about education in USA,  the country can do better in preparing it’s students for math and science careers. But given what I know about education in India, I strongly feel that there is absolutely no need to put the Indian education system on a pedestal and say that it is better than the US education system. How much time the students spend on academics and whether they chose a career in math and science is not the only measure of a successful education system. An education system should be measured with many more outcomes – how well-rounded the students are, whether they are able to critically think about issues and make decisions, whether they are able to problem solve, able to think out of the box, whether they are confident, compassionate, responsible and so on.

First of all, I would like to note that I’m very passionate about developments in both India and America. I am a first generation Indian American who lives in America currently and who has plans of living in India in the future. I received an engineering degree in India and after a Masters and a ten year career in the engineering field, changed my career to one in Education after getting a Masters degree in this field. While my daughter is currently getting a K-12 US education, she will in all probability continue her education in India in the future. Given this background , I would like to think of my opinions on both these education systems to be quite objective.

Given what I know about both US and Indian K-12 education systems, if I was given a free choice without any other constraints to choose between these two systems for my daughter, I would any day go for the US education system. Following are the reasons why:

Firstly, I feel that my daughter will have a better environment in the US to explore her interests and pursue a career inline with her interests. She will have an opportunity to explore many options other than math and science – humanities, arts, sports and what not. She will even get opportunities to be competent in more than one field. I know that in India, unless parents work hard to swim against the tide, the society and the environment will put enormous pressure on the children to pursue a career in science and math even if the children are not interested in these careers.

I feel that even if my daughter decides to pursue a career in math/science after doing K-12 education in America, it will be out of her own interest. There is a huge difference in outcomes when someone pursues a career out of passion as opposed to when someone pursues a career because she was pressured to do so. Research studies have shown that people perform at their peak when they are pursuing something out of their own interest.

And secondly, there is the question of how well-rounded my daughter will be if she does K-12 in the U.S. My daughter will grow up in an environment where creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork etc are encouraged in a non-competitive environment. Research studies have shown that these skills are critical to success as an individual. I also feel that these skills are critical for a successful democratic process in a country. There is a reason why the American democracy is as sophisticated as it is today. If the Indian democracy has to reach this level of sophistication, it is crucial to instill these skills in it’s citizens. Research studies have also shown that a non-competitive environment is crucial for developing competencies at their best. The K-12 education environment in India is extremely competitive which puts a lot of pressure on the children to be the best, which in turn could bring-down their performance.

Apart from these academic skills, I also feel that my daughter would have a much better chance of growing up to be a social-minded, compassionate, confident and responsible individual if she completed her education in USA.

While the documentary “Two million minutes” has made a good attempt to bolster the importance of math and science education in K-12 schools in America, people should not confuse this attempt to mean that the Indian education system is better than US or that US education system is inferior to Indian and Chinese education systems in all respects. All these education systems have a long way to go and success cannot be measured on one dimension alone.

Any thoughts?

Rules of engagement in a museum May 9, 2009

My daughter and I visit many different kinds of museums regularly. Museums are not only great places where families can spend enjoyable time together, they are also spaces where a lot of informal learning occurs for both children and adults.

I’ve noted down below some basic rules that I follow in order to make museum visits as effective as possible. The rules are as follows: Plan before, Give Freedom, Ask Questions, Be Generous, Find connections, Follow-up. More details are given below.

Plan before:

This is the first rule of thumb. A little planning on what you will do at the museum, goes a long way in making the visit as enjoyable and effective as possible. And what is more important is to involve the children in the planning. This makes the children feel empowered and in control of the visit.

If it is a museum that we have been to many times, I ask my daughter as to which exhibits she would want to see that day . She usually lists some of the exhibits that she has already been to and enjoyed in the past. Visiting the same exhibits multiple times is a good thing. There is always something new to learn within the same exhibit.

I also find out if there are any new exhibits that have come up recently or if there is anything new in the museum  related to what she is learning at school or is reading about. Telling her about any such exhibits immediately sparks an interest in her and she looks forward to seeing them with a sense of anticipation.

If we are visiting a museum for the first time, we browse the website of the museum together and check out the various exhibits that we can expect to find there. We talk about them a little and  she makes her preferences known about what she wants to see.

Give Freedom:

While in the museum, give the child a lot of freedom and choice.

I usually have my daughter lead me through the exhibits. If she is not sure about where to go, we talk about the different choices and options using the brochures, and I have her choose from them.   Again, this makes her feel a sense of ownership about her own interests.

I feel that a large part of our job as adults would be to find out what engages the children in the museums. A child may be interested in some topics more than others and hence may tend to engage in exhibits related to them more. Other times, some exhibits are way beyond the child’s level of understanding of the concept (in short it may not fall under their Zone of Proximal Development).

As adults, we need to trust them to know what they want to learn, even if the children don’t explicitly spell it out.

Ask Questions:

The key to effective learning in museums is encouraging the children to critically think about what they are seeing and also ask as many good questions as possible to the adults around them.

Exhibits in some museums are very interactive. I usually let my daughter try experiencing the exhibit on her own. If she is having trouble with it, I help her out. During the course of the experience, I ask her questions related to what, why, when, where and how of whatever is happening in front of her at the exhibit. If she is not able to comprehend it, I try asking the question in different ways before I give her the answer.

One of the ways I encourage her to ask questions is to lead her to a docent near the exhibit. I start asking the docent questions of my own. This way I can role model to her to ask any questions she may have. Once I ask the docent a couple of questions of my own, I usually turn to my daughter and ask her whether she has any questions of her own. Most of the times she has some question or the other that she asks the docent.

Many museums, especially art museums have several non-interactive exhibits. One effective method that I use to make art museums interactive for my daughter is to ask her questions about the pictures that she is seeing. What do you see, what do you think the girl is doing in the picture, why is she doing it, what do u think is happening in the background, do you like the colors in the picture, why and so on. These questions help her engage in the exhibits much better.

Be generous:

Be generous with time at each exhibit. Give children the time to explore each exhibit as much as they would like. Remember the biggest reason for the visit to the museum – so that the children enjoy and learn. And if they are enjoying the experience at one exhibit, why put an end to it.

It’s better to have them explore one exhibit thoroughly instead of breezing through many exhibits for short periods of time.  Exploring something thoroughly is when the deepest learning happens.

Find connections:

Try to find connections in the exhibits to what the child may be doing or reading at his/her school or at home. If you don’t know whether there is a connection, ask the child whether she already knows anything about what she is seeing. If the answer is yes, ask her what she has learned about it.

Sometimes, these connections can be found at the periphery of the exhibit. For example, when we visited a Frog exhibit at a science museum recently, we were treated to sights of many different varieties of live frogs, found in many different parts of the world. As we were enjoying these, outside each glass case, I found a map of the continent where that particular variety of frog was found.  Since I knew that my daughter was studying the different countries within each continents, we spent some time looking at each map to identify the countries where the frogs were found.

Follow-up:

To maximize the effectiveness of the museum visit, try and follow-up with some activities at home soon after the museum visit. I usually try and get some books from the library related to what we experienced at the museum. If you can find any activity kits at the museum store related to your child’s experiences and if you are in a mood to buy something for your child, that’s another option.

The above are just some of the rules that one could follow, based on my experiences with my daughter. I would love to know if there are others based on your experiences.

The book itself is the reward!! April 27, 2009

We recently attended a live theater performance of “Charolette’s Web”. And luckily, we were in the midst of reading the same book by E.B.White (see my earlier blog for a few notes on that). I knew that having read at least a part of the book would definitely help my daughter enjoy and comprehend the live theater performance better. But I was curious to see how she would react after the theater performance of Charolette’s Web – whether she would continue reading the book with as much interest as before now that she knew the story.
The night after the show, we were about to sit down to read and as though she had read my mind, she said – “Amma, now that we have seen the play, should we still read the book?”.
Ha!! Luckily I already had an answer prepared for her. I had identified a few incidents in the book that had failed to make it to the stage performance. These were incidents that we both had found really funny while reading the book. Without winking an eye, I reminded her of those incidents in the book. She was surprised at first that the theater performance had failed to incorporate them. She then started to remember more incidents in the book that failed to appear in the performance. After a while, I popped the question to her – “Do you still want to read the book?”. “Yes!!” was the resounding answer from her. We have continued to read the book with a lot of interest every night.

I would like to bring out two important points from this anecdote.
First, the joy and benefits of reading a book is so different from watching a theater performance or a movie. While I don’t mean to discount the merits of watching these performances on stage or on a movie screen, I want to specially emphasize the merits of reading a book here. This is because, performances – especially movies- engage any child instantaneously and there is no special effort that needs to be expended in order to motivate children to watch movies. But it is not the same for books. Getting children interested in reading books – especially the classics – takes a quite a bit of effort.
Most movies or stage performances based on popular books interpret the books in their own way and present it to the audience. This leaves little scope for the children to critically think about the stories presented to them on stage or in the movies. Whereas, a good book offers lots of opportunities for critical thinking. Moreover, by not having a live visual to comprehend what the book is talking about, the children have to entirely rely on the language in the book in order to understand the plot or characterizations. This automatically increases the language processing capabilities in children.

Second, I would also like to point out some interesting findings from research studies in the context of the anecdote that I described above. Research studies show that “getting children interested in reading is even more important to their eventual success as readers than in helping them with early reading skills”. And research studies have also shown that enticing a child to do something that you want using the promise of rewards will eventually lead to reduced interest for the activity in the child. So, for example, I could have offered her some sort of a extrinsic motivation or a reward for continuing to read the book after we attended the stage performance. I could have said – “Since I’m going to return the book back to the library soon and we don’t know when we can get it back, lets finish the book” or “How about we finish reading the book and you can have a treat then”. All this would have done was to transfer her focus from the book to either returning it to the library asap or dreaming of the treat that she could have after she finishes reading. Eventually, this would have reduced her interest in the book itself. Luckily I didn’t use either of these extrinsic motivators. Since I had an answer ready, I used it to tap her inner motivation to read the book and it worked like a charm!! This doesn’t mean to say that I can be such a “genius” every time I’m faced with such a situation. There have been many instances when I have regretted my responses to her negotiating questions. But I do believe in the importance of persevering and practicing this skill and I am only getting better at it.

Montessori education incorporates both these principles – following the child’s interests and not using extrinsic rewards . Dr. Montessori believed that a child’s personal interests could be connected to every part of the academic curriculum and, that the hands-on materials that she provided as a part of the curriculum could be designed in such a way that they evoked interest for them in a child. Dr. Montessori also strived very hard to design the curriculum and pedagogies in such a way that all extrinsic rewards like grades, toys etc were removed from the child’s environment. She found that when children engaged themselves in the Montessori classroom, they didn’t need to be offered these rewards in order to do the work. They engaged in their work naturally.

I’m sure my daughter’s Montessori school has played a big role in keeping many of her interests active – reading being one of them. But I also do believe that the parents at home shouldn’t heavily conflict with these philosophies, so that the child’s interests stay alive and active!!

Reading together only keeps getting better April 18, 2009

I’ve been reading books to my daughter ever since she was about four months old. She is now five and a half years old. I still remember those baby days and the way she used to stare at the bright colors in the books. She used look up at me and smile when I made a interesting animal sound while reading the book. At about seven months old when she was able to sit up straight, she used to spend quite sometime everyday, flipping the pages of the board books and feeling the texture of the art in them.
When she grew a little older, she used to bring to me each of her favorite books, one after another, so that I could read them to her. Her love for books only increased over the years and I feel that this was one of the main reasons she learned to read when she was only three years old. She probably felt that I didn’t read to her as much as she wanted me to and decided that it was time she took things under her control. I’ve never seen her as motivated to learn anything, as she was when she was learning to read. I can confidently say that it was mainly through her own initiative that she learned to read.
After she learned to read, our nightly bedtime routine changed slightly. Instead of me reading two books to her we started to read one book each to each other. During the afternoons, if we found ourselves at home, we would sit next to each other and read our own separate books to ourselves.
Recently, our reading routine has become more enjoyable than ever. She reads a lot on her own but bedtime has always been the time when we have connected with each other through books. Although I have always enjoyed reading with her immensely, I have to confess that until recently I was not in love with the books that we read to each other, as much as she was. But as her reading interests have matured, I’ve begun to enjoy the books that we read together, very much.
We have been reading E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web lately. Every night, she has been reading one chapter from this book to me. What a wonderful read this book is!! I would recommend it to any parent who wants to spend quality reading time with their child. I have never experienced animals come to life and talk to each other so naturally, as I have, in this book. And the conversations between these animals is hilarious. Here’s an example:
When the lamb tells Wilbur the young pig that pigs mean less than nothing to him, here’s what Wilbur replies:
“What do you mean, less than nothing? I don’t think there is any such thing as less than nothing. Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It’s the lowest you can go. It’s the end of the line. How can something be less than nothing? If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something – even though it’s just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is”
Wow! We both laughed so hard when we read this. We couldn’t stop laughing for a while!!
Nowadays, I feel that we enjoy reading each book that we read together, the same amount. What can be better than that!! The day when she doesn’t want us to read together anymore – I hope that day never comes.

"Taare Zameen Par" – an educational movie for parents April 13, 2009

“Taare Zameen Par” (meaning Stars on Earth) is an Indian movie which tells the story of a dyslexic boy who grows up to be eight years old without anyone around him recognizing that he is dyslexic. The boy shows above average intelligence in every other area except in the written language. And because the school system relies on the written language to test the child’s level of intelligence in every other discipline, the boy is not able to show his progress in any other subject area as well. The movie portrays the pathetic state of the Indian education system which compounds the boy’s problems by constantly criticizing his inability to do well at school. As a result of this he also suffers from very low self-esteem. Luckily he encounters a new teacher in his school who recognizes his disability and offers him special therapy and training to help him learn how to read and write. Once he catches up on his reading and writing skills, he blends easily into his academic curriculum.

The movie tells the story of millions of dyslexic people all over the world, It is estimated that in U.S alone, about three to ten percent of the school-aged children are dyslexic. While there doesn’t seem to be any official figure on the number of dyslexic children in India, I would assume that the percentages are something similar to U.S – which puts the number of dyslexic children in India in the order of many millions.
The problem of dyslexia results from differences in how the brain processes written and spoken language. Some of the difficulties that result from dyslexia are – confusion with before/after,right/left, difficulty with spelling and reading, difficulty with handwriting, difficulty in organization skills and so on. While there is no cure for dyslexia, dyslexic children/adults can be treated by giving specialized phonics instruction which can mitigate the reading deficits. Access to written material in a variety of other formats (eg: audio) and fonts can also help dyslexic children learn better.
It is also important to note that dyslexic children can be integrated into mainstream classrooms quite easily if dyslexia is detected early enough and treated. Because most schools impart education and test children in the written language, it is mandatorily required to have all children learn to process written language – which is exactly what a dyslexic child cannot do. But once the dyslexic children are trained in special ways to process written language, they can integrate easily into mainstream classrooms.

During my school years, growing up in India, there was very little awareness about dyslexia and other learning disabilities. With large class sizes in every classroom and a teacher training program that didn’t address how to recognize learning disabilities in children, many children who were dyslexic often fell through the cracks of the school system. The Indian educational system is very competitive with children who secure good grades in the examinations are often encouraged by everyone around them and are labelled as gifted. Other children who score average grades in the exams, while not valued by the society as up to the same level as the so called “gifted children”, often make it through the education system and if lucky eventually find their “calling” in life and pursue their passion quite successfully. It is the children who score below average in the examinations who have a tough time in the Indian society. Often criticized by the society for not being “intelligent” because they don’t score well in academic subjects, many of them suffer from very low self-esteem. What is even worse is that many of them may be suffering from a learning disability conditions like dyslexia which, if detected, can be treated – but no one may have detected this condition in them.
Worse still is the state of many families of dyslexic children in India who not only are unaware of this learning disability but are also not able to share their child’s learning problems publicly due to the fear of their child being labeled by the society as “mentally retarded”. Dyslexia is not a condition of mental retardation. From what I’ve observed in the U.S, adults talk freely about their and their children’s problems related to dyslexia or other learning disabilities. Because they are able to share their problems with others, they are also able to access support groups and special help to address the problem. In addition, the public education system in the U.S has provisions in place to train teachers to recognize these kinds of problems in children and offer dyslexic children special help to treat the conditions. Hence I feel that the dyslexic children in U.S have a much better chance of doing well in life than children in India.

I came across an article in Washington Post which talked about how the movie “Taare Zameen Par” drastically raised the awareness about dyslexia in India. After seeing the movie, many families and parents of dyslexic children, came out of their shell and were able to share their stories in the public and were also able to get help for their children.
One wonders what it will take to have all children in this world with learning disabilities learn at the same pace as a normal child. The choice of most educational systems in the world to educate and test children is written language. What if children were taught and tested orally? What if they were taught through music or through visual aids? What if all teachers in this world were trained to recognize these disabilities in children? What if appropriate remedial action was taken for all these children on time? What if the world thought of every child born into this world as equally capable? What if the whole world recognized that it is mainly through the child’s experiences during her childhood that she develops her intelligences. What if every child’s caregiver (eg: family, teachers etc) recognized that it is largely up to them to have their children grow up to be responsible citizens of this world? What if… What if….
Whenever I watch movies such as “Taare Zameen Par”, my thought train is endless….

Feelings matter April 8, 2009

I recently attended a very informative talk by Dr. Lisa Price who is prominent in the field of child and adult psychiatry. She spoke about the importance of regulating the feelings of children. Emotions and how the children deal with it is directly linked to everything that they do and how they do it. This may not come as a surprise to anyone – as adults, how many times have we not blamed our unproductiveness on our moods? Scientific research has also shown that how children deal with emotions is linked to how successful they are socially and academically too. How they deal with their emotions also matter to their self-esteem.

This is not to say that adults as caregivers/teachers of children should not let the child experience any negative emotions at all. The negative emotions can be overwhelming to the child but can help the child to understand their own feelings better. Understanding their own feelings is the first step towards regulating their emotions.

Caregivers (eg: parents and teachers) can help children to regulate their emotions even when the children are very young. Even for toddlers, the adults can play a big role in helping the them label their feelings. When an infant or a toddler is crying, she may not even know that she is sad. Helping the children to label their own feelings is the first step to helping them understand more complex emotions.

As adults involved with children, we could deal with a child’s emotions in a variety of ways. John Gottman in his book “Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child” talks about four different styles with which adults (eg: caregivers, teachers) deal with children’s emotions.
A “dismissing” adult considers the child’s emotions as insignificant. A “disapproving” adult not only dismisses the child’s emotions but also criticizes a child about her emotions. A “permissive” adult doesn’t dismiss or disapprove but also doesn’t help the child to problem solve their emotions. The ideal role that a adult can play in helping the child deal with her emotions is to be an “emotional coach”. An adult who is an emotional coach for a child sees the child’s feelings as a time to connect with the child. This adult understands the significance of the child’s feelings. The adult also understands that they don’t have to fix every problem for the child but realizes that just being there to listen to the child’s feelings and offer to help the child is by itself very beneficial to the child. John Gottman recommends the following five steps for emotion coaching.

1. Become aware of the child’s feeling
2. See the child’s feeling as a moment for connection and learning
3. Listen to what the child says with empathy and support their feelings
4. Assist the child to describe the feelings
5. When needed, set limits while looking for solutions for the current problem.

How a child deals with the emotions can vary among children based on their temperament. And it is also not easy to understand what issues matter to the children, especially when they are not able to or don’t want to express their feelings. One way for adults to figure out what matters to a child is to observe them during their pretend play. During pretend play, children tend to gravitate towards enacting issues that is on top of their minds. For example, I remember a instance when my daughter was four years old and used to draw pictures of dead people and Egyptian mummies. She was then obsessed with the concept of death. Although she used to ask me a lot of questions about death, I never realized how much it mattered to her until I saw her drawing these pictures everyday.

On the whole, the richness of the emotional environment during childhood matters. The more their emotional needs are addressed, more vocabulary they develop to express their emotion, which will help them later on in life.