Issue 11 - July 2007

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One of the most difficult things in life is to find a way of behaviour that is not dictated by circumstances.

...seeing all these outward things without condemnation, without choice, you can ride on the tide of inner awareness.

Our discussions in the recent past have often veered towards some troubling trends that we notice in the lives of the urban middle and upper-class students in our schools.

For those calling themselves environmental educators, it is sobering to note that the only people who have lived sustainably in the Amazon rain forests, the desert Southwest, or anywhere else on earth could not read or write (which is not to say that they were uneducated).

Have you ever taken a walk down a long winding road along the banks of a river, amidst strewn pebbles, clusters of wild grass, acorns and scattered chestnuts?

Here is some recent, assorted news making headlines in the field of biology:

The introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state, for styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions ..

Testing is an inseparable part of the learning process.

We are aware of ourselves and act as individuals with distinct personalities.

Listening to my daughter’s tenth grade history teacher at Parents’ Night the other evening, I found out that California high school world history covers only modern history:the European Enlightenment, the French Revolution, world colonialism, World War I, World War II, the Cold War and so on up to the present day.

One of our friends who comes from a nearby village reported that the first thing a new headmaster does to make his presence felt in a village, is to paint the school building and then expel a student! He told us the story when our own school building was being painted at the time of the joining of a new principal.

This article is a description of a Landscapes course offered in 2006 and 2007, from December/January to April/May, to a group of young adults.

When I began my career as a teacher, my students were middle and senior school children.

Over my years of working with little children in different settings, I have developed a few activities that I feel go well with this stage of growth.

The Amaltash programme started as a pilot project to study the problems and possibilities of individualised and group learning in a mixed age group in the middle school.

Education and dialogue have gone together from the beginning.

Adolescence is often described as a period of increased impulsive and risk-taking behaviour.

A Flame of Learning’ is not an easy book to read—but then few worthwhile things are easy.

I remember a conversation I had with a young bird watcher in Sahayadri School.