India is bound by human rights treaties like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Limaye, 2016) but the reality is that most of the spaces are exclusive and there is little chance for those who are marginalized to find a space for themselves. 
 

They are at a lot of disadvantage. 
 

In rural India or in the mountains, poor quality of education is available to local children in most of the zones. Teachers and/or buildings are often not in place (Goodman & Kaplan, n.d.). As per a study, 50% of the out-of-school children in rural areas and 41% in urban areas will never enter school in India (UNICEF, 2015). Living in such a country, one would need to be completely immune or a stone to not want to be the change or make a difference as most of the population might grow up handicapped in some way or the other.

Hence I am naturally drawn to kids who are handicapped in multiple senses. 

That is, those who are (a) disabled, (b) emotional wrecks, (c) learning disabled, (d) females or (e) minorities. Each of these is marginalized by the social set up and is filled with low self worth or defeatism. The task for me was to build their self worth as I built their math.


Trying to reach out to all kids created and helped evolve my teaching philosophy. At the heart of it, the philosophy is to be able to connect to all the kids in my class or in my group. In the beginning I could connect to few students and as I grew in teaching, I found my space expanding. By the end of it, I connected to all the students in my class, come what may. I had learnt to connect, that is, build relationships where the students felt heard and valued without any judgment (Courage, Compassion, and Connection: The Gifts of Imperfection, 2010). Over the years, with learning to connect to every child in the class, I felt that I grew a better human being. My teaching philosophy evolved as humane math (Kochar, 2019).


Initially I was driven by understanding and analyses. Then I discovered the power of having an eco system or as Sir Ken Robinson says, teacher is more like a gardener, (Robinson, 2010). I learnt to create an eco-system instead of trying to learn about every student in my class. I realized that I would not be able to create an individualized education plan, but I can have a space where all students accelerate, that is, be better than what they are when they walk in.


What I attempted to create, hence, was an inclusive space, that is, a space that includes all learners and ensures an equal opportunity for learning for everyone, celebrating their small or big successes (UNESCO, 2017). I valued the presence of each student in the class, irrespective of their individuality. This was a struggle, but a deep and personal struggle. Every learner mattered.
 

I used some strategies for the same:
 

1. Gather knowledge for my own growth: I need to understand for myself what each handicap is, whether gender based or emotions based or that from cognition. This is my own self development.

2. Collaborative classroom space: My classroom was always a blend of working together. This was a non-negotiable. The mantra was ‘we need to be able to work with anyone, hence let us learn’.

3. Use peer help for weak students: Marginalized kids always had a buddy. This could be for subject or emotional support or any other assistance.

4. Differentiated learning in my classes: I differentiated content, process and product for math teaching (Teachings in Education, 2017). I used the multiple intelligence philosophy as a base and created a classroom rich with variety of strategies drawing from various intelligences (Kochar, 2019).

 

References

1. Courage, Compassion, and Connection: The Gifts of Imperfection. (2010). https://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/excerpt-the-gifts-of-imperfection-by-dr-brene-brown/5.

2. Goodman, R., & Kaplan, S. (n.d.). The Mantra of Meritocracy (SSIR). Retrieved March 19, 2018, from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_mantra_of_meritocracy

3. Kochar, M. (2019, September 23). About Humane Maths. http://www.humanemaths.com/

4. Limaye, S. (2016). Factors influencing the Accessibility of Education for Children with Disabilities in India. Global Education Reform. 3 (3) 43-56 Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1115090.pdf

5. Robinson, K. (2010, August 19). Teachers Are Like Gardeners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_121H3kLY.

6. Teachings in Education. (2017). Differentiated instruction: Why, how, and examples. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BVvImZcnkw (5:30)

7. UNESCO. (2017). A guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002482/248254e.pdf

8. UNICEF. (2015, July 31). Educate All Girls and Boys in South Asia: The Global Out-of-School Children Initiative. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from https://eric.ed.gov/?q=ED573877&id=ED573877

Being the largest democracy in the world and the fastest growing economy, around one-fifth of the population falls into the 10-19 years category. Being advanced and so-called “modern”, talking about sex or intimacy or sexual practices or birth control measures, still is taboo. Talking about one’s sexuality or sexual orientation is looked down upon and termed as vulgar. This leads to suppression of desires and needs of people along with their inquisitiveness revolving around the topic, especially for women. Modernizing requires us to broaden our mindset and talk about such ‘tabooed’ issues on an open platform, not when we grow up, but when we are growing up. Therefore, sex education at the school level is the need of the hour and we need to bring into practice, what the National Council of Educational Research and Training initiated.

Sex Education is the procedure of gaining knowledge and developing an open mindset as well as ideas about sex, sexual identity, human relations, closeness, gender roles, contraception methods, prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) along with teaching students to take responsibility for their actions. This will help them make well-thought judgments in the future. Proper sex education at the school level helps develop emotionally stable children who feel secure and adequate to make the right decisions without being carried away by emotions. It helps provide knowledge about the physical aspect of sex behavior along with its psychological and sociological aspects, i.e. helps in improving the overall personality of a student. It helps students understand the changes occurring within and outside their bodies. It also educates them about the role of their respective genders along with developing responsibility and attitude towards each other within the social context.

Educating the students about sex, their preferences, and other aspects isn’t something to be ashamed of. Proper sex education reduces the negative results from sexual behavior, unwanted pregnancies, and STDs. It helps bust the myths attached to sexual behavior, body image, stigma, etc. It helps school children develop a positive and responsible attitude towards sexuality and helps them know about the pleasures and risks associated with it.

Teachers should be trained and educated to deliver effective health education. Successful implementation of the program requires not only resources but also community support. Parents should also discuss openly safe sex and sexual preferences. They should not treat it as taboo or hush the kid when he/she enquires about the same. Parents should understand that kids now have multiple avenues to find their answers, where they can be misguided. Therefore, they should sit and have an open discussion about these things along with answering their child’s queries. Sex education at all levels is an important idea of demonstration of modern health. It is a continuous process and should be encouraged to be taught in schools and colleges as a separate topic within health education.

There is more than one way of expressing our thoughts in any human language. Some people may use a single word to express it. Others may use multiple sentences to describe their thoughts. The goal is to convey our feelings to others. When we start learning a new language, assuming that we already speak at least one language, the initial days of learning are hard: a whole new bunch of words and phrases. Learning becomes very difficult when the new language has a different script than the languages we already know. But can language learning be made easier? Do we have to learn multiple languages? What could be the first sentences to learn? Let’s see!

They say there is more than one way to express our thoughts and feelings. If we don't have the words, we express them with gestures; we try some or other means not to mention the drawings to express ourselves. But what if we're limited to words in a language? What if the only option before us is to speak in a particular language? And what if we have to express ourselves in multiple human languages, especially languages from different language families?

Learning a new language is very difficult. When we see children learning a new language (or even their first language), we are surprised at their rapid progress. And as adults, we're struggling to learn and retain vocabulary from a new language. After a while, we tend to forget about the different rules of grammar. I often feel confused about the right gender for objects and sometimes the right tense in a foreign language. Despite these struggles, I still love learning the language.

Here are some of my approaches to learning a new language. Some of these methods, I think, are also followed by other language learners. The first important question is how close the new language is to the language or languages you already know. This will give you an estimate of the effort required. One interesting way to do this is to take a look at the language tree. The language tree can help you visualize the distance between the new language and the languages that you already know. Do these languages come from a common language? Is this common language very high in the tree? Or is that far from the two languages you're comparing? These are important questions because they will help you decide whether you need to learn a new script, the common characters between the two scripts, their pronunciation, and even the presence of common words.

While learning a new language, most of us approach it by using word-by-word translation, which in many cases may not work for phrases or sentences. It may be useful to learn the translation of certain common nouns, but not very useful for phrases or even verb phrases. This is something I've been observing during language learning. Sometimes a verb phrase in a single language can be translated into multiple verb phrases. A sentence may use different verb phrases depending on the subject or the object of your sentence.

Sometimes a single word to express an emotion or to describe an object or concept may not exist in a new language. Some languages tend to economize words, while others do not. Words can have multiple senses. It may be difficult for language learners to make this shift easy. Language learners may either have to learn new words for every sense or associate every sense (at the beginning) to a single word in a new language.

Another important aspect of language learning is to be clear about the objectives from the very beginning. Are you mastering the language of written or oral communication or both? Written communication often requires more formal approaches, and the ideas expressed in written communication cannot be used in the context of oral communication. It might sound very odd to the listeners of a new language. Also, as concerns are written communication, it is important to remember that punctuation marks are not universal. Languages use several characters to express the end of a sentence. Languages may have more or fewer tenses, genders compared to your first language.

I've identified some of the major components of my language learning. My first step is to learn some new words, particularly some simple words to introduce yourself. At the same time, I'm also trying to watch videos in a new language, but with subtitles in any language, I know. This helps to get to know the words, and sometimes even to recognize the words that have already been learned in a language. This is a very long process since it needs to be repeated. Watching videos with subtitles helps to remember unfamiliar words and to understand the various contexts of use.

Is there a learning word order? Answers rely on the books and learning applications you use. But if I don't have all of these at my side, I'm approaching learning terms relevant to the five senses, a few common words of life, pronouns, frequently used verbs, adjectives, everyday objects, and places of interest. However, this also raises the question of the motives behind your language learning. If you're learning a new language, because you will be living in a city that speaks a specific language or you might have different motives to learn, as contrasted to someone interested in learning because of their interest in a new language, cultures, religion, movies or books.

Language learning is difficult for most of us. A lot of reading and practice may be required. However, two methods will benefit a lot in the learning of a new language. One is to listen and watch a few videos, and the other is to try to write and express your feelings. While there are many other learning apps and memory resources available for staggered learning, day-to-day practice plays a key role in language learning.