A Better Teacher!

I had read somewhere that there are no difficult subjects, just bad teachers. For some reasons I believed in this and tried to see any student failure as the inability of the teacher or the system as a whole to transfer knowledge to the student. This was a year back and I had recently joined Virginia Tech as a graduate student and teaching assistant. The past one year in both the roles has taught me a lot about teaching and learning. And I hope working in both the roles during the next academic year will add to my learning.

Learning something is not like drinking a magic potion which a student can just gulp down the throat and be equipped with the desired knowledge.  It is like a bridge which can only be crossed with joint efforts of the teacher and the student. While a teacher has to understand the needs and attitude of the student and teach them accordingly, the later has to put an equal amount of effort in learning what is being taught. Even the smartest teacher cannot teach a student who is not willing to learn and even the smartest kid cannot learn from a teacher who is unable to understand the needs of the student and accordingly modify his/her style of imparting knowledge.

As a child I was told that learning is a difficult endeavor. Not that it is painful but it requires hard work and dedication. For some reasons I feel that is true. Working as a teaching assistant, I came across many students who would just be interested in getting the right answer instead of learning the subject. Needless to say they did not learn much from the class and during the time they spent with me. These are the kind of students who graduate from universities without much idea about what they learned in four years while they were attending college. I have heard my fellow teaching assistants complaining how students in their senior year at times are unaware of what they should know by the end of their senior year. On the other hand, there would be students who would try to understand the subject matter while trying to get their homework done. And the later were the ones who actually were able to appreciate the course material.

While I was in my undergrad, I had the same attitude towards education. I just wanted to score well in tests without trying to learn the course content. I managed to do fairly well when it came to getting a good GPA, but failed to learn what I should have during those days. On the contrary, in grad school, when I started putting serious efforts in learning, I feel that I am learning a lot. Not that the quality of teaching has drastically changed but it’s the step required to be taken by me which has lead to the difference. I had good teachers in my undergrad days and I have great teachers now, but the extra step taken by me has made me a better student.

While it is important to understand the role of student effort in learning, blaming just the kids for not putting in the required efforts can be overstretch. Students these days are forced to go on the traditional educational paths which can secure jobs for them while their interest lies somewhere else. For example, I know so many students who are studying engineering because it is a secure way of getting a job after graduating. Moreover, when the capability of a person is measured in terms of the degree he or she has or the grades obtained in tests, the quality of learning is bound to deteriorate. This system of education puts in little value in a child’s interest. If a potential musician is forced to become a doctor, he will surely end up becoming a bad one.

As Sir Ken Robinson says that the present education system was modeled to cater to the need of industrial revolution. We are now way past the industrial revolution time, and hence the system of imparting knowledge needs to change. And then we will have not only better teachers but also better students.

Life As It Comes

“Tell me, what is happiness?”, asked my friend, breaking the long silence which had crept in while we walked on our way back to the hostel. The tone of the question was grave and suggested that he was suffering from an inner conflict. This was surprising for me as this was supposed to be one of the happier times for him. We had gone out to celebrate his selection to one of the leading universities in America. He had been working hard for almost a year on his applications, statements of purpose (SOPs), and other requirements. And now when everything was set: he was going to one of the finest universities in the world and that too with full scholarship; I had expected him to be happy.

“Anything wrong?”, I asked him. He told me that he felt nostalgic thinking of the fact that he would have to leave his friends and family to go to an unknown country. “But is it not what you had always wanted, to go abroad and study sustainable energy sources?”, I replied reminding him of the hard work he had put in to go there. He agreed that he desired to do his masters in the USA but now that he is actually going there, he was not very happy about it. And what was adding to his sadness was that he was not ready to accept that would have to be away for two years. I tried to make him feel better by calling it a nostalgia of leaving an old place.

This conversation forced me to think about happiness. What is it which makes us happy, or what makes us sad? Do we feel joyous when we get what we desire? If the answer is yes, then why was my friend sad? One may argue that in order to achieve one goal, he had to get away from his near and dear ones and this loss made him unhappy. But did not he know this throughout the application process that he would have to go away?

Human nature is such that it does not get satisfied after getting what it wants. It is said that “the more you get, the more you desire”. The desire to get more and more keeps coming in the mind as we keep on getting what we desire. Once we get something we want, we try to achieve something else which we think lacks in our lives. Thus, we go on acquiring one thing after another but happiness keeps eluding us. This probably is the reason for people being unhappy even though they have a lot to cheer about.

We cannot control certain things or events in our lives. And the list of such things which are beyond our control is endless. At times, not topping an exam might make one sad, at others, not getting through another can evoke a similar reaction. Sometimes, losing something precious leads to sadness and at others, watching our dear ones in misery is the cause of our melancholy. The reasons might vary for this particular feeling of despair but no matter how different the causes are, there is one thing common to all. All these situations cause sadness in us and we want to get away from the anguish created by them. And this where the problem arises.

We fail to understand that we cannot escape these situations. These are the challenges which life has thrown and we have to live with them. We need to accept these with open arms instead of thinking about getting rid of them. And suddenly, life will be all beautiful, full of brightness and optimism. We waste a lot of time thinking about the future and put our present at stake to build a better future. What we fail to do and what is required to be done is accepting the circumstances, living with them and embracing them as integral part of our lives.

I had seen a painting in an art gallery sometime back. The painting depicted a lady flying in the air. Her right half was reddish-green while her left half was purple-blue. The same color scheme extended to her hair and her clothes. The area around her lips was dark as if it had suffered some serious burns. It looked like one of those mythical creatures who was suffering a spell for doing something bad. But one thing which baffled me was the smile of the lady, how could someone, who looked like an evil supernatural creature, be happy? I was left wondering for sometime about the intentions of the painter who demonstrated a lady with ugly looks and dark colors with a kind and gentle smile. And then I realized that it was probably the fact that she had accepted her predicament and this is what gave her inner peace.

At times, we start giving too much importance to our emotions. In the process of being driven by emotions and feelings, we forget these arise because we get too attached to something which we possessed or wish to possess. And in this process, we arrive at situations which further deepen our misery in present and cause unhappiness. Too much value to emotions and feelings does not allow us to look at the bigger picture of life. It makes us forget that with calmness and composure, we can sail through the largest problems of life.

It is difficult to detach oneself from many events of life. But once one starts looking at those events as mere happenings without interpreting them as good or bad, everything starts looking beautiful. Probably this is why the old man from the famous Buddhist tale ‘The Fortunes and Misfortunes of a Villager’ remains calm and composed after getting the news of his son falling of the horse and getting crippled. When villagers came to him with sad faces and conveyed their sympathies, he asked them not to jump to conclusions. He suggested them to “Just wait and see what happens. Say only that my son has broken his legs. That’s all.”

Anything which looks like a loss might turn into a reward while something which seems to be a jackpot might become a prick in the throat. So, the best way to keep away from these temporary feelings of joy and sorrow, which arise out of day-to-day events, is to accept them without trying to make a meaning out of them.

I have the habit of talking to auto-rickshaw drivers whenever I am riding an auto. Once I got a chance to talk to an old and feeble looking driver. In the course of conversation, I asked him why he was still working despite being so old. He replied that he had a son who died of some unknown disease and hence, there was no option left for him other than to earn for himself and his old wife. When I tried to sympathize with him, in a very calm and composed voice he said, “This is destiny. There is no point in thinking about it. Talking and thinking about it will just add to sorrow. And why should I say what happened was bad? There might be something good hidden in it. There might not be. But who am I to judge that?” The life would indeed seem to be full of beauty and devoid of worries for such a person.

At times what we think as a curse might turn out to be a blessing and what is assumed to be a blessing might turn otherwise. In the mythological story ‘Vishwamitra’ written by R K Narayan, Vishwamitra, who is mighty king, gets jealous of the divine cow possessed by sage Vasishta. He tries his best to persuade the saint to give him the cow. But when the sage refuses, he gets into a battle which he loses badly. Now, if one looks at the course of events only till this point of time, one might think of this event as unfortunate for the king. But this lost battle inspires Vishwamitra to go for long meditation. Finally, he acquires knowledge and is known to be one of the greatest saints of all times. Something which looked like a curse turned out to be a blessing for him. Similarly, something which looks like a blessing might turn out to be a curse for someone.

The Buddhist meditation practice of Vipassana suggest that one can attain nirvana (ultimate goal of existence) by becoming a true follower of the meditation practice. And the whole practice of vipassana is concentrated about living in the present moment and not giving any importance to any feeling of pain or happiness which the body or mind felt in the past. Like the Buddhist tale about the old man, it teaches us to become silent observers of what happens with us. It tells us not to feel overwhelmed or sad with the events which occur in daily life. Rather, one should maintain equanimity in all the situations. I do not know whether one can reach the ultimate goal through this or not but one thing is sure, living in the present frees the mind from a lot of worries. The mind is, otherwise, cluttered with a lot of information which not only cause worries and sufferings for us but take our concentration away from the work we are doing.

The difficulty, however, lies in practicing this detachment from people, events or things which make our life. It is not easy to maintain one’s composure remaining a silent observer when we fail to achieve something or when we lose someone important. But one can always try to look at the facts of life as they are without trying to find any meaning out of them.

Though it is too late to say this to my friend, but I think I will call him and tell him not to attach himself too much with his folks out here and accept life as it comes.

PS: I had written this piece in August 2012 but for some reason never posted it.

Happy New Year

In February 2003, my uncle who lives in Canada visited India and brought with him posters showing the Canadian life. One of the things which fascinated me was snow. While I could hardly see the faces of people in the posters (as the faces were fully covered), I could not take off my eyes from soothing views which the snow-covered streets and snow-capped houses provided. I still remember how I developed a lurking desire in me to visit the country and experience what it is to walk in snow. But honestly speaking, I never believed I would ever be able to fly to Canada.

Today I am sitting in my uncle’s house in Ottawa, ON. When I look outside the window, I see a similar view which was there in the poster. The streets look as beautiful as they show in the movies.  I had read about snow looking like gold when the slanting sun rays fall on it. I can see that happening right now as I am writing this blog post. It is like a dream come true.

Life takes us by surprises; we get what we had never thought of. And things which we want, at times, remain out of our reach for a long time. It sometimes feels that everything which happens around us is controlled by a larger entity, and no matter how hard the mankind tries, it has to accept what is doomed to happen.

This sounds like the Oriental philosophy of fatalism, which believes that everything is destined and we cannot change the course of what is predetermined for us. While the Western thoughts are marred with more power given in the hands of humans, I believe that we cannot control a lot of things. We do not choose who are parents are going to be or who our siblings are going to be. Similarly, a lot of life events are predetermined. At times, it looks as if we are working under the influence of the social pressures and at times, it seems as if monetary constraints determine the course of our actions. But whichever pressure it is which forces us to take a certain course of action, these are the things which we do not control.

And then there are accidents about which nothing can be predicted. And in those few seconds, life changes its course. This reminds me of the movie ‘The Butterfly Effect’ in which variations in a small incident during the childhood of the protagonist lead to different outcomes when he grows up. And when we come across so many small incidents each day, the course of our lives is getting changed each day. But one thing which is sure is that we do not know what course each incident has led us to. And we do not determine which incidents happen with us through the day. Yes, we decide to go to work on a certain day but who we meet on the bus while on way to work is something which is beyond our control. And I believe this is all decided by our destiny which is laid out for us and we just follow what is destined.

For some this thought might seem like constraining and even suffocating. I see this something which liberates me. Something which gives me hopes that each day would be full of pleasant surprises and bring more happiness than ever. And do these surprises make life more interesting?

Wishing all a year full of pleasant surprises!

On Being a TA...

The job of a teacher is to help the students learn the subject and that of a teaching assistant is to help the instructor in doing that. But does making the students learn the subject mean equipping them with the required theorems and formula so that they solve the mathematical sum asked to them? Or does it mean telling them the necessary technique to write a good paper or make an impressive presentation?

The responsibility of educators and education system at large is beyond these minute intricacies.  Teaching should be aimed at helping the students see the bigger picture in any subject, be it mathematics, or biology, or history, or literature.

The job of an instructor or a TA is to mediate whenever necessary to help the students see the bigger idea. The first step towards this is not to provide students with the answer but to guide them work towards it. This is something which I learned through the GTA workshop where it was emphasized again and again not to give answers to students’ doubts but help them solve those on their own.

Easier said than done! Working as a GTA for the Circuits & Electronics classes, my biggest challenge has been to prevent myself providing the direct answers to students’ problems and at the same time making sure that they are able to see the larger idea. In other words, I have to help students solve the problems on their own, make them understand the relevance of what they are doing, and equip them to apply what they learn in the process.

The process of following these guidelines has been taxing so far as students come expecting a ready-made answer to their problems. And they are not patient enough to understand the theorem or the formula which they need to apply in order to get the answer.  They just want to know the relevant formula and not the concept involved in how one can derive them. At times even if they want to understand the mechanics behind a theorem, they get intimidated by the mathematical details involved. In such scenario, I make sure that I explain the concept to them by reducing nuanced facts and specific details and rather focus on the primary concepts (the bigger idea!).

An example of focusing on the larger idea is making student realize that current is nothing but a movement of electrons and since electrons flowing in a circuit cannot accumulate at a node and hence all the electrons coming to a node must leave it. This is nothing but Kirchhoff’s Current Law which states that sum of currents at a node is zero, a bit complex statement for students to understand.

Use of analogies also becomes a very effective tool in doing this. For example, many students do not understand how potential gradient drives the current in a circuit (Ohm’s Law). Here I generally ask them to consider the voltage difference as the difference between two heights and current as water flowing from a higher altitude to lower which makes them understand the role of voltage difference in a circuit.

The biggest learning which I had through such experiences is that students are willing to learn if they are able to comprehend what is taught to them. And as instructors (or TAs) it is our responsibility to help them understand a complex concept starting from the basic ones. And the results of this technique are manifest when I see students appreciate learning high-level engineering concepts from the basics and applying them confidently in their homework problems.

Goose Bumps!

What is knowledge? Who decides what knowledge is? How does the socio-cultural conditioning of the one who constructs it determine the nature of knowledge? I do not know the answers to these seemingly abstract questions, but I am sure I will know them someday. And very soon! However, what I know is that learning in any form makes me happy, be it technical, historical, social, information-based, or even understanding of knowledge as a concept.

But what has this to do with goose-bumps? Well the story which follows answers this question. Having a terrible day with respect to comprehending the lecture (Numerical Analysis & Software) today, I was looking for courses which I could pick up if I decide to drop the mathematics course (Gosh! I suck at mathematics!).  And then I decided to randomly browse the courses from each department till I stumbled upon the course “Constructivism and Knowledge”. I saw the course listed at 6:40 pm with one seat still left in the class. Interestingly the first lecture for the course was to start exactly 20 minutes later. I quickly decided that I was going to attend it: I looked for the location of the classroom and ran for the bus only to realize that I was late. The bus had already left, but luckily (for me), there was a road accident a few minutes back leading to a road block, which helped me catching the bus after a few minutes of running. As I got down from the bus, incessant rains welcomed me. I had to run again, this time to prevent myself from entering the classroom in rain-soaked cloths.

It is said that “what man proposes, God disposes.” But what I think is if man keeps on proposing, he entire cosmos conspires and forces God to accept the proposal. I reached the class on time, just on time. And this is when it began. Two hours of absolute fun, talking about knowledge, its nature and construction, and then how the learning about knowledge would be accessed by the professor. The class has people from six different nationalities, each having a different reason to take the course. It was fun to see how a skiing instructor who wanted to teach in high school was sitting with someone who just wanted to know something about constructivism and analyze it as a concept.

However, I have my concerns about taking the course. There are issues of getting a good grade in a non-technical course, taking a course which is completely out of sync with my major, pressure of making sure that my actions do not have any negative repercussions on my future and other such worries. But the joy which I got in a single class is incomparable. I wish each class had a similar feeling to it, a similar joy associated with it.

One thing I am extremely happy about is the fact that I broke the inhibition and went ahead to attend the class. To learn whatever I want to is the only reason that I wanted to go to grad school. To study and acquire knowledge without being constrained by factors like grades and funding gives me a joy unparalleled to anything else in the world. Not that I have become fully free from these entanglement (and I believe that one cannot ever be free from such restraining factors)but those few hours of boundary-less leaning made me suck the marrow out of life every moment. And hence the goose bumps!

The Kids Are All Right: Heredity, Legality, Morality, and Anthropology

Since I watched the 2010 movie ‘The Kids Are All Right’, I have not been able to stop thinking about it. It is a unusual film with an uncommon theme and a different script but the questions which it left in my mind about family, parenting, genealogy and heredity are ubiquitous, especially with growing single-parent families, homosexual-parents families and increase in number of children born through Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs).

The film’s story is fairly straightforward when viewed from a very cursory standpoint. A lesbian couple bears babies from the sperms of the same donor. When the kids grow up, they try to find their sperm-donor-father. Once they meet him, they start building an attachment with him. This bond of affection between the sperm-donor and the children is disliked by one of the mothers and leads to entanglements and later conflicts with the donor. While at one point of the time it looked as if the kinship would crumble because of the presence of this ‘external yet close’ man, relations garnered over the course of over 15 years triumph and the family stays together with this ‘extra-family’ man being shown the exit door.

However this simple-looking story poses many questions, some even on the ethics of the use of science in human lives. While the two children (a girl and a boy) got somewhat close to their biological father, I wonder if it would have been the case had they been raised by a straight couple. Was it the lack of a male parent which led to immediate affection with an ‘outsider’? in the movie, we see that the two mothers were also comfortable with the kids spending ‘quality’ time with their biological dad, could a straight couple ever accept this?

The movie also got me perplexed at how human relations are shaped by the socio-political and legal conditions. Despite the fact that the sperm-donor was indeed the biological and ‘real’ father of the kids, he was completely treated as an outsider, initially by one of the mother and later by the entire family. This might look quite logical to anyone as someone who was not present in the lives of the kids for 18 and 15 years of their lives respectively and has no legal ties with them cannot be their ‘father’. However, this does not change the genealogy and hereditary facts. While society and law might take away the fatherhood or motherhood rights from a person based on particular socio-political constructs, for genealogy and heredity, parenthood is ascribed only to those who egg or sperm was involved in the reproduction of the child. While it is easy for heredity or law to ascribe parenthood to a person, it makes me thinking whether the same ease lies for a child who was adopted by her legal parents from the real ones.

While dealing with these entanglements in the domains of legality, genealogy, heredity, parenting and family, questions about the ethics of ARTs also come into the limelight. During the first ‘extended’ family meetings with the biological father of her kids, one of the mothers asks, “I remember when I was reading your file, back when we were looking for you know, sperm... Anyway, you said that you were studying international relations.” after being told that he worked in the food services industry. While it might look pretty ‘normal’ for a lady to go through the file of the sperm donor, moral questions start arising when the selection is made on the bases of the credentials of the donor. While it might somewhat look like natural selection, the differences are quite stark. And these issues take center stage when parents start selecting particular attribute not to mention the commodification of gametes which is underlying here.

As the movie progresses, relationships grow stronger between the sperm-donor dad and the family. Not only the kids start getting attached to their biological father, one of their mothers gets close to him and ends up having intimate encounters. And when the family becomes aware of these sexual intercourses, tension develops leaving to a situation where it looked that the family would be shattered. But the bonds of love and belonging triumph over the biological kinship and the children unite with their mothers leaving behind their biological father.

Freedom of Religion (Bijoe Emmanuel & Ors vs State of Kerala & Ors)

The case Bijoe Emmanuel & Ors vs State of Kerala & Ors deals with the expulsion of three children belonging to Jehovah’s Witness sect being expelled from the school because they refused to sing the National Anthem during the morning assembly. The followers of the given sect worship only Jehovah – the Creator and it is against the tenets of their religion to sing the National Anthem. A Commission appointed to inquire and report said that the students were “law abiding” and there was no disrespect shown by them to the National Anthem. However, the children were expelled by the Head Mistress of the school under the direction of the Deputy Inspector of Schools.

This given act of expulsion led the fathers of the children to request the Educational Authorities to let the children attend school. However, this plea was rejected and then they filed a Writ Petition in the High Court seeking an order to allow the children to attend the school. However, the appeal was rejected which led to the case going to the Apex Court of the country.

Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution guarantees all the Indian citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression and Article 25(1) provides for the freedom of conscience and right to profess, practice and propagate religion, subject to order, morality and health to other provisions of Part III of the Constitution". On the other hand, Article 51-A(a) of the Constitution bestows upon the responsibility on the citizens of India to abide by the rules mentioned in the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions including the National Flag and the National Anthem.

 According to the verdict of the Supreme Court, the given expulsion of the three students is a violation of their Fundamental Rights as enshrined in the Articles 19(1)(a) and 25(1) of the Constitution. The children refrained from singing the Anthem because of their strongly held religious faith and they respectfully stood when the National Anthem was sung. No provision in law obliges a person to join the singing of the National Anthem. Moreover, the students gave due respect to the National Anthem by standing up during its singing. Hence, in order to restore the rights of the students to freely profess and practice their religion, the judgement of the High Court was set aside and the school authorities were redirected to re-admit the students to the school.

While the Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution gives all the citizens the freedom of speech and religion, Article 19(2) gives liberty to the State to make laws to regulate the freedoms given by Article 19(1). Similarly, the State is given the liberty to “make a law to regulate or restrict any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice and to provide for social welfare and reform, even if such regulation, restriction or provision affects the right guaranteed by Article 25(1)”. However, whenever any rule is made under the clauses 2 to 6 of Article 19 to restrict the freedom guaranteed by clause 1 of the same Article, it must be a law made by the legislature and must not be a departmental or executive guideline. The two circulars (issued by the Director of Public Instruction, Kerala in September 1961 and February 1970) on which the Department relied in this case did not have statuary basis and were just based on executive orders. Hence, the Court was right in nullifying the expulsion of the students from the school.

The religious practices of the Jehovah's Witnesses students might seem unreasonable to many. However, it must be noted that the beliefs of the community are genuinely held across the world.  The petitioners had not chosen not to sing the National Anthem first time or out of any unpatriotic sentiment, they stood up for such beliefs in other countries as well. There have been court cases where the petitioners from the given community have detested the singing of the National Anthem not only in India but also in the UK and the USA. In this light, it seems reasonable to protect the faith of the people of the community under the Article 25.

There have been instances when the parliament of India has tried to pose restrictions on the practices allowed by religion. The introduction and the subsequent enactment of the Hindu Civil Code Bills (Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act) in 1955-56 can be seen in those light. However, it must be noted that the purpose behind these acts was to unify the Hindu community and hence these laws were aimed at the social welfare by improving the position of women, reducing the distinctions on the bases of caste, introduction of divorces in the Hindu Community and others. On the other hand, the religious belief of the Jehovah's Witnesses community which prohibits them from singing the National Anthem has no social malice and hence, it should be respected.

The Constitution of India protects religious faith of each sect which is organised under it. Such a shield is necessary for the continuance of that community and the sustenance of any government under which a community has put its faith. Any law made by any legislative body, or any rules made by the order of an executive body must make sure that the religious faith of any sect remains sacrosanct. Moreover, only the judiciary has the power to interpret the law in India. Hence, the Courts have been given the power to strike down any law which violates the Fundamental Rights of the citizens or any other tenets of the Constitution. The given verdict by the Supreme Court of India surpassing the circulars issued by the Director of Public Instruction, Kerala not only protected the rights of the people to follow and profess their religion but also restored the faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect in the judiciary and the Constitution of India.

P.S. This write-up was a part of my assignment for the course on Law at the Young India Fellowship. I was required to analyze the PIL Bijoe Emmanuel & Ors vs State of Kerala & Ors (11 August 1986) which deals with a conflict between the Freedom to profess Religion and respect for the National Anthem.