Homeschooling amid traditional schooling

The issue of expensive schooling in Pakistan and connected disparities came up during a discussion with a friend who is a young mother of two. It was noted that one of the schools she had been exploring to put her child in was charging about a colossal Rs. 20,000 a month for preschool classes. The harshness of the state of affairs hit us as we went on talking about how that is more than what a large population of Pakistan earns. The analysis grew grimmer as we went on applying the parameter to people who apparently earn better.  To our sad realization, the quality of life of a parent at a middle income level is likely to drop drastically just by admitting a child in a ‘good’ school. The discussion diffused at the ways a salaried person can try and economize their children’s education by either homeschooling or may be sending them to the government schools with inconsistent qualities of education and may be compensate for the rest at home.

For me, the thought process did not end there, as I ended up compulsively reading about the practicability and prospects of these actions, especially homeschooling. I was also driven by the curiosity as to what other researchers and writers have to say about the economic and social aspects of education in general. The findings were interesting as they were grave.

Perhaps the best way to give my account on the matter would be to being with Mr. John Caldwell Holt views on modern schooling. Mr. Holt, American author and educator, was a staunch advocate of homeschooling or unschooling, and is believed to be one of the pioneers of youth rights theory. Of more relevance to this account is his former portfolio. Holts advocacy of unschooling was driven by his thoughts like “ it’s a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life." and “most of what I know I did not learn in school, and indeed was not even 'taught.’”

In the context of education, it is important to discriminate between “teaching” and “educating”. Most of the schools claiming to provide quality education and merely teaching, and the children at the receiving end are made to learn and absorb what is taught to them and nothing beyond.  Those who are not able to mould into the strongly defined hard bound curricula of the schools are perceived to be dull and ill-fitted for the society. The limits are set to the capabilities of even the ones who do well. 

While it would be unjust to portray the situation as all bleak, generally the schools have been but able to produce conforming masses creating an overly homogeneous society, that lacks creativity and out of box thinking. Most of these lack the capacity of doing things on their own and at best become good employees, good conforming employees. A quick glance at the most successful ventures gone big shows they are run by college drop-outs and non conformists. This is not to undermine the importance of education, but to underscore the need to think of better measures and alternate means for improving the outreach and depth of the education.

Issues like language barriers, inconsistencies and redundancies in teaching techniques and curriculum, and different classes and classifications of schooling are just a few that make alternate teaching systems indispensable. On many occasions, the teachers themselves lack necessary expertise, training and even knowledge. A product of government schools myself, I recall contesting, with all due respect, the English teacher’s point that Christmas eve is on 24^th December, as opposed to her unshakable belief that it is on 25^th December.  Sure as I was, upon insistence the fifteen year old me was snidely told that my mother-in-law would not stand such attitude. The learning of other subjects each offered yet other challenges. I remember preparing two-fold for that matriculation exam, the set of answers my teachers wanted, and a set of right answers I would be writing in the board exams.

Then there are a number of well-known private schools, whose sole aim is making money. Their industrial approach spreads from making pretentious yearbooks with accounts of joys of learning in the best educational environment. In the audacious race of good grades, they would go to the extent of uprooting the meritorious students from other schools. Not to mention, falsely convincing the unassuming parents to opt and pay big fees of Oxford and Cambridge education when they are barely managing in the local education stream.

Based on various unpleasant experiences, realizations and re-evaluations, an unrest and weariness towards prevalent schooling is slowly growing among some devoted parents. They are generally dissatisfied for the reasons enlisted earlier, as well as for the reason that they are not generally satisfied with the set spectrum of subjects taught in the curriculum. Their concerns are valid for the reason that the early years of a child’s life are most pivotal in determining their outlook towards life, attitudes towards learning and perceiving things, and shaping their personalities.   

An understandable concern in this regard that is naturally going to arise in any reader’s mind is the very ‘qualification’ of the parents. Generally the parents that struggle to not conform to the set educational standards and practices are at least as qualified as any teacher in the schools, and at times even more due to the transcendence needed to fight the clichés and aptitude for research. The only issue is that of facilitation and training. After necessary scrutiny by a panel, licenses may be issued to such parents for homeschooling their children. Many western countries have successfully managed to incorporate homeschooling in their education systems. There is no reason we cannot.

There is no denying the fact that it would take a lot of commitment, time, devotion and ‘running an extra mile’  for them to transcend the very system most have them have been a part of. Assuming that a parent has overcome all hurdles vis-à-vis meeting the education requirements, they’d still need necessary policy measures whereby the children could be evaluated outside the conventional education systems for them to acquire necessary certifications they’d need for college admissions and employment. Breaking the clichés is easier than breaking traditions, what might get children through school might not get them through college and industry requirements, without necessary modifications in the existing policies. In order to facilitate if not encourage the idea of homeschooling, the boards and universities should be mandated to create necessary provisions for homeschooling, with due consideration towards curriculum development and evaluation processes. The homeschooling parents who would be able to meet all the necessary requirements would eventually want their children to be absorbed in the society as its useful members.

This debate may seem rather farcical in a country where basic education itself is a privilege many do not get. But amidst measures to improve the figures of numbers of school and enrollment, due thoughts may also be given to making room for alternative education systems, where parents are able to customize their children’s education needs based on their best knowledge of the children’s aptitude and their own standards of religion, society and the world itself. Many of us would still opt for schooling, the kind they can afford, and it’s alright. Not all children do badly in school systems. Nevertheless, for the children with special needs, those with social anxieties and are unable to fit well among the school crowds, homeschooling could offer a good education system.

We do not need only conforming employees for various institutions; we also need sound decision makers and free thinkers. No matter how much in control of the state of affairs we consider ourselves, we would need to give the reigns of the future to the youth. The question is, ‘are we doing our best to help prepare them for it’. A reasonable approach to their education could answer that question.

Thou Shalt Love Thine Party in Moderation - Election May 2013

"The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.' says Bertrand Russell.

Setting aside the debate about who has the right to our votes, it is very important for all of us - the inhabitants and residing nationals of a socio-politically fragile country - to remain moderate in our hopes about the outcomes of the election and the subsequent events. It is only with composure, poise and far-sight that we can suitably translate our passions into something constructive. Be sure that your beliefs in political parties do not override your love for the country - the country and not its bits and pieces, for limited nationalism and provincialism are as good as feeding one child of yours while letting the other one starve. 

Love moderately. Long love doth so.

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

*Love each other in moderation. That is the key to long-lasting love. Too fast is as bad as too slow.* - Shakespeare 

 Nahin Hai Na-Umeed Iqbal Apni Kisht-e-Weeran Se Zara Nam Ho To Ye Mitti Bohat Zarkhaiz Hai Saqi

When I have fears by John Keats

I love this sonnet, keeps coming back to me every now and then.

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact'ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

Stress: Does it take the best of you?

The world today is pacing with an unprecedented speed and vigour. The competition is cutting edge and the ambitions are taking to the sky. The ever-increasing demands of this world keep one on the edge, so close to going over-board. Serious psychological ailments keep surfacing that root from no big causes. Multiple social reasons can account for even if heredity is not the cause to the psychological conditions one may suffer from.

Stress is one big contributing factor to disheveling one’s social standing as it can directly be found related to increased irritability, short temper and lack of tolerance. No spouse, child, parent or friend should be made to pay for your day gone bad due a rotten day at work, bad traffic jams, or an argument with your boss. It shouldn’t be so hard to believe that all of them also have their own fronts to fight on, and if they have managed not to go berserk in the face of the challenges they have faced during the day, so should you.

Here are some stress relievers that have not, by any means, been deduced from everyday life observation of people around. Since they have nothing to do with the larger-than-life theories that psychology books are loaded with, they can be related to better:

Take reaction time: A bad day at work, scorching sun reducing your car’s AC to a nil and (to top it all) another guy, who has also had a bad day at work, hits your new car. You make your way home and your kids comes running to you and hangs to your pants and asks you about the toy you had promised him. Oh how convenient would it be to blurt ‘Leave me alone! Can’t you see I am tired?’, which would immediately be followed by an acute sense of guilt. All one needs in situations like these is a little reaction time. Yes do not just say the first thing that pops to your mind. A little rethinking of thoughts before giving the words spares you the guilt.

Contain your anger: Observations have it that if you manage to keep yourself from manifesting your anger physically, it channels itself in a manner that it takes a toll on your energy. A blessing in disguise as I would call it; you feel low on energy and hence sleepy. A couple of hours of sleep at such point of time redeems you of everything.

Get a good laugh: Stress also takes a toll on your spirits, mood and at times self esteem. A good laugh can give all these a raise. Get a good comedy movie, if time allows, or short sitcoms on TV or DVDs and give yourself a good laugh. I used to consider the axiom ‘Laughter’s the best medicine’ till I tried it. You may not find your spirits soaring high in the sky after this treatment, but you would surely feel them lifted, vacating a little room in your head to look at things with reason, the same reason the depression temporarily deprived you of.

We all Scream for….: A bowl of ice-cream with your favourite topping can do wonders. This cold sweet miracle of an oral delight is pretty useful in dealing with minor mental crunches. Forget your calorie count every now and then and flatter yourself with and relish this sweet wonder.

Losers that come around!

What made me come up with a rather uncanny topic is a curriculum vitae of some senior official (please allow me not to name names).

The gentleman had a CV comprising of a variety of divergent job assignments that he had been under taking over a period spanning over three and a half decades (quite a fragment of a life-time, innit?). The educational qualification also displayed the same trend; with a degree in literature another degree of the same level was acquired in Defence and Strategic studies. Just when one is about to declare the situation as interesting, one is hit by the fact that the person under discussion works of the science and technology sector.

How is this case-history of mine relevant to the term I have devised in the title of this blog-entry? Well, the psychologist that I am, I evaluated this case with the no good psychoanalytical skills of mine and drew some conclusions, one of which justifies the title (pardon me if I sound a little judgmental):

1. The gentleman has never during his life-time been able to come to a sound conclusion as to what he is actually interested in. having versatility in interests is a healthy preoccupation, but specializing n one thing and then another and not being able to stick to any hints to a certain lack of commitment.

2. Moss is something the rolling stones of people are unable to gather when they stay vulnerable to suggestions of the people around. The gentleman under consideration here seems to have fallen for every single advice that may have been given to him.

3. Lastly, the gentleman was a come-around-loser. It's high time that I define this self-invented terminology of mine. Based on my observation of students and graduates striving for academic and, in turn, professional excellence, I infer that a lot many of them waste the critical period of their academic life. The reasons can be many and variant. Later at some point of time they feel the need to catch up on the lost years or possible glory. This is where desperate hoarding of degrees and indulging in any job of consequence comes in. The otherwise losers try to make amends and try to make up for the time gone-by. The achievements of these may not be as satisfying as those of winners from the beginning, but they nevertheless require hard work.

Our society is full of such come-around-losers. I personally respect this lot of the society as I believe that is there is something more trying and difficult than being consistent, it has to be 'coming around'.

Cheers to all the come-around-losers of the world.

A Political Analogism

“Political power is as permanent as today’s newspaper. Ten years from now a few will know or care who the most powerful man in any state was today.”

These words propelled my mind into relating it to my knowledge and experience of politics and to test if this statement stands true in its light. Before I do so it would be apt to introduce myself. I am a perfect layman who has nothing to do with politics or even “po” for that matter, unless it intrudes his senses like a pungent odour, a spine freezing horror movie or nerve shattering heavy metal music. I am the kind of conscientious citizen who would never cast his vote in an attempt to keep his vote from falling into the wrong hands, since the needle of my vote for the right person would be lost not to be found in the haystack of the votes cast for the wrong person. Call it pessimism! Call it realism! Maybe it is just what Russell called Byronic unhappiness- the tendency of intellectuals and world-weary people to equate wisdom with despair rooted in cynicism. Nevertheless, if my vote is going to get wasted, I would not want to spend my calories commuting to and from the polling station for it.

However, I did drag myself out of the bed once on a wonderful election holiday morning, a little earlier than I usually would, to cast my vote for a change and I did so. With an aura of a patriot out to do the motherland a great favour, I went through the ritual of casting my vote. Sitting at home, I kept cherishing and showing off the black mark on my thumb, like a warrior from medieval times would treasure his scars. To my surprise, I found myself as interested in the election results as someone having everything at stake on one of the horses, watching keenly over the derby race with binoculars. Disappointed I was to see the candidate, I voted for, lose but the silver lining was that my disappointment lasted shorter than the ones’ who voted for the winners.

Political power maybe short lived but one would easily be able to quote instances where it has lasted more than a decade. Prior to checking the local scene let us cast a glance at the Bush legacy. Before we could forget or even stop thinking about the beneficent tenure of George Bush the senior, we were confronted by yet another Bush who in no respect proved himself less than daddy. The wounds of interference by the father had still been fresh and oozing when the noble cause was taken up and forward by the subservient son. As if we were hoping for things to get less destructive. Yes! We are talking about a time span of more than a decade here.

As for the harvest in the political scene in our beloved country, the crops haven’t turned out well ever. Our political history, not purely political because of the huge marshal law weeds, also offers such legacies. Since right after the creation of the country, there has never been a serious consistent leadership. Pakistan has either been a ping pong served by Zulfiqar Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto or a base ball pitched by Nawaz Sharif to Benazir who hit it to be caught by Nawaz Sharif again. The later analogy stands true the other way round too. The ping pong, however, obviously out of the court after Benazir’s demise came rolling down to the Zardaris under an acquired family name of Bhutto. If we take into account long lunch breaks of army marshal laws, obvious or camouflaged, that about sums up political innings played on Pakistani grounds. Whether it is the exchange of power between Bhuttos and Sharifs or army interventions, a case of exploding mangoes or a case of exploding people in order to explode more, it has been made sure that our short term memory makes its way to the long term memory.

Where has the spectating nation been all this while? We had the fronts of our own to fight on. Constantly juggling our standards based on prejudices of colour, language and territory, we still had time to be exploited and moved like pawns on a chess board. Lately, we are being made to follow the carrot tied at the end of the stick by people riding on our back. Lawyers, politicians, clerics, NGOs all had baits and we fell prey to them recurrently hoping for a better change. We, like the emotionally charged audience of Shakespearean plays, would give the reins of the country’s administration to some one just because his beloved wife died. Our friendships are based on common enemies instead of common interests. Doing everything for the wrong reasons, deliberately or unknowingly being led by one Macavilian opportunist or the other, we stand at the brink abject and unhealthy.

I remember who was in power ten to fifteen years from now or even before that no thanks to my memory. Rather, I am able to do so not only because of the reappearance of the same faces and last names, but also for the reason that these appearances bring about the same situations, or worse at times, that we have survived as a nation during that decade or even longer. This makes me wonder if such recurring happenings will not wake and shake us up, what will? This thought made me revisit the famous axiom.

History repeats itself. It does so in vain if there is no one to notice.

Blaming me is blaming God....

"Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God.
Could I create myself anew,
I would not fail in pleasing you.
If I could reach from pole to pole,
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul,
The mind's the standard of the man."

-----------Isaac Watts--------------