Friday 10 April 2015

A changing attitude

Howard Gardner has helped us to make paradigm changes in our attitudes. This cannot be denied. I have been fascinated by his lucid style. Teachers need to be theoretician's and training is the way forward in this. Teaching is so much an integral part of the social ways of the human kind, that many seem to think that it will come or, should be effortless.

But the sparrows remind us that nature can never support any endeavor which doesn't have an environment conducive  to it's nurture. It is the duty, actually i would think that it is an absolute obligation on the part of a teacher, to learn to create an environment.

This is for all kinds of teaching including school teaching, of course. As Gardner makes a case for artistic development , are we surprised to learn that making a criteria for  this may help us to track developmental delays in children? It is happy news if we accept this fact for it can also show faster development and also help in tracking down giftedness.

Gardner certainly frees us from the bonds of  primitive thought. We learn to look critically , but with a certain knowledge of the processes. This ensures  that  our assessment is closer to the truth. In education  assessment is closer to myth making than any other activity in society. The classroom is a centre for bias and prejudiced opinions.

Most of the time we do not view our students as growing or even in the process of growing. We simply write them off. I remember my niece saying that her music teacher ha said that she can never sing. I looked at the tearful face of  a 9 year old girl , " change your teacher," i heard myself say. It was  one of the most spontaneous reactions i have  ever been guilty of.

I do not intend  to make this into  an academic paper.However, i do intend to discuss theoretical  contentions. After all people discuss food, clothes , fashion. So why not education? Something that is so vital to humankind that it has enabled us to be just a bit different.

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