Friday, January 27, 2012

Which education system is better for your child

There are many school education systems. If one were to try to evaluate them, one would get lost in mountain of data and still not make sense of it, because it would require expertise to understand the variables. There are too many education systems to choose from.

Some of the well known one's are Calvanist method ( also called as traditional schooling because it is the most popular), Progressive education ( originated by John Dewey) , Transcendental method (that originated in Europe ). There are more than 20 alternative methods of education that are less popular, but equally effective. Some of the well-known are Waldorf system (originated by John Steiner), Montessori system ( founded by Dr Maria Montessori), and Reggio Emilia system (named after a city in Italy where educators started these different kind of pre-schools after World War II).

But all these complexity can be reduced to manageable levels by evaluating these different systems on two axis: purpose of school education and teaching style used in school.

Purpose of education ( Development versus learning-centric approach )

The two distinct purposes of an educational system are either to assist development of a student's personality or encourage learning of language and other subjects. This does not mean that a system is only development-centric or learning-centric; it only means that the primary focus is on one of the purpose.  To understand more about the development-centric and learning-centric purposes, please read this.

Although all development-centric schools focus on the development of students, schools vary in their development approaches. Some schools, for instance, believe in using religious education to develop children. Examples are schools of Catholic, Jews, Muslim and other origins. Some schools believe in developing moral code without using religious orientation such as Carden ( founded by Mae Carden) and Core Knowledge schools ( founded by E.D Hirch). Some like Waldorf focus on developing student's artistic talents. Montessori schools focus on developing personality of students primarily through enabling 'concentration'. 

Learning centric schools, on the other hand, focus on the academic rigor, content-rich curricula and emphasis on basic skills of reading ( also sometimes called as total reading) writing and arithmetic. Traditional schools, which are seen in plenty, follow this approach.

Both type of schools have their pros and cons. Generally speaking, development-centric schools are difficult to 'manage', because of which they are less in number. Development-centric schools sometimes tend to 'overvalue' development at the expense of 'learning content/knowledge'. Parents should remember that 'Learning' and 'development' are not inversely proportional to each other; infact right kind of learning promotes development. Therefore, if developmental school ignores 'learning', that can be dysfunctional. Montessori school systems have an ideal mix of development and learning incorporated in it.

Learning-centric schools similarly by overvaluing learning, do not encourage students to develop qualities like patience, concentration and social skills, which are universally acknowledged as the ills of today's traditional school. Learning-centric schools try to patch up developmental qualities by adding extra courses like emotional intelligence or Sex education, but this practice does not produce desired result ! It only misleads parents in believing that their children are also 'developing'. To understand how important is design of 'teaching environment', see how Montessori designs its environment for developing one quality in a child; social skill.

Teaching style( Teacher-driven versus student-driven)

The two distinct styles of teaching are teacher-driven versus student-driven. Teacher-driven approach of teaching promotes teacher-paced learning done according to the strict time-table, curriculum, and prepared text books. Teaching is done to a group of similar-ability students. Assessments are done on the basis of tests. Obedience, conformity, and silence are actively promoted in the students to ensure learning happens at the pre-determined pace. Grades are used for facilitating competition.

Student-driven approach of teaching, on the other hand, promotes student-paced learning driven by his/her  needs. Teaching style is meant to facilitate every student to learn from his own actions, also called experiential-based learning. Teaching therefore is done either in a group of multi-age students, because it promotes inter-student learning ( also called as cooperative learning). Feedback is multi-dimensional instead of one dimension of 'marks'. Grades are meant to provide feedback to the student instead of promoting competition, so that the student learns his mistakes.

While development-centric schools are compelled to use student-driven approach of teaching, learning-centric schools are seen to use teacher-driven approach. Although this is a general rule, it is not universal. For instance, Waldorf school follows development-centric approach through teacher-driven approach of teaching.

Learning-centric schools, because of competition, follow a hybrid-mix of teacher and student-driven styles. For instance, I know of a school in Bangalore which teaches a subject in a very 'cooperative learning' mode where students are encouraged to talk on a subject before they are given a 'standard work paper'. Some learning-centric schools also follow a experiential-learning method, for instance, in science subjects.  Many schools are seen giving high importance in developing 'artistic talents' where courses in sculpture are also conducted. Some schools like International Baccalaureate (IB) schools, challenge gifted students to take advanced courses of a college level that are recognised around the world as a sign of high academic achievement. Grades, which are now banned by Government, may hopefully help these learning-centric schools to develop better multi-dimensional scale of assessment, which until now has been based on single-dimension.

Summary

Given the nature of education today, it is imperative that parents consciously chose the education system for their child, instead of blindly taking admission in a school that is closer to your house. I am aware that  the above first-cut evaluation is just a first step in understanding 'what is on offer' in education. A more detailed  evaluation of a system may be required to seek detailed answers of a specific method, ferret out wheat from chaff, and arrive at a more 'fit' for your child. More importantly, as each school is unique, one will have to ask more questions to find if the 'target school' is indeed delivering the results promised from the education system it is following.

If you are interested in knowing about a specific system of education, such as IB, Multiple Intelligence or Foxfire, please write your query in the blog comment. We shall attempt to provide you the details in reasonable time. Or else please keep coming back to this blog for more information. 

Friday, January 13, 2012

Challenge of parenting is in Unlearning


Vast overwhelming majority of parents want what's best for their kids. There is no question that every parent shares this intention. But how they go about getting that best differs enormously. Some parents choose to do it in a way that may seem harsh or uncaring. But who's to say that, for those children at that moment, that wasn't the right way forward?
For instance, if you have read the recent Amy Chua's book "Battle Hym of the Tiger Mother", you will be surprised to read that Chua, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, who is a Yale Law School professor, drives her two daughters relentlessly. Chua’s rules for the girls include: no sleepovers, no playdates, no grade lower than an A on report cards, no choosing your own extracurricular activities, and no ranking lower than No. 1 in any subject. And her daughters are successful. And then you read about a suicide committed by a Bangalore girl because her parent insisted that she cannot get anything less than 92%? 
Which is a right method of parenting a child? Or is there a right method at all? The same question has been asked by countless management researchers, "Which is the best style of management'? As researchers found out, this is a wrong question to ask, because there is no 'one universal' method that is right for all situations.


Similarly, a parenting method is right when it is appropriate for a specific combination of culture (Chinese versus Indian versus American), talent of a child ( gifted, normal, artistic, intellectual), type of child (hyperactive, obedient, first child or second child), home environment ( parental background, nuclear family, joint family, working parents) and school environment (traditional, montessori, Waldorf or others). Based on this combination that your child is experiencing, you have to find an appropriate method. There is no one formula for all the possible combinations; you must find your 'unique' formula for the unique combination of your child. 
Finding the unique formula of parenting your child is not as daunting as it sounds. Working with a talented on-the-ground expert who can help you find the 'uniqueness of your child', over a period of 2-3 months, it is technically possible to find the right parenting method that suits your unique child. But there is one bottleneck that only a parent has to surmount himself! 
In my experience of coaching children, i have found that the biggest difficulty in finding the right method of parenting is not learning something 'new', but unlearning of your existing mindware. Our mindware consists of beliefs, heuristics ( thumb rules) and mental dispositions. For instance, we may believe that 'arts is a hobby, it cannot be a good profession', which may affect our child's parenting. We may adopt a heuristic to help us make sense of our child's behaviour. For instance, we may adapt a thumb rule that "if the child is not studying, he has less motivation" or 'if the child is not getting enough marks, he is not studying hard'. For some parents, it is this incompatible mindware which becomes a bottleneck in parenting their child.    
Because, while parenting your unique child, it becomes necessary to modify your heuristics, alter some beliefs and challenge some of your dispositions. This unlearning of mindware, if required, is tough for parents because it requires humility of accepting that you may be wrong, and then put in the necessary effort to learn something new. And both require time, which is in constant shortage. 
I have observed interesting cases of parents who could not unlearn their mindware and therefore could not 'parent' their children well even when they were keen. 

  1. For instance, a Ph.D. technologist parent refused to believe that his 'child is more interested in English and arts than in technology'. Because he refused to acknowledge the uniqueness of his child, he could not help his child. 
  2. A parent's heuristics (thumb rule)'that her child is bored only when the teacher is not good' stopped her from helping her child. She refused to accept that 'her child is bored with biology because he does not find it challenging'. 
  3. One parent 'vehemently insisted' that his child should always study in the morning, because he said that 'morning is the right time to study'. 
  4. Another parent could not help his child in performing well in exams, because he did not accept that he was increasing the anxiety of his child by constantly reminding him of marks.
  5. One parent discouraged his child 'in studying Physics all the time'( despite his talent) because he thought that 'everyone should be multi-talented'.
  6. One parent, believing freedom is good for child, gave 'too much freedom' and spoilt the child.   
Parenting is tough, because you have to 'change' your mindware to 'suit' the unique demands of your child. Unless the parent is willing to unlearn and change, the parent cannot 'parent' his child well. Good intentions of parent are not enough for good parenting.


In short, the real challenge of parenting a child is not learning 'the right method of parenting', but it is about 'unlearning' the mindware in time so that one can discover & practice the right method of parenting before it is too late. Timing is crucial in parenting; not giving 5 minutes of time to your child at the right time cannot be compensated by giving 60 minutes later to the child.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Why do parents compare and contrast with other children

Ragini, a primary teacher was telling me this story.

Ragini announced a drawing competition at the school. Some parents called her to ask who is going to evaluate the pictures. Some parents asked her the type of pictures the children can draw in the competition, some asked if they can use a 'premium colour pencils' for drawing or not. Some parents asked 'what are the prizes'. Ragini told me she was surprised with the parent's desire 'to outshine other children'. She complained 'why are parents constantly comparing their child with other child?'

Every parents knows that every child is unique and different from others. Infact they can narrate more than one ways by which their child is different. Despite this awareness, why are parents constantly comparing their child with other child all the time? There seems to be three valid reasons.

One, they use other children as a benchmark to judge their child's performance. In absence of any 'solid evaluation test' to evaluate their child in a specific activity such as drawing, they use comparisons to evaluate their child's ability in a specific area. Probably this is what some parents were doing at Ragini's school. Infact this is an ideal way of finding if your child is good in sports activities as well as 'artistic' activities like drawing or singing. Why is comparison 'good' for music and sports activities? They are good for two reasons.


Firstly, these activities develop at an early age, because they use senses and body coordination. Secondly, the output is visible to all and therefore comparable. For instance, one can easily listen to a child singing a song and compare if it is better than some other child of the same age. This comparison shows your child's 'advance' development of these abilities and can help you decide if the child can choose them as their talent zone. Infact because of these two characteristics of sports and music activities, comparisons and competitions are natural way of enabling children to grow their skill/talent in sports and music.

Two, some parents use comparison to motivate their child in action. In episodic routine activities where  child shows very little interest, parents use comparison to motivate their children. But these activities should be episodic in nature like cleaning the cupboard or washing the car. However, if you use 'comparison' too often, it loses its edge and shine sooner than later.

Three, some parents also use 'comparison' to motivate the initiation of child in a new activity; but this has to be done very 'sensitively' and 'expertly' like Ashna. 

Ashna had two children: one four year old son and another seven old daughter. Her daughter did not like swimming. However whenever she took her son for his swimming lessons, she took her daughter along. However she consciously avoided 'comparing' her daughter with her son in 'swimming' and let her daughter experience the 'contrast' herself. But her daughter's friends unknowingly praised her brother; even neighbours did the same. Ashna however avoided the comparison completely.  Slowly the daughter expressed her desire to learn swimming. 

Subtle and indirect comparison can be used to initiate a child in doing any new activity. Can it be used for continuing the activity? To continue to work with the  musical and sports activity, children themselves use 'comparison' as a benchmark in their talent acquisition, especially in the talent exploration phase of talent building 

But can you help your child to continue to work on intellectual activity by comparing his work with other children's work? Studying academic subjects like science, history or mathematics are intellectual activities of a child. It is difficult to use 'comparison' to motivate a child to work on intellectual activity because of two reasons. One, output of intellectual work is not visible ( and comparable) like work in music/sports. Two, 'test/exam marks' of intellectual activity cannot be used as used as a comparison benchmark because marks lead to wrong comparison.

Marks cannot measure child's progress in intellectual activity accurately, because they measure what the 'school' system wants to measure, not 'what the child is learning'. Because of the pedagogic method adopted by schools, marks measure the depth of intellectual work of the child only upto 10 feet. But, to acquire useful 'knowledge'(to build the vertical and logical chains of abstractions), the child has to learn upto the depth of 100 feet. Morever, as intellectual work matures much later than music/sports activity, the result of poor intellectual effort is shown at the later age.

More importantly, comparing marks of your child with other children is not helpful in determining the corrective effort required. As the intellectual effort is 'within the mind' of the child, one has to re-visit the child's steps to understand what mistake he is making. Only then one can guide the child in taking the right  'efforts' to 'correct' the mistake. Unlike music/sports activity, marks of intellectual activity are not enough for  the child into correcting himself.

Conclusion

1. Comparison (comparing your child's performance with other child) is a good tool to guide your child's performance in musical and sports activity, especially in the talent exploration phase of talent building.

2. Comparison tool could also be used to initiate a child in new activity.

3. Comparison is a wrong tool to guide your child in performing intellectual activity.Infact, because you are using a wrong tool, it produces unintended side effects like anxiousness and frustration in child because he is unable to do anything 'meaningful' with the comparison. In other words, avoid comparison if you want to help your child in excelling in intellectual activity.