Do we need pit crews or cowboys in Education?

Dr. Atul Gawande, Surgeon at the Harvard Medical School and writer for New York Times, says “We are specialists now, even the primary care physicians. Everyone just has a piece of the care. But holding onto that structure we built around the daring, independence, self sufficiency of each of those people has become a disaster. We have trained, hired and rewarded people to be cowboys. But its pit crews that we need, pit crews for patients". 

https://www.ted.com/talks/atul_gawande_how_do_we_heal_medicine

So what do we mean by pit crews and cowboys relatively?

Pit crews, by their definition, are highly trained, highly selected individuals that work on a specially formulated race car that would be the envy of any race car enthusiast. These professionals understand the very real value of working as a team: so their particular race car can complete a certain number of laps around a single racetrack in the shortest amount of time. Pit crew members, then, are highly committed to working faster and faster while streamlining their processes.  They have an intimate working knowledge of their highly specialized race car; they know each lug nut, each brake pad, and each tiny screw down to its finest detail.

Cowboys are experts in their own area, free to roam, to place themselves wherever they are needed, even if it’s in the most remote region of the land. They are not bound to a single track or the big city. They are not governed by anyone. They take the call as per their wishes which could be crossing a few lines in the interest of their values. 

Translate this to Education and what do we have today?

Education is a dynamic process. People need to adapt to the changing times. Schools have attempted to transform to keep up with the increasing technology, knowledge explosion, transient values and global needs. 

In the past decade or so we have seen a steep rise in specific subject experts and visiting faculty in schools. They come at a steep price, offer their expert services, guarantee results and move out when their work is complete. Their work is efficient but asks them how the students are faring overall? Do they have intimate knowledge of the working of the school? Do they collaborate and coordinate with their colleagues? Ask them their contribution to the curriculum mapping process as a team? Ask them to give extra time for social work without pay?

Today Principals are wary of ruffling their feathers as they move on to a new institution immediately without remorse. So they are treated like egg shells, very delicately. 

When you look at this holistically, have these experts contributed to the education system as a whole? Are they concerned of their student's academic identity? Have they collaborated with the other teams? Are they concerned with the past and future academic classes of the students? Are they part of the value building system we need so desperately today? Are they concerned with building STEM skills or 21st century skills of students?

Today, In education we need strong strategic improvement plans to create 21st century skills, global values and attitudes in students, we need dedicated teams creating and executing these plans diligently using strong tools like logic model and AAR [After action reports]. we need strong monitoring systems and people willing to demonstrate responsibility, accountability and ownership.  

The concerns and work demanded is huge and we need all stakeholders to contribute wholeheartedly. 

Finally, I ask you "What do we need more today"? Cowboys or pit crews? Please send your feedback.

Bibliography:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/cowboys-and-pit-crews - Atul Gawande

MED PAGE today - Dr. Wes Fisher, M.D September 05, 2012

We are special and unique. Let's celebrate it

Very often I meet people who are so awesome in their work but refuse to come into the public limelight. They just refuse to be acknowledged or appreciated in front of people and you wonder why. Some start perspiring profusely or get very nervous. What is preventing this person from stepping into the public glare?

Talking to counsellors, I received many stories of what these people experience as students and how it impacts their personality in the older years. One counsellor mentioned that in a particular school, students from Grade 7 get categorized and labelled as per their academic performance. If the child receives less that 50% he or she is sent to counsellor for remedial work. In extreme case sent to hospitals to receive a learning difficulty certificate even though the child has not exhibited any such evidence. In few schools, divisions of a class are as per academic performance. Division 'A' is bright, division 'D' is below average and so on.  It was so painful to hear this, imagine the child undergoing this trauma. He or she in such a young age has been classified.
https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jun/20/secret-teacher-too-quick-label-children-arent-perfect-adhd-dyslexia

In another instance, the child who has been labelled has been isolated by the rest of the class. The peers wish to have no interaction with that student as their statuses do not match. The teachers are aware but not taking up the matter with seriousness. What is that girl undergoing? What is her mental state?

Do you think these children will have the confidence to interact with people in future? Do you feel they will come out of the shadows? What is the self esteem of these students? How is their academic performance further impacted?
The PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment] has highlighted graphically few factors hindering learning.

I wish to ask all who label, who gave you this right to classify or label children? Why do you only focus on marks? Why do you discount other attributes? Why do you not promote other potentials of the child and make him feel a winner? What stops you from broadening your mindsets?

Our students are diamonds in the sky. Every diamond has different facets and faces which need polishing for their worth to be recognized and applauded. Give them that opportunity and help polish the edges. These students when they grow up will never be apprehensive of facing a crowd because their self esteem is so high that nothing perturbs them.  They will view the world as happy and progressive.

At the end we all are special and unique and we rock. We matter.

Great Teachers transform you

The word 'Teacher' holds so much value, automatically a sense of respect for that individual seeps over you and the look on the face expresses 'gratitude'. 

Recently, there have been times when the name has been tarnished, unfortunate incidents question your belief and trust bestowed on that identity but believe me, majority of the teachers are there because they 'care'. They wish to make a difference and I meet them everyday in the course of my career. 

Today, I stand tall because I had many great teachers in my life, my mother being the greatest of all but in the world outside, two particularly stand out because they came in my life where my confidence level was at the ebb.  

Ms. Mona Nanavati, my yoga teacher entered my life where my life was at crossroads and the future uncertain. I still remember her lovely face always showing so much love and happiness to see me in the class doing the asanas with devotion. Her regular efforts to know what I was planning to do with my future along with my action plan made me structure my actions. It was she who suggested that since I displayed a flair for teaching, I should go for a teaching course. She helped me secure admission as I was late in applying. The faith shown in me along with the Principal opened the doors of professional teaching to me.

The year was 1999 and I was back in college after a good 5 year break. All the students for the Bachelors of Education course seemed very young and excited and I felt older to them. I was nervous of exchanging introductions as I was in the process of getting divorced and was uncomfortable mentioning my status. 

I took my place in the class, smiled and made small talk. The first week was awkward as I could not break barriers of communication from my end. Thus students had formed groups but I was the loner sitting at one corner. 

One of my Professors, Dr. Usha Bhatia observed this and called me to the library during regular class so that we could be alone. Very warmly and gently she held my hand and told me to share my concerns. I normally don't open up that easily but the warmth in her eyes and patience to let me be in silence till I was comfortable got me talking. What I truly appreciated was there was no advice or judgement but interest to understand me. 

As for status, her perspective of mentioning my status as 'single' seemed very logical as she felt that people would not connect my progress to 'sympathy tag'. The success could be owned by me for my hard work.  Therefore I took to it with excitement and projected it. In the course of the year, I had made many friends and able to work collaboratively. Along the way, I recognized few genuine friends like Bhavika and Sudha who became my confidantes and are still my very close mates.

The driving force and trust bestowed by my teacher was so deep that at the end of the year I was awarded 'Miss H.J' student of the year award. Also I passed the year with distinction, happily progressing towards my M.Ed course. 

Thus it is not content or teaching that truly matters but the profound bonding between teacher and student which develops the individual to reach maximum potentials and my teachers helped me realize my strengths. 

These teachers had the special touch to transform me because they cared and I will forever be in gratitude to them. 

Today, I feel blessed that I am a teacher, in the same position of transforming lives and if even one life under me has flowered and blossomed then the purpose of my life has been fulfilled. God bless all teachers who 'CARE' and 'SHARE'. 

Leadership needs to be transformative

Every true leader aspires that he creates leadership skills in his team so that together they form a formidable team. He desires that his vision and mission is shared and ascribed by all with equal passion and all are dedicated to achieve those milestones. To achieve this, he sets out empowering his colleagues to discover their potentials and pushes them to excel beyond their limits.

The global scenario today demands such leaders and as committed educators we have an onus of creating these transformational leaders. A good example of such a leader is Nelson Mandela who in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1993, urged the rest of the world to “fight racism, wherever it occurs and whatever guise it assumes” (Nelson Mandela-Nobel Lecture). 

Nevertheless wherever I go or have opportunities to meet many present leaders, I observe that the leadership is more centered towards them. Most are wary of giving acknowledgements to their team counterparts, offer enhanced training to team leaders for the fear of losing their positions to others. This insecurity prevents them from empowering others and the scenario is miserable as they miss out on the possibility of taking their leadership to greater heights. They could become leaders of leaders.

In this struggle for internal power and politics and lack of transaction of leadership skills, more often the teachers lack the headship skills themselves. When these teachers are expected to create leadership skills in their own students, they lack the knowledge and understanding of the concept 'leaders'. To most of them, inculcating leadership skill in students is synonymous with making monitors, or offering captain ship or making project Heads. They feel that giving responsibility and making students accountable will make them leaders which are alike to scratching surfaces but creating no deep impacts. 

Few simple tips to create transformational leadership which transcends from Head to teachers to students are:

1.    People believe what they see and not what they hear. Thus be a living example of your beliefs and vision and abide by it.

2.    Encourage participative leadership during meetings allowing teams to justify their perspectives. Being like a ball at a height gives you a 360 degree vision of the scenario and aids you to better decision making.

3.    Be a lifelong learner. Regularly update yourself with new technology, methodology, techniques so that you bring something constructive on the table. Encourage your team to be the same by enrolling them in summits, conferences, workshops, online learning and books.

4.    Allow yourself to be wrong at times. You are not a ‘be it all’. Appreciate the strengths others demonstrate and add it to your learning curve.

5.    Give tasks with deadlines to your teachers without formatted structures, offer guidance when asked and wait patiently for the result. You might get surprised with the creativity or you might have to recreate strategies. In both cases there is learning for all parties.

6.    Have it mandatory that all learning by the teachers is to be shared to entire staff on regular basis with regular monitoring.

Once your team is made powerful, the same power will flow to the students and from them to the community which once again powers you to excel. 

More tips could be achieved through the books mentioned below.

Also every situation is unique and may demand leadership which is more adaptive than technical. Thus one has to tread with a very open mindset and sometimes rely on gut and instinct.

Hospitals should have recreational centres for attendants of patients

Like every Head teacher the month of January has been laden with heavy academic and cultural events. Also as MISA Secretary, we were in the midst of MISA velocity and planning of upcoming MISA Conference. Suddenly on 18th January, my Father in law complained of chest pain and had to be rushed to the hospital and they immediately put him in ICU. The next few days were a whirlwind of tests, interactions with surgeons and understanding health implications and intricate procedures. 

As he had suffered a massive heart attack, he was placed in the I.C.C.U section and the surgery was to take a week later. Thus in all, we were around 18 days in the hospital. 

Our days began with deciding who would sleep the night that day, then both my sister in law and me leaving for the hospital. As my work area was close to the hospital, I dropped in to the school and her to the hospital. As the day progressed my duty shifted from school to hospital and then later in the day to the house attending to my son and house chores. 

While sitting in the ICU waiting area day after day the faces sitting around you become familiar and the conversations begin. You witness the uncontrollable tears, the helplessness, the huge financial burden faced by relatives of the patients and at that time you feel grateful for your health. It is true what people say, 'If you ever feel life is too constricting, visit an ICU section of a hospital, you will count your blessings'. 

While sitting in the hospital idling away time and feeling depressed I felt the time could be better utilized if there was a spa section only for 24 hour attendants of patients around and why not. Instead of feeling low why not feel relaxed and have a stress free spa or if my body is aching with hours of sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair, have a body ache removal spa. Also a change of seeing beds with immense machines and tubes, a bed laden with flowers is a welcome sight. All the relaxation gained could make me more positive and energetic. 

At the same if they had a small library where we could access motivational or humor filled books. Also having a indoor sports area could keep our mind more fresher and make us more energetic. If given these facilities, I definitely would have better things to discuss than only sad truths and facts because life is finding glimpses and rays of happiness in the midst of turmoil. Yes, we do have places of worship within hospitals to make us feel positive but honestly there are moments of pain and anguish which get passed over to the deity and therefore I refrain from entering the place at that moment.

So as experimentation is the key to new discoveries and inventions, currently one hospital could start it as a pilot project, do an action research on people’s demeanour before and after having a recreational activity and their impact on the patient’s mental health as a consequence. 

Why should hospital spell doom and unhappiness? Why not offer few retreats to short flashes of joy as I met few people who had been part of this hospital journey for more than few months and that is a pretty long time. They need to feel special. Also one needs to feel calm and refreshed to take care of their loved ones. 

Wake up to create a better world

I wake up beyond my normal hours as it is Sunday, 15th January and hope to line up few fun activities to elevate our family time together. Going through the customary routine, I take my cup of tea and open the morning newspapers to read the latest happenings. The front page speaks of  3 men raping a four year child and smashing her head after the act. Also they had no remorse after their heinous act but went for dinner together to celebrate.

http://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/4-year-old-gangraped-murdered-in-bhayander-on-outskirts-of-mumbai-3-accused-arrested-1648970 

My hands start shaking and I put the newspaper down. I don't feel like reading anymore. Somewhere deep down, I feel let down again by the world. Where have we arrived? Where are we headed? How are we behaving? What is our future?

That 4 year old was innocent, she had no knowledge of the world, her entire life was in front of her, all that she was doing was playing and got enticed by a chocolate. That simple act of trusting led her to her grave and in what gruesome manner. 

My pertinent questions to all of us are given this is one brutal aspect of society we live in:

Q. How do we protect our young children from these devils?

They could be lurking in our own neighbourhood and in our fast paced lives we would completely ignore them.

Q. How could we help create a safer society?

 We all are responsible and accountable for those terrible acts if we don't feel and help others.

Q. How could we help the parents who might be going through tremendous agony?

I am sure the parents might be feeling guilty for allowing her to play when it is no fault of theirs. They must be revisiting the event time and time again hoping they could change something in the timeline.

Q. MOST IMPORTANT: What punishment should be given to these culprits who have no shame, guilt, values so that no other person ever feels like repeating this cruel act again?

These acts are becoming commonplace now and slowly people might get accustomed. That is my biggest fear.

I urge the government as a common concerned citizen to take very strict action against them as we are proud of our police force for working so fast and finding the culprits. Please ensure that they never receive bail or even in their wildest dreams think they could get away. THEY NEED TO PAY

True Educators Count

As I bask in the glory of being chosen as 'Top 50 Finalists' for the Global Teacher Prize, I know a huge responsibility awaits me. The onus of creating and developing thinking, independent global citizens of the future is a lifelong endeavour of mine which I wish to accomplish. 

When I visited the website http://www.globalteacherprize.org/2017-finalists/ to learn more about my fellow finalists, I was astounded with awe and delight. All over the world, educators have a common aim of helping students achieve good education overcoming obstacles, hurdles and hardships in their path of achievement. Their stories have inspired me to further my wings of aspirations and hopes.

Each and every educator has been dynamic promoting education through so many channels.

Ardent educators are working passionately for students with special needs and desiring to build centres and system.

Creative educators have used Arts and Drama as a tool to bring students closer, to enhance academic learning, use it as a medium to express their selves to the extent of creating a book, build global skills and abilities where students have excelled in academic and cultural performances. Educators have implemented conflict resolution strategies, including circle discussions to improve conversations among students in a way that allows them to develop listening and speaking skills, resolve conflicts, and understand the importance of community. 

Empathetic educators have worked relentlessly for the community trying to provide free breakfast to students, helping refugees to get integrated into mainstream, provide clean water to people, educate very poor children unable to afford fees, help students fight drug abuse and prevent drug usage, support sick and disadvantaged people, focused on those with Alzheimer’s disease and rail crossing safety . Many have worked tirelessly to create opportunities for girls like teenage girls’ opportunity to seek advice from professionals and life-skills program specifically for girls who had dropped out due to teenage pregnancies.

Few passionate educators developed teachers to develop students through quality teacher training programs.

Digitally savvy educators used social media and technology to reach out to larger group of students. They created videos on academic subjects and uploaded on youtube, help develop new ICT teaching, solar powered mobile education solution for remote locations without access to electricity, used I pads and i books inventively, using SKYPE to teach refugee students, encouraging students to learn web designing which has created good employ ability for students.

Scientific minded educators helped build STEM skills using ordinary tools in remote world locations, few created mathematics games, augmented reality books, video games, innovatively used historic scientific objects to convey basic concepts: for instance, in preparing chemical solutions the educator gets his students to build a Daguerreotype camera for which students then prepare the developing fluid.

Many pioneering educators have used innovative methods of teaching to make learning fun and permanent. They have used concept of experiential learning, flipped classrooms, incorporating sports and physical self concepts, innovative pedagogies, created programs for gifted children, used positive approach, using yoga to improve performance, using upbeat music , created special Teens program, used dance skills to enhance student teacher relationship.

Teachers count, they make a valuable difference to society. Just give them freedom to embark on this journey by allowing their creative ideas to flow through and not restricting them to tried tested formulas and rigid curricula. Create opportunities for them to research, network, collaborate, and communicate. They will definitely question, stumble, crawl, weep, complain at times on the magnitude of work given. When they see the smiles on their student's faces comprehending difficult concepts all is forgotten, focus shifts to celebrating their success, the true teacher in them will win over all odds and that teacher makes a difference to the world. 

Let us celebrate those life long learners/teachers from around the globe.  

All the best to all finalists !!!!

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