The race for winning

 

We are familiar with the story of Hare and Tortoise.  In the race between the two, the tortoise won. Hare was super active. But its thinking was, that it knows the game and can really do things fast. It was fully aware of the tortoise's slowness.  It was arrogant in saying that "let the tortoise walk slowly, I will complete the field at least ten times". It relaxed and took ample breaks in between. It slept, and enjoyed by the time it realized the tortoise had reached the goal post. Slow and Steady Wins the Race...

Many of us have read the second version of the story which is adopted in many management classes.  The second time they both compete, the hare decides not to waste time but reaches the goal post first and the tortoise keeps on and on and completes the track but does not win.  The third time they both come to an understanding that no one should lose the game.  Both of them, try to cover the field together.  They support each other in achieving the target. The Strategy is not Win-Lose or Lose-Win, but it should always be Win-Win.... 

Long since this happened.  Now both Hare and Tortoise have reached several such goal posts.  The tortoise is now the senior-most.  The hare is also quite successful and is second in line. They are guiding their clans to be the best and win races.  Newer members have joined and there is a bigger race to cover a large field and reach different goals.  The new entrants are the frogs, rats, and grasshoppers. Now the race is between tortoise, hare, frogs, rats, and the grasshoppers. The tortoise the hard-shelled with greater wisdom, wants everyone to win.  The hare always believes it is already a winner.  However, Life has taught lessons that it cannot win with a selfish motto.  Sometimes, it relies on its luck more than the hard work. It also wants to prove to the world that it is smart and was better than the tortoise. Rats are the sheltered ones. They can literally run very fast but are highly distracted.  They run behind the cheese.  They are fond of small incentives and winning does not mean a big win, they are happy with small things. The frogs make a small jump every time but are fond of pulling the others’ legs. The frogs are fond of acrobats and flex themselves and show others what they are capable of. The newest addition to the arena is the grasshoppers. They are not aware of where the goal post is. They have an aerial view. They make huge leaps and in different directions. All others raise their heads to see where and in which direction the grasshoppers are jumping.  When they are in the grass, you can’t even see them. Their moves are unpredictable.

 Now the field has to be covered by all of them.  Each of them has different goal posts, some are aware and some are not.  There are also other fields where the race is happening.  Some of them are also looking outside where they can make easy wins.  When everyone thinks the winner is awarded, then it is announced that the efforts, the approach, and the attitude is rewarded. Yet the ones who are in the race, have a different view…. And they go on with the same strategies…… Who do you think are the winners of the race?  

Attendance and Learning

 In every Higher Education institution, it is a common practice to calculate the attendance of students and publish it so that students make it up to attain a certain percentage of attendance. Institutions have a clear policy to permit students with 75% attendance to write their exams.  Despite the policy, each time during exams it is common that faculty are in a dilemma whether to permit students if the student falls short of attendance.    Every year there are several defaulters.  However, every student has a reason for absence, and sometimes it is very difficult to be sure about the genuineness.  It has become a ritual in every class be it school, PUC, PG, or Ph.D. to monitor the students for their attendance.  I have a doubt if faculty have to monitor or students have to monitor the attendance themselves.   Students have to attend the classes on their own accord.  Is attendance not curbing the learning interests of students?  If attendance is mandated does that not make students attend with the sole aim of securing a said percentage of attendance? Does it not take away the intrinsic motivation of learning from a class? 

The mandatory attendance has made our students come to classes for attendance purposes and not for what they get out of a class. The only time students learn is when they are in the class.  But when we talk to some students, we realize that attending class for them is perceived as a burden. Teaching has become so monotonous and rarely triggers thinking.  Students fail to develop an interest in the class thereby becoming passive listeners.

The education system believes that the attendance mandate brings students success in exams.  These further drive us to the question of what is success and how we realistically assess students?  Should we be exam centric and give greater importance to the marks they score in the exam. Discipline is one factor that the faculty think could be achieved through attendance.  Here the question is whether our intention is discipline or learning?

Why can’t we have a zero-attendance policy and make students feel more responsible and inspired to attend classes?  Can we ensure greater accountability for the students? This would be possible only with a very effective mentoring system. One-on-one tracking, maintaining close connections with the students, use of experiential methods of teaching, student engagement and continuous assessments, and many more attitudinal and cultural changes at the institution level.  An open culture of learning is the need of the hour rather than the rigid structural impositions in the learning environment.

 

Are you busy?

 Do we feel that we are very busy and left with no time? Are others perceiving you as a busy person? Perceived as a 'busy person' shows that I am not managing my time well and not giving enough time to people. Most times we are not aware of where the time is leaking. I found that I was addicted to a word game and playing mostly in my free time. Also I was listening to the same song hundreds of times during my commute to office. I felt it was OK as long as I am enjoying doing this. But was unaware that it took away all my time of doing something more productive and useful. As you know our children are our best critics. My children had noticed my addiction to the word game and one of them suggested me to read a book 'Dopamine Detox'. It talks about how we indulge in certain stimulations and we continue to enjoy those stimulations. Like the social media, we continue to watch video after video. The media also gives us several suggestions of related videos to get indulged. When I watch a movie, I don't end with that. I come home and watch a lot of videos about the making of the movie and several interviews of the movie crew. It does not give satisfaction until you are exhausted. Also notice that passengers travelling in a metro are all engaged in their mobile phones. That is probably we have forgotten to be in a doing nothing state. We need constant stimulation to keep us happy. Are we not the losers of that 'precious time'.

Similarly food. We indulge in eating all those unhealthy foods as we know that at the click of a button somebody ( Swiggy, Zomato...) will deliver to our door step and finally we end up with unlimited cravings and become more lazy. How many of us have decided 'no outside food' from tomorrow but we again fall back to the same trap.

Now it is difficult to recollect how we lived our days with no mobiles and no social media. How we took a paper and a pen to write letters to our friends? How we got excited about the home cooked food?

Atleast now we can attempt to live life with greater awareness of these stimulations.

If we are less organized there is more clutter and outside world perceives you to be very busy. Is it not right time we look into where are the time leaks which is making us unproductive? Which are the unwanted stimulations that have a dopamine effect on us?