Movement of the mountain (Penguin Enterprise) Adhirath Sethi It is an inspiring book about the 25-year journey to improve education in India. It shares how science can be brought to remote areas and how space can be created for poor children to explore, question and create. Agastya’s work was published last year in a popular Netflix show at its Mumbai Science Centre (philrosenthalworld.com/cities/mumbai). A particularly compelling story is the story of Jhunjhunwala, who started meeting with Agastya’s Ramjee, but he was so moved that he ended up investing Rs 50 crore to help revolutionize the education system.
Book excerpts pg 35-37
In April 1999, Bangalore was only recognized by the IT hub. The new Information Technology Parks Limited (ITPL) is a glittering symbol of the city’s serious international reputation that pushes it into the next century. Its mirrored facades resemble buildings in New York or London and have office spaces that many companies are eager to subscribe.
Ramji manages to convince Singapore’s young ITPL head Goh Kok-Hat to give them free access to the conference room. This generous move by the head of ITPL has promoted the beginning of important ideas that will shape the thinking and prospects of thousands of poor children and school teachers in India.
Gathered in the room is a different group, pieced together from the contacts of the founder and the three wise men. They are composed of two professors (Dr. Khincha of Indian Academy of Sciences and Mr. Prasad, president of Daly College), a college student, head of a non-educational organization, two school teachers, a businessman and Ramji’s wife Monica. As always, with them are KV Raghavan, PK Iyengar and S. Balasundaram. This is an intentional unstructured group that brings together different personalities, opinions and perspectives.
Ramji said: “I started a question: “What makes a person creative, innovative or excellent problem solution?” ” “This question prompted Iyengar’s description to describe the harmful effects of the lack of causal thinking on society, saying that the school system does not promote this thinking among students. Schools need to actively create opportunities for children to learn causal thinking. Prasad talked about the importance of language and art, which led to a friendly debate on the relative importance of science and the art of education.
The unique and change value of brainstorming does not start with preconceived ideas and premises, but relies on a series of fundamental and cascading issues to build Agastya’s mission statement. This emphasis on questioning and “responsiveness” is characterized by future Agasta Conferences, leading to many surprising, unexpected ideas and innovations. ”
Discussion is a provocative question: What is creativity? Is it something born, or can you master skills? Can you increase the speed limits of creativity in countries like India? How effective is the teacher training program, and why is teaching a career in India’s last resort? Can teachers and students’ mentality develop? In so many schools, why is there no happiness in learning and how to reverse it?
KV Raghavan made a savvy observation. He draws inspiration from his experience in training managers and believes that the teacher training program is ineffective because they are disconnected from the school classroom. Interactive, hands-on and real-time learning methods are needed to change the teacher training required for the process. He used analogy to describe the symbiosis between medical schools and hospitals to explain how interactions and practical teacher training methods directly linked to school classrooms can improve retention, improve teacher learning and positively influence children’s performance. Sometime during the discussion, Iyengar (full scientist) explained to Ramji: “If I give you 100 counterintuitive scientific experiments, I promise that in a few weeks, non-scientist like you, non-scientist like you will be very different.”
Around four key observations, the intense full-day course ended. First, injecting the inquiry spirit and children’s creative mindset will require a shift from a rote-based chalk teaching method to more hands-on experience learning. Second, creativity can be cultivated by creating a learning environment that encourages children and teachers to question, observe and experiment. Third, if consistent with school curriculum, hands-on science may be an effective way to inspire children’s curiosity and have important gaps in education. Fourth, teacher training in experiential teaching methods is crucial to creating multiplier effects, where each teacher continues to train more training, thus spreading exponentially. To do this effectively, the Teacher Training Center will need to work with the school.
