नाळ तोडावी लागते

'There's another general consideration that I think you should think about before setting out to declutter books: what kind of library do you want to have? This is a question that you obviously need to answer in terms of size, but also, I think, in terms of philosophy. I'm fine with a much larger number of unread than read books, because I want a library that is full of possiblities.''

पुस्तकांच्या संग्रहाला आवर कसा घालायचा हा प्रत्येक पुस्तकप्रेमीला भेडसावणारा प्रश्न असतो. काही पुस्तकं संग्रहातून काढून टाकणं भाग असतं पण ती "चांगल्या घरी पडावीत' असंही वाटत असतं. असंग्रहाचं महत्त्व कळत असतं पण वळत नाही. ह्या प्रश्नावरची अत्यंत वाचनीय चर्चा येथे वाचायला मिळेल. वर दिलेला परिच्छेद ह्या चर्चेतलाच आहे.

The writer’s secret

Nobel lecture (2006) by Ferit Orhan Pamuk, the turkish author made intersting reading.

''...So my father was not the only one: we all give too much importance to the idea of a world with a center. Whereas the impulse that compels us to shut ourselves up in our rooms to write for years on end is a faith in the opposite, the belief that one day our writings will be read and understood, because people the world over resemble one another. This, as I know from my own and my father’s writing, is a troubled optimism, scarred by the anger of being consigned to the margins...

... The writer’s secret is not inspiration—for it is never clear where that comes from—but stubbornness, endurance. The lovely Turkish expression “to dig a well with a needle” seems to me to have been invented with writers in mind...''

Click here to read the lecture in full.

Seeing Is Believing

There are many reference tools available on the net. Click here to find Merriam-Webster visual dictionary. I feel this site is very rich and useful for students. This is what the publishers say:

''The Visual Dictionary Online is an interactive dictionary with an innovative approach.
From the image to the word and its definition, the Visual Dictionary Online is an all-in-one reference. Search the themes to quickly locate words, or find the meaning of a word by viewing the image it represents. What’s more, the Visual Dictionary Online helps you learn English in a visual and accessible way. The Visual Dictionary Online is ideal for teachers, parents, translators and students of all skill levels. Explore the Visual Dictionary Online and enrich your mind. Perfect for home, school or work. Discover a visual world of information''

Making The Buds Open

"He who can open the bud, does it so simply'' said Ravindranath Tagore. Technology, however, is about making the buds open.

''Technology coerces beings, which are governed by a hidden law of emergence and withdrawal, into perpetual presence." said Heidegger

Animus, 'a philosophical journal of our times' makes interesting reading on the net. Its volume 8 of 2003 is devoted to aesthetics. I particularly liked Sean McGrath's article on Heidegger's thesis.

Interestingly, he discusses technology that allows the beautiful to occur. He has summarized his contention as :

"The ecological problem is an aesthetic crisis. The world is becoming increasingly less beautiful because of technology. Leavening Heidegger with a measure of largely forgotten medieval aesthetics, I maintain that we have forgotten the ontological relevance of the beautiful, and the aesthetic relevance of the ontological. We have allowed our technology to develop without consideration for aesthetic effect. I offer three criteria for a technology that allows the beautiful to occur: fittingness, transparency, and self-containment."

For explaining fittingness he quotes Robert Grosseteste as: “Beauty is a concordance and fittingness of a thing to itself and of all its individual parts to themselves and to each other and to the whole, and of the whole to all things [italics mine].”

Putting forth the criterion of transparency, he argues thus, " To be beautiful in a technical way is to let nature show itself through technology.."

Describing self-containment, he aptly explains Heidegger's notion of "sparing":

"A self-contained technology lets form shine without eclipsing nature. Like the painter who knows when to leave a detail at the level of suggestion, the writer who knows when to leave something unsaid, the architect who resists the inclination to ornamentation, a technology that allows the beautiful to occur holds back and lets be. Heidegger calls this “sparing.”

Those who have had even a slight brush with Philosophy, will enjoy the article immensely.

ज्ञानलालसा

This is what Montaigne has to say about our mania to perpetuate the things pleasurable, including knowledge:

"We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another's than of our own. Man can in nothing fix himself to his actual necessity: of pleasure, wealth, and power, he grasps at more than he can hold; his greediness is incapable of moderation. And I find that in curiosity of knowing he is the same; he cuts himself out more work than he can do, and more than he needs to do: extending the utility of knowledge, to the full of its matter''

हे खरं असलं तरी ""अनंत अमुची ज्ञानासक्ती...'' असं म्हणत आपली ज्ञानलालसा जोपासणाऱ्या माणसांना, विशेषतः मराठी माणसांना अजून विशेष ज्ञात नसलेली माहिती मला द्यायची आहे.

मराठीत अनेक विद्वान असले तरी आधुनिक काळात मराठी भाषक अभ्यासकांची वानवा आहे "असेच खेदाने म्हणावे लागेल.' अन्यथा ज्ञानकोशकार केतकरांची परंपरा पुढे चालवणाऱ्या विद्वानांनी साकारलेला मराठी विश्वकोशाचा मोठा प्रकल्प असा वाऱ्यावर सोडायचा धीर महाराष्ट्र शासनाला झाला नसता.

पण आता मराठी ज्ञानकोश मराठी विकिपीडियाच्या रूपाने येथे साकार होताना पाहून मोठाच दिलासा मिळालेला आहे. माहिती तंत्रज्ञानाच्या रूपाने प्रादेशिक भाषांना संजीवनी मिळेल हे भाकीत आता खरे ठरेल असे वाटू लागलेले आहे. मराठीप्रेमींनी ह्या ज्ञानाकोशासाठी वेळ आणि पैसा खर्च करण्यास हात आखडता घेतला तर आलेली एक सुवर्णसंधी निसटून जाईल.

पुस्तकचौर्य आणि मनाचं औदार्य

पुस्तकं चोरणं हा चोरीचा प्रकार वरकरणी शिष्टसंमत नसला तरी आवडीची पुस्तकं ढापण्याच्या मोह भल्याभल्यांना होतो. चोरणाऱ्यानं पुस्तकांची काळजी घेतली तर ठीक नाहीतर ती पुस्तकं रद्दीत जाण्यासारखं दुसरं पाप नाही. धर्मवेडापायी वाचनालये जाळणारे लुटारू आपल्या देशाने पाहिलेले आहेत. पण पेरू देशाचे लोक त्यामानाने सुदैवी दिसतात. 120 वर्षांपूर्वी त्यांची पुस्तके चिली देशातील सैनिकांनी पळवली.

पण ही कथा तिथेच थांबत नाही. 120 वर्षे जतन करून ही पुस्तके आता चिली देशाने पेरूला परत केली आहेत !

त्यामागचं कारण राजकीय आहे. दोन्ही देशांमधील सरकारांना वैमनस्य कमी करायचं आहे. त्यासाठी ही प्रतीकात्मक कृती होती. कारण काहीही असलं तरी अशी आश्चर्यकारक गोष्ट घडू शकते याचंच अप्रूप पुस्तकप्रेमींना वाटतंय.

सविस्तर माहितीसाठी ही बातमी वाचा.

Future of the book

"We are in the midst of a historic "upload," a frenetic rush to transfer the vast wealth of analog culture to the digital domain.''

सारं काही डिजिटल झाल्यावर पुस्तकाचं काय होणार हा पुस्तकप्रेमींना भेडसावणारा प्रश्न आहे. खरं म्हणजे आपल्या संस्कृतीचं काय होणार ह्या प्रश्नाचाच हा एक उपप्रश्न आहे. ह्या digitalisation मध्ये आपल्या संस्कृतीची बलस्थानं नष्ट होऊ नयेत असं काही जणाना वाटतंय म्हणूनच ही प्रक्रिया डोळसपणे करण्यावर त्यांचा कटाक्ष आहे.

रिअली मॉडर्न लायब्ररी हा असाच एक प्रयत्न आहे. ह्या साईटवर जाऊन त्याची प्रत्यक्ष माहिती करून घ्या. पुढील परिच्छेद वाचल्यावर ह्या प्रकल्पामागील दृष्टिकोन अधिक स्पष्ट होईल

" if it's assumed that form and content are inextricably linked, what happens when we take a book and render it on a dynamic electronic screen rather than bound paper? same question for movies which move from the large theatrical presentation to the intimacy of the personal screen. interestingly the "old" analog forms aren't as singular as they might seem. books are read silently alone or out loud in public; music is played live and listened to on recordings. a recording of a Beethoven symphony on ten 78rpm discs presents quite a different experience than listening to it on an iPod with random access. from this perspective how do we define the essence of a work which needs to be respected and protected in the act of re-presentation? "

Attention

When a student is actively engaged in your lesson, he or she pays attention.

That may sound simple, but it isn’t. Some students look at the teacher, but their minds are actually a million miles away. Paying attention means that students are actually focusing on what is going on in the classroom. It’s important to craft lessons that require students to pay attention to the task at hand. In every lesson or activity, you should provide an opportunity for students to do something. Ask them to create an example, build a model, draw a picture, write notes, or stand up and demonstrate what they have learned.

If you want to read more about this, you can read "Classroom Instruction" by Barbara Blackburn. Sample chapters are available here.

Critical Issues in School Improvement

To quote from the ncrel site,

'Q: What is a "Critical Issue"?

A: "Critical Issue" is a multimedia document that examines a particular issue being tackled by educators engaged in school improvement. Currently, more than 75 Critical Issues are available in the following 10 areas: Assessment, At-risk, Family and Community, Instruction, Leadership, Literacy, Mathematics and Science, Policy, Professional Development, and Technology in Education. For example, under Literacy, you'll find the Critical Issue "Using Technology to Enhance Literacy Instruction," as well as several other Literacy-related Critical Issues.'

The ncrel directory of critical issues can be found here.

There are n number of ways in which the issue of school improvement can be approached.

ncrel ( north central regional educational laboratory) has adopted the approach of defining critical issues and examining each one in details. We, in India, can also adopt this methodology and identify critical issues pertinent to our respective environments and compile such documents. e.g. critical issue: supporting ways parents and families can become involved in schools can be found here.

मराठी भाषेच्या मुळाक्षरांबद्दल

अनेकदा असं होतं की आपण शाळेत शिकत असताना आपल्याला काही भाग कंटाळवाणा वाटतो. त्याची कारणं अनेक असतात. ते शिकून त्याबद्दल कोणाला सांगितलं तर कौतुक होण्यासारखं नसतं. "जॅक अँड जिल' म्हणणा-या लहानग्याचं कौतुक होतं. मराठी बाराखडी म्हणणा-याचं कौतुक होत नाही. अनेकदा शिकवणारा शिक्षक कंटाळवाणा असतो किंवा त्यालाच आपण काय शिकवतोय ते आवडत नसतं. किंवा आपलं लक्ष इतर खेळांमध्ये आणि खुणावणाऱ्या असंख्य आकर्षणांकडे जास्त असतं. बऱ्याचवेळा आपण जे शिकायचा कंटाळा केलेला असतो त्याचं महत्त्व आपल्याला मोठेपणी कळतं. आपण लहानपणी थोडं जास्त लक्ष द्यायला हवं होतं असं वाटत राहतं.

ज्यांना आपल्या मराठी भाषेच्या मुळाक्षरांबद्दल पुन्हा जाणून घ्यायचं असेल किंवा आपल्याला काय माहीत नाही हे समजून घ्यायचं असेल, किंवा आपल्या इंग्रजी माध्यमातल्या मुला-नातवंडांना माहिती देण्यासाठी संदर्भ साहित्य हवं असेल तर त्यांच्यासाठी नीलेश सावरगावकर ह्यांचा लेख येथे उपलब्ध आहे.

Import text-books to improve education

पाठ्यपुस्तक महामंडळाने सर्वांसाठी पुस्तके तयार करण्याचे ऐतिहासिक कार्य खूप चांगल्या रीतीने केलेले आहे. हुशार (सबल समाजघटकांमधील) विद्यार्थ्यांना अद्ययावत ज्ञान देणे आणि सर्वांच्या पचनी पडावे असे ज्ञान (दुर्बल समाजघटकांसाठी) देणे अशी दोन पस्परविरोधी उद्दिष्टे साध्य करण्याची कसरत यशस्वीपणे केल्याचे श्रेय शासनाला द्यायला हवे. अशा धोरणामुळे शिक्षणाचे सार्वत्रिकीकरणही धड झाले नाही आणि अद्ययावत ज्ञानही नीट आले नाही अशी टीका करणारेही आहेत. दहावीपर्यंत समान पाठ्यपुस्तके आणि नंतर फक्त अभ्यासक्रम निश्चित करून हवी ती पाठ्यपुस्तके वापरण्याचे स्वातंत्र्य हे धोरण दीर्घ मुदतीत यशस्वी ठरेल असे वाटते. या संदर्भात टी.सी.ए. श्रीनिवास राघवन ह्यांच्या लेखातील काही भाग पुढे दिलेला आहे :

'' In fact, I would go even further and say that from within the set of educationists who have specialised in school level education, we need a good school principal rather than some pedagogue with a pet theory to test when he gets the chance....

''This is because despite pretence to the contrary by so-called experts, school education at the macro level is largely about two things only: a reasonable syllabus and a good textbook. The rest is mostly mumbo-jumbo.

Syllabi are so out of kilter because people with hobby horses have been put in charge of devising them. As for textbooks, the whole thing is a gross commercial racket, with the result that what we produce is utter and complete rubbish. (Indeed, why not just import them? If ever there was a case for jettisoning the policy of import substitution, it is for school textbooks). And if these two things were fixed, the problems with the examination system would also be sorted out very quickly.

In India, as with other simple things, a great deal of fuss is made over syllabi. But the whole issue is really quite straightforward and it consists of deciding just three things: what, how and why. That is, you teach children what happens (or if it is history, happened); how it happens, that is, the process; and why it happens, which is the set of reasons.

With the exception of history, where all countries like to present versions that are doctored in some manner, all other subjects lend themselves to this method. And yet, thanks to so-called experts and politicians, there is neither consistency nor agreement. It need not be so.

One way out of the problem is to have good textbooks. By and large Indian textbooks are terrible. The reason is either too much competition as in the ISC system, or none at all as in the CBSE system.

The former refuses to prescribe textbooks, probably on the grounds that it leads to enticements being offered to teachers by publishers. The worst case is when heads of departments in schools co-author textbooks with some junior. The CBSE, favouring standardisation, simply offers the NCERT books.

The net result, if you are a teacher, is having to choose from what is for all practical purposes a null set. This leads to garbage in (and in exams) garbage out. Can anything be sillier, especially if the whole thing can be set right with a little import competition?

My son has two imported textbooks printed under licence in India and three Indian ones. The difference is as stark as in any other small-scale industry product. This fact has been recognised at the college level and, except in history, an overwhelming majority of the textbooks are foreign...''

Namaste

Namaste.

I begin by praising Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge:

या कुन्देन्दुतुषारहारधवला

या शुभ्रवस्त्रावृता

या वीणावरदण्डमण्डितकरा

या श्वेतपद्मासना

या ब्रह्माच्युतशङ्करप्रभृतिभिर्देवैः सदा वन्दिता

सा मां पातु सरस्वति भगवति निःशेष जाड्यापहा

(Font problem? Download 'Mangal' here or here and find installing instructions below:)

Installing Fonts:

Windows 2000/XP:
1. Download font (or .zip file containing font) to a temporary location (e.g., the desktop).
2. Open the 'Fonts' folder (Windows 2000: Start > Control Panel > Fonts; Windows XP: Start > Control Panel > Appearances and Themes > Fonts).
3. Drag font file (not the .zip file) into Fonts folder. Applications need to be restarted in order to recognize the font.