You are already programmed!

I came across an interesting aticle in the Science News.

This is about how your body is programmed to feel hungry at a particular time and get tired at the right time to sleep.

Everyone’s rhythms are unique, which is why you might like to stay up late while your sister always wants to go to bed early. But overall, everyone is programmed to feel tired at night and alert during the day.

So, when your parents urges you stay awake at night and study, you can always follow your body clock and get up early next day and complete your studies!

What will happen if you forcibly change the rhythm?
The findings of a study conducted by making the day with 28 hours (!!) reveals exactly what the body clock is all about.

The studies also say -

But staying up night after night, these studies suggest, could make kids extra hungry and more likely to gain weight.

Read the entire article here.

Weed – a book by Paro Anand

Not just fantacies and comics, there are a few books written for children with subtle issues embedded in them that will make the kids think constructively.

One such book is Weed by the award winning author Paro Anand.

The Hindu Young World carried a review of it in its latest issue. Did you read it?
You should read the book too. May be this Christmas vacation.
Should the children of the terrorists be supported to have good education? Should they remain just outcast? But if the father was a terrorist what does the child have to do with it? Growing up in an atmosphere of violence is the child’s mistake?

There are many unanswered questions in our minds regarding these kids. Not just the terrorists, thieves, convicts in cases of violence and murders do have families and there are kids too in the families.
What does the society do about them?

Tell me what do you think!

By the way here is an interesting interview with the author!

‘Energetic’ idea!

In these days of power cuts in the state of Tamil Nadu, every one thinks of alternate energy sources.
(We in the city of Madras are luckier than our counterparts in the muffssil areas – the power is off for five hours a day in those areas!)

The ‘green’ people have a concern for the energy resources and usage too.
Look at what this school near Bristol in the UK has come out with!

Does your school have some innovative ideas like this, implemented?
Or has come out with solution for a long-debated issue?
Why don’t you share it with the rest of the world? Just send an email. YOCee will get back to you!

Comments

1. October 11, 2008 @ 7:26 pm, by Saniya

   Scientists have come out with an idea! Here it is – http://aspireblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/turn-your-car%E2%80%99s-waste-heat-into-energy/

Abolition of homework. Fruitful in the Indian system?

A new school – Nottingham East Academy has decided to scrap homework and replace it with an extra lesson after school hours in activities such as sport and aircraft – modeling.

Well, as every coin has two sides to it, so does this idea of scrapping homework. Some believe it is a progressive idea and can be implemented even in India while many feel that it won’t work in India.

Before you form your own conclusions, let us together speculate both the sides and then you could possibly arrive at a conclusion which you feel would be appropriate.

It’s a progressive idea.

Homework serves little purpose as it only puts pressure on the parents instead of the pupils. Abolition of homework would prove to be good especially for students whose both parents are working, so that they need not break their heads with their child’s homework after a long, tiring day. Further, children from illiterate and poorer backgrounds are worse off in a system that emphasizes on homework.

Students especially of the primary classes could be put off by the very idea of school, if their tender shoulders are burdened with loads of homework – and this is quite prominent in India, when the children are on their vacations, supposedly enjoying their holidays.

Moreover, if students are saddled with hours of home tasks, they don’t tend to play outdoor (resulting in them watching television or playing computer games and becoming couch potatoes), socialize with peers, spend time with parents etc., all which play an important role in developing their life skills.

In India, teachers often teach new lessons and expect the students to attempt the exercises, which shift the onus onto parents who might not necessarily be fully equipped. This results in children being sent to tutorials at an early age and learning becomes a drab affair.

Now let us see why the scrapping of homework wouldn’t work in India.

The abolition of homework or rather, reducing it and fitting it into the daily school schedule after hours is an innovation being adopted by schools in UK. It is an interesting measure but all educational reforms may not be appropriate in every country. And we shouldn’t forget that it is yet to be seen whether this reform is successful in the UK, and even if it is, there are reasons as to why it must be wary of following suit in India.

The main reason why this new measure wouldn’t work in India is because of the educational system here in India.

The educational system in India revolves around examinations and home assignments, effective means of ensuring that students are well prepared to compete in these examinations.

And even after this, students scoring above 90 percent are unable to secure admission in the college or course of their choice, there is no logic in abolishing homework assignments, further handicapping the educational system.

Moreover, this is one of the main reasons of Indian students’ success abroad. Anyway, parents’ involvement in a child’s development is essential and cannot be done away with. At the same time, there is no harm in taking a look at the homework system used in Indian schools and seeing if there is any room for improvement, but abolishing homework from India may prove to be a mistake, in my opinion.

What do you think?

Comments

1. December 25, 2008 @ 2:11 pm, by Raman Sathiapalan

   i dont know…
   but i guess i would want homework abolition in my school… haha i

Children in reality shows

In a recent recommendation, The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has urged the governmant to ban children below 16 years of age from participating in reality shows.

The issue has been debated across various sections – schools, film and TV industry, parents, teachers and kids since June’ 08

iGovernment, a voluntary web platform that aims at good governance says this

Shinjini, a participant on a Bengali music reality show, suffered a breakdown and had to be hospitalised in June after she was severely rebuked by the judges for her performance.

Sometime ago, Bournvita Quiz contest fame Derek O’ Brien launched a campaign across 4500 schools in India to ban their students from participating in such shows. Some schools agreed and some didn’t.

Now the Government of India is mulling over this issue and will be out with a definite rule by the end of this month.

Meantime, some of the TV show producers and parents have suggested that the age limit could be 12 and not 16!

What do you think?

Have you ever participated in reality shows?
How was the experience, the shooting schedules, the behaviour of judges . . .?
Is it more fun than participating in school contests or the contests held in public?

Share your views here!

Comments

1. January 29, 2009 @ 9:50 pm, by Shrishti

   I think that these shows that exploit kids for our entertainment shoud be banned !

Nominations invited for Young Achiever Award

Do you know a kid in your neighbourhood who is an achiever despite a below ordinary or a disadvantaged background? You can show them to the world by passing on this info to the young achiever and do your bit for those children.

The Ma Foi Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. is inviting nominations for Disha Award for young achievers, 2008.

The award aims at encouraging and recognising the young with disadvantaged backgrounds who have achieved excellence in academic and extra-curricular activities. The age limit is 10 to 16. The award carries a cash award of Rs.10,000 a citation and a trophy.

Applications should reach Ma Foi Foundation by September 30. For details contact 4358 2125.

Holiday on Sep. 15

Yes, it is a holiday today. A bonus holiday for the government employees, bankers, schools and many private institutions too.

It was declared last evening and The Hindu’s news update service put up the information at 7 pm yesterday.

How many of you spent an hour’s time (or more?) calling up your classmates and teachers to find out if it was really a holiday and how the day’s exam was going to be rescheduled, etc., etc.,?

When I saw the neighbour’s kid walking around with the telephone handset calling up friends I told him to check up his school’s website – he studies is a school which uses LCD panels instead of blackboards!
He did go to check up the website but could find nothing up there! He began his round of calling his friends from where he left 10 minutes ago!
I tried googling to help this boy out so that he could leave the phone out and get back to his books. I did not find even a single school in the city updating information on its website. Leave alone the day’s announcement, the info on the websites were at least a month old in many cases.
But I came across a surprise.
A school in Salem had updated their website with all the information a student needs to know of the surprise holiday declared on a Sunday. Clear information of what happens to the day’s Computer Science exams and what is up on Tuesday, after the holiday.
All this at the same time The Hindu published online – at 7.02pm!
The city schools do have an edge over the others in infrastructure, the technology, the resources and geeky teachers and students!
Did they come handy when those skills and technology could be used?

Comments

1. September 23, 2008 @ 8:33 am, by Sheba

   I wish my school did the same. It was a whole lot of confusion on 15th morning.