In today's non-overtly-competitive educational environment, children get graded (based on mark bands) for their performance in assessments. Most often, grades are only made available to parents and are not shared with the children. No mark-based class ranks.
Therefore, no real anxiety and/or seriousness towards "assessments". No anxiety is good. No seriousness?
Let me explain. When marks are lost due to careless mistakes or overlooking things that a child *does* know -- it makes little difference to the child. The typical reaction in a non-marks-hyped environment is "so what?"
That's as far as the child is concerned. But ... how does this impact people around the child? Most importantly -- how do teachers react? Teachers who have been in the field from before the "new-age" schools became popular find it hard to let go of the judge-the-child-by-the-written-word syndrome. They continue to put tremendous emphasis on the written word -- using it as the final benchmark to judge the child.
When will our education system truly change to embrace the child for what he or she is instead of beating around the written-word bush?
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Attitude Matters
Today was a day of trying to locate a Nintendo DS "repair shop". Googling the Nintendo website took me to a Japan address when I clicked the India link!
Some amount of studying the problem of the non-working Nintendo pointed to a battery issue. Now the place where one can find batteries is a watch shop, so we headed off in that direction. There was also a separate agenda of buying a wall clock to replace one that had died recently.
While waiting for the shop assistant of the watch shop to finish attending to another customer, we browsed and located a clock that was quite nice.
Finally it was our turn. As the shop assistant turned the screw to try and understand what kind of battery was housed in the Nintendo, the owner of the shop walked in. He took one look at the Nintendo and said disinterestedly, oh I'm pretty certain we wouldn't have what is needed (without even looking at the battery) -- told the shop assistant to "leave it", in a tone that clearly implied that I wasting their time. In a shop where I was the only potential customer. I asked where would get the battery and the shop owner replied that he didn't know in the same "don't-waste-my-time" tone.
I left without buying the clock that I had intended to pick up and went to another shop -- this time a departmental store that also carried batteries. I showed the shop assistant the Nintendo and he asked if the old battery was still inside. When I confirmed that it was, he pulled out his tool set and opened the battery case. He looked at the Nintendo battery and said he didn't have batteries of the kind. I asked him if he could confirm that it was indeed a battery problem, and, *even though he KNEW there was no sale to be made*, he tested the battery and confirmed that it was dead. He even ventured a guess of where I would possibly get the battery (not a camera store, madam, please try an electronics repair shop).
What I find amazing in this cut-throat retail economy is that the owner of the "mom-and-pop" watch shop, whose USP is supposed to be personalized service and customer relationships, couldn't care less about helping someone -- who save for his you-are-wasting-my-time attitude, would have bought a clock from him.
No prizes for guessing where I finally bought the clock from ;-).
Some amount of studying the problem of the non-working Nintendo pointed to a battery issue. Now the place where one can find batteries is a watch shop, so we headed off in that direction. There was also a separate agenda of buying a wall clock to replace one that had died recently.
While waiting for the shop assistant of the watch shop to finish attending to another customer, we browsed and located a clock that was quite nice.
Finally it was our turn. As the shop assistant turned the screw to try and understand what kind of battery was housed in the Nintendo, the owner of the shop walked in. He took one look at the Nintendo and said disinterestedly, oh I'm pretty certain we wouldn't have what is needed (without even looking at the battery) -- told the shop assistant to "leave it", in a tone that clearly implied that I wasting their time. In a shop where I was the only potential customer. I asked where would get the battery and the shop owner replied that he didn't know in the same "don't-waste-my-time" tone.
I left without buying the clock that I had intended to pick up and went to another shop -- this time a departmental store that also carried batteries. I showed the shop assistant the Nintendo and he asked if the old battery was still inside. When I confirmed that it was, he pulled out his tool set and opened the battery case. He looked at the Nintendo battery and said he didn't have batteries of the kind. I asked him if he could confirm that it was indeed a battery problem, and, *even though he KNEW there was no sale to be made*, he tested the battery and confirmed that it was dead. He even ventured a guess of where I would possibly get the battery (not a camera store, madam, please try an electronics repair shop).
What I find amazing in this cut-throat retail economy is that the owner of the "mom-and-pop" watch shop, whose USP is supposed to be personalized service and customer relationships, couldn't care less about helping someone -- who save for his you-are-wasting-my-time attitude, would have bought a clock from him.
No prizes for guessing where I finally bought the clock from ;-).
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