How do I Win?

I played Monopoly after years with my soon-to-be-7 year old son yesterday. It was his first time, and even as he absorbed the rules of buying property, collecting salary, getting rent and going to jail, he kept asking me -- how do I win?

I thought about it and even looked over the rules briefly. As far as I could tell, you can't win or lose at Monopoly. Much like life -- it goes on with its ups and downs till it comes to an end.

The person who cornered most of the properties on the board kept going to jail :-P. My son learned about "profit" when he had to buy property from me at more its market value. He diligently saved up to build "houses". He learned about income tax -- you are so rich that they want money from you to build roads :-P.

:-)

My views on the RTE

The Right To Education (RTE) Act that got passed in India has been in the news lately. Most recently, I watched an "interview" of Kapil Sibal, the Union HRD Minister on Barkha Dutt's "We the People".

Based on the information I have, here are some of the issues I see.

Cost
The 25% reservation that government mandates in private schools is going to be funded "by the money spent by government on each child". That is Rs 13,000 according to Mr Sibal. I will pay close to Rs 80,000 this academic year for my son, excluding bus, cafetaria, and uniform costs. Who will bridge the gap?

According to Mr Sibal, school fee is a state subject and 90% of the states do not regulate it in any way. So what does this mean? The remaining 75% of parents will have to bear the difference for the 25% reserved seats. This is *completely* unfair -- a triple whammy. I pay taxes, I pay education cess on taxes and THEN I pay to subsidize 25% of the reserved seats in school!

Overturning Capitalism?
Mr Sibal did mention that private schools are for-profit enterprises (they are -- they make money on everything including a pair of school socks), and they should "use that profit" fund the 25% reserved seats.

My first response to that is "yeah right". A more considered response is this: why single the for-profit education sector? Why not mandate that ALL for-profit enterprises should put aside "x"% of their profits for education? But hey, isn't this ALREADY happening when we pay taxes and education cess?

Impact on the child
This one applies to private schools where the medium of instruction is English. By class 1, children are expected to be able to read and write English fairly fluently. I don't see any plan of pre-tutoring the children coming into the reserved seats, so they can cope with the medium of instruction. Or is this simply going to be fodder for the local governments to convert the medium of instruction of ALL schools to the local language? (I live in Bangalore where there was a huge ruckus over this issue a few years ago.)

Private School Infrastructure
Are the reserved seats going to come at the expense of "regular" seats or will they be additional seats? The former will impact "non-economically weak" parent; the latter raises the question: who will bear the infrastructure costs of additional classrooms, labs and so on?

To quote Mr Sibal again, 7% of schools in India are private and the rest of the "expenditure" on education is done by the government. These 7% schools cater to ~20% of school going children. This is already disproportionate. and additional seats will mean that 7% of schools will now cater to over 25% of school going children.

Yeh Hai India Meri Jaan
Let's face it -- we live in a country where bribes, sifaarish based on money changing hands, favors and the like rule the roost. I don't see safeguards in place to prevent the 25% reservation from becoming a hotbed of corruption. Mr Sibal did mention "neighbourhood committees" in "catchment areas" but they don't seem adequate to me.


Passing the Buck
It seems to me that reservation of seats in private schools is a fantastic way for the government to pass the buck on building a really solid public school infrastructure -- which is what we really need. My fear is that as with most government schemes, a couple of schools will be built, a few ribbons cut and then the rest of the money will either get squandered or siphoned off.

Conclusion
IMO, RTE is next-gen Garibi Hatao for the Congress and its allies. It will surely win elections. Provide education for all? Remains to be seen.

Books I've read in the recent past

Post Harry Potter (I hated the last one), I've stuck to reading non-fiction (with one exception).

• India After Gandhi -- Ramchandra Guha. Chronicle of the post independence history of India. Reading it is also a "project" in itself :-). IMO, a must-read for all Indians.

• Parva -- S L Bhyrappa. The story of the Mahabharat retold, minus the magic. Vivid descriptions of what war actually is, as opposed to glossed over content of bravery and cowardice. The English translation leaves a lot to be desired, but the content is awesome. Highly recommended.

• The God Delusion -- Richard Dawkins.Worth reading  for the horrors of organized religion that it highlights. 

• Leaving Microsoft to Change the World -- John Wood. Interesting read, if a bit too full of "fluff".

• The Enemy At Home -- Dinesh D'Souza. This book is written in typical right-wing American style -- full of half truths and lots of stretches that leave one totally incredulous. A book I regret reading.

• Outliers -- Malcolm Gladwell. One of his best, if you can discount the fact that he comes up with theories from his armchair, without having experts in the field even *read* them once. As I mentioned in another blog post, I read his books for the facts he puts together, not the theories he weaves.

• What The Dog Saw -- Malcolm Gladwell. See above.

• Nickolas and Alexandra -- Robert Massie. The life and times of the last czar or Russia. Very touching. Recommended.

Currently reading "Emperors of the Peacock Throne" by Abraham Eraly and "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson.

Recommendations?

My Musical Journey

My relationship with classical music has come a long way. What I used to consider elevator music is now something that I actively seek out and listen to. I go for concerts, search for it online, buy CD's and am constantly trying add to my collection.

When I was in the "elevator music" stage, I never actively sought it and tuned off quite soon whenever I encountered it. It was only once I started learning (from my current and 4th music teacher :-P) that I really started appreciating it. Now, when someone sings a taan, I am able to understand and admire it. I am beginning to spot techniques such as using the beat to drop a few words from the phrase and intersperse with the sound of instruments. I can now "immerse" myself in the beauty of classical music.

The reason is simple. My teacher is an *awesome* singer himself -- the link to his music is about 7 years old, and his voice and technique are like wine. He is teaching me ground up and focuses extensively on technique. And works *very* hard to correct flaws (just today he pointed out that my talking and singing voices were sounding different and they shouldn't, apart from the fact that I was being nasal :-P). A good teacher opens the floodgates of knowledge in the subject of his expertise. Apart from gaining knowledge, one also begins to appreciate the subject and enjoy it.

Which brings me to another point. Now that I have begun to appreciate the "pure" Hindustani classical genre of music, I have begun to move away from "fusion" music like this. Of course, people say that this is one of the ways of keeping our musical tradition "alive", but to me it seems like an apology of a life. Maybe people like the earlier me will not reject this music, but it just doesn't have the beauty and depth of classical music.

A better way to keep our musical tradition alive (and thriving) is to expose our children to the beauty of classical music early. Children who are young enough have no pre-concieved notions of classical music being un-cool. They are like sponges and absorb beauty when they encounter it.

Urged by a friend (thanks for the good counsel :-)), I introduced my son to classical music about a year ago. He was happy to begin his lessons since he saw me doing the same. He is fortunate to be learning from such a wonderful teacher, and he is not yet 7.

I take him for as many music concerts as I can, with a book or two so he can switch between active and passive listening at will. I put him to bed with a CD of classical music (we call them "night" CD's) of his choice, and wake him up with a CD of mine. I usually have some music playing in the background even when we are doing other things.


This is my way blunting the effect of "MTV" which will no doubt seem much "cooler" when he is closer to his teens. At that point, even if he walks away from classical music, I will not mind, knowing that he has a base to which he can and will return once his rebellious years are over.

I hope to let the tradition of Hindustani classical music live on, at least in *my* family :-).

Summer breaks are far too long

It's that dreaded time of the year again when school will be out for *two* months. Summer.

Most parents scramble around at this time of the year to find summer "camps" for children. Places that will keep children out of the house for atleast 3 hours, if not more, preferably with transport provided.


Why? A number of reasons. First, a lot of moms work, and no corporate job gives you two months off in summer. Even school teacher moms in private schools get just one month off, and have to plan for the second month for their own children. Second, even if mom stays home, people now mostly live in nuclear families in apartments. It's hard to keep a child busy at home without him gravitating to the television or PC. Invariably mom and child will spend some time EACH day negotiating time for one or both. Third, most families have fewer children (or just one), and it's hard to keep planning playdates (particularly if mom works). Children need the company of their own age group and summer camps are seen as a way of achieving that.

Summer camps exist by the dozen, so it should just be a matter of choosing the one with activities that appeal to your child, right? In practice, however, it rarely works out that way. Summer camps are rarely run by people who do it for the love of children or their trade/craft. More often than not, organizers see camps as a way to make a quick buck from working parents who really have little choice. Rates per week can be as high as Rs 1500 for a child for a few hours away from home. Most often, at best they are summer nannies, at worst, they could even turn out to hurt your child (physically or otherwise).

Summer camps exist to solve a problem. The problem is that of a two month school vacation. Why, in today's day and age, do schools need to break for two months in summer? Do children really need two months of "unwinding"? From what? Their air conditioned classrooms?

My experience with summer break has been that it totally kills routines, apart from making the child "forget" what he has worked so hard to learn the entire school year. So there is the usual mom-child tug of war of doing *some* "holiday homework" just to reinforce lessons learnt. Some educators also feel that long summer breaks hamper learning.

There is another (weird) fall-out of such long vacations. Schools these days have a packed curriculum in order to appeal to today's "go-getter" parents. Now, the curriculum is *so* packed, and given that summer break is *so* sacrosanct, children end up going to school on Saturdays in order to "complete". Even in grade 1.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe that children *need* unstructured time to potter around, get bored, find ways to amuse themselves. But *two* months is totally excessive.


Isn't this a completely solvable problem?

Here's my solution. Shorten summer break to three weeks. Add two of those five weeks left over to the school year to ensure that there is no school on Saturday. That leaves us with three weeks. Use those three weeks for activities that parents normally look for in summer camps. Puppetry, woodwork, speech, drama, skating, swimming, basketball, cricket, ... the list is endless.

This, IMO, would make for a truly well-rounded school curriculum and also make a world of difference to working parents.

Views?