Need for speed?

Every time I feel I have heard it all, my ears are subjected to an outrageous statement. Or at least what I think is outrageous. The scary part is that there is an actual thought process behind such a statement.

Last week, a few professionals including me were invited to talk about their respective careers to a bunch of class 10 kids by a Mumbai school. After we finished our speeches at the event, we were ushered in to different classrooms so that interested students could pose their queries to us individually.

A bubbly student, interested in writing (or so he claimed) asked me whether it would be advisable to be a tech columnist (since he loved technology, no points for guessing that), or a regular journalist. When I offered details of the job, along with pros and cons of both, and told him that columnists need to prove their specialty, he just waved his hand saying that it would be a 'side thing' for him, indicating that his main profession would be engineering. So far so good.

His parting shot was the shocker. "So, let' say I finish my engineering in three to five years after 12th..." at which point I interjected and told him that the bachelor's programme was of four years duration and the master's another two.

"Okay, so six years. Don't you think that it's a little to late?" Whoa! What? A little too late for what?

"To start my career?"

Utterly flabbergasted, I was glad that I fumbled only inwardly to find my words. On he outside I seemed calm and in deep thought. I really want to believe that. This child is smart, intelligent, does well at school and has not missed a single year of academics... is there a way where he can really get there earlier than that? I explained to him, patiently and in detail that he could not do it faster than that if he chose a career via academics. I'm not sure he was convinced. 

My shock was shared by a doctor, who had also addressed the students earlier. The doctor had a student claiming that it was futile for her (the student) to pursue an MBBS since she wanted to become a skin specialist. She wanted to know if there was a 'shortcut' to the specialisation in any institute throughout the country.

I get that these are children who are ill informed, and need to be handled with care and patience. But isn't this the generation with information at their fingertips? So what's making them think towards such shortcuts? The glamour of success and money? Perhaps. It does have something, however, to do with the rat race. Fortunately, we could try to reason with these two students rationally. The unfortunate part is that we have no clue why increasingly, more and more students of this generation are thinking like that. There, we have no answers. Only questions. 

Happy moments

Picture courtesy: matnonline.wordpress.com

We all work for satisfaction. In modern times, it is quite a juggling act - to find a balance of financial and job satisfaction. In either case, there come moments which reassure you that you made the right choice. For a teacher, these moments come for several reasons, especially when her students deliver well.

Last year, for a communications assignment, my PG advertising students had to make a piece of communication (could be anything - poster, story, article, movie, skit, so on) with a pre-decided response. That is, they had to ensure a particular response from the audience, and design the piece of communication accordingly. They did, and how. Their work just blew my mind away! Our youth has so much potential to think and do, but unfortunately only a fraction of it is tapped. The rest is lost somewhere in the system of education. Anyways, woes later. Right now, time to check out some of the work here.

In another class that I taught last year, a bunch of aspiring journalists worked on a magazine for my editing class. With limited resources and contacts, the work they turned in was almost professional. It is not that I want to take credit for their work, but I can't help smiling and being proud. It is one of those moments. 

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a class I taught last semester for one last year-end revision. After listening to me in class in theory last semester about skills and grooming, they had a taste of the real world and wanted a few questions answered. Little did I know that the trek up to the venue (yes, it is far for me, and  I think of it as a trek) would so be worth it. One of the students came up to me in the break and told me how all I had taught in the last semester helped her. It so happened that she was unaware of a presentation due for another subject, and had not prepared. She went over everything she had learnt in my class in her head, and presented anyways. Not only did she think fast, problem-solve and do the job, she did it well because she paid attention in class and learnt the skills. It is one thing when we strive and strive to get our students to see the bigger picture, and another to actually have them come up to you to thank you for doing that. I had to behave like a dignified teacher so I patted her back and encouraged her at the time, but with that, in my heart I did a little jig. I must be doing something right :)

That something right showed up a few days after the incident, when sitting with a friend at McDonald's at Phoenix Mills last week. A couple of my students took the seat next to ours, I greeted them, talked to them for a bit and went back to the discussion with my friend. A while later, a bunch of their classmates showed up with the programme head greeting me with a cheer! I thought they too wanted to add to McDonald's business, so thought of vacating out our table for them, since we were almost done. They said they came there just to say hi. They were at another outlet in Phoenix, and heard I was around and had to see me. What's more, the rest of the classmates dropped by in a few minutes for the same purpose. One of them did mention, "Shraddha, you must be feeling really popular today." Yes, I was.

The last few weeks have been full of such moments, and I could not feel happier. When Priti and I concluded our personality development workshop last Sunday afternoon, I found the cherry to put on top of my cake. In all the downpour and floods, the students showed up, and one of the feedback remarks said, "If you could make me wanna get up on a Sunday and I want to come to class, and not miss it, you've got to be really amazing..." 

Many years ago, I remember requesting testimonials and recommendations from professors, ex-teachers and supervisors to apply for the Fullbright Scholarships and then later to apply for studying abroad. Little did I know then, that one day, I will be writing such testimonials for my students. Today is that day. And when I think about it all, even if for a few minutes, I am in heaven.

Wasted chances

In India, for almost everything you do (or rather don't, in this case) you have an out. For a student who does not do well at an exam and fails it, there is always the ATKT system. Or the re-examination situation. A sort of second chance for those who could not make the most of their first. Should educators be against it? I am not sure. It depends, and I have not checked any research or analysis to claim either way. 

Am I against it? Big time. And I talk here merely from my own experience in the classes that I teach. Since I teach at autonomous and private institutions, for once, the University cannot be blamed. Except of course for allowing the ATKT system to thrive, since all the other institutes follow a similar pattern. There was a moment, a couple of months ago when I wanted to punch someone. Of course, I didn't. It was when I was informed that I had to set a paper for the ATKT exam. I stood there, shocked. 

Let me explain. I do not teach a theory paper. I teach classes on skills - communication and presentation, among others. I also teach editing to postgrad journalism students. And none of these subjects can be tested in the purview of an exam! How am I going to test a student's body language in a written paper? And his or her ability to cross check facts when editing a written piece? 

Finally, I was able to explain the programme heads and course coordinators that an exam was not possible, I never conduct one even in my regular classes. I try and adopt a constructivist approach to my class, and have set up a continuous evaluation process based on a mix of take-home, group, individual and in-class assignments. These are based on real life situations and encourage the students to think. 

Even then, I had to do something about giving those students another chance, who had failed in my class in the first semester. So I did. I set another assignment. It was not the extra work that bothered me. It was not the fact that it was just expected that a second chance would be given without a valid reason, though these were and remain major concerns. 

It was the fact that you could have it so easy when it is an ATKT. The students in question had failed for a reason. Not attending class. Not submitting assignments on time. Not paying attention to the details (which is an absolute must in many cases). And most of all, not working at all on the assignments at hand and turning in extremely shoddy work. And in one stroke, just like that, they had another chance, working on which was much easier than the first. One assignment, hundred marks. So much easier that their peers who worked hard on multiple projects. 

That's not even the worst part. The students made the same mistakes again. Neither of the ATKT students submitted work that was good enough to pass. But pass they will. Why? Another feature - called 'grace marks'. The deficit between what you need to pass and what you have. Just donated to you. And with this grace they will go home with a diploma. What is it's worth? Only the industry will tell. I am just concerned with a very short-term and straight forward thought. How can I even compare the 50/100 scored by these ATKT students to another sincere student's 64/100? More importantly, how do I live with it?

It's Mumbai University alright!

Beauty without.... Mumbai University!
Photo courtesy: Ajay Kamalakaran

It was a moment of great pride when an ex-student referred me to deliver a lecture to a master's level class of journalism and communication at the University of Mumbai. Although I knew better, I accepted the offer over the phone, in spite of the fact that their budget for a guest lecture by a person with industry experience was quite meagre. In a period of two days over my discussion with this student, I realised that my lecture was a part of the assignment given to the students - to arrange for a guest lecture before a certain deadline to clear a particular subject/ course. 

I went, all prepared with photocopies of news stories and pieces I'd wanted to share and reading up on material I thought I had become a little dusty in. From that point on, everything else was a challenge. I entered the classroom quite happy to see it full! To my dismay, the students seated there did not belong to the class I had to teach. They were not even willing to budge to vacate the classroom for me to conduct the class. Finally I managed to locate a bunch of students which belonged to my class, only to realise that they were racing against time to complete an assignment and were not interested in sitting for the lecture. The course coordinator was nowhere to be found. 

After 20 minutes of making no headway, I told the girl who had invited me to call off the lecture, since there was no point. She then took me to the faculty member whose assignment the others were working on, and he had to threaten the students to sit in my class! He also came by to the classroom and drove away the students occupying it. When leaving, he asked me to approach him if there was any other trouble. By now I was reasonably mortified. Once in class, I gave the students an out. They could leave, as there was no point in forcibly making them attend. A few left. About 15 stayed, rather sceptical about the next hour. Once I started the class, talking freely to them, and encouraging them to discuss issues, I was glad I stuck it out. This interested lot was willing to share opinions and question other comments. This, after a good 45 minutes had passed it getting it all together. By then, I had lowered my expectations to such a level, that I would have been happy with mute listeners. What I had was much better. It was exactly what I feel happens with our university time and again, for many matters - too little, too late.

The payment system proved it as well. I delivered the lecture in October 2012. That day, I filled out a form, followed protocol at the University Department, and was asked to wait for my cheque (for the meagre amount after deducting tax) which would take a few weeks. I am still waiting. Calls to the student who invited me to deliver the lecture have not helped. Not that I need the amount, but I wanted to check. Verify my theory of too little too late, since the University has always treated students in a way that seems like that. Only, in this case, there is neither little nor late. There is nothing! 

Do teachers deserve this?

Teaching is a noble profession. Really? So what are teachers and their families supposed to survive on? Nobility? 'Cause the system sure ain't paying them enough. Or stealing a little even from what they rightfully deserve. The strike by the college and university teachers in Maharashtra is a case-in-point this year. These teachers claim they were promised the clearance of their arrears by the government last year, but the state government has not adhered to the promise. They say that they have taken to the last resort - boycotting the final exams. The result? Thousands of degree college students are left hanging about their impending exams. They don't know whether the hanging sword called 'exams' will actually fall on them or not this year. 

Well, that's just one case. In another example, an experienced and qualified teacher, great with tiny tots, applied to a new 'internationally affiliated' pre-school (which is yet to start operations). She was offered a pay of Rs 5000 a month (no, I haven't missed a digit there) for working seven hours a day. All she could do is gape that the interviewer, keep a level head, and run the hell away from that place. I can safely say that in many cases, our house help earns more than that! No wonder no one in their sane mind wants to take up teaching! 

While my talkative self went about quoting these examples to anyone in the industry who would care to listen, there was yet another. Boy they keep coming. A private institute offering media and other courses, has officially asked its faculty members to cut down on the number of lectures they had been allotted to teach their subjects this semester. Budget constraints of course. God alone knows how much they will save on cumulatively cutting out about 10 lectures from each course. Needless to say, students gain to lose a lot. And here we are talking about industry professionals who actually take the time out to teach the students. They are not even full time teachers. 

Well, these ramblings can go on. And we sure can have some more from the other side, since we cannot vouch for the quality of every teacher. But you know what? If you throw peanuts, you will only get monkeys. And despite that fact, I am proud to do my bit to the best of my ability as part of the monkey troop. True story.