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Newsletter, Issue 12; Yr 20-21

Hello all,


In the beginning, we are happy to announce the official entry of Deev, Siyona, Dhoni and Samyak in our family. 


Also, the sharing circle is an opportunity for new parents to get to know about philosophy and practices of Democratoc education. We are thankful to all new parents and those in the trial period for their understanding and active participation in the Sharing circle. 


Advice by our esteemed advisory board member

Founder member of Shishuvan school and our big pillar of support Mr Premjibhai Rambhia visited the center and had a discussion with the facilitators. He reminded us of a poem by famous Marathi Poet G. D. Madgulkar


बिन भिंतीची उघडी शाळा

लाखो इथले गुरू...!

 

बिन भिंतीची उघडी शाळा लाखो इथले गुरू...

झाडे, वेली, पशु, पाखरे यांशी गोष्टी करू!

 

बघू बंगला या मुंग्यांचा, 

सूर ऐकुया या भुंग्यांचा

फुलाफुलांचे रंग दाखवीत फिरते फुलपाखरू...

बिन भिंतीची उघडी शाळा लाखो इथले गुरू!

 

सुगरण बांधी उलटा वाडा, 

पाण्यावरती चाले घोडा 

मासोळीसम बिन पायांचे बेडकिचे लेकरू...

बिन भिंतीची उघडी शाळा लाखो इथले गुरू!

 

कसा जोंधळा रानी रुजतो, 

उंदीरमामा कोठे निजतो

खबदाडातील खजिना त्याचा फस्त खाऊनी करू

बिन भिंतीची उघडी शाळा लाखो इथले गुरू!

 

भल्या सकाळी उन्हात न्हाऊ, 

कड्या दुपारी पर्‍ह्यात पोहू

मिळेल तेथून घेउन विद्या अखंड साठा करु 

बिन भिंतीची उघडी शाळा लाखो इथले गुरू!


 – ग. दि. माडगूळकर (गदिमा)


Premjibhai also advised that even at home the children should be encouraged to ask the questions, and as mentioned in the poem, the whole world (laks of them) is guru. Every opportunity to raise curiosity and learn from nature/ daily experience needs to be encouraged, even outside LC


He stressed the importance of hand holding with parents so that they get familiar with the concepts of self-directed learning and democratic principles, also, extend it at the home. The simplest form of this could be parents spending a couple of hours in the center and observing the children, system (and kaos :-)). 

 He extended this also to grand-parents, since the mindset of the earlier generation would be different, and this concept is entirely different for them to digest.


Fees related

Some discussion happened regarding payment of fees, which I thought could be brought to everyone’s notice.

In the first place, Learners Collective Foundation is a non-profit organization and has no intention to collect money, unnecessarily.


The expected fees this year is Rs. 1,20,000/- per child.

The expected fees per year per child for those who have joined late is as follows


September Rs. 90,000/- 
October Rs. 80,000/-


For ease of calculation and arrangements, the future installments are as follows


November 1st weekRs. 50,000/-
March 1st weekRs. 20,000/-

If there is any extra collection for the year, that amount will be adjusted in the first installment of year 21-22.


Weekly Meeting

This week our meeting started with an observational tour of the center. We asked children “how do you feel when you come here?” Everyone said, “good, happy, excellent, excited…” We wanted them to probably notice the mess and appreciate that a tidy place would look much more inspiring. What we learnt is the children have a completely different view of the world


But we were not to give up so easily.. So we changed the questions, “what all things do they observe?” They narrated everything from the clock to the door. But it did not occur to their mind why we had started with the activity.

When someone said “a shoe-rack”. We asked, “what about a shoe rack?” The child said, “we need a bigger shoe rack!” We said, “But as it is hardly anyone uses it!, even though it's empty, many of the children do not put their shoes on the rack, or stack properly. Do you think we should do it? And why should we do it? Do we want the center to look neat and tidy?”


Then we all worked in teams and quickly cleaned the mess. Everyone got to know the expected level of tidiness. 

We know that probably we will have to repeatedly remind the children. But we are hopeful that they will slowly build in these skills and culture and will also remind their friends without waiting for facilitators.


In the judiciary there were a lot of complaints this week. Many of them were regarding one person bullied directly or indirectly by a group of children. The discussion again happened about what is bullying, how the other person would feel, whether taking a consequence is going to prevent such acts in future, if not what can be the preventive measures?


Someone from children suggested that there is no point in giving consequence. It was mutually decided to raise the flag if someone sees somebody bullying. Being vigilant, and helping the weak is one of the measures to prevention. But we are still wondering how to curb the urge of bullying.


News paper session

This week along with news like Corona, Trump and other members of white house catching corona, power failure in Mumbai, Bihar elections, one news caught our attention. It was suicide of one of the CBI officer. The discussion went from what happens when such body is found, what if no note is written, is there a chance of murder? How does forensic medicine takes part in differentiating homicide (murder) from suicide? Which are the easy (or painless and instant modalities of committing suicide or homicide.


It was amazing to understand the knowledge and imagination of children in this regard and how curious they were to ask questions.


Sessions

This week we had some interesting sessions on basics of geometry, division, how to do multiplication, fractions, grammar (nouns and articles, adjectives - comparative, superlative degrees, subject and predicate part of sentences), matchsticks puzzles, picture talk, hindi. Also, a hibiscus flower was dissected to demonstrate internal parts of the flower. Discussion happened over the roles of calyx, corolla and identified the male and female parts inside the flower. How insects play an important role in pollination, fertilization and hence provision of fruits and seeds was also discussed.


Electric circuit

One of the learners has got curious about electricity. She tried to set up the circuit and installed a motor and fan. When her experiment was successful, she thought of sharing this with everyone. There was a session on electricity followed by a group of 10 making their own fans.


Children were very excited. Though there were enough batteries and motors, other resources like scissors, cutters, staplers were limited. It was exhausting to work with the group, but it was very interesting how the group was occupied almost close to three hours. People were demanding resource material, doing, discarding, redoing the things, getting upset when things did not work, helping each other when they were successful. A couple of them were giving finishing touches even if their fan started working, and in spite of parents waiting outside.


Learnstorm by Khan academy

Sadhana LC has been registered as the institute for group event Learnstorm, where an opportunity is given to children to complete maximum assignments till December 24th, 2020. Here rather than individual performance, how every child in the group participates and fares is given importance.The incentive for the competition are exciting. But as facilitators we are also trying to convey the thought that working together as a team and solving problems and learning is equally fun!


Friday Food

This week’s item was sev-puri. One of the parents also accompanied. Children had got the food material but forgot to get the knives and peelers, and hence tried chopping cucumber/tomato with the back end of the spoon. The mithi chutney was far liquidy than expected. But the final dish was delicious. Not just that, one of our advisory board members Mr Premjibhai had come to visit the center at the same time and we were talking with him. Children on their own offered sev-puri to the guest and kept aside some for us. :-)


We also enjoyed ganne ka juice brought by the parent on occasion of her birthday. :-)


A gentle reminder to fill up the online admission form.


This is all for the week.

Stay tuned for the updates!


Cheers!