Gnome - 2

There is no need to feign
Poetry is worth nothing
But, then again
Nothing is worth Poetry.

Writing

"Habit is the ballast that chains the dog to its vomit" - Samuel Beckett in his monograph on Marcel Proust

What is friendship , according to Proust? Two people at the same level of confusion.....

How are these things connected to writing?

A writer needs to free himself from all preconceivedness to become a potent silence.

A change of mind & the importance of the prefix RE

I am unable to post a picture of Patrick White. I think I'll drop it. I want to return to my thread on evolving a satisfactory philosophy of education that will fit and extend my present needs as a facilitator.
I would like to be a bit subject or discipline- specific this time. However, the thoughts here are, as always, in media res; and should not be taken as a final position on anything I am pondering about.
In every subject at present a knowledge of English is needed.
So students should know English well.
What is the process by which a(ny) language can be learned 'well'?
Hearing and listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Thinking in the target language
These are commonly known denominators.
But in the 20th century , after modernism and post-modernism the prefix "re-" has become important.
The process of learning is not only about the impact of the first time
but about words like
re-petition
re-membering
re-inforcing
re-ifications

In literature especially, which if a man becomes an adept at, he naturally becomes good at language too - a cycle begins to form which I now feel is extremely valid
It goes like this.

Reading - RE - reading - Note-taking - RE - reading - Note-making - P(l)anning for writing -Writing - RE- reading - RE - writing (some people plan what they want to write so well they don't need to rewrite - they edit in their head- but these are exceptions)
In the circle also comes things like hearing and then hearing again, (the second is what I call ac tual listening) , viewing and RE-viewing (actual looking/seeing), thinking and then RE-thinking, doing and RE-doing, making and RE- making, creating and RE-creating.....
In short, I speak of the importance of the prefix RE and of RE-working everything to come closer to perfection....

This needs to be explicated using examples but it is potent enough as a seed for now. Ideally everything would need to be done thrice.

One of the twentieth century greats - Derrida

This picture was called " the blind deconstructing the blind."
Derrida is on the left. You can see that his hair has been deconstructed, perhaps by the wind.

Michaelangelo once said:

"i am still learning"

5th CASW session - Viji's.

Despite the absence of Anu and Hema , the former due to invigilation duty at Sophia's and the latter due to illness ; we held the fifth CASW session of the +2 teacher's group. Mohua joined in,
which was good.
Viji's key questions were
1.For projects based on research and collection of data how can the teacher ensure authenticity of data and no manipulation of the same by the student?
2. What measures can be taken by the teacher to ensure that students maintain integrity and truthfulness in producing genuine work based on research?
The questions , I felt , went into areas of research methodology, documentation, planning, assessment, life skills and ethics - a wide spectrum indeed!
The point she stressed most was that there should have been "systematic record of data, good arrangement of data, independant market survey, creative representation" in accordance with the proposed guidelines for marking with grades for 10th ISC internal assessment in economic applications projects.
She showed samples of project work where the students had not kept the criteria but it couldn't exactly be pinned down, so because of the superior packaging of the projects, they had , in a sense, got away with it....
This is what I wrote down in my indidvidual writing session:
To ensure they have done research give them specific locations. Scout those areas early or go with them. Check facts out if not with them. Collection of data must be backed by proof, not just charts.
Stick to assessment criteria and refuse to give marks/grades if what was asked for was not done.
Ensuring integrity by modelling research.
Don't let them consider the project completed until you are satisified.
The participant discussion was rich in specifying how ideas like the general ones above could actually be put into practice. I am putting them here in short hand:
Locate much of field study in school.
Bring back proof of interviews held.
Bring back bills and receipts.
Bring in research experts - to talk of how to do research and how exciting it is.
Bring back photographs and videos of the trips -
In case of dereliction of duty on the part of the student regarding quality of work done report the matter to the higher authorities
Map the work, break it down into manageable units, plan, collect data, analyze and write/present project. This makes close monitoring possible to avoid dilution.
Talk to the students of the need for ethics in research work. teach them skills of data collection, recording findings, documenting the process.
In the presenter reflection period Viji said that grouping wouldn't work and modelling was difficult. She also said that withholdoing marks and grades wasn't a feasible solution.
Collaborative strategy building :
1. Teach the students differnt styles of research;
library research, field study, market survey etc.
Also, how to record and write the results.
2.Provide structured parameters: selected locations, people, objects for study , time, sources.
3.Call in motivators and inspirers and be inspiring ....
4. Monitor the process and its documentation - evaluate and record. Surprise inspections can also be done occasionally.
The teacher has to talk throughout to students of work ethics.
If there is a clear case of plagiarism, copying, flagrant violation of copyright, patents or wholescale lifting of material from the internet etc. or stealing of intellectual property breaking those rights connected to it, the matter has to be taken to higher authorities.
Debriefing made us aware that the collaborative strategy session needed to be fine-tuned.
The facilitator's role was clearly delineated and his participant staus was seen to be less because of having to do two things at the same time.
Time has to be handled more carefully.
The points the presenter disagreed with were thought best avoided and not discussed in the collaborative strategy building session.

Next sessions:
Wednesday 22nd: Anupama's first session and/or Koshy's review. 2.30-5.00
April 1 - The other five review sessions. 8.45 - 3.15

Voss isst du?

		03/06/06 (edited Monday, Mar 06, 2006 19:04)
		Something’s stirring like a butterfly's wings It's clear that, again, someone's going batty Somewhere there's mud It feels so gritty under one's boots the sound drives you crazy In the damp rain falling hard taking shelter in a cowshed smelling of stale hay and piss so no one can think It's so nutty I feel like i’m almost about to scream There he says he knelt the gay writer with a name like W/white! Pa-trick luna-tic and he said he came to believe in the almighty - I’ve heard taller stories but i take it easy - and he wept like a baby cursin’ the damn rain (must have been night?!) beating on his wet face like thunder - Is that where he caught the chill that led to the Nobel? - I don't have an ace like that hid up my shirtsleeve I must have cheated at the game of life, gambling Voss, isst du, poker-face? The countdown for the usual cast off begins all over this year I wait in the days of Lent in a deserted vestry standing by the river in spate Can you hear the words of my roaring it asks I listen Hear It's the same old sound the crucified one crying out in human(e) agony

P.S. The experiments in language are intentional. A photograph of Patrick White shall duly be posted.

The promised picture of T.S. Eliot painted by none other than Wyndham Lewis

Bala's CASW session

Dealing with questions that touched upon the curriculum and the syllabus, bringing in the pedagogical issues of the real meaning of 'time' and 'space' and the logistics of handling them, Bala held forth in today's session a brilliant conundrum for the paticipants of how to deal with key questions that are highly relevant but totally out of the box in that they deal with student assessment rather than assessment of student work.
Art and Design coursework for AICE A level was the frame he set for us to discuss.
The key questions were:
1. How to schedule and plan sessions (practical work) when the locations are outside the school (eg; Lala Bhag Botanical Gardens or a view of the Hebbal lake) or outside the City ( eg; Mahabalipuram or Hampi )
2. how to facilitate learning in such a situation?
3. how to ensure completion of the painting as per the schedule, even when it is unmonitored.
Vijaya Rajeshwari facilitated the entire session ably.
The whole team had a lively session in which all felt comfortable and many good strategies were thrown up.
My responses to the key questions included the suggestions that the schedule should be made ready early and contact time making use of technology should be insisted on in the case of field trips ouside schoool where the students cannot be monitored by the teacher. Though I suggested self-assessment and peer-assesment as ways to keep them on target this idea - Bala rightly pointed out - is difficult to implement in the absence of the facilitator. About making sure they complete the work and don't drop out or produce shoddy work, the only solution I could think of was raising their level of motivation and interest and making them aware of the responsibilty they have towards art and life.
Strategies towards this end would include - meeting artists, discipline gained through earlier briefer field trips, showing films and works of art to them to raise their level of understanding of the intrinsic value of art and the consequent ethics and responsibilty expected of them in terms of integrity towards their work as artists which would include things like keeping deadlines etc...
In short i wanted them to think highly of their choice and calling so that it would automatically bring about in them a heightened awareness whereby they would turn in their best work.
The ideal time for field trips would be Christmas holidays, according to me.
Bala pointed out that while best work can be done only if they do go, if necessary, to far off places there were practical difficulties connected with that.....
The session ended with a serious appraisal of how Bala could handle coursework better next year - the best idea being by the "persistent" Vijaya Rajeshwari- a meticulous year plan- and debriefing where it was suggested that all of us should refresh our memory each time about the structure of the CASW meetings because at times we did forget and interrupted each other in sessions where we should have kept silent...
I feel that one thing that got forgooten was discussion on our take away from this enriching session. Mine was thoughts on how to mix school time and space constraints with the notion of how the world itself is a school and all time is meant for learning.....
Thanks to Bala for a thought provoking and tangentially illuminating session, typical of his aesthetic sensibility which always moves in a curve that is unexpected...
And to Rags and the others for harmonious participation. We missed the gregariousness of Anu who wasn't well.
The tea helped us in the fag end of the day to stay fresh.....
And to cap it all Tara's and Shuchi's feedback on my essay made a wonderful ending to a very pleasant day....

My continuing search for a satisfactory philosophy of education.

The Supertramp lyrics I quoted in the last post are, of course, interesting; but my training in theory, especially in the fields of literature and criticism, makes me read it against the grain.
When one is young is life really wonderful , a miracle, magical and beautiful?
The lyricist adds a qualifying "seems."
I remember: when I was small I actually wanted to go to school. This was because I have two elder brothers and a sister and watching two of them dress up everyday in their uniforms and take their schoolbags with books in it and go away made me feel they were more "grown up" than I...
When I did go to school, however, through sheer bad luck I got an awful teacher - a kind of bat out of hell- in the first standard and it ruined my schooling experience....
In those days , by the way, one could go to first standard directly... no K.G. ... no test...
When I reached college I 'felt' much happier . There was freedom there.
I came away from schooling pretty muddled.
The "confusion" of "learning" that Supertramp speaks of ..... I guess?! Partly inner confusion. Good teachers were rare....
I am writing this primarily from the point of view of a student....
In two of his poems T.S. Eliot speaks about how knowledge has been the bane of modern man's existence. I sought knowledge and that was perhaps the cause for my unhappiness with the system of education.....
He says that knowledge is different from wisdom...
We in India use the words gnana and vidya ....
I acquired vidya but found that what I needed was the gnana to apply the vidya...
It is clear that from the moment of birth man needs to learn....
But how does one learn? What? When? Where? From who? And last but not least, why and to what extent, i.e; how much? In other words how can I gain the gnana needed to move beyond the duality/maya of avidya and vidya...
A lot of it(learning) comes naturally and spontaneously. Some of it is "thrust", like "greatness" upon us. :).But of what we can consciously muster of learning, there we need to choose judiciously and wisely....
Samuel Beckett who was a brilliant academician discovered one day that he wanted to be an artist and threw up scholarship for consummate artistry. He eventually won a Nobel Prize for Literature but in the early years of struggle as a writer he wrote this revealing poem aptly titled
GNOME
Spent/d the years of learning squandering
Courage for the years of wandering
Through a world politely turning
From the loutishness of learning
My memory plays me tricks . I forget - but do not regret it - the exact tense of the first word of this gnomic utterance.
To sum up:
My children still learn in the same outdated system I grew up in, more or less, because I am (outwardly?) a conventional person.
But if I had a second conscious chance, what would I do?
What kind of schooling would I want?
Let me try and think it through......
(The photo is that of Samuel Beckett. I also wanted to post one of T.S. Eliot but I think I'll keep it for later. The photo is titled "Samuel Beckett's craggy stare" .....)

Supertramp › The Logical Song > Lyrics

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.
There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.
Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical
Liberal, fanatical, criminal.
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re acceptable
Respectable, presentable, a vegetable!

At night, when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.

I think of the lyrics of this song, along with those of many others, while evolving my philosophy of education. Is this kind of confusion at the end of the process of education a good thing or not? In the band's case they seem to have become a succes by making creative use of their confusion, crafting excellent songs out of it. The contradiction implied in that is what interests me. How much of their success was due to their education and how much in spite of it?

Third CASW session - Presenter: Joel Kribairaj

After the initial tech hiccups the session took off with Tara Kini facilitating and Satish Jayarajan as observer along with Arun from the P.E. Department.
Joel was able to put across his key questions with such conviction that we were convinced both of the necessity for the children to partcipate more actively and regularly in athletics and for there to be a democratization of such participation without bringing in the element of competition at all.
As Bala said Joel's philosophy of education shone through brightly throughout.
Joel's key questions were
Why do students in our school have immense interest in foorball and basketball?
How to create an equal interest in athletics?

During the productive discussion that followed rich strategies and perspectives emerged.
I was of the opinion that the interest in football and basketball had to do with the school's own culture, subculture and game- history and also something to with the prominence of these two games in Europe and in America, especially basketball's status as black American subculture's game. Bala opined that athletes were usually in " touch with the soil. "
Regarding equalization of interest several strategies were suggested including showing films like Iqbal and Chariots of Fire , bringing in selectors and role models , using the need for peer acceptance as a means to raise motivation through competitions, training for competitions, using an interdisciplinary method etc.
my suggestion was simulating a computer game which was like a quest for teams and weaving in things like javelin etc to make it exciting and colourful so that they would learn these sports without actually realising they were learning it first.
The question of what we took away from the session was a good one.
I personally took away the desire to motivate my students so they have equal interst in different things I teach and don't love only some of the things.
Though Joel had titled his presetation the losing battle we felt that the fight should go on and some things may have to be a choiceless entity....
The debriefing session -
I felt this session, more than the ones before , should have been video'd.....
It was the best of the three so far.
As usual, to write everything down would make it too long but there were tonnes of interesting things happening there....

Thanks to the team for another memorable experience which will feed into my teaching practice.

...and thanks to Tara for the snacks I and Anu went and had in her room at the end.

Follow up and a kind of a fare thee well ....

Trying to implement CASW sessions suggestions. I have made/am making my students rewrite the essays. parts of which I had submitted to the CASW group as their last/latest sample. While one student completed the essay , taking into account all the suggestions - and she has done a good job of it - with the other student I am following two of the strategies suggested in the CASW session - namely that her actual issues are not being given enough time and a thinking skill deficiency rather than a writing skill one...
As a result of giving her a longer time schedule and sitting and thinking what she is writing through with her - thus bringing into play another suggestion which is constant monitoring and feedback - I find that her essay is gradually becoming a satisfactory one. However the first part of my key question remains unanswered as yet. I need to look at the strategies suggested once again.

I am also wondering about something Tara wrote: are our exercises dealing with brain based learning and strategies or are they collaborative problem solving exercises? i am not satisfied with the collaborative strategy building session yet.

On a different note: I joined Aditi on May 9, 2005 for my induction course. During the course two students joined the five of us who were already there along with Tara who was mapping out evolving professional practice for us.
They were Parbati B and Mahesh. Parbati, a Bengali, had come from Vasant Valley , which was Bala's old school too.
Parbati has left us now and moved to Mumbai.
She shared the staffroom with me and Srini, two of the seven.
The time we had together was good fun She remains a good friend and I am glad I can remember her as a good colleague.
I'm sure none of us will forget your lesson on "ethnocentricism"
A pity I couldn't find the Disney Jungle Book CD to give you.
Still owing you cake. Or is it ice cream?!:)
Keep using your blog and stay in touch via email. Hoping to see you again in March. All seven of us will think of you fondly every now and then. koshy a.v. a.k.a terrestrian@gmail.com
for anyone interested in keeping in touch with Parbati her email addy is toping@rediffmail.com

Today was my presentation. Shuchi was the facilitator so things went smoothly. I presented my case using a Powerpoint presentation and also used samples of student work that included a range of unedited, edited and feedback- and - after examples. In the powerpoint presentation I explained the context. Students who are learning English literature show varied development in the case of their writing skills. Some are able to incorporate feedback instructions while some aren't. It's a question of how within the time constraints we work in , writing skills can be improved overcoming the negative impact of student variability.

My key question was:Taking into account the fact that I can spend only the same amount of time on both students, how can I equalize the learning of writng skills to mainimze the damging effects of student variabilty.
( a very pertinent remark made was that the word 'damaging' was not as appropriate as 'negative').

The group discussion and collaborative strategy building sessions after that were rich in suggesting alternate strategies to the ones I am using.
I am putting down the memorable ones:
Make the students write movie reviews.
Make them understand they are "authors."
Solicit feedback for the written pieces from other teachers, (warm feedback), classmates, and "unknowns"
by writing a description of the blog in such a way that people will leave comments.
Inspire and motivate by using things the students like.( Movies for instance)
Teacher feedback must be constant and immediate.
Marks and grades must be given.
A word limit could be given.
Collaborative writing projects. However this was considered a risky proposition in that it could create either anxiety through comparison or envy through competition.
Writing skills not being developed , a teacher rightly remarked, could mean that thinking skills was what was actually impaired. This has to be looked into at greater length.
Another strategy that was suggested was giving more of a time span for the student who is in need of more input

The issue was hopefully generic enough.

During the debriefing session an important point that came up was the one of ensuring that during the participant discussion the presented must not be involved in anyway, not even through eye contact.

The participants included our team of Bala,Joel, Viji, Anu and For quite some time Uday was there as an observer.

It was a very satisfying experience.

On being asked what strategy I would take back to class and implement , I felt that I would start with the last piece of written work of these students and try to improve that using the strategies suggested by the teachers and then bring the result in for my CASW review.

The first session of the CASW

We six , +2 group , namely; Hema, Bala, Joel, Anu, Viji and myself met at 2.30 p.m. in the A.V. room. Kalpana was also there as an observer . The session was facilitated by me. Hema presented a project on fuel cells and the use of hydrogen fuel cells in space shuttles and other applications like cars and buses. The powerpoint presentation shown was that of a project done by five 9 D students. She shared the learning objectives she had set and the guidelines she had given and also the assessment criteria. She also shared with us the mark sheet filled in by Mrs. Kausalya who had been the judge of the presentation. After presenting the work she asked the group her three key questions.
1. How can one assess if all the participants in a group do/divide the research work equally while doing group projects?
2. How to assess if learning has taken place?
3. How can students who have fear in presenting be helped to ovecome it?

After her presentation we asked clarifying questions.
This was followed by individual writing and reflection and then the group discussion of the participants in which Kalpana also offered valuable insights .
Many interesting insights and strategies were thrown up.
Some of them were
a. closer monitoring of the process
b. shared mentoring of the groups so that things could be properly monitored.
c. smaller groups
d. a common work diary or proof that the presentation had come out of individual and group effort.
e. that the students have a bibliography.
f. connecting the learning objectives to the assessment criteria
g. fluid guidelines.
h. proper documentation
These are only some of the views expressed. The actual discussion was richer than this.

After the group discussion ended, the presenter reflected on what had been shared and spoke of how it had helped her and said that for her next project on fire extinguishers she would implement the suggestions she approved of and bring back the result for review.

The collaborative strategy building section lacked focus but again threw up various suggestions . One thing that was clear was that projects should have a single unifying theme but the subtopics could be chosen bythe students. Work would be delgated according to liking within each group and proof that work was taking place would have to be shown. Presentation skills could be taught or there could be a mock presentation and the teacher could even be a counsellor in case of emotions like fear.

The session then went on to debriefing.
Certain clear suggestions came forth,
It was decided to have only two key questions maximum.
The key questions would be framed more carefully.
Copies of LO's, etc. would be a help.
Time for each part of the tuning sessions was much discussed.
A significant suggestion was that each participant keep a CASW notebook
Blogging was also emphasised.
After thanking all concerned mutually the group dispersed.

Thanks to Pande and the tech team and Satish and Kalpana for making things possible in/for the first session.

After four days of intensive learning

It was good to get a grip on how the brain learns and strategies that can help in this. Dealing with one's own problem in the light of this was a satisfying experience.

Collaborative strategy building.

The videos of the tuning protocol and CASL were interesting and the CASW exercise was suitably gripping. Shuch and Tara did a fine job of faciltiating everything and ensured that it was a level playing field which made for a satisfying experience.

Now for the attempt to put theory into practice. Interesting....

Hello

A happy new year to all.

Two more well written edited articles written by my students on subjects that are not in the prescribed syllabus

I need to explain why I'm posting my students' work.

For one thing , I edit what they write and put it in. Secondly, it is a reward. Their thoughts , when well expressed , need recognition on various counts.

The third thing is this:
This blog was started with the decision to make it a professional record and I hope some of my colleagues at least will join in the work of evaluating each other's blogs.

Student records can be online samples too.

The two articles I'm posting here are both individual efforts and I felt that, after my having spruced them up, they are interesting enough to make good reading for anyone who wants to visit and read my blog. The process would really become intersting if they also comment so that the students and I are benefited.

The last and most important reason is the fact that education has to move towards description and not assessment while dealing with student specimens of writing. This , as far as i am concerned , helps more than marks or grades. The criteria for such descriptions needs , of course, to be decided. Prescriptions would then come from the students themselves and not form the teacher.

Article I

Where does the road of today's youth lead?

Why is there this great need to conform in today's society? When I talk about society, I mean the life and social circle of a Teen living in Bangalore City! Of late, a person who comes to Bangalore will not be struck by its beauty, the horrendous traffic, the disparity between the poor and the rich or any of the other supposedly wonderful attractive or unattaractive qualities that Bangalore has to offer. Instead he or she can't help but be “shocked”, yes, I think that’s the mildest word possible which I can use, and shocked at the way the children of this metropolis are behaving! Drinking alcohol at 5 in the evening, doing drugs in the presence of an elder brother or with friends, watching blue films on cell phones, smoking and trying out new methods to test the limits of CLEAN fun...the list is endless. What happened to innocent gaiety? Where have Sunday picnics or an outing to a park or friendly get togethers gone? Instead, at the drop of a hat today's adolescents; i.e., the young men and women of Bangalore are quite keen to do-nothing; and I literally mean absolutely zilch. They sit about at popular coffee cafe's ( and maybe by sheer chance or by mistake they might actually order a coffee!) meeting up with friends who they have met but an hour back in school, smoking or doing hookah or trying to guzzle as many beers as they can lay their hands upon. However, the minute they catch sight of a policeman some instinct in them tells them to hastily stash their Bacardi Breezers and Bottles of Beer aside or quickly get on their bikes and go for a quick zip in case these " nosey, pesky, annoying cops" have a sudden fit of moral duty to check these teenagers "borrowed" licenses. With the influx of Western culture, Bangalore seems to have absorbed the darker side of it all. Be it the music or the fashion statements, barely there skirts and tops and garish jerseys and baggy jeans the boys and girls of today are eager to test how far they can go, physically with each other and emotionally with their parents. The minute you hit thirteen and above, it’s the norm to be seen out, late at night, wrapped around your current date, and be seen with the latest Bling i.e. your ipod, the latest cell phone, a cigarette drooping from flaccid lips and with red bloodshot eyes. With not a care in the world these young adults see no problems in trying to push the edge of reason.

What do you think of this state of affairs? I am however glad that there does exist certain people who don’t give a damn about fitting in. Sure, we all have the desire to experiment but the difference between stupidity and smartness is that the latter recognizes the need and essentiality to stop.
The road of today’s youth leads somewhere….. but where?!

by Kruthika Chittiappa

Book Review of Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

11/29/05

I can definitely say that “Memoirs Of A Geisha” has joined my list of favorites when it comes to literature. Having just completed reading the book yesterday, in the wee hours of the morning, I would like to share my experience of the book with you while it is still fresh in my mind. And believe you me, reading this book was not like the sometimes-mundane task of reading a text you are not interested in, but was truly an experience.

The book starts off with the protagonist Nitta Sayuri as a little girl, when her name was Chiyo-Chan, living in a tiny village on the coast of the Japanese island of Kyoto. She is a girl born to a family living in poverty in a tiny wind-blown house she fondly calls “tipsy-house”. The story tells us how Chiyo was never an ordinary girl, from her prominent intelligence to her startlingly rare eyes, an exquisite shade of grey-blue.
Chiyo’s mother lies in bed, continuously battling fatal bone cancer, while her emotionless father sits around the house wordlessly expressing his sorrow.
Then one day Chiyo and her sister are taken away by Mr.Tanaka, a man they mistake for a kind human being, who buys them from their father and sells them in Gion, for one to be trained as a geisha, and the other as a prostitute.
Chiyo is sent to an Okiya to be trained as a geisha because of her startling beauty, evident in her even as a child, but conditions are harsh and her outspokenness and desire to escape the Okiya lead her to be removed from training and she spends her days as a maid, abused by the resident geisha, Hatsumomo.
Everyone is unkind to her and the only act of kindness she is shown is by a man on the banks of the river who she remembers only as “the chairman”.
Every day passes with her clutching onto the meager hope that she will see him again, some day and it keeps her alive.
One day however her luck changes and Mameha, one of the city’s most prominent geishas decides to adopt Chiyo as her “younger sister” or geisha in training and then the story follows Chiyo, now Sayuri(her geisha name) as she experiences the luxurious illusion-filled world of the geisha, not without its share of emotional hardships thatshe has to endure in trying to secure the affections of “the chairman” who does not remember her as the girl he was once kind to.

In the end Sayuri is reunited with him, the only man who had truly seen her soul.

The book is written well and it is evident that a lot of research has gone into its writing because it is written so realistically that the scenes of the book almost flash before our eyes, and we are enveloped in the world of the geisha.

I would recommend this book to everyone.

by Ahalya Alvares

Exhibit Three

One gets, sometimes, rarely, from a student a piece of writing that needs almost no editing. This was one such piece. It just needed touching up. So the entire credit goes to -
Loud applause -
Ahalya Alvares.

A comparison between The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost and Edward Thomas's The Signpost.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

The Signpost by Edward Thomas

The dim sea glints chill. The white sun is shy,
And the skeleton weeds and the never-dry,
Rough, long grasses keep white with frost
At the hill-top by the finger-post;
The smoke of the traveller's-joy is puffed
Over hawthorn berry and hazel tuft.
I read the sign. Which way shall I go?
A voice says: "You would not have doubted so
At twenty." Another voice gentle with scorn
Says: "At twenty you wished you had never been born."
One hazel lost a leaf of gold
From a tuft at the tip, when the first voice told
The other he wished to know what 'twould be
To be sixty by this same post. "You shall see,"
He laughed -and I had to join his laughter -
"You shall see; but either before or after,
Whatever happens, it must befall.
A mouthful of earth to remedy all
Regrets and wishes shall be freely given;
And if there be a flaw in that heaven
'Twill be freedom to wish, and your wish may be
To be here or anywhere talking to me,
No matter what the weather, on earth,
At any age between death and birth, -
To see what day or night can be,
The sun and the frost, tha land and the sea,
Summer, Winter, Autumn, Spring, -
With a poor man of any sort, down to a king,
Standing upright out in the air
Wondering where he shall journey, O where?"

Both “The Signpost” by Edward Thomas and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost are

fascinating poems with a similar undercurrent or theme running through them.

Both poems talk about life as a journey, and one that is fraught with decisions,

alternatives and choices, but both take a different stand on the impact that these decisions ultimately have on our lives.

The poem “the signpost” starts off with a beautiful description of the background where the poet is walking and it tells us of Thomas’ surroundings, which are bleak and almost lifeless. “The dim sea glints chill” evokes an image of a dull cool mass of water, masking its many mysteries and wonders and simply lying on its bed, comatose.

The phrase “the white sun is shy” also invokes a bleak image as the reader imagines a sun, pale in its whiteness, fixed idly in the middle of the sky, yet trying its best to hide from the world behind the façade of clouds.

“The road not taken” however, does not start with much description, but is more straightforward and simply begins with Frost addressing his theme of life’s decisions in the form of two diverging paths.

Both poems express the poets’ confusion and puzzlement over which path to take in life. In “The Signpost” Thomas says “I read the sign. Which way shall I go?”

And in The Road Not Taken, Frost says “

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood”

However, the similarity ends here as both poets take different stands on these paths of life.

Frost says that both paths look good to him and it would be easy for him to choose either, but he chooses the one less traveled, less trodden upon, although the first road too would have been an equally good experience. This can be seen in the lines “

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear”

Thomas on the other hand takes a different view as he says “I read the sign. Which way shall I go? A voice says: you would not have doubted so at twenty. Another voice gentle with scorn says: At twenty you wished you had never been born.”

Thomas sees the paths as confusing too, but says that no matter which path he takes, he knows he will have some sense of regret, and a sense that the past or future is always better than the path he has taken in the present.

In this way, the poets’ views are almost starkly contrasting. Frost sees the choices life throws at us as a positive experience, one that he cherishes, and he accepts that other paths and decisions are all equal, thereby dismissing the idea of regret at having taken one path and not the other, Thomas, on the other hand, adopts a more melancholy attitude where he says no matter what path you take, the grass will always look much greener on the other side.

The contrast between their views continues as the poems flow on, as Frost goes on to explain that although both paths were attractive and excellent, the decision he made about his life or the path he chose to travel has affected his life profoundly, and intensely in a positive sense, and has changed his destiny completely.

We can see this in the lines “

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Thomas’ viewpoint differs entirely from this, as it seems he sees life- changing decisions we make almost futile because ultimately they lead to the same outcome. The final and inevitable swipe of the sword slays us all- and that is death. In his own words “whatever happens it must befall”. Thomas speaks with a mood of resigned sadness which borders on emptiness and his joie de vivre is lost in the fact that he sees life as being chock full of regrets and wishes, like those timeless moments where we reflect on our lives and say to ourselves-“What if…” Thomas says in his poem “regrets and wishes shall be freely given”

He even says that no matter what path we tread, we are still essentially fated to the same destiny and will all, no matter how rich, poor, intelligent or ignorant, be affected by the same things such as the seasons, death and birth. This is seen in the lines “No matter what the weather, on earth,
At any age between death and birth, -
To see what day or night can be,
The sun and the frost, the land and the sea,
Summer, Winter, Autumn, Spring, -
With a poor man of any sort, down to a king.”

It is because of this disparity in their very philosophioes of life that both poems, although talking about the same subject, end on two very different notes. Frost ends with an attitude of resolution, understanding of his choices, and gratefulness that he was able to make a decision that so enriched and made up the very essence of his life when he says”

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Thomas however ends on a confused note, where he is left in the spiraling web of his own negative thoughts and is left questioning the very decisions he made in his own life, which have left him unfulfilled, still searching for the ever-hidden truth he is unable to uncover and we see this in the way he ends his poem, with the stark question “Wondering where he shall journey, O where?” The question mark at the end is a clear indicator of his irresolute take on life.

Comments, if you please?

Assessment

The criteria must be clear.

But what if it isnt clear to the student even if it is to the teacher? Can group grades be turned into individual grades? Is it good to be someone who stirs up a hornet's nest wherever one goes? I facilitate well for adults but the challenge is to do it for eleventh graders in General English. How to achieve evenness and excellence?

Different needs and levels. Assessment is not the issue but development is.