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Showing posts with the label education

Book Review & a bit of Me: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

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How many of us mothers really have an opinion on what kind of parenting is best for our children? Have we really given this a serious thought and taken steps towards achieving a certain kind of parenting. That's why I think "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" really matters. Because through this book, the author and mother, Amy Chua establishes 1) The need to give parenting a serious thought 2) and shares her personal insights on the advantages of Chinese parenting v/s Western parenting. For Indian parents this book a lot of sense because Chinese parenting isn't very different from Indian parenting. It is just a lot more, a lot lot more rigorous going by the book. Chinese parents want their children to always get top grades. As a Chinese kid, you cannot get low grades especially in Maths and Science. You get restricted play time. You have to excel in playing an instrument. You have to be obedient at all times abiding by every rule your parents make. You are expec...

Open it up.

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There have been few movies with a message as strong as the one in Bollywood flick 3 Idiots. Excellent thing to talk about in an out and out commercial movie : Education. A long neglected issue in India and by far the most important. In order to pull India out of it's fallacies, it needs it's people to grow out of their ignorance and finally grow by education . Can a movie such as 3 idiots bring about some change in the way indians perceive education? There are really 2 major tasks here : One, to get the masses educated, to attend a school in the least. Two, educate every child such that he/she goes out there not just to find a means for his living but to find his passions and the courage to pursue them. The general middle class in India, succeeds in the first task. But miserably fails in the second. Yes in spite of the lakhs of engineers and doctors that it produces, I think our education system has been a miserable failure. Because I am convinced that not all those one lakh mi...

The Mortenson Way

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Some people are meant to do some amazing things for this world, making it a much better place for us . Greg Mortenson is doing it his way. "Three Cups Of Tea" which is essentially a biography of this phenomenal personality had given me all the chronological details of his life. But actually listening to his story from the man himself, told me that this guy was for real! I got this opportunity to listen to him at a lecture in the premises of the Colorado State University, Fort Collins. It struck to me that people could actually do such things: they can survive the worst, come out stronger and forge effective changes for the human good. "Failure", which is also the name of the first chapter in his book, has literally been his stepping stone to success. In 1993, devastated by the death of his sister, he decided to summit the K2 , the world's second highest peak, in her honor. He failed to complete this mission. Barely surviving the ordeal he reached the village of...