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Dear Community Members,
It is with great pleasure that the PSA team of NBS brings to you
the first issue of 2012-
13 PSA newsletter.
This time it is a different PSA team doing the honours and just
like every baby taking
the baby steps to perfect walking, the new team too had
struggled with their own
learning curves before coming out with this hopefully readable
work, just in time!!!
We are sure you will find this enjoyable, though. But we could
make it even better with
more contributions from our parents. Please do send in your
contributions and
suggestions to [email protected]. Opinions,
comments, insights,
discoveries, experiments….we all have a lot to say, don’t we?
Just pen them down and
share it all with us…
Happy Reading!!!
Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s Teacher… (Read more)
At a Glance
Teachers Day Celebration(Read more)
Congratulation NBS…(Read more)
Nirmal Awards…
Article
My Experiments with Truth… (Read more) Perspective on Holistic
Education (Read more) Anti-Corruption and Parenting Teenagers (Read
more) Life in the Time of Face Book (Read more)
Guess What??? (Read more) Just in jest (Read more) From the
Kitchen(Read more)
ब ाँध के पगड़ी सूरज ने (Read more)
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Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to His Son’s Teacher
Respected Teacher,
My son will have to learn I know that all men are not just, all
men are not true. But teach him also that
for ever scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish
politician, there is a dedicated leader. Teach
him that for every enemy there is a friend.
It will take time, I know; but teach him, if you can, that a
dollar earned is far more valuable than five
found.
Teach him to learn to lose and also to enjoy winning.
Steer him away from envy, if you can.
Teach him the secret of quite laughter. Let him learn early that
the bullies are the easiest to tick.
Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books… but also give him
quiet
time to ponder over the eternal mystery of birds in the sky,
bees in the
sun, and flowers on a green hill –side.
In school teach him it is far more honourable to fail than to
cheat.
Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one
tells him they
are wrong.
Teach him to be gentle with gentle people and tough with the
tough.
Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when
everyone
is getting on the bandwagon.
Teach him to listen to all men but teach him also to filter all
he hears on
a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.
Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad. Teach him
there is
no shame in tears. Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of
too much sweetness.
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders;
but never to put a price tag on his heart
and soul.
Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob… and to stand and
fight if he thinks he’s right.
Treat him gently; but do not cuddle him because only the test of
fire makes fine steel.
Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the
patience to be brave. Teach him always to
have sublime faith in himself because then he will always have
sublime faith in mankind.
This is a big order; but see what you can do. He is such a fine
little fellow, my son.
Home
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with and open
one.
-Malcolm S. Forbes
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“Together We Did”, Says Parents
5th September 2012, Dwarka, New Delhi: Teachers Day Celebrations
unfolded in a spectacular manner at this sub city’s leading school,
NBS with the parent representatives pulling off an array of vibrant
activities that enthralled the entire NBS community. John Philip
(parent of Leeza John, Class V), PSA member recollects the
preparations leading to the event:
‘Daunting task!! How does one work with total strangers and pull
off an event in two weeks? None of us had a choice - this was being
thrust on us. Very soon each one of us realised that we had a bunch
of proactive parents on the team. That’s not all, each one of us
had a remarkably recognisable attribute as well. Put Karan and
Poonam together and it was non stop political banter - often
hilarious for the rest of us. Kavita [god bless her levels of
energy!] was the gourmet queen and made sure that we were treated
to some delicious bakery items. Madhu kept our, often juvenile,
enthusiasm in check and shared
her great artwork for the event, Bala supported us with the
larger point of view, etc.
We also learnt some very important life lessons - if one needs
excuses for not doing something, the mind cooks up a dozen; but if
there is will, the universe presents a way out. We had parents with
self-professed stage fright, parents with no email access, parents
who had to leave tiny tots back home, etc. But I am sure the
teachers will vouch that none of these "shortcomings" were evident
on the big day.
Of course none of these would have been possible without the
support of the Principal, Sayori Ma’am, Vivek Sir, and all the
teachers. I thank each one of you. My dear fellow parents, this is
only the beginning. I am sure we'll have many more avenues to work
together for our children and our School. Please come forward and
volunteer your time and expertise. Together we did; together we
can! I wondered why I had not participated in such events until
now. It was purely cathartic’.
All of us who were present there too agree that it was
cathartic!!!
Home
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Nirmal Awards
It was a touching moment for us PSA team to be part of the
‘Nirmal Awards’ ceremony of NBS, the felicitation ceremony during
which awards for exemplary services under categories of 'Long
Service', 'Going the Extra Mile' and 'Exploring New Horizons', for
the year 2011-12 was handed over to the nominees. It was a small,
but meaningful event where the school acknowledged and appreciated
the efforts that the staff puts into making the school
progress. It was yet another effort that echoes the words of
Henry Ford: “If everyone is moving together, then success takes
care of itself.”
The school doesn’t just focus upon coming together but upon
keeping together and working together towards success. The ceremony
threads the school and its community together and encourages
everyone to do their best, with an open mind towards novel ideas
which ensures that every possibility is explored. It was a
heartwarming experience, with everyone brimming with excitement and
encouragement for one another. One could sense the comfort level
and understanding that flowed between the staff members which also
reflected in the most candid speeches. The event concluded with
positive vibes and a promise to lifelong learning and
contribution.
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My Experiments with Truth… Ms. Poonam Sethi, parent of Neil
Phauja Class- Ankur Basant
Learning to fail well is a “scaffolding” process. As a parent we
must remember that children learn from what you do, not what you
tell them to do, your child watches how you respond to failure in
your own life. It is important though that our children know from
experience, not from having us tell them, that they have it in them
to bounce back. A talented child who is allowed to have small
failures early on without harsh consequences and who is involved
meaningfully in determining and executing corrective actions shows
greater resilience when faced with the next level of failure. This
process builds on itself in a reinforcing cycle. The failure may
grow, but so does the child’s ability and confidence to handle them
effectively and independently. A child who never suffered failure
or frustration is ill-equipped to handle rejection or defeat as an
adult.
I learned this through an engrossing experience I had with my
child...
My now 4year old is our only child, the apple of his father’s
eye and my very own reason for joy, had never been said “NO” to for
anything. As he approached his third birthday, he was already a
person of his own; he had always been a little more mature in his
words and understanding and could very effectively express his
feelings, be it anger frustration or happiness. Now that he was
physically more in control of his body and his reflexes were coming
around just fine, we thought of introducing him to bigger physical
challenges apart from his everyday cycling, playing with ball or
blocks that he had been doing forever.
`And just when he had to learn a new activity like making an art
project or playing domino, he wasn’t the easiest to be taught, as
every time things did not turn the way he expected them to, you
could see him struggle; his whole body reacted to the failure: he
squirmed, inched away and you could see him fighting tears; with
frustration written all over him. He refused to start anything new,
anything he was unable to do the first time around. He could not
handle failure when it seemed to us to be the right time to learn
new skills. That was when we realized we had a problem at hand.
I then set about a journey on my own to figure out how we could
undo this behavior, so that we could help him learn, not
necessarily succeed, but try something he may not have mastered
yet. I wanted him to learn to fail so he could learn how to truly
succeed.
After weeks of futile efforts at trying to introduce something
new, one evening while we were out at the park like every other
day, we walked past these badminton courts, thriving with
youngsters. And it was in that moment when he told me he would like
to play like them someday, I found my answer. Initially it was a
challenge: to see him struggle; some days the game didn’t last even
for 5 minutes and ended with tears and frustration. Tormented by
his inability he would ask me why he could not hit the shuttle with
his racket every time it came towards him. It was then that I
realized that even though it was only I, his mother, playing with
him he could not figure out why he would struggle to hit the
shuttle while I was hitting it well. So I started playing
inconsistently dropping the shuttle every now and then and each
time I missed a shot I would laugh and apologize for not
concentrating. Pretty soon he laughed too, nervous laughter at
first, but soon his body began to relax as he realized he wasn’t
necessarily wrong: all he needed was a little practice. We decided
we would play every day until we had the game working for us. It
became our own little therapy session: he learned some important
life lessons like practice makes you perfect and that you don’t
have to win in order to enjoy a game. He understood that to learn
and unlearn is a continuous process and even grownups have to learn
new things and unlearn few things. So now every time he drops his
shuttle he says “Oh! Sorry mom maybe I wasn’t concentrating” and
every time I drop it he says “Mom! Don’t worry, if you practice you
will become perfect one day.”And every time we hit a few perfect
shots the whole point of patience, perseverance and feeling of
pride in new accomplishments is validated.
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A Perspective on Holistic Education Ms. Jamuna Mukundhan, parent
of Ishan Mukundhan Class III Basant
I was shocked to learn recently from the Dwarka subcity
directory that Dwarka had more than 60 schools! Sometime earlier
when the announcement of admissions came out, I had seen huge full
page advertisements of schools boasting of their philosophies and
facilities for parents to reflect upon. Apart from the regular
stuff like transport, nutritious meals, new generation classrooms
and so on, the one thing that I distinctly remember as part of this
list was' holistic education'. Even though I was certain about what
this word meant, I was tempted to relook the meaning of the word in
the context of modern education. I quote from Wikipedia, 'Holistic
education is a philosophy of education based on the premise that
each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through
connections to the community, to the natural world, and to
humanitarian values such as compassion and peace. Holistic
education aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for
life and a passionate love of learning.'
Here then it was the definition of holistic education in its
most profound and complete, all encompassing sense. While I as a
parent see students and schools and syllabi all around me I am
afraid I fail to see even a faint shadow of this 'much in use' word
holistic. In fact after understanding what this word truly entails,
I would not shy away from saying that this word is the most abused
word of today in education. Whether our children are being nurtured
and groomed holistically by the people making tall claims is a
question worth asking.
The very day I was pondering over holistic learning, my son
Ishan brought home his school project of making a ‘tree of
integrity’. As we discussed various things they do in the class, I
was more than happy to note how the children at NBS were being
cultured to think beyond the text book and explore aspects of life
as it surrounds us here and now. I also came to know how each and
every teacher goes beyond the structured curricula to expose the
children to the practical world that runs parallel to the world of
books. Where would you learn about musical instruments watching
jugalbandi performance of their own music teachers on the web?
I was pleasantly surprised to hear my seven year old talk about
concepts of math taught at the school with non-traditional means
like stories, mohan veena, etc. As I am growing in my experience
with NBS I happily realise that very few schools actually live up
to their commitment of providing holistic education and I feel
proud at my decision of bringing my son to NBS. I would like to sum
up holistic education which is what we parents see every other day
in NBS through our children. - Personal and collective
responsibility. - Freedom - Social ability (more than just learning
social
skills) - Children learn about themselves. This
involves learning self respect and self esteem. Second, children
learn about relationships with peer, teachers, family etc
- Last but not the least community is an integral aspect in
holistic education.
- Cooperation is the norm, rather than competition. Holistic
beliefs do not focus on grades or rewards.
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Anti-Corruption and Parenting Teenagers Ms. Madhu Gurnaney,
parent of Nandini Gurnaney Class IV Basant
All of us have discovered that corruption is the biggest malaise
in our country which is hampering growth.
Thanks to Anna Hazare, the youth is aware of it and is
participating in the movement big-
time.
I also started thinking about contributing. Being parent of two
growing kids, I have
always felt that though parenting is a joy, it affords a far
greater responsibility of raising
the next generation.
And we all know that the children might not listen to you, but
are always watching you.
So I took a vow that I shall not break any rule or indulge in
any corrupt practice in my day
to day life.
Then one day I took my children for shopping.
To begin with, I took a long and circuitous U-turn instead of
taking a
shortcut by going a few meters wrong-side.
My son said, “Mom, why did you do that?”
I said, “Son, no breaking rules.”
My son, “you just wasted time and fuel, that’s all.”
Then in the market I missed the hoarding and entered a ‘No
Entry’ road.
As expected I was handed a challan of Rs. 1000, and I
apologetically paid
it.
My son, “Mom you could have just bribed him with 100 rupees and
saved
900. He was hinting also.”
I said, “But son, this would have been wrong.”
My son, “you just wasted Papa’s hard earned money.”
Anyway we entered a shop and bought a few things. The
shop-keeper asked us if we wanted a bill for it.
Before I could say anything, my son said that we will not take
the bill and save the tax amount.
Then he turned to me and said, “Mom don’t be crazy, this
anti-corruption drive of yours will only make us lose
money and I will only think it to be stupid”.
These were one of those moments of my life when I felt
helpless.
Then after a few days, I started writing this for the ‘Parent
rap’ and my son wondered why I was projecting him
as the villain. And my little one said, “Why do you have to do
such things. All my classmates’ parents don’t do
all this.”
I finished writing with a heavy heart.
“Have I started late?”, “Am I wrong?”
I feel the children not only watch parents but imbibe from the
whole environment.
“If there is light at the end of the tunnel why don’t I see
it?”
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Life in the Time of Face Book
Sayori Banerjee, parent of Shashank Sajeev Class I-Bahaar
These days I am often intrigued on seeing people posting
birthday wishes on their parent’s Facebook
walls and family members querying each other on the day’s
activities, again using FB. We all know
that the days of the good old snail mail are over and electronic
forms of communication have swept
across the globe. While this has obviously benefitted us all,
they have come with some unexpected side
effects. These days people would rather greet their neighbour on
facebook, than face to face. People
party within close quarters and post pictures of birthday cakes
for the rest of the crowd to enjoy. Is it
because we want to save our ‘precious’ time? It looks to be so.
After all, video conferencing, brunches,
fast foods and many other quick dos are modern inventions, to
save time. Time is money, the wisdom
says.
Why are we in a race to save time? What do we do with the extra
time available? Adults save their
time to do more of what brings them money, since time is money.
They save time from greeting
someone personally so that they could greet more people on FB in
less time. Kids save time from
playing with their friends and would rather use time to chat
with, well, more friends. We are in a race
towards more quantity. ‘More quantity, much faster’ seems to be
the perversion of the modern day
life. The wonderful memories each of us cherish, of the times
that we spent playing in the yard with
our friends or listening to the terrific stories of dadima
remind us that those times were not wasted,
they were worth their weight in gold. In our efforts to achieve
more in less time, we are forgetting to
pause and savor the now: the real experiences that would enrich
our lives, with friends, with our
families, with the community and with nature. We are losing
quality in our race for quantity.
Why is this bad? Why having more experiences with less quality a
necessarily bad thing? Because
every time we seek more quantity, we are driving into a self
reinforcing cycle of perpetual want, or
greediness. The neurotransmitter (brain chemical) dopamine
calibrates our experiences of pleasure.
The difficulty with dopamine is that the more it is released,
the sensitivity for pleasure is recalibrated
forcing the person to seek much more in order to obtain the same
measure of pleasure. This obviously
results in a vicious cycle of perpetual pleasure seeking, or
greediness. And wanton pursuit of quantity
at the cost of quality is proven to be harmful to health. Life
needs to be enjoyed moment by moment
and this means we need to slow down and look before moving on.
How I wish time was not money!
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You can only see it in the eyes of reflection. You can only
touch it in the hands of your own. You can only find it in the
other’s eyes. You can only kill it in the death of
your own. What is it?
It lives with electricity, reveals information and travels
around the world faster than the speed of sound. What is it?
The alphabet goes from A to Z. What goes from Z to A
Seema wrote all the numbers from 300 to 400 on a piece of paper.
How many times did she write the digit 3?
At the sound of me, men may dream Or stamp their feet,
At the sound of me, women may laugh
Or sometimes weep. Who am I?
Just in Jest…
“If your kids are giving you a headache, follow the directions
on the aspirin bottle, especially the part that says “keep away
from children.” - Susan Savannah
“We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives
teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to
sit down and shut up”. - Phyllis Diller
“The trouble with being a parent is that by the time you are
experienced, you are unemployed.”- Author Unknown
"Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who
have them." - P.J. O'Rourke
Send in your answers to
[email protected]
and a surprise awaits the 1st five
correct answers.
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ब ाँध के पगड़ी सूरज ने - कुम र रजनीश parent of Revanta Class I
Basant ब ाँध के पगड़ी सूरज न ेकैसी शशद्दत है दिखल ई, इस तपती धपु में
िेखो, है सबकी श मत आई.
अन्िर गमी लगती है और ब हर भी है धपु कड़ी, आग बरसती है अम्बर से,
धरती स री जली पड़ी.
पंछी स रे चोच खोलकर, छछपते फिरते इधर उधर, र ही भी थक ह र के,
िेखो त ने बैठे हैं च िर. खेलते बच्च े, सो गए अब तो थक ह र कर,
चौर हे क क ल कुत्त , ह ंि रह जीभ छनक ल कर.
खपरैल के नीच ेबैठ श्रशमक झले रह पत्त ेक पंख , एक ह थ प नी बोतल,
और िजेू में सत्त-ूचोख .
आर म से लेट धरती बबस्तर और पत्थर को कर तफकय , गमम हव ओ न ेह य
सबको आखखर ढेर फकय .
भरी िोपहरी अम्म ने आच र आम क लगव य , भ भी न ेभी मेहम नों को सौि
क शरबत पपलव य . खड़ चौक पर बबरजू भी िेखो गुर मतंर शसखल त ,
प ंच रुपये क आम पन्न बचे, गमी क मंुह चचढ त .
Oats dosa(makes 3-4 dosas)
Ingredients:
3 cups oats
1 cup rava
1/2 cup curd
2 tbsp rice flour
1finely chopped onion, green chilli(acc to your taste),curry
leaves
added garnish of 1/2 tsp of jeera, hing and salt to taste
Mix all the above ingredients well half an hour before
preparation. Leave the batter to rest. It should be
slightly thicker than your regular dosa mixture. Adjust water
accordingly. Spread a ladle of this mixture
on the pan. Keep on medium flame. Add oil/ ghee for roasting it.
Turn around. Serve with tomato
sauce/ coconut chutney.
Jamuna, parent of Ishan Mukundhan Class III Basant
