The Mayo College
Saturday, March 6, 2010
The Mayo Mayo College College Weekly Weekly Newsletter Newsletter The
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Issue No.26 This week, Mr. H.K. Pande, who is not only an experienced teacher, but also an ex-Mayoite, presents his views on Mayo’s discipline factors.
An Approach to Behavioural Problems@ Mayo MCM (The Mayo College Mail): How would you define misbehaviour? HKP (Mr. H.K. Pande): Student misbehaviour is a problem affecting not only our school, but also across the nation and around the world. Student conduct problems in the classroom interfere with teaching and learning and are thought to be a precursor to later school dropout and similar negative social outcomes. Misbehaviour disrupts, it may be hurtful and it may inhibit others. When a student misbehaves, a natural reaction is to want that youngster to experience and other students to see the penalty of misbehaving. MCM: How would you react to the act of misbehaviour by a student? HKP: As with many emergency procedures, the benefits of using a punishment may be offset by many negative consequences. These include increased negative attitudes towards school and school personnel which often leads to behaviour problems, anti-social acts, and various mental health problems. Disciplinary procedures also are associated with dropping out of school. It is not surprising, then, that some concerned professionals refer to extreme disciplinary practices as ‘push out’ strategies. I am personally against punitive and non-punitive methods of punishments, and also against American philosophy of punishment of ‘ground him down’. The best way to deal with behavioural problem of the student is to do repeated counseling of the said student with a dose of positive re-enforcement. MCM: Do you agree with Mayo’s philosophy of punishment, specially the Tick System? HKP: Not in Toto, the very concept of Tick System has to be remodeled in accordance to change in behaviour of students. I take it more as a farce than a tool for
attitudinal change in the student. Student may be late to the class or for that matter in any of the activities he is involved for various reasons. These reasons have to be investigated thoroughly and then the authority should be in a position to act in accordance to the gravity of the situation. The Tick System provides for negative re-enforcement. The biggest lacuna of the Tick System is that it does not appreciate the good conduct of the student. MCM: What influences discipline problems in Mayo? HKP: Many reasons can be attributed to the problem of misbehaviour/indiscipline. I can categorically site the following reasons for indiscipline. Academic Self-Concept Children who believe they are poor students often have behaviour problems. Student’s behaviour often worsens as a student’s achievement declines. Peer Influence Students who spend time with the problematic children tend to become the same themselves. The influence of a child’s peer group is one of the strongest predictors of student behaviour. Attitude toward and involvement in the school Students who feel committed to their school often have fewer behaviour problems at school. Students who are highly involved in school activities tend to be better behaved. School size and climate Schools with a positive climate tend to have fewer behavioural problems. Components of a positive school climate are fair discipline and consistent supervision. Parent Involvement Students whose parents are not interested and involved Continued on Pg. 2
OPINION POLL Next poll - Which kind of books do you prefer: Fiction or Non-Fiction? CAN’T SAY 3.23% 2 VOTES
YES 38.71% 87.1% NO 58.06% Yes 24-VOTES 36 VOTES 108 Votes
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Saturday, March 6, 2010
Issue No.26
‘’ Quotes
‘There is no right and wrong, only perceptions.’
‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’‘’ Next poll - Do you think there can be a better disciplinary system than the current Tick System? Submit your votes on Mayoonline
‘You have to account for your actions in this life only.’
Continued from Pg. 1
with the education and activities are less likely to have behaviour problems. MCM: Which discipline program can work in Mayo? HKP: Discipline programs range from helping students with self-control to restructuring schools to meet student needs. However, a common element that most of the educators agree is – arming teachers with classroom management skills. Educators skilled in classroom management are often able to prevent disruptions from occurring. Preventive techniques include setting clear expectations of appropriate behaviours, monitoring the classroom continuously for signs of confusion and inattention, quick intervention when a problem arises, consistent and fair enforcement of classroom rules. The most important illuminated attribute that is common to well-disciplined schools is the active involvement of the entire school. MCM: What remedies would you like to suggest for improvement in discipline? HKP: To move school beyond over-reliance on punishment and social control strategies, there is an ongoing advocacy for social skills training and new agendas for emotional ‘intelligence’ training and character education. The same way, there are calls for greater home involvement, with emphasis on enhanced parent responsibility for their children’s behaviour and learning. More comprehensively, some reformers want to transform school through creation of an atmosphere of caring, cooperative learning and a sense of community. Such advocates usually argue for
schools that are holistically-oriented and family-centered. They want curricula to enhance values and character, including responsibility (social and moral), integrity, selfregulation (self-discipline) and a work ethic and also want schools to foster self-esteem, diverse talents and emotional well being. MCM: According to you, what are some preventive discipline models that are most urgently required by Mayo? HKP: Time and again, I have aired my views on preventing misbehaviour or indiscipline at three stages: Efforts to prevent and anticipate misbehaviour Actions to be taken during misbehaviour Steps to be taken afterwards I feel the following steps should be taken urgently to change negative energy patterns to positive energy patterns: Urgent need of a career counselor Moral education must for Mayoites Expand social programs Personalise classroom instruction Develop ways and means for misbehaviour that are perceived by students as logical Rule review/sharing responsibility by senior students Teachers must learns to use disciplinary practices effectively to deal with misbehaviour and should also be disciplined themselves Provide extra support and direction so that the identified individual can cope with difficult situations Increase teachers’/ HM’s/tutors’ supervision/surveillance ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Saturday, March 6, 2010
Issue No.26
The Power of Brevity
Y
ears ago, I remember Rajiv Gandhi once asking me (rather impatiently ) for a note on how the media’s independence can be protected and yet a sense of responsibility enforced on journalists. I do not recall what I wrote and if at all I ever sent it to him but I clearly remember the most crucial part of his brief: Be as detailed as you want to but keep it to one page. I was a journalist then and suspected Rajiv was suffering from attention deficit disorder. A wiser man today, I realise how prescient he actually was. His advice has stayed with me. Apart from this column, everything else written by me is brief, precise, to the point. Long e-mails sent to me invariably pile up unread. Short ones are swiftly acted upon. And when I choose to talk to the world, I go on Twitter where all messaging is restricted to 140 characters. Think it’s funny? Try it. People effortlessly convey the most complex, convoluted ideas in 140 characters, and, as with SMS, people on Twitter hate tweets that spill over. No, no one out there has the time or the patience to read a message that’s not complete in itself. So much for the silly snobs who think Twitter’s a waste of time and meant for unemployed pre-teens or prematurely retired seniles. Verbosity is widely despised today. I guess it comes from our deep and enduring disgust for pompous, windbag politicians, garrulous chat show hosts, bombastic journalists, rambling academics, prolix bloggers, loquacious gurus, chatterbox celebrities with nothing to talk about but the tedium of their boring, over-exposed lives. The sheer dread of having to listen to them forces most of us to put on our earphones and listen to Black Eyed Peas instead. There was a time when the Silent Mariner could transfix you with just a stare. But the tyranny of words took over. Luckily, what man messes up, technology often heals. So, quietly, almost unobtrusively, we are slowly returning to sanity, rediscovering the art of saying things, short, simple, succinct. In the turgid, turbulent Age of Verbosity, brevity had
140 Characters
ONLY! almost died. Poetry was in purgatory. Silence was misread as being dumb or dumbfounded. People were admired for not what they said but for how long and how often they said it. Bung Soekarno, Indonesia’s iconic prime minister, is said to have given the same speech 342 times during one election campaign, each time with the same flourish. Khrushchev spoke for almost three hours in the UN. Our own Krishna Menon was no less. He ranted for eight hours on Kashmir in the UN Security Council and almost lost us our case. Till Arkady Sobolev quietly stood up and said a simple Nye, exercising the USSR’s 79th veto, and halted the UN’s intervention in Kashmir. But no one quite matched Fidel Castro who stunned the world with a 33-hour political speech that entered the Guinness Book as the ultimate in political garrulousness. The police refused to let his listeners go. But it’s not just politics that has become so wordy. Look at business contracts. Lazy, loquacious legalese has taken the place of precise English. What we tend to lose sight of is that loquacity is usually a cover for the vilest of intent. Hidden amidst a million words is a booby trap you could easily miss. Do I miss words at all? Yes, occasionally, but as long as they are few, fine. It’s the avalanche that scares me. Excess is not my scene. I respect the simple, the short, the hint of things to come; the play of imagination. Imagination’s what this century is going to be all about. So my choice is clear. Twitter over War and Peace, Haiku over James Joyce, Cinema Paradiso over Star Wars, and The Bhagawad Gita over the intimidating Mahabharata. From: The Times Of India
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Saturday, March 6, 2010
Issue No.26
LET’S Laugh a Little! The man said, “The biggest advantage of being bald is you don’t have to spend too much time in setting your hair.” The other said, “The biggest disadvantage is that you don’t know till where to wash your face!” ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ A patient asked, “Doctor, last year when I was suffering from typhoid you told me not to take bath. Can I take bath now?” ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ The teacher asked, “What does India produce that no other country can?” The student replied, “The Indians”. ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ The teacher asked the student the reason for coming late. The student replied, “I was late be-
NEW BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY Life Lesson - Lesley Garner
cause of the sign on the way which indicated – Go slow, school ahead.” ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ The thief robbed everything and while leaving the house the child woke up and said, “Take my school bag also, or else I will wake my mom and dad.” ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ A driver asked, “Doctor, where is my heart?” The doctor replied, “Go down your throat and turn to the left.” ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ A swami started his speech chanting, “Hari Om, Hari Om.” Few foreigners present there actually ‘Hurried Home’. ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺
! HOWLERS ! “He was reborn after his birth” “Who the hell paused Maggi on Wednesdays?”
Just After Sunset - Stephen King
“Who is the opening down in your team?”
Gods of War - Ashok K. Banker
“Guys, there will be a surprise test tomorrow” An Englishman’s Cameo - Madhulika Liddle Death of a Moneylender - Kota Neelima
“Can you please hiding suspense” “You should know by now that I am a scholastic” “I am going to speak without saying today”
Burnt Shadow - Kamila Shumsie
“Now we have the last performance of tonight’s evening”
The Road - Cormac McCarthy The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
Heard somebody speaking very weird English? Send us your howlers at editor@mayocollege.com
The Mayo College Mail Editorial Team: Editor-In-Chief: Mridul Godha Editors: Krishit Arora, Siddhant Datta,Tejas Singh Special Assistance: Mr. Rakesh Alfred Credit: Mr. Sudeep Dey Special Thanks To: Mr. D.S. Jhala and Computer Dept. Read online at: www.mayocollege.com Send your writings at: editor@mayocollege.com