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Parent Circle is published by Nalina Ramalakshmi, Director, Shri Harini Media Pvt. Ltd. All editorial material including editorial comments, opinions and statement of facts appearing in this publication, represent the views of its respective authors and does not necessarily carry the endorsement of the publishers. Information carried in Parent Circle is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed. The publication of any advertisements or listings is not to be construed as an endorsement of the product or service offered.

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editorial

I recently came across an article on MSNBC that was titled: ‘Did Being Adopted Contribute to Steve Job’s Success?’ In this article, the author, Jeremy Greenberg comments, “I actually think that adopted kids like Mr Jobs might grow up to have an abundance of faith and confidence,

because they get to experience the remarkable love and generosity of their adoptive parents – people with the exceptional capacity to take any child as their own.” He concludes with the statement, “Who couldn’t conquer the world (or at least create the iPad) with that kind of foundation?”

Our cover story, ‘Opt to Adopt’, features adoptive parents, who in turn feel blessed for the child that has entered their lives in such a special way.

Today we have a lot of options and changes happening across school boards and curriculums. At the state level the Matriculation, Anglo Indian and State boards are all merging into one Samacheer Kalvi. In the CBSE (and soon in Samacheer Kalvi) there is a change in the evaluation process from the summative testing (tests and exams) to the formative testing of the Continuous Curriculum Evaluation (CCE). Also, today we have a choice of international boards such as the IGCSE and IB.

What does all this mean? How do I know what is best for my child? In our special story on, “The Curriculum Dilemma”, we try to answer some of these questions, so you the parent can make a more informed decision for your child. It is not only important to understand what each board has to offer, it is equally important to know and understand your child’s aptitude and learning style, so that you may select a school where the child is most comfortable learning.

Our Teen Circle introduces a topic that most parents are uncomfortable discussing with their children – puberty. In today’s world where information is freely accessible, it is important for the parent to openly discuss this issue with the child and clarify any misinformation the child may be exposed to.

We now have our magazine online for you to read. We encourage you to participate in our online discussions and to share your articles, recipes or pictures with other parents at www.parentcircle.in.

With all this discussion on the best curriculum for your child it is important to keep in mind the Chinese Proverb: “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.”

Nalina Ramalakshmi

Parent Circle / November 20112

IN FOCUS

MINDSET Help Build your Child’s Self-esteemHelicopter Parenting

LEARNING Encouraging Public Speaking in Chidren Helping Children with Public Presentations

HEALTH CIRCLENutritional Deficiencies in Children

TEEN CIRCLE Talking to your Preteen about Puberty

DESTINATIONS God’s Eden: The Valley of Flowers

ROOTS Heritage Trips Made FunThe Revival of Traditional Games

LIGHTER VEINVoice of Experience

REGULARS

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ON THE COVER ADYANTH GANESH PHOTOGRAPH BY ARJUN DOGRA

The Curriculum Dilemma

COVER STORY P.30

YOUR WORD

PARENT EXPRESS ‘We wanted to adopt’

TEEN EXPRESS Unconditional Love DISCUSSION POINT Pocket Money and your Child

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FORUM

Opt to AdoptSPECIAL P.22

CHECK IT OUT Board Games of Yore PARENT CHEF 5 Healthy Soups

EVENTS Chennai this Month

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CENTRESPREAD P.28

RESOURCES

Parent Circle / November 20114

Letters to the Editor

Please send in your letter with the subject line “Letters to the Editor”, before November 15, 2011, to editorial@parentcircle.in or send them to PARENT CIRCLE, 3rd Floor Shri Renga Vihar, 8/14 First Cross St, Karpagam Gardens, Adyar, Chennai 600020, India.

your word

A close weaving of Tamil culture is maintained in all the articles, which is refreshing. The articles in the magazine ensure a feeling of walking in the morning grass still alive with dew drops. VENKATRAMAN, A CHENNAI PARENT My best wishes to Parent Circle on the launch of their website. I appreciate the authentic information on parenting and other child related information in your magazine. Wishing you growth and success. S JAYANTI, PSYCHOLOGIST, HYDERABAD

The magazine is well-balanced & the different sections take into account the many facets of parenting & child rearing. The magazine is also like an ‘advice tool’ which helps the parents in their parenting role. Especially in today’s world of ‘nuclear families’, where there is no elder in the house to advise or give tips on parenting, this kind of help is invaluable. Also for the young parents, the first timers, it is almost like a step by step guide on what to do and what not to do.

All in all, it is a complete magazine for all kinds of parents. It is a very valuable and a well-thought-of magazine! MAHIMA BHANUKUMAR, BANGALORE

It is a wonderful magazine for all parents in bringing up their children. The articles that I read here relate to my experiences in day to day life. I like the suggestions you give, as they are very helpful and practical. I would also like to make a suggestion. It would be great if you could also publish Parent Circle in Tamil. This way it would have a greater reach. It would be very useful to those parents who do not know English, but who could definitely benefit from the articles published in the magazine. In fact, I have been asked whether there is a Tamil edition of this magazine by many parents on several occasions. P WILLIAM CHARLES, CHENNAI

ALL RESOURCES LISTED IN THE WEBSITE CURRENTLY PERTAIN ONLY TO CHENNAI

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Parent Circle / November 201122

BY RANGASHREE SRINIVAS

A dopting a child is no more or no less than an alternate way to parenting. As a part of an important nodal body, the Adoptions Coordination Agency, Tamil Nadu, I come across varied perceptions to the idea of adoption. I am constantly in touch with scores of parents waiting in the wings to bring a child into their homes, whom they can call their own.

It is said that a biological child is born from your womb, but an adopted child is born from your heart. The bond between the adoptive parent and adopted child is very, very special. It cannot be expressed in words, but here is an attempt to illustrate

this through the stories of some adoptive families.

BOND OF LOVE G Nageswaran and R Revathi are the parents of a lively little six-year-old girl. Srividhya was adopted when she was just 72 days old. When Revathi had some trouble with her pregnancy leading to complications, the couple decided to adopt a child. “What began as a selfish thought, transformed into a need to do something purposeful with our lives,” says Nageswaran. “When Srividhya came into our lives, our family dynamics was transformed into something magical. We gave up minor squabbling and strove to make our home a haven of peace for our child. Initially my family wanted us to adopt from within the family, but we went

ahead with an unrelated adoption of a child in need. Today she is a favourite with everybody.

Srividhya already knows and has accepted her adoptive status. We are Sai Baba devotees and have told her that she is a gift from God. We have exposed her to people who are economically less fortunate and have explained to her that

Srividhya with her parents

special

Parent Circle / November 201130

CBSE In 1965, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was reorganized from the existing Board of Rajputana at Ajmer, which was prevailing in five states. The board was given an all-India character under the chairmanship of Zakir Hussain before he became President.

The CBSE curriculum was adopted by the Kendriya Vidyalaya schools – the schools attended by the children of people serving in the armed forces and the government. At that time, the CBSE was called Higher Secondary. People liked it because there was no requirement of a pre-university course (PUC) after this, which amounted to a one year ‘saving’ in education. Later after the 10 plus 2 was introduced, this advantage was lost.

Owing to the huge popularity of the CBSE and the inability of Kendriya Vidyalayas to expand, private schools were allowed to get affiliated to this Board. Until 1975, all the CBSE schools were following their own curriculum when Dr K Venkatasubramanian, a renowned economist and eminent educationist introduced the Plus 2, standardising the

Board level exams. In 1985, in Chennai alone, there were around 237 schools, of which 85 were affiliated to this system.

The ICSE The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education ( ICSE) is a Christian Minority board, that has been given the status of a national board. Handed down from the British, It is relatively less popular in the country. In terms of syllabus standards, it is close to the CBSE.

Other Boards Across the country there are totally 32 boards, excluding the two national boards CBSE and ICSE. Most of the others follow state patterns like the Manipuri pattern, Punjab pattern, West Bengal pattern, Tamil Nadu pattern. Some like the Anglo Indian Board, the Madarasa Board or the Oriental Schools have community or religious undertones. The 32 boards, instead of trying to complement each other to promote value-based

BY V VENKATACHALAM

cover story

www.parentcircle.in 31

education, compete with each other and bring cleavage into the system.

In Tamil Nadu for instance, the late Chief Minister M G Ramachandran popularised the Matriculation Board to compete with the growing popularity of the CBSE board. Earlier the Matriculation Board was under the Madras University, subsequently taken over by the state. At the Plus 2 level alone, the Matriculation schools shared a common syllabus with the State government and Corporation schools. The Matriculation schools offered English and Hindi languages, which the public wanted and which were not offered by the state schools. Since the CBSE system was perceived to be tough and these schools commanded more fees, Matriculation schools became popular.

Today, the Tamil Nadu state has introduced Samacheer Kalvi, and the Matriculation schools have to follow the state syllabus even at the lower classes. Nothing prevents the Matriculation schools from offering more than what is mandated, but with the restriction on school fees, these schools may not be incentivised sufficiently to do this. Though content-wise the CBSE Plus 2 and State Plus 2 syllabi are on par with each other, the actual class room transactions vary a great deal due to lack of infrastructural facilities or trained/committed human resources. A system that lacks these facilities will be liberal in evaluation.

The national boards are therefore better than state boards in recall and application, and in encouraging a higher order of thinking skills. The ICSE does not have continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) yet, so the CBSE has an advantage. CCE has been instituted with the idea of leading to a better learning environment by

4 Minimizing misclassification of students on the basis of marks

4 Eliminating cut-throat competition among high achievers 4 Reducing societal pressure and providing the learner with more flexibility

IGCSE and IB The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and A level is certified by Cambridge and EDEXCEL – Pearson in India. EDEXCEL IGCSE is followed by a few schools in the North, but they only offer ‘O’ level. EDEXCEL is not aggressive in its marketing, while Cambridge has its own ‘oomph’ to it. This is preferred by the socially affluent people having diverse cultural needs, and the global Indian. The International Baccalaureate (IB), like the IGCSE, encourages thinking, research and analysis, application and skill development, even decision-making depending on the subject. Unlike the Indian boards which are product-oriented, the IGCSE and IB are process-oriented. IB requires huge investments in teacher training and the fee is very steep for students.

THE ‘SOCIAL’ EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION Whatever the Centre and State governments may do to provide uniformity of syllabus, they cannot bring about ‘equality in education’.

There is a distinct hierarchy even in education, despite a comparable curriculum overall. As the earnings of people improve, their aspirations also improve. The person who studied in a Corporation school will aspire to put his son in a Government school. For parents who have passed out of Government schools, their children will invariably go to a Matriculation school. The aspiration levels move onwards to CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE, IB. So whatever may get done to provide ‘uniformity in education’ and ‘education for all’, there will always be different fee structures, to accommodate the growing aspirations of people.

Samacheer Kalvi has managed to downgrade the Matriculation system (to accommodate the learning capability of students from lower hierarchies) and upgrade the Corporation and Government schools.

There is another important observation to be made in this context, which is ‘capability’ versus ‘copability’. Why are there such high suicide rates inside the IIT campus? The reservation has not ensured ‘copability’ despite apparently providing ‘capability through curriculum’. For many students entering a ‘CBSE or Matriculation’ standard when their parents have not been educated, the ‘copability’ is that much more difficult. Even for me, though I am a Dean of a prestigious institution today, I would have been better off if my grandparents were educated! That would have resulted in two generations of education before me and I would have done better in life! The greater the education levels down the generations, the better the capability and copability of the subsequent generations.

I also feel that as systems become more popular, there will be dilution in content. CBSE exams in 1975 for instance, used to be very tough. Getting distinction (above 75 %) was a great achievement. Today many schools follow CBSE and all are orienting their students to pass, preferably with distinction.

I predict the same thing will happen to the IB and IGCSE patterns, ten years down the line. If they have to sustain themselves in terms of viability they will have to grow in reach, so there is bound to be some dilution in their offering. 8

V VENKATACHALAM

IS AN EDUCATIONIST

AND CURRENTLY

DEAN, VAEL’S GROUP OF

SCHOOLS.

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