28th July 2023

Dear all,

Yesterday the new National Education Policy was launched. It was launched in 2020, now the particulars of its implementation has come out. Close to 6% of GDP will be spent on its implementation. Here is a copy in case any one is interested.

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf

Here’s what happened this week…

Judiciary

We updated everyone present about the LSH. No one was excited about having parents during the Judiciary and with that condition all the enthusiasm of them coming for LSH also faded away.

We observed that many children were opting out of doing the projects. It's always next time for a few of them. So we took it up as an agenda during the Circle time and discussed about the purpose behind starting projects. Finally like a parent mentioned during LSH, collective wisdom prevailed and we passed the rule of doing at least 3 out of 5 projects every semester. We also reiterated the milestones for completing the projects on time, so the progress is duly monitored. Now onwards there will be parent mentors too.

Ganapati Workshop Visit

We had visited the Parel Loco workshop in 2019 and to me nothing seemed to have changed much. There was this stinking smell of resin everywhere.The place, sizes of idols and designs were almost same. Body parts of the idol were lined on one side. Legs, heads, torso, hands, gada, trunks were all hanging, waiting to be picked up. The inner metal structure was being welded and the casts were being oiled ( with some lubricant) from inside. There were heaps of fibre strewed everywhere. Bags of gypsum stacked on top of each other.

When I was a child I remember believing in God, in this supreme being who knew everything and controlled everything. If I would have seen then what I saw now I would have been crushed. Some of my morals comes from those days where the fear of god was prominent (one should not lie, etc.) So I was wondering what must be going on in the minds of some of our kids. What they must be thinking of this act of creation?

Module

We are taking modules this semester and have reserved two slots for it. Learning How to Learn module which was going on for two months is over and now we have introduced baking on fridays and TWTW (The world this week) on Mondays.

Bhavani took a wonderful session on baking. Some of the basics of baking was covered, then kids were divided in two groups. Both the groups baked their share of separate cup cakes. They measured all the ingredients on a weighing scale and mixed everything (while facilitators controlling the spillages). In the end some of them even licked the left over batter.

Public Speaking

We have started a public speaking club and first of its session started yesterday. It was fun with some interesting activities. In case anyone wants to join then please let us know.

Entrepreneurship

LC has become a place for commerce these days. Our younger entrepreneurs are full of energy and doing their best in running their show. Looking at this few older ones also wanted to start a pizza business. This was put up as an agenda during the judiciary, we told them to think of their reasons to start a business. One of them said that they wanted to learn to cook something. So we decided that those who are interested will contribute money and these guys will run the show.

LSH

During the meeting parents have volunteered to take kids for trips around the city. Museum, gardens, factory visits and personal offices are on the list right now. Few parents have also volunteered to take lectures on fridays about their work and interests. Also feel free to arrange a guest lecture if you think it would be worth it.

We had two kids this week who did their consequences.

Thats all for now,

More next week,