In the 21st century, you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint.

Here is an article about the same which we all would agree…..is so “true”.

The ‘Busy’ Trap

By TIM KREIDER

Anxiety: We worry. A gallery of contributors count the ways.

It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this; it’s something we collectively force one another to do.

Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired, exhausted, dead on their feet. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.

Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. I recently wrote a friend to ask if she wanted to do something this week, and she answered that  she didn’t have a lot of time but if something was going on to let her know and maybe she could ditch work for a few hours. I wanted to clarify that my question had not been a preliminary heads-up to some future invitation; this was the invitation. But his busyness was like some vast churning noise through which she was shouting out at me, and I gave up trying to shout back over it.

Even children are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extracurricular activities. They come home at the end of the day as tired as grown-ups.  The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it. Not long ago I Skyped with a friend who was driven out of the city by high rent and now has an artist’s residency in the outskirts of the city. She described herself as happy and relaxed for the first time in years. She still gets her work done, but it doesn’t consume her entire day and brain. She says it feels like college — she has a big circle of friends who all go out to the cafe together every night.

Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.

But just in the last few months, I’ve insidiously started, because of professional obligations, to become busy. For the first time I was able to tell people, with a straight face, that I was “too busy” to do this or that thing they wanted me to do. I could see why people enjoy this complaint; it makes you feel important, sought-after and put-upon. Except that I hate actually being busy. Every morning my in-box was full of e-mails asking me to do things I did not want to do or presenting me with problems that I now had to solve. It got more and more intolerable until finally I fled town to the Undisclosed Location from which I’m writing this.

Here I am largely unmolested by obligations. There is no TV. To check e-mail I have to drive to the library. I go a week at a time without seeing anyone I know I read. And I’m finally getting some real writing done for the first time in months. It’s hard to find anything to say about life without immersing yourself in the world, but it’s also just about impossible to figure out what it might be, or how best to say it, without getting the hell out of it again.

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. “Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do,” wrote Thomas Pynchon in his essay on sloth. Archimedes’ “Eureka” in the bath, Newton’s apple, Jekyll & Hyde and the benzene ring: history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments and dreams. It almost makes you wonder whether loafers, goldbricks and no-accounts aren’t responsible for more of the world’s great ideas, inventions and masterpieces than the hardworking.

Perhaps the world would soon slide to ruin if everyone behaved as I do. But I would suggest that an ideal human life lies somewhere between my own defiant indolence and the rest of the world’s endless frenetic hustle. My role is just to be a bad influence, the kid standing outside the classroom window making faces at you at your desk, urging you to just this once make some excuse and get out of there, come outside and play. My own resolute idleness has mostly been a luxury rather than a virtue, but I did make a conscious decision, a long time ago, to choose time over money, since I’ve always understood that the best investment of my limited time on earth was to spend it with people I love. I suppose it’s possible I’ll lie on my deathbed regretting that I didn’t work harder and say everything I had to say, but I think what I’ll really wish is that I could have one more beer with Chris, another long talk with Megan, one last good hard laugh with Boyd. Life is too short to be busy.

 

My learning!

 

"It is said that the best teachers are always keen to learn"- This sentence made be very challenging especially in my subject- Science.

 

I have heard the above sentence in the  classes of the Cambridge International Certificate for Teachers and Trainers. I have started  my training last month which encourages me to take series of exciting learning journeys. I am learning different teaching approaches and how learners respond to that method. How well a lesson can be planned and making it learners centric.

 

I am really looking forward to develop my practice as a teacher and which will help the learners to advance the ways in which they learn.

 

Finally i was impressed by Alvin Toffler's words:

 

'The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.'

Thank you Sancta Maria for making me learn and improve my skills :)

 

My thoughts on learning French in our school

The only foreign language we offer at our school is currently French. We have a very specific way of learning it that certainly isn't the way it is traditionally taught in India, it appears to me.

In the early years - grade 1 and grade 2 the French we teach is almost entirely oral. This has proven to be potentially annoying to kids and parents since we not only lack text books but we don't even have note books! In fact most of the first few years when you learn a new language should be about speaking and pronunciation. This holds true for young kids and not adults, of course. Doing it otherwise leads you straight to the Indian trap of foreign language learning. Let me explain.

Whenever i get a new student from another school in India i am at first super intimidated and impressed with their French notebooks. I usually ask them to bring it to give me an idea of how far have they gone with French. Numbers till 100 seems to be like a standard for a very first year of French. Long lists of nouns belonging to different topics like colors, fruits and animals. It doesn't take long to see that all that written work suddenly appears totally useless because the student is unable to read or pronounce any of it. They explain to me that all they did was copy words from the board. The notebook might be impressive for the non French speaking parents - giving them a sense that a lot is done in the class - but clearly that is not the reality.

I had students from higher grades who could translate basic sentences and even spell the words out for me in English but could not pronounce any of those words. I thought that was outrageous! I would tolerate it if it was a dead language like Latin but French is very much alive. The best part of why I like French is because it sounds so sophisticated and melodious. It is a beautiful language that ought to be spoken! 

When you hear yourself read or speak in French you feel good about learning that language. It is crystal clear that motivation is a major issue when learning a language you have no exposure to. Not many parents speak French to help kids at home. There are no kid's appropriate TV channels in French or radio or anything else for that matter so apart from hearing it in school they don't hear it anywhere else. It is imperative then to hear it in school a lot. We do it through songs, stories, drama, role play and reciting.

So if it is all about singing, reciting, role play, drama for grades 1 and 2, we introduce written work in grade 3. Very less for the 3rd language and substantially more for the 2nd language students. Grade 5 and above will then enter a more traditional way of learning the language with text books and all. Exceptions to this would be students who join us at this stage with no previous exposure to French. By the fifth grade children will have enough of spoken French in their ears to make a smooth transition to written French. French uses same alphabets as English but it is pronounced very differently. 

A student who will learn French with us from grade 1 will be very much able to read French texts in grade 5. I am absolutely sure of it. This is of course linked to the fact that students have to actually stay with us long enough to benefit fully but that is a different topic all together - the problem of frequent school hopping is a big topic worthy of a separate post.

Let me just conclude this post with a short video. Last years clip - grade 3, 2nd language students singing a French song while doing a weather wheel chart. It was done very spontaneous by students so i missed the beginning of the song. But this is what French in our school is all about. We want to hear it!

Life is made of beautiful moments!

I am sure that we all have read plethora of articles with similar meaning and emphasis laid on only one thing - enjoy the moments of everyday that make our life beautiful! Guess there is a reason for such volumes, we all need reinforcements to focus on the higher goal of life and not get sucked in by the mundane activities. Well, read and cherish the moments!

A Message by George Carlin:
- comedian of the 70's and 80's

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. An embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Dans Paris by Paul Eluard

Dans Paris Paul Eluard

Dans Paris il y a une rue; Dans cette rue il y a une maison; Dans cette maison il y a un escalier; Dans cet escalier il y a une chambre; Dans cette chambre il y a une table; Sur cette table il y a un tapis; Sur ce tapis il y a une cage; Dans cette cage il y a un nid; Dans ce nid il y a un œuf, Dans cet œuf il y a un oiseau. L'oiseau renversa l'œuf; L'œuf renversa le nid; Le nid renversa la cage; La cage renversa le tapis; Le tapis renversa la table; La table renversa la chambre; La chambre renversa l'escalier; L'escalier renversa la maison; la maison renversa la rue; la rue renversa la ville de Paris.