Here is what I learned inside the classroom between grades 1-10 – reading and writing. Grades 11-12 are simply a blur. Here is what I learned outside my classrooms – effective communication, team building, sharing, making friends and being there for them when they needed us the most, watching each other’s back and learning to fend for one another. What kind of learning do we expect to happen for our own kids? Quiet frankly, until the pandemic led to the school closure, I worried if my daughter was learning enough. I know that sounds quite foolhardy. But then, I would hear my friends and colleagues talk about how smart their kids are and how far they have come in math and science and the many kinds of extra curricular activities their kids attend. I could not help but compare. As a school administrator, I would scroll every school profile in social media and the list of extra activities never ending. The collaborations with different organizations offering learning options outsi
My precious Photo: Shradha Giri Last night my nine-year-old and I held hands and cried. We then laughed and then cried again. This isn’t something we normally do – our daughter, our precious one who was quiet for a change sat still, listened to what I had to say. The thing is, I have decided to change my career at this age and it is creating a ruckus which I didn’t think of earlier. I guess no one thinks through until the day one starts working on the decision. I decided a year and a half ago that I would invest in a school. Both my husband and I danced at the idea one idle weekend. We didn’t think of the distance - 500km. A year and a half spent running to banks, local ward office and to tax departments, the deal was done. Just like that with considerable amount of loan on my shoulders, I became a part of the system where I have always wanted to make a difference. I spent the past two weeks in my new role and I was baffled by what I observed (I also spent a few nights c