Our habits inevitably contribute to our definition. A
person’s habits determine is palatability in the society and also enables
others to qualitatively analyse his/her nature. In Aristotle’s words:
“We are what we repeatedly
do; excellence therefore is not an act but a habit.”
Therefore, we decided to start our today’s session by
telling the little geniuses about good and bad habits. We bought some charts
with pictorial depictions of good habits. Then we pasted them on a cardboard
sheet and made them into small flash cards by cutting them out. We were
supposed to explain the depictions at and tell these kids why they were good
habits. In addition, we were also to tell them what bad habits were and
discourage their undertaking. At first
it seemed all right –that is how we were taught – but slowly I started
recognizing the ethical dilemma
which the situation concealed. To me, there was no good and bad. Einstein’s
Relativity and TOK’s Relativism had cleared the concept of absoluteness from my
mind. I knew that a relative view of the world was more accurate but I were to
inculcate absolute thoughts in these little minds. Somewhere, I felt as if I
was being unfair to them by not exposing them to the greater level of thinking.
But again, how could I possibly explain relativity to those who could merely
spell it?
I was unable to decide if what I was doing was correct.
There was no time to think, so I tried to come up with a quick solution. When I
told them about a good habit, I made sure I restricted the paradigm strictly to
their own well-being, therefore, limiting them to one inertial frame. I also
thought of telling them how good and bad was matters of perspective but again,
I faced a risk of confusing them. I
thought it would be unethical to
confuse them about something I myself am consumed about. So, I simply explained
how some habits were good, the others bad and hoped that they would adapt to
the relativistic world as they grow up.
After that, we gave them a small worksheet which asked them
to identify the good manners which they possessed. This task was lengthy, I had
to extensively explain each picture and make them unsderstand what it meant!
Nevertheless, I was determined enough
to make them do what I wanted. I patiently explained the task to all three of
my students: Akash, Samiksha and Aabhas.
Once they realised what they were supposed to do, they quickly completed their
work. I was very happy to see that, and could feel what a teacher feels when
his students learn something.
Self-improvement was done, now it was time for some
mathematics. If these little kids knew what IB HL Mathematics was their
reaction to the above sentence would
have been similar to that of my classmates: “Run away!” “God save me!”
and “Oh no! Not again!”
Fortunately, they were far away from that stage of
life and didn’t even know how to count. So, I safely engaged myself in teaching
them how to count. Our activity supervisor Ms. Shaila helped us here by
providing us with small wooden cubes which were designed to aid counting. I
started counting by keeping one cube in front of them and then added on until
we reached ten. Then I made them repeat the numbers again. Although they
quickly grasped the pattern of counting they had a hard time remembering the
English names for numbers. Despite my frequent regurgitations, they often
started counting in Hindi or Marathi.
But I was surprised to see that I managed them, all this
time without losing my patience. Annoying as it may be, this task made me more aware about the latent abilities
I possessed –which was highly satisfying.
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