What every child needs to learn today

IF - Rudyard Kipling
IF you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Students' expectations

Here's a brilliant animation on ten expectations students have (should have) from their schools and their learning process. In reality, I'm not convinced that students think with this level of maturity. Do you remember when you were in school? Well, I do. It was a whole lot of nonsense I was made to swallow without having a clue about what I was eating. What did I know about having expectations as a student? Did I even know I was allowed to have them? Well, let's face it, given my way, it would have been one long party for me if I wasn't made to study. Enough of my rambling, here's the video I was referring to in the first place - 

India hangs Afzal Guru (09 February 2013)

He

The Gunman

Cowardly soldier

Reached for the bullet’s eye

I

Common Man

Wretched with grief

Watched my own son die

It

The Deed

Never undone

Ache we can’t belie

She

Fair Justice

Whatever be cost

Will be our sole reply

He

Great Soul

The ignorant fool

Recalling ‘eye for an eye’!

We

The People

Sightless with hurt

Prepare for battle standby

You

The Chosen

Pick on a Goat

Appeasing great crowd’s cry

We

The Righteous

Seek our vengeance

Hanging the Goat thereby

Education at home

Two children, old enough to walk, in a pram

A third child playing along the pram

Two adult women, chatting furiously, holding the pram

All returning home from a shop

Waiting at the tram stop.

One mother hands out some mini-sized packs of biscuits to the children.

Children laugh, children open the packs, children eat

The eldest child throws her empty wrapper on the tram track.

Children laugh.

Mothers look. Mothers shake their heads. Mothers continue their chat.

Not to be outdone, the second oldest child throws his second empty wrapper too on the tram track.

It’s all a game. It’s all fun.

Mothers look. Mothers shake their heads. Mothers continue their chat.

Standing a little way is someone else

A stranger to them, waiting too for the tram

Stranger looks at the children. The children laugh back.

Stranger looks at the mothers. The mothers glare back.

Stranger looks at the orphaned wrappers. The wrappers stare back.

So Stranger walks down to the wrappers,

Stranger scoops them up in her arms,

Stranger walks over to a hungry trashcan

And gently lowers the wrappers in its mouth.

Stunned by the incident, the mothers shake their heads.

They’re children after all. They’re going to throw things.

Here and there, everywhere! What’s her problem?

That’s the problem, isn’t it?

Not knowing how to raise one’s kids.

Should his life be filled with fun,

With games and play and no work done?

Is he meant to slap, to pinch, to cry,

Not learn to love, no what nor why?

Should he not meet Discipline

Or is it way too soon to begin?

When o when then do pray tell,

Will you break the magic spell,

Show him Mercy, teach him Truth,

That water’s unclear in the fountain of youth,

When will you teach him ol’ life’s song,

To be humble yet be strong?

Fight like a warrior, give like a King,

Offer support for doing the hard thing?

Will he always be too young,

And you too wise,

To teach him right from wrong,

From wrong to right?