Adventures with Learning to Teach

A roller coaster journey which started out with teaching a kid and a habit that developed a life of its own!!!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

More Flowers that deserve to Blossom

I serendipitously bumped into a multiple sclerosis survivor who is involved with the Cerebral Palsy foundation of India. Out of curiosity I checked out Wikipedia which says:
Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive,[1] non-contagious conditions that cause physical disability in human development.

Cerebral refers to the cerebrum, which is the affected area of the brain (although the disorder most likely involves connections between the cortex and other parts of the brain such as the cerebellum), and palsy refers to disorder of movement. CP is caused by damage to the motor control centers of the young developing brain and can occur during pregnancy (about 75 percent), during childbirth (about 5 percent) or after birth (about 15 percent) up to about age three.[2][3]

It is a non-progressive disorder, meaning the brain damage does not worsen, but secondary orthopedic difficulties are common. There is no known cure for CP. Medical intervention is limited to the treatment and prevention of complications arising from CP's effects.


It was really surprising that I had never thought about disorders like Cerebral Palsy etc as a completely separate class of problems relating to motor control. This in-spite of the fact that I am a cognitive science freak and have a bro who is a JRF in neuroscience!!!

A person with a motor control problem is a seriously powerful resource for the nation. They have perfectly functioning brains with limited output ability. With some focused training they are likely to easily outperform perfectly normal peers merely because they are likely to be more passionate about what they do.

Stephen Hawking's story who had ALS comes to mind.

Just imagine a profession like radiology. The job involves looking at an image using ur imagination and training and arriving at a diagnosis which comes after some deep contemplation. Lot of processing and very little but valuable output. Of course just like any other population we can find people of various IQs suffering from any condition.

I am sure that there would be innumerable well paying jobs that people with motor neural problems could do. I am pretty sure collective brainstorming can improve their options. I suspect that the guys having motor neuron problems themselves have the collective IQ to multiply their opportunities if they can think like a swarm. I feel something must be done about this!!!

I was shocked about my own ignorance in this area and realized there exists a huge communication gap.

Of course a job is just one aspect of quality of life. But definitely a significant aspect.

Preparing for a career beyond 2020

I had told myself that I would write a book when I felt I had something to say. I guess it is almost time. I was deeply influenced by former President Dr.A.P.J Abul Kalam's book: You Are Born To Blossom.I even changed the title of the blog.

I have begun to feel that I have a lot to say to parents, teachers and students involved in myopic career planning. The world in 2020, into which a school student today would be graduating, would be drastically different from what it is today. You cannot drive a car by looking into the rear view mirror. It is time to put on the headlights and look forward.

It also appears that I will now be getting a lot of inputs from persons from varying backgrounds which could make this endeavor even more fruitful. So that it no longer remains "A techie's vision of how to prepare for a career in 2020" ;-).

Missing Posts

LOT of things happened!!! I wonder why I never posted anything!!! I guess I was too lost!!! I volunteered for teaching the explore program during summer of 2008 at the planetarium and also taught a few classes of Sessions on Week Ends which ultimately inspired me to bootstrap my own teaching institution called "inspire". Created a lot of teaching materials with Achutha for his school teaching activities. Also some animations for International year of astronomy 2009.

This Pooja holidays we had a 7 day activity centered program at Inspire called Discover. Of course it was a small scale activity and anyone who had seen my former glory would laugh at me ;-). But hey I enjoyed it immensely and the kids enjoyed it. What more do u need!!! It was a wonderful learning experience.

Many more things happened... I have lost track!!!