Monday, May 31, 2004
Analyse this
As part of my coursework I have to cover topics based on cultural diversity and the efforts to be made to make everyone comfortable,merge all the differences at the same time help each other to relate to their culture and heritage.
Now I was just wondering about the diverse cultures we have back in India. The different religions and the different castes. The different languages and the dialects.The different physicial features and etc.. etc.. Of course the one thing which unifies all is that we are of the same race.Now, what comes into my mind is that we never had a class wherein we are taught about our diversity, how to cope up with the tamil language when you go to Chennai(it's really hard to survive if you didn't understand Tamil),how to relate yourself to the Indians from the eastern part(Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh etc..) and how should you mingle with a parent who is of different religion.(No offense on the regions or religions I mentioned please..I just wanted to make my point clear.)
Moreover we never fail to associate with our family background and culture and our language and dialects.It seems we have a natural tendency to adjust ourselves according to the situations and diverse cultures. Now my question is that if we are far more efficient in amalgamating everything and are far more efficient in merging our differences why do we still have the class and religious feuds? Why do we still have riots and curfews?
Now I was just wondering about the diverse cultures we have back in India. The different religions and the different castes. The different languages and the dialects.The different physicial features and etc.. etc.. Of course the one thing which unifies all is that we are of the same race.Now, what comes into my mind is that we never had a class wherein we are taught about our diversity, how to cope up with the tamil language when you go to Chennai(it's really hard to survive if you didn't understand Tamil),how to relate yourself to the Indians from the eastern part(Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh etc..) and how should you mingle with a parent who is of different religion.(No offense on the regions or religions I mentioned please..I just wanted to make my point clear.)
Moreover we never fail to associate with our family background and culture and our language and dialects.It seems we have a natural tendency to adjust ourselves according to the situations and diverse cultures. Now my question is that if we are far more efficient in amalgamating everything and are far more efficient in merging our differences why do we still have the class and religious feuds? Why do we still have riots and curfews?
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Sounds funny but true
It seems that Americans luv to label everyone and anyone. Based on the race, based on the ethnicity, based on the place you live, based on your area of weakness; you named it and there is a word for it.But why? In no way does it make one's life easy. It just complicates the lives of people and of course attaches a sort of biased or stereotypical attitude towards it.
In case your child doesn't mingle with anyone then he might be an autistic, in case he finds difficult to concentrate then he/she has ADD( attention deficit disorder). Well,if the person has problems in working on their stuff then learning disabled, if the person is unable to talk freely with others then anxiety problem.Oh God. I am fed up of coming across these labels.
As time passes by they just get embedded in the colloqiual language and are used so commonly that they become a cliche. Ulitmately the salad bowl starts looking like a trash can wherein you find all the differences in an ugly way rather than in a healthy way.Of course agreed that associating a person to a certain condition or a group surely helps in understanding the person more better but most often it only serves as a tool to create more chaos and inferior feeling.
Just like the invention of atom bomb which was actually created to know the benefits of nuclear fission and fusion but is used for destructive purposes the same is with labeling.
This is nothing to do with labelling but more to do with human nature. How the humans try to ease out things and then complicate it further:). Sounds funny but true.
In case your child doesn't mingle with anyone then he might be an autistic, in case he finds difficult to concentrate then he/she has ADD( attention deficit disorder). Well,if the person has problems in working on their stuff then learning disabled, if the person is unable to talk freely with others then anxiety problem.Oh God. I am fed up of coming across these labels.
As time passes by they just get embedded in the colloqiual language and are used so commonly that they become a cliche. Ulitmately the salad bowl starts looking like a trash can wherein you find all the differences in an ugly way rather than in a healthy way.Of course agreed that associating a person to a certain condition or a group surely helps in understanding the person more better but most often it only serves as a tool to create more chaos and inferior feeling.
Just like the invention of atom bomb which was actually created to know the benefits of nuclear fission and fusion but is used for destructive purposes the same is with labeling.
This is nothing to do with labelling but more to do with human nature. How the humans try to ease out things and then complicate it further:). Sounds funny but true.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Vygotsky who?
One of the eminent psychologist whose findings and theories were ignored till recently. It is quite suprising because his writings and his findings have more practical implications in today's world.
Thus he was way ahead of his time.In his book "Thought and Language" he emphasize on the role culture and language plays in improving the brain connections and the functioning fo the brain. According to him "the zone of proximal development" keeps increasing as we expose the growing human to various things in the surroundings which builds the connections and thus the memory.
Well this is just a small description about him and his work. You can find more on the sites:http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html
http://www.kolar.org/vygotsky/
Thus he was way ahead of his time.In his book "Thought and Language" he emphasize on the role culture and language plays in improving the brain connections and the functioning fo the brain. According to him "the zone of proximal development" keeps increasing as we expose the growing human to various things in the surroundings which builds the connections and thus the memory.
Well this is just a small description about him and his work. You can find more on the sites:http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html
http://www.kolar.org/vygotsky/
My new world
Hmm, So at last getting into the virtual world and creating a space of my own.This blog of mine would be somewhat dry or may be intellectually stimulating maybe following the vygotskian principles and much to do with education and educating.
Many other issues will also be covered which might be intellectually stimulating and sleep inducing:). However as my thought process develops it will be exciting as it will mirror my thouhgts my perception towards the happennings and would also contribute to my intellectual enlightenment.
Many other issues will also be covered which might be intellectually stimulating and sleep inducing:). However as my thought process develops it will be exciting as it will mirror my thouhgts my perception towards the happennings and would also contribute to my intellectual enlightenment.
