Reference and Education Article Category

Using calculators is a part of our modern way of life. Today it is not a problem for kids to get a calculator and put it into practice. Really, why must they toddle if they may ride a bike? On the face of it using calculators at school allows keeping away from many troubles.

By the help of a calculator we can carry out complicated mathematical operations quickly and accurately. Calculator proponents claim that calculators simplify tasks and allow students to spend less time on monotonous calculations and more time on understanding problems and determining the best methods for solving them; calculators allow students who would normally be turned off to math because of dissatisfaction or boredom to increase their mathematical understanding. Furthermore, every teacher of mathematics knows that there are graduating pupils in primary school who had not mastered the multiplication table, have difficulties with subtraction within the limits of 20 and so on. Give all of them calculators and they will obtain desirable result without sweating, puffing and having a dread of mistakes and therefore will become more confident about their math abilities.

But this good-looking picture is too charming to be a realistic one. There are several circumstances which make using calculators at school not so attractive. Firstly even a brand new modern calculator which has amazing computational power is a device only. Each calculator is as good and as accurate as its operator. To use it in proper way a pupil must know its manual well. Calculators of different kinds use different orders for carrying out mathematical operations, pressing keys, and their manuals have a bad habit to get lost. It is very easy to make simple mistakes when using one. You must think of the rough size of answers, so that you can see if an answer is sensible or not. To avoid mistakes you must repeat all calculations. If you get two different answers, then you must repeat all calculations for the third time.

Very often even advanced students make mistakes - pressing wrong buttons, forgetting to change a mode, rounding values too soon, forgetting to use brackets rightly ... And what about bad achieving pupils? Can you imagine that a pupil who does not know what brackets are for can use them correctly? How can a kid who cannot mentally multiply 8 by 7 weighs up a result?

For advanced students a calculator is a comfortable vehicle, which helps him to reach their aim more rapidly and more easily, but in case of need they can go out of it and move themselves. And what is more they very often perform better without a calculator since in many cases mental computations are quicker, easier and more errorless then computations with calculator.

Whereas for bad achieving pupils a calculator is a motored wheel chair for cripples, without which they cannot move. They are afraid to carry out mentally simple arithmetical operations and waste precious time when pressing keys.

Besides that there is another significant hazard. A person who all the time uses a calculator gradually loses his/her mental computational skills. Very often even advanced pupils take calculators when they need to make simple computations which can be easily implemented in head. Their brains slowly but surely get accustomed to walking on crutches and became indolent to use mental computational abilities, whereas skills, which are not used, became forgotten very soon. In certain cases it leads to difficulties in math's learning.

Both my experience (32 years in the classroom) and my investigations (20 years of studies) shows that pupils with unsteady elementary mental computational skills (addition and subtraction within the limits of 20, multiplication and division within the limits of 100) have great difficulties while learning the other basic topics of arithmetic and algebra. In other words they are doomed to poor progress in school math. Even calculators cannot help them. If you want to see some figures and diagrams you can read my article "Influence of a Level of Elementary Mental Computation Skills upon Success in School Mathematics" at my web site Prevention of Failure in School Mathematics (reference - My Articles).

Do not think that I am trying to stop progress and calling to finish with any computing stuff at school. It is obvious that we can not manage without calculators today, but we must remember about simple mental computations and their significance for success or failure in math. I consider that it is necessary to lay emphasis once more - extensive using of calculators (especially at the first six or seven grades) leads to degeneration of pupils' mental computational skills and afterward to deterioration of their learning ability. This is the main hazard of using calculators at school.

The Power Of The Unconscious Mind - The Secret To Student Success

One of the best ways I know of to give a massive boost to your ability to learn and to enhance your grades beyond all recognition is to leverage the immense power of your unconscious mind.

'The thinking process is unconscious. We become aware of the results consciously. All change takes place at the unconscious level. We become aware of the change consciously when we are ready.' Joseph O'Connor

What on earth does this mean???

Well, read on ......

Roughly two million bits of information per second come into the human nervous system. We are literally bombarded with information. To maintain sanity, our conscious mind filters out most of the stimuli and Miller (1956) discovered we can consciously handle only seven plus or minus two bits of information at a time.

The unconscious mind deals with everything else over and above the seven (plus or minus two) bits of information that you are not consciously paying attention to at a particular time. As soon as we switch our attention to something, then it becomes conscious. Some parts of your physiology will always be unconscious. This should not surprise us really. Our unconscious mind takes care of us all the time! We do not run our heart, lungs, kidneys, immune system etc... consciously do we?

I want to show you how to bypass the conscious mind in order to access the immense powers of your unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is around 90% of your total mind power as opposed to the 10% of the mind that you usually use in your normal daily waking state. The unconscious mind is a source of great treasure - of skill, of memory and experience.

The power of positive thinking can be significantly enhanced and reinforced by the use of affirmations. An affirmation is a short statement in the present tense repeated frequently to impress itself onto and be accepted by the unconscious mind. The ideal affirmation must be short and totally unambiguous. This is important, as the unconscious mind cannot easily assimilate long or complex statements. The unconscious mind is much more easily influenced by short, appropriately worded statements.

The majority of people however, are in the habit of negative thinking - of dwelling on problem areas in their life by repeating exactly what they do not wish to happen. This often ends up compounding the original problems and making them even worse. For example, a student might keep on saying to themselves:

"I will never be successful in my examinations".

Or: "I always get sidetracked when I am studying".

Or: "I simply can't concentrate".

The student who constantly repeats these negative affirmations, either consciously or unconsciously, will be much less likely to succeed in their examinations, and may never be able to concentrate or get their studying done.

Underlying almost every negative emotion is a thought or belief, and most often these are unhealthy thoughts or beliefs. By unhealthy I mean they are not effective in getting you what you want in your life. They don't serve you.

The belief (often unconscious) is like a trigger. It sets you up to fail in certain situations.

Remember this! If you do not THINK and fill your head with positive thoughts and beliefs, then negative ones will always come in to fill the gaps.

Please NEVER, ever, ever, ever underestimate your own abilities. It is never a question of can you do something. The real question is will you?

In the examples above, the student was repeating the negative affirmations in their head. They should instead replace them with the equivalent positive affirmations. Such as:

"I know I will be successful in my examinations ".

Or: "I am focussed when I sit down to study".

Or: "my concentration is improving".

This might well seem difficult to do, particularly in what may seem to be difficult circumstances or where the reality appears to be totally the opposite. However, believe me, like most things, it is just a question of practice.

Where attention goes, energy flows! You become what you think about most of the time.

The more often an affirmation is repeated, consciously or otherwise, the more quickly and effectively it will become real. But take care because this works just as effectively for both positive and negative affirmations. A great time to repeat positive affirmations is just before drifting off to sleep at night or just after waking in the morning before you get up. At these times your conscious mind communicates best with your unconscious mind. If you can repeat the affirmations throughout the day and even write them down and place copies around your home, so much the better.

An even more powerful possibility exists as an alternative to affirmations that are stated aloud or within the mind. This is the power of "Subliminal messages".

The power of subliminal messages has been proven over many years to be a highly effective way of programming the unconscious mind by using either audio or visual methods. In fact,subliminal messages are so powerful in the way they work on the unconscious mind, that in 1974 the US government banned all forms of subliminal message advertising on radio and television.

Subliminal messages reach the unconscious mind by working at a level that cannot be detected by the conscious mind. The conscious mind therefore never has an opportunity to reject them and the unconscious mind can receive and act upon them.

There are two main ways of using subliminal messages in a most powerful way - visual and audio.

Visual subliminal messages are affirmations that are flashed before the eyes so quickly that the conscious mind cannot perceive them. The affirmations therefore go directly to the unconscious mind, which perceives and acts upon them immediately.

Audio subliminal messages work in a similar way by being played at a frequency that is just above the normal threshold of human hearing. Again, as with visual subliminal messages, although the conscious mind cannot perceive these affirmations, the all-powerful unconscious mind can perceive them, and will therefore immediately act upon them.

Driving School - Learn How to Drive

Driving schools are becoming more popular by the day. Everybody wants to know more and more about them. This includes young people who can't wait for the opportunity to take the wheel in their hands, and also the concerned parents looking for a good school to send their kids. Gone are the days when fathers used to take their kids out of the city to teach them how to drive. Blame it on the constraint of time and their working hours which do not permit them to do it. Now though, thanks to the number of driving schools around, their worries can be put to rest. Driving schools can help young drivers become more aware of proper driving techniques and etiquette.

Driving schools are very reliable:

Driving schools take care of almost everything that has to deal with driving; from teaching the students about driving different cars, to teaching about the engines and also about defensive driving. The good thing about joining a driving school is that by attending at a qualified driving school you can actually reduce the tickets and fines you get, and you may even lower your auto insurance premiums. But the question is how to find a qualified or a good driving school? Keep in mind that the best driving school can be the one that has been recommended to you by a friend or relative. You can also rely on your local auto insurance dealer or contact the public safety office in your state.

Know your school well:

Even after choosing a driving school, there are certain things that you should enquire about, which may help you decide if this driving school is for you. The driving instructor should be your first concern. Ask how long your instructor has been a driving instructor. The instructor should be able to offer you combined and integrated tuition providing both theoretical and practical training. Ask about the cars they use, how old they are and if you will have an individual pick up service. You should also find out about their rates or if they have discounts for block booking.

Defensive driving:

In this course you would learn how to determine fitness of yourself and your vehicle for safe driving. This is for all driving; a motor vehicle for personal, or commercial use. They would teach you how to drive defensively, and the importance of using safety belts and air bags. You would also be taught about how to look out for pedestrians and other vehicles etc which are using the road along with you, as many people tend to ignore or miss them resulting in unwanted accidents.

If you are attending a driving school for a certain purpose, you may be required to attend certain driving schools designated by the agency for which you wish to receive credit.

Online course:

There are also many online schools now on the internet that you can easily enroll. You just have to browse through and look out for the school that suits you best. These driving schools provide quality courses for safe driving in both content and user interface. Many people join these courses which are well prepared, and may include text, videos, and animations to help you become a better driver in an interesting and interactive way. They cover everything from the traditional driving safety information to specific rules and regulations like the speed limits and so on.

Is Your Student Home from College? Now's the Time to Prepare for Fall

If you've got a student arriving home from college with all her stuff, maybe now is the time for you to plan for the trip back to school in the fall.

Your child may show up with every stitch of clothing she owns, both clean and dirty; piles of books, notebooks, and papers; computers, portable TVs, DVD and CD players, microwaves, and miscellaneous cooking utensils; and all sorts of sports gear - all of which lands at your front door, possibly in one big heap.

You might want to give your returning college student a week or so to decompress - sleep late, catch up with friends, hang out at the mall or on the beach. Then offer to help tackle the task of organizing her belongings.

Separate the stuff into categories, then divide each category again, into the stuff your student needs right now and the stuff to be stored. Clothing for the current season, DVDs and CDs, summer sports gear will end up in the student's bedroom or the family garage, available for easy access. The rest can be stored in one spot, either in the home or in your off-site family storage unit, ready to be repacked and taken back to college.

For clothing - make sure it's all clean, then sort into summer clothing and off-season clothing. Weed out any ripped garments and either mend or discard; also throw out any permanently soiled items. (Make sure you're not throwing out any lucky T-shirts!)

Your daughter probably won't need her microwave or cooking utensils this summer; pack and store them for easy access in the fall. She probably will want her DVDs, CDs, and electronic equipment, including her computer. Her books and notes can be separated into three categories: those she will need in the fall at college, those she won't need but wishes to keep, and those she doesn't ever want to see again. She might want to advertise the last category of books on the Internet, on amazon.com or half.com. If the books are a current edition, she might be able to get quite a bit of money back.

Be sure to keep a list of the stuff you store, and have your daughter review it as she gets ready to return to college. Organizing her belongings now - storing it in one spot and keeping an inventory of it - will simplify the process of packing it up and making the journey back to college in the fall.

Special Kid Organizational Budgets and Small Business Solutions

Many groups in our nation need our support and financial support, unfortunately there are so many worthy causes that they all end up competing against each other. Sometimes the answer is to get a little creative and try something new. How so you ask?

Well let me tell you about just such a creative solution that I was involved once. You see in our company we set up mobile car wash franchises. And a program director came to me and said; we would like to set up one of your franchises to help fund our special kids group. So, this sounded like a good plan and I worked with the program director of the Special Kids Group on a plan to allow them to operate one of our franchises without paying the franchise initial fee or the on-going royalties, instead the royalties would be given back to the group. Basically it was free to help the Special Kids work and learn how to be self-sufficient.

To make all this work I had lined up a free truck to mount the mobile car wash equipment on from Ford Motor Co as well as some customers in the Corporate Office Parks in Trenton, luckily the group had also lined up some customers too. The project unfortunately got cancelled, but I learned a lot on how these things can work in the future, one day I will probably write down the entire plan in an eBook and put it online for everyone.

My point is sometimes you have to think out of the box, as there are always ways to solve mankind's problems through networking, free enterprise and cooperation with public agencies, unfortunately there is too much bureaucracy and often great programs, fully funded, which do not burden the taxpayer get lost in the shuffle. Perhaps this article will spur on your imagination to think outside your organizations funding needs box and come up with something which might work for you.

Reservation in Higher Education and Jobs- Divide and Rule Strategy

Introduction:

"Reservation in Higher Education and Jobs in Private Sector"...Yes or No? There has been lot of debate on this subject across the country. People are agitating...people are on hunger strike; Students have different views...professionals have different views. As per the interview with Cabinet Minister, (Human Resourse Development) Mr. Arjun Singh...on CNN-IBN, he is not willing to accept any facts and fingers. In short, after the interview he looks like a confused person...might be an effect of his age. Lets start from the very beginning, on the 27th of June 1961 Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru (First Prime Minister of India) wrote to the Chief Ministers: I dislike any kind of reservations. If we go in for any kind of reservations on communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain second rate or third rate. The moment we encourage the second rate, we are lost. And then he adds pointedly: This way lies not only folly, but also disaster.

Lets have a look at some other figures..."Learning from Past Experiences"...

NSSO, which is a government appointed body, has actually in its research in 1999 - which is the most latest research shown - that 23.5 per cent of all university seats are already with the OBCs. And that is just 8.5 per cent less than what the NSSO believes is the OBC share of the population. So, for a difference of 8 per cent, would reservations be the right way of making up the difference? A study done by the IITs themselves shows that 50 per cent of the IIT seats for the SCs and STs remain vacant and for the remaining 50 per cent, 25 per cent are the candidates, who even after six years fail to get their degrees. So, clearly, in their case, reservations are not working. Parliamentary Committee on the welfare for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes says that "looking at the Delhi University, between 1995 and 2000, just half the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Castes level and just one-third of the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Tribes level were filled. All the others went empty, unfilled."

Sukhdev Thorat, the Chairman of the UGC. He points out that today, at higher education levels - that is all universities, IITs and IIMs - there is already a 1.2 lakh vacancy number. 40 per cent of these are in teaching staff, which the IIT faculty themselves point out that they have shortages of up to 30 per cent.

Fifty years after the reservations were made, statistics show, according to The Hindustan Times, that overall in India, only 16 per cent of the places in higher education are occupied by SCs and STs. The quota is 22.5 per cent, which means that only two-thirds of the quota is occupied. One third is going waste, it is being denied to other people.

In short, reservations mean that a lesser-qualified candidate gets preference over a more qualified candidate, solely because in this case, he or she happens to be an OBC. In other words, the upper castes are being penalized for being upper caste.

Why Quota? Why Reservations? Will this help "underprivileged" communities to come at par with others? I don't think so. If the foundation is not strong...one cannot make strong building on it. If you really want to bring everyone on same platform...strengthen the Primary Education; Improve the course material; provide teachers at that level and make people strong enough to compete with each other...provide the platform for institutes and corporates to choose the best.

Mandal Commission...A regretful step...First Major Step towards reservation and quota system...beginning of caste based politics...

1) The Mandal Commission was officially called Second backward Classes Commission.

2) It derives its name from parliamentarian BP Mandal, who chaired the Commission.

3) The Mandal Commission was constituted by the Morarji Desai government in 1978 to consider action politics for backward classes, aimed at redressing caste discrimination.

4) The Commission Report was submitted in Dec 1980. It sought reservation for 27 per cent of all services and public sector undertakings under the central government and 27 per cent of all admissions to institutions of higher education for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

5) The percentage was over and above the existing 22.5 per cent reservation for SCs/STs.

6) In Aug 1990, the then Prime Minister VP Singh assured its implementation in government jobs.

7) It led to widespread protests, which finally led to his resignation.

8) There were many self-immolations attempts, including that of Rajeev Goswami, a DU student.

9) In 1993, the Supreme Court upheld 27 per cent reservation for OBCs.

10) But it was subject to the exclusion of socially advanced persons/sections from amongst the OBCs.

11) Children of Class I officers with income of Re one lakh were also excluded.

12) The exclusion-income limit was revised to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2004.

13) The reservation came into effect in Sept 1993 after the recommendations were accepted.

14) In Aug 2005, the SC abolished all caste-based reservations in unaided private colleges.

15) On Dec 2005, the Lok Sabha passed the 104th Constitution Amendment Act 2005, rolling back the SC judgement.

16) The new clause allowed reservations for SC/ST and OBCs in private unaided educational institutions.

17) The latest controversy erupted over the government's proposal to introduce 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in central government-funded higher educational institutes like IITs and IIMs.

Earlier Mandal Commission identified 11 indicators for providing reservation and quota is higher education. They were:

Social

Castes/classes considered as socially backward by others.

Castes/classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood.

Castes/classes where the percentage of married women below 17 is 25% above the state average in rural areas and 10% in urban areas; and that of married men is 10% and 5% above the state average in rural and urban areas respectively.

Castes/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25% above the state average.

Educational

Castes/classes where the number of children in the age group of 5 to 15 years who never attended school is at least 25% above the state average.

Castes/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average.

Castes/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average

Economic

Castes/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25% below the state average.

Castes/classes where the number of families living in kachcha houses is at least 25 % above the state average.

Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometer for more than 50% of the households.

Castes/classes where the number of the house-holds having taken a consumption loan is at least 25% above the state average.

We have seen even during those years that "Reservation" is just not acceptable. Even if after Close to 60 yrs of Independence (we will be celebrating our Diamond jubilee year of Independence between 15th August 2006-15th August 2007), we are saying that we have not done anything to bring up the social status of people then we are just nullifying all the achievements. Had this been done 5 yrs or 10 yrs after the independence...it would have been acceptable but not after 55 yrs of independence.

Conclusion

Need is to improve the standard of education at "Primary Level", make people competent enough to fight in "Open Competition" and not to reserve the seats or provide any type of quota. The vociferous protest against reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and the growing unease about reservations for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes reflects the sharp conflicts which are erupting in Indian society over the distribution of a limited number of Government jobs and educational resources. It should be noted that the vocal opposition to the reservations for OBCs goes hand in hand with a more disguised resentment against reservation for the scheduled castes and tribes. One has only to recall to the Gujarat anti-reservation movement of 1981 and the recent December, 1989 U.P. agitation against the Parliament extending the reservation of seats in legislatures for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes for another ten years.

The movement against reservations in the present Indian context is definitely retrograde and objectively serves the interests of those who seek to preserve the dominance of the upper castes. The plea against reservations is advanced on the basis of equality of opportunity and merit. In an unequal society like India, where scheduled castes, tribes and shudras (the bulk of whom are the OBCs) have been discriminated against in choice of occupation, social mobility and control over the means of production, all talk of equality, without taking into account this reality, reduces equality to the concept of formal equality.

As for merit, it is perfectly possible in India to discriminate in recruitment and promotions, on the basis of caste prejudices or preferences, militating against merit. Further, merit, as the Mandal Commission and a host of other commissions and Supreme Court judgments have pointed out, must be seen in the context of achieving real equality of opportunities, social environment and compensatory discrimination to ensure social justice.

I sum up my feeling through the lines of following poem by Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) about accumulation of State power by the targeting of specific groups one at a time captures the slippery slope of the law very well:

First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Before I conclude, here are views of Mr. Sam Pitroda (Chairman, National Knowledge Commission), on reservation in Higher Education and Jobs:

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the quota system as long as it is applied judiciously and at the right levels. It cannot become a blanket solution for all time to come. It is my considered position to reject labels on the basis of anyone's birth. It is an outdated, antiquated thinking to keep talking about caste based disadvantages. The first step for me is to reject all such labels in the 21st century and focus on equality for youth. In my case, hard work, good education and focus on technology helped me a great deal to overcome any disadvantages that I had because of what people still obsessively describe as caste.

Technology gave me an equal footing for everything I have done in my life and career. I have said this before. Technology is a great leveler, second only to death. I have always negotiated challenges on the basis of my whatever little intrinsic merit quality and perseverance. I have never taken the route of quota or reservations. I hope this shows that it is possible.

What we need is to create opportunities for everyone of equal merit to have proper access. On this subject there are many views and many sentiments. At times people look at this in terms of black and white while there are many shades of gray.

Proper primary education is the key to building a sound foundation for higher education in the university. I wish we focus on this first. I also believe that every child must have opportunity for good education without worrying about caste or income levels. If the student is qualified we must find funding to support them in colleges. It is time to go beyond labels that stigmatize an entire group of people. I believe now in the early part of the 21st century we should make fundamental changes in the way we approach the concept of education, employment, equality and empowerment. But the point is it is time for a whole new approach in the 21st century. We cannot build the nation in the 21st century with the 19th century mindset.

Educational Toys Come Out From the Cold

My son Jack and I took some time out from playing with the educational toys he received for Christmas and went to a hockey game over the holidays. Like most 7 year olds, his favorite part is when the Zamboni comes out to clean the ice. We had seen this a thousand times so I was stymied when Jack said, "Why is there smoke coming out of the back?" It's steam I told Jack, they use hot water because it freezes faster. I could see the wheels turning now and knew I was getting in over my head. "But ice is cold, shouldn't they use cold water, Dad". Well, there was only one period to go and a thousand questions, most of which I didn't have the answers to, so I told Jack that when we got home we would do our own science experiment to see whether hot or cold water froze faster.

To get the most out of this I thought we should treat it as a science project. I looked through some of the science toys Jack had and found a science kit that showed how to do some experiments. Jack and I made a plan and a list of all the things we'd need. We also searched the internet to see if there were any educational toys that might help us. We didn't find any educational toys, but we did find some very interesting facts.

It turns out there are at least 3 physical processes that would explain why hot water freezes faster. First, hot water contains less dissolved air, this is why fish can die in very warm water, a lack of oxygen. Liquids conduct heat much better than gas so hot water would cool much more rapidly. Secondly, in a pool of warm water, the water at the surface would be hotter than the water below, hot water rises. This would create a larger temperature difference with the air and cool the water faster. Third, the warm water would initially melt the ice on the ground, forming a better bond that would cool the water faster. This also prevents layers of ice from chipping away.

So we filled up a jug with hot tap water and a second jug with cold water. We took 2 plastic cups and a short 2x4 outside. We filled each cup half full, the red one with hot water and the blue one with cold water and set them on the walk. Then we found a patch of ice on the driveway, laid the 2x4 in the center, and poured hot water on one side and cold water on the other side. It was 18 F so we went in to warm up.

We came back out an hour later. The 2 cups were mostly water. The red one had some ice above the water line and the blue one had some ice on the outer edge of the water surface.

On the driveway, both sides of the 2x4 had turned to ice. When we touched the ice we could see our fingerprint on the cold water side. The hot water side was frozen solid.

We weren't sure what we just proved but we rushed back inside, wrote down our observations, drew a few pictures and had some hot chocolate before bedtime. I knew Jack was going to be excited when he explained his science experiment to his class on Monday.