LEARNING TO GET ‘UNSTUCK’

It's story time! Everyone loves to listen or read a story; it makes it easy to understand. I'd like to say something or put my thoughts through a story which I have found, like everyone on What’sApp messages.

Once upon a time, there were two neighbours living next to each other. One of them was a retired teacher and was an insurance agent the other who had a lot of interest in technology. Both of them had planted different plants in their garden. The retired teacher was giving a small amount of water to his plants and didn’t always give  full attention to them, while the other neighbour , had given a lot of water to his plants and looked after them quite well.

The retired teacher’s plants were simple but looked good. The insurance agent’s plants were much fuller and greener. One day, during the night, there was a heavy rain and a wind due to a minor storm. Next morning, both the neighbours came out to inspect the damage to their garden. The neighbour, who was an insurance agent, saw that his plants came out from the roots and were totally destroyed. But, the retired teacher’s plants were not damaged at all and were standing firm.

The insurance agents  was surprised to see this, He went to the retired teacher and asked, “We both grew the same plants together, I actually looked after my plants better than you did for yours, and even gave them more water. Still, my plants came off from the roots, while yours didn’t. How is that possible?”

The retired teacher smiled and said, “You gave your plants more attention and water, but because of that they didn’t need to work themselves for it. You made it easy for them. While I gave them just an adequate amount of water and let their roots search for more. So, their roots went deeper and that made their position stronger. That is why my plants survived”.

*Moral: This story is about parenting where children are like plants. If everything is given to them, they will not understand the hard work it takes to earn those things. They will not learn to work themselves and respect it. Sometimes it’s best to guide them instead of giving them. Teach them how to walk, but let them follow their path.*

Yes, it's very true nowadays that we give everything to our children. But, here, at G.D. Goenka Public School, Greater Noida, under the guidance of Principal Ma’am, Dr. Renu Sehgal, we believe in training our students to go out in the world and be ready to face the challenges of tomorrow. Teaching them to solve problems efficiently is just another way of achieving that goal.

Increasing number of individuals need to be able to think for themselves in a constantly changing environment, particularly as technology is making larger quantities of information easier to access and to manipulate. They also need to be able to adapt to unfamiliar or unpredictable situations more easily than people needed to in the past. Teaching Mathematics encompasses skills and functions which are a part of everyday life.

Examples:

·Reading a map to find directions.

·Understanding weather reports.

·Understanding economic indicators.

·Understanding loan repayments.

·Calculating whether the cheapest item is the best buy or not.


Presenting a problem and developing the skills needed to solve that problem is more motivational than teaching the skills without a context. It allows the students to see a reason for learning Mathematics and hence, to become more deeply involved in learning it.

Teaching through problem solving can enhance logical reasoning, helping people to be able to decide what rule, if any, a situation requires, or if necessary to develop their own rules in a situation where an existing rule cannot be directly applied.

Problem solving can also allow the whole person to develop by experiencing the full range of emotions associated with various stages of the solution process.

                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                              By Ratna Sharma