Stress and Joy of Routine

 

Stress and Joy of Routine

Gem of Man’s Personality

 

You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret to your success is found in your daily routine.   

John C. Maxwell

 

After my graduation in commerce, in 1965, I was in search of “a job”, as those were the days of generalists and not of specialists, making both ends meet was more important than a specific career as at present. A commerce teacher’s job in a community school came my way and I accepted it. When I went to join, it was a pleasant surprise to find one of my maternal uncles (mama) also working as a Lecturer in a local Sanskrit College at that place. He was a scholar of Sanskrit and had extensive knowledge of Hindu scriptures. I stayed with him for a few days in a complex where some other teaching staff of the college were also staying. During my stay, it was observed, between 05.00 to 06.00 PM daily no teaching staff would be available in that residential compound. After a few days, I gathered courage and tried to find out what was the reason for such a collective absence. I came to know, at that time all would go to the residence of the Pradhan Acharya of the Sanskrit College who was also staying in the same premises and would also be waiting for them. He was a father figure, a scholar and quite old. It was the period of learning, awakening and betterment of life and actions. Pradhan Acharya always had something extra-ordinary to teach, tell and explain to his audience. This had become a part of daily life of those staying in that campus. A routine with them, followed strictly for the love of reverence and knowledge.

 

A routine is the usual series of things that you do at a particular time in a day or the whole day. However it is not limited to a day, it can be for any period may be a week or a year. It is appears to be a very simple thing as we all do daily but it is not that simple as we think. The most important about routine is the regularity with which it is performed like the nature, seasons, day and night: they follow very rigid path; they do perform: so are their results. One daily habit can change everything in one’s life.

 

Daily routine is the store house of energy both physical and emotional too, as you perform it quick without effort, fast and for the love of it: it gives one the satisfaction of having done it and motivation to perform tasks ahead and achieve one’s goal. It is a physical exercise that too without effort and keeps one fit.

 

To follow routine rigidly is highly complicated task, as it requires sacrifice of comfort, leisure and postponement attitude with an element of positive arrogance in the initial stage of adopting the routine. Once you are on the path: you become routine and feel discomfort when unable to complete it. We become what we repeatedly do: it’s part of our personality: for example if one has the habit of getting up early in the morning at an appointed time; punctuality becomes a hall mark of his character and he is always in time everywhere never late, on the contrary we all know some persons are always late comers everywhere.

Watch your actions, they become your habits.  Watch your habits, they become your character.

Vince Lombardi

A routine is also the practice of regularly doing things in a fixed order. It can’t be haphazard, it has to be systematic and in tune with nature; not that what one does is a routine: when adopting a routine give it your thought and wisdom: it has lifelong consequences beneficial one.

We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

 

As stress is integral part of life on this planet so is routine in life. We cannot lead happy life without stress: but without routine we can’t live life at all. We have to follow a routine; logical and rational would result in happy and satisfying experiences. If you live life on ad-hoc basis results would be haphazard.

 

Routine becomes increasingly important in old age: we need it more as we grow old as body become feeble so its functions and capacities. We have to regulate, adopt fixed time, fixed quantities, even the fixed postures above all control over tongue both as to the taste as well as speech to avoid stress and discomfort both physical and emotional.

 

Even worship of the Lord needs a routine for years, decades even centuries together as our scripture tell us. In other words one can reach to the Lord following the routine. Thus a routine has innumerable achievements hidden in it.

 

Determination that too strong one like all other achievements in life is the first requirement of routine: starting a routine is the most difficult process: start it with all the strength at your command: with minimum possible which one can maintain and it is always possible to improve it, lengthen and make it broad based and pointed to a particular aim also.  

 

Another element of a successful routine is the principle of self-denial- not doing the things which one can otherwise do- a foundation stone of character building and in this modern age of competition that of career building also. Self-denial has been a source of energy to many saints and seers in their journey of enlightenment.

 

Routine, may sometimes, some may feel, has become monotonous sparking some irrelevance in life, in such a situation give routine an intentional break to introduce some spice in life and also in the routine: that will strengthens one’s commitment towards routine. Be assured routine is not a rut, it is cut above.

 

Motivation is what gets you started.

 Habit is what keeps you going. 

 Jim Rohn

 

Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us.  We become what we repeatedly do.

 Sean Covey

 

Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

Lao Tzu

Stress and Joy of Online Learning (Corona’s Gift)

 

               Stress and Joy of Online Learning     

                                 (Corona’s Gift)

 

Corona - the Chinese Virus, a tornado of disease, deaths, corpses, crawling and gasping for oxygen patients, weeping relatives, dearth of medicines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, ambulances, compulsions and restrictions gave mankind untold miseries that will perhaps continue for many more years to come may be at diminished scale and pace. A few days would be written as, “Black Days”, in the history of mankind when corpses were everywhere and cremation grounds were working twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. It is difficult to predict the future of this virus and its mutations; how many where and when.  

 

In addition, Corona-the pandemic, changed the way of life in number of ways some permanently others temporarily and still others intermittently. Many of the changes are unknown at present would surface many years after.  Education is one such important field.

 

Schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions were closed to avoid spread of this infectious disease, they were the first and easy target of the planners responsible for the control of Corona.  How to carry on the studies without disturbance that was the big question for the Governments all over. Nobody knew how to start. Parents were worried and so the teachers, students, however those in lower classes enjoyed the break without having home work to do.

 

Slowly schools prepared assignments, some sent to the students by post or asked students have collected and others by mobile phone WhatsApp. Some institutions asked students to return these assignments after doing the home work and others did not bother. Preparing assignments alone was not the end of the tunnel; practicals and demos were also waiting their turn. Everything was haphazard: while little ones’ were enjoying the most as they were not aware as to what had happened. However it was a determined effort to make a start.

 

Slowly the technology, as has always been, came to the rescue of the education system and teaching staff, relieving some stress of the students, teachers and parents. Initially system started online teaching,  using Zoom Meeting technology available on the internet: it had its own advantages and disadvantages: children were not happy with the system as they were required to glue down to the chair during the whole period of Zoom meeting and their absence was immediately visible to the instructor. Continuity of the system was another big issue but its advantage was that it was possible to carry on both on mobile phone as well as computer with internet connection. Many students were not having even one of them hence they had to take help of the owners of these resources.

 

It took time to perfect the online teaching system, now only a computer linked to internet is enough: both teachers and students have learnt the tricks of the trade and Google Guru helped the system a lot. Initially, online teaching was for an hour or so daily but now it has become almost the whole day affair, even on holidays and odd hours too and all subjects programme. Education Boards and Universities have also drawn up a system of taking examinations some online with multi-choice questions with reduced syllabus others just assess students on the basis of assignments submitted: every day new methods of assessment are being invented: but practicals and demos are offline. In this process narration, expression and merit has suffered. It is a boom for the students as correctly envisaged by Dr. Marcus Specht much before the pandemic in his following words:

 

“The students of the future will demand the learning support that is appropriate for their situation or context. Nothing more, nothing less. And they want it at the moment the need arises. Not sooner, not later. 

                                                  Dr. Marcus Specht,

                           Open University of Netherlands.

 

Online learning at school level lacks many good things of offline learning which teaches life skills of getting up in the morning and be ready for the school in time, taking breakfast, having neat and clean clothes and polished shoes, well combed hair, collecting school satchel, saying bye bye to his mother, be safe on the way to school and wishing the school teacher and hoo-ha of the class room. In addition the discipline, respect, regards, obedience, playground, morning-prayer, peer pressure, cooperation, sharing, time management, question-answers sessions, discussions, debates, learning of listening skill, school recess a wonderful period of experiencing sharing of what he did at home yesterday,   all went off from the life of the students in their formative years. This a big loss in the personality development of the children and causing stress to parents, teachers and intelligentsia. It is national loss irreparable although our education system wants schools and colleges to open but they are not ready to take the responsibility to ensure corona appropriate behavior by the students although a little more effort on the part of the teaching community can certainly help to correct to the situation at least to some extent. Another great disadvantage is that with passage of time some students have now developed an attitude of avoiding school. At professional level where majority of the students are hostellers, managing studies is more difficult online as compared to school students because here practicals, demonstrations, and experience sharing with experts and CEOs of the companies are a more important aspect of the curriculum.

 

However, on line learning can be used with advantage when we have grown up audience like factory workers, office goers who learn to save their employment and make progress in the career and also when we have large work force to train in a short period. It can also be used with advantage when offline system returns full force to cover up the left over syllabus, help students of the weaker sections of the society and also to guide students when they face difficulties in their assignments etc.

 

“Online learning is rapidly becoming one of the most cost-effective ways to educate the world’s rapidly expanding workforce.”

                                                      - Jack Messman

 

“In times where small instructor-led classrooms tend to be the exception, electronic learning solutions can offer more collaboration and interaction with experts and peers, as well as a higher success rate than the live alternative.”

                                                      - Keith Bachman

 

Teachers and professionals on the other side of the Computer play an important role to make teaching interesting for the learners.  They should use every tool at their disposal to make eLearning course interactive, fun, engaging, and exciting, so that students can motivated to learn. Students are always interested to know which real world benefits they can expect to receive, and how they can put the information to good use when they step outside of the online classroom so the professionals must know slightly more than required by the teaching assignment.

 

Talk to the people. Connect with them. Make the e-learning sound like it’s a conversation between the people. Real people not robots.

                                                            Cammy Bean

 

In fact, Corona a great negativity, is a boom for introduction of online teaching in the educational institutions which otherwise would have invited so many difficulties, hardships and inertia from all the sections of the society involved in teaching process.

 

Online teaching is no substitute for schools, colleges, universities, coaching institutes and research centers and had it been so books would substituted for online teaching and also for offline teaching long back.

 

Human lively interaction, mediocres insisting their so called silly questions that have given the mankind best of the theories, inventions and innovations. Creativity, quest to know more and deep is the essence of all teaching which is more accomplished in class room teachings: hence class room would remain supreme always and they have been so for time memorial.

 

Long Live my primary school where I used to learn sitting on an empty jute bag 70+ years ago.

 

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

                                                                          Albert Einstein