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A father, who had limited income and many kids to feed, declared one fine day, “The kid who foregoes his or her lunch today would get Rs. 50 before dinner.” The kids were shocked. They had not seen even a ten rupee note being given by their father. They knew their father as a miser and were not accustomed to such benevolence. They were more used to their basic needs being flatly denied because of paucity of funds. All of them happily accepted the offer, too readily. Poor kids stayed hungry and were feeling famished by evening but the lure of Rs. 50, in cash, kept them going. They were still excited about the booty, they were to be gifted at dinner time. Dinner time came and to their surprise, the money was actually distributed.  Happy kids pocketed the money quickly before their father would change his mind and sat down for dinner. Then the father made a dramatic announcement.  “Today, dinner would cost Rs. 50. Only those who pay Rs. 50 would get dinner.” He ...

The school is in turmoil, the management is at wits end to even begin to understand how to deal with the situation. The problem has never been faced by any school, ever. It began when the children wanted some basic, democratic, inclusive rules to be applied to the concept of the homework. Their demands were simple and straight forward.   Homework can be given but before doing so, the concerned teacher must prove that the homework is being given on the issue of high academic importance. The teacher would need to make a presentation to the class who would take a final call on this issue. Homework should be suitably compensated by providing play time during school hours. This would be equal to four times the home work time in Metros and two times in other towns & villages. The homework should be given with the consent of students. Not less than 80% of the students need to be agreeable to the homework. This agreement will be teacher specific. There needs to be a...