Competency

About Competency

·         Knowledge, skill, ability, or characteristic needed to perform a function

·         Example: Grade 5 Science – The learner will make observations and conduct investigations to build an understanding of animal behavior and adaptation

What is a Learning Objective?

·         Choose the specific assessments that best evaluate a given objective within individual courses/area of learning

·         Users can complete the same outcome many different ways – much more reflective on how learning takes place

·         Example: Grade 5 Science – Observe and describe how all living and nonliving things affect the life of a particular animal

What are Rubrics?

Rubrics provide an objective framework for evaluators to specify and evaluate specific requirements that users must demonstrate.

·         Create any number of rubrics within the system

·         Share rubrics with departments, courses, semesters

·         Track rubrics and receive detailed stats on rubric scores

·         Course and Program expectations become transparent to learners

·         Example: Grade 5 Science – Research Project on how Plants, Weather, and Climate affect Animals

Competencies are the measurable or observable knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors (KSABs) critical to successful job performance. Choosing the right competencies allows employers to:

·         Plan how they will organize and develop their workforce.

·         Determine which job classes best fit their business needs.

·         Recruit and select the best employees.

·         Manage and train employees effectively.

·         Develop staff to fill future vacancies.

Knowledge Competencies

Knowledge refers to the practical or theoretical understanding of a subject.

Knowledge requirements can be described in terms of mastery levels. The descriptions below outline mastery levels for the following job types:

1.      Professional Positions

2.     Clerical and Administrative Positions

3.     Managerial Positions

Professional Positions
Professional knowledge can be split into three levels: paraprofessional/technical, journey, and senior. Entry-level professional positions typically require journey-level knowledge at hire, with a plan to grow the skill level.

·         Paraprofessional/Technician-level: Knowledge of a profession’s basic principles, rules, equipment, and software. Knowledge is typically used in standardized processes.

·         Journey-level: Includes additional, in-depth knowledge of a profession’s legal standards, generally accepted principles, theory, and best practices. Knowledge is typically used to determine the best approach to solving a complex issue or problem.

·         Senior-level: Includes additional knowledge of a profession’s trends, research, and case law. Knowledge is typically used to create new strategies, standards, and processes.

Clerical and Administrative Positions
Clerical and administrative knowledge can be split into three levels: entry, journey, and senior.

·         Entry-level: Knowledge of clerical equipment and software, processes, techniques, and professional standards. Knowledge is typically used in routine office work.

·         Journey-level: Includes additional, in-depth knowledge of best practices and generally accepted professional standards. Knowledge is typically used to determine the best approach to solving moderately complex issues or problems.

·         Senior-level: Includes additional, in-depth knowledge of office management and business process trends, practices, and research. Knowledge is typically used to create new strategies, standards, and processes.

Managerial Positions
Some positions are ‘pure’ managers, while others combine line-staff and managerial duties. Regardless, if the position includes managerial duties, additional knowledge requirements should be identified. Knowledge requirements for managerial duties can be broken down as follows:

·         Lead Workers: Knowledge of basic employee performance management standards and practices (e.g., performance planning, coaching, and feedback).

·         Supervisors: Includes additional, in-depth knowledge of advanced employee performance management standards and practices (e.g., performance evaluation, recognition and reward, and corrective action and discipline).

·         Program Managers: Includes additional knowledge of resource management standards and practices (e.g., budget, equipment, facilities, and vehicles), and the authorizing environment (e.g., internal business partners and program customers).

·         Executive Managers: Includes additional, in-depth knowledge of the authorizing environment (e.g., external stakeholders, oversight boards and committees, legislative environment, and regulatory agencies).

 Skills and Abilities

A skill or ability refers to a natural or learned capacity to perform an act.

The names and descriptions of skills and abilities vary among skilled craft, clerical, paraprofessional, professional, administrative, and technical jobs. Likewise, entry, journey, and senior positions often require the same skills, but performed at different levels of mastery. Most mastery requirements fall into one of three categories:

·         Entry-level: Works under direct or general supervision. Uses skills and abilities to complete routine tasks at the beginning, growing toward tasks of increasing complexity.

·         Journey-level: Works independently with only general direction and minimal supervision. Uses skills and abilities to complete complex tasks, including deciding which processes to use.

·         Senior-level: Works independently with only administrative direction. Uses skills and abilities to complete highly complex tasks, including developing new processes and working with high profile customers and stakeholders.

Physical, Mental, and Sensory Characteristics
Some skills and abilities are tied to personal characteristics covered under state and federal discrimination laws and should not be divided into mastery levels without consulting human resource, vocational, or Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) experts.

Examples of such personal characteristics include:

·         Physical strength, including power, endurance, and speed.

·         Physical agility, including flexibility, balance, and coordination.

·         Sensory abilities, including sensitivity, perception, and clarity of vision, hearing, and smell.

·         Gross and fine motor skills, including movement control, finger dexterity, and reaction time.

·         Mental abilities, including memory, attentiveness, reasoning, and verbal, quantitative, and spatial aptitudes.

Behavior refers to a pattern of actions or conduct.

Behaviors are rarely broken down into mastery levels. Instead, they are typically evaluated in terms of consistent adherence to a set of behavioral standards. Lists of three to five behavioral standards are common.

Examples of behavioral competencies and associated standards include:

Customer Focus – builds and maintains customer satisfaction with the products and services offered by the organization.

·         Focuses on the customer’s business results, rather than own.

·         Seeks customer feedback and ensures needs have been fully met.

·         Delivers products and services when and where the customer needs them. Explores options when unable to deliver a requested product or service, and pursues solutions until the customer is satisfied.

Business Alignment – aligns the direction, products, services and performance of a business line with the rest of the organization.

·         Integrates executive direction into every decision and consultation.

·         Seeks to understand other programs in the department, including their services, deliverables, and measures.

·         Advocates for and positively represents other programs and services when working with customers and stakeholders.

Using Competencies

In Job Descriptions 
Job descriptions explain the duties, working conditions, and other aspects of a job, including the competencies needed to perform the job’s essential functions. Position-specific competencies are determined through the process of job analysis, and are documented in the Position Description (PD) form. These competencies form a basis for recruiting, hiring, training, developing, and managing the performance of employees.

In Recruitment, Assessment, and Selection 
Describing desired competencies in recruitment announcements gives job seekers a clearer picture of what jobs entail. Competencies also provide the foundation for assessment and selection techniques, including exams, interviews, and reference checks.

In Employee Performance Management 
Competencies allow supervisors to more fully describe to employees their performance expectations. Competency descriptions show employees what level of knowledge and skill mastery is required to successfully perform job duties, and what behavioral standards must be consistently demonstrated. Washington State’s Performance and Development Plan includes competencies in both the expectations and evaluation sections.

In Training and Development 
Done well, competencies allow supervisors to choose and prioritize training courses and other learning opportunities for employees. Training courses often describe the competencies students should be able to demonstrate by the end of the class. Likewise, most on-the-job and other developmental assignments are designed to build certain knowledge and skills. Knowing how class content and developmental activities build mastery helps supervisors to ‘map’ each position to a specific training and development plan that fosters growth in required competencies.

In Career and Workforce Planning 
Competencies play a key role in workforce planning efforts. Knowing which competencies the future workforce must possess to achieve business goals and deliverables helps organizations plan and design:

·         Organizational structure.

·         Recruitment strategies.

·         Training budgets and development plans.

·         Job assignments and individual performance plans.

Employees can also use competencies to plan a career path. Knowing which competencies are critical for certain promotions allows employees to request training and development opportunities and seek out specific feedback and coaching.

In Compensation 
Washington State‘s Compensation Plan is directly tied to the state classification system, which describes jobs in terms of the type and level of work performed. While competencies don’t directly impact compensation, the nature and complexity of the work duties usually requires a certain level of knowledge and skill mastery. These competencies are often represented in the class specifications as ‘Knowledge and Abilities.’ 

Competency FAQs 

What are competencies? How do they differ from KSAs or KSABs?
Competencies are measurable or observable knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors (KSABs) critical to success in a job.

·         Knowledge is the practical or theoretical understanding of a subject.

·         Skills and abilities are natural or learned capacities to perform acts.

·         Behavior is a pattern of actions or conduct.

How do I determine which competencies are important to a job?
Look first at the most critical duties and functions of a position. Determine the competencies needed to effectively perform those duties and functions. This process is called job analysis, and it provides information that can be used in recruitment, assessment and selection, employee performance management, and more. 

How many competencies should be identified for a job?
The number, type, and level of competencies depends on the nature and complexity of the work duties. All relevant competencies may be listed on the position description (PD) form or job analysis record. From the complete list, select competencies can then be used for recruitment, performance management, and training plans. 

What are ‘mastery levels’ and how I do I determine them?
Mastery levels are one way to further describe and evaluate competencies. They are not required, but may be helpful when the same knowledge or skill is needed for related jobs, but at different levels of depth, scope, or application.

For example, an entry-level job in a series may require general knowledge of policies, rules, and principles of a subject. The journey-level may also require knowledge of best practices and theory related to that subject. The senior-level may also require knowledge of emerging trends or case law related to that subject.

Knowledge and skill mastery levels are often determined by the level of independence, the complexity of issues addressed, the political sensitivity of key stakeholders, and the potential impacts of failure related to a job.

Unlike knowledge and skills, behaviors are typically not described or evaluated in term of mastery levels. Rather, a set of behavioral standards is described, and people are evaluated based on how consistently they demonstrate those standards.

Similarly, personal characteristics covered by state and federal discrimination laws should not be described in terms of mastery levels without consulting vocational and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) experts.

Professional Knowledge Examples 

Accounts Payable (Technical Professional)

·         Paraprofessional / Technician Level: Basic knowledge of organization chart of accounts, accounts payable procedures, and accounting software and equipment.

·         Journey Level: Also, in-depth knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

·         Senior Level: Also, in-depth knowledge of recent legislation, new case law, and developing accounting standards and practices.

Job Counselor (Service Professional)

·         Paraprofessional / Technician Level: Basic knowledge of interviewing techniques and principles, labor market trends, and job seeker support software and internet resources.

·         Journey-Level: Also, in-depth knowledge of public and private job seeker support organizations and systems, and legal and administrative requirements.

·         Senior-Level: Also, in-depth knowledge of research and trends in the areas of human behavior and interest and skill testing.

Auditor (Compliance Professional)

·         Paraprofessional / Technician Level: Basic knowledge of accounting principles, financial reporting standards, and accounting software and equipment.

·         Journey-Level: Also, in-depth knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, auditing principles and standards, and business and management standards.

·         Senior-Level: Also, in-depth knowledge of recent legislation, new case law, and developing financial reporting standards.

Computer Aided Learning in School

The SSA has proposed to the state that “information technology, business product outsourcing and software are the sunshine sectors of Goa’s economy, which traditionally depends on mining, tourism and related activities. The IT/software sector is intensive in terms of skilled labour. Goa, with its highly literate and dominantly English-speaking population, needs to sharpen its competitive edge in this sector. This industry is also friendly to the fragile ecological conditions of Goa.”

 After several years of running the computer literacy programme in schools, the state is set to introduce computer-aided learning programmes for children belonging to the upper primary level from the next academic year. There are 421 upper primary schools in Goa consisting of 61,518 children. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Directorate of Education (DoE) have proposed to provide computer assisted learning from Std V to VII. While the hardware and the furniture for the purpose will be provided by the DoE, some of which already exists in schools under the department’s computer literacy scheme, the salary component of teachers is proposed to be borne by the SSA.

The SSA has therefore proposed to nurture and groom this sector with the provision of computer education and computer aided learning to the students studying in upper primary schools. Sources in the SSA said that they have nearly completed training of key resource persons in computer aided learning programme in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science. These key resource persons will subsequently train computer teachers involved in the project. Training is expected to be completed by the current academic year and computer-aided learning is set to be implemented from the next academic year.

Each computer teacher will handle a batch of 40 students for theory and practical classes. The computer teacher will also be required to train other teachers working in the respective schools by organizing separate classes once a week. tnn

Overview

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was launched with the objective to achieve Universalization of

Elementary Education and fulfill the constitutional mandate of providing free and

compulsory education for life to the children of age group 6-14 years. The reduction in drop

out and repetition rate, enhancement in the achievement levels and making learning joyful are

some of the objectives of SSA. It was felt that use of Information and Communication

Technology (ICT) and computers in the form of Computer Aided Learning (CAL) may help

in achieving the said objectives. Keeping this in view, a component of computer education

was kept under the Functional Head of ‘Innovation’ in the framework of SSA. Under this

component there is a provision of Rs.50 lakh per district per year available to the States for

CAL.

2. Department of School Education & Literacy, with the objective to strengthen the CAL

programme, constituted a Committee for formulation of Guidelines for Computer (IT)

Education under SSA at elementary stage. The Committee, in its report has deliberated on the

national and international status of CAL at elementary and primary level, suggested

interventions for CAL under SSA, provides estimates of population which needs to be

covered under the programme, the level of infrastructure and hardware needed, analysis of

available resources, possibility of mobilization of additional resources and strategies for

implementation of the programme.

3. The main interventions required for introduction of CAL and making use of ICT in

Elementary Education, as suggested by the Committee are training of the teachers, creation of

infrastructure, development and production of State specific e-teaching/ learning material in

local language and sensitization of the State-level statutory bodies like Board of Education

and SCERT. The first & most important tier is for training of teachers and necessary

sensitization of States and their statutory bodies. The second tier suggested creation of

infrastructure, development of e-teaching/learning material and formulation of scheme for

making available additional resources. It was also suggested that pending formulation and

approval of the scheme to mobilize additional resources, the available resources may be

utilized for CAL and use of ICT in elementary education.

4. Role of private sector was considered equally important in not only implementing CAL in

elementary stage but also for mobilizing additional resources. With this in view, workshops

were held with representation from the private sector firms and all State/UT representative.

The objective of the workshops was to review the progress of implementation of the CAL in

States and to develop a public private partnership. The workshops also facilitated the

information sharing on latest developments in the technology forefront. The first CAL

workshop was convened in Bangalore on February 26-27, 2004. This was followed up with

Workshops in Mumbai (August) 12-13, 2004), Hyderabad (June 20-21, 2005), New Delhi

(7.11.2006) and New Delhi (January 9-10, 2009). These workshops also provide a platform

for State Project Directors and representatives of private firms face-to-face so that the former

could specify the problems faced by them in the implementation of CAL in their respective

States, and also the requirement in their States and the later could offer solutions that they

have, if any, and the material – hardware and software – they could provide.

5. In addition to this a brainstorming workshop was organized in 2009 (September 15-16) by

Department of School Education & Literacy with the objective of developing strategies for

Overview on Computer Aided Learning (CAL) under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: Page 2 of 2

implementation of CAL aligned to promoted pedagogy & quality goals. The workshop was

attended by educationists most of whom were involved in the development of the national

focus group paper on educational technology by NCERT. Besides other suggestions

regarding the implementation of this intervention, the key recommendation of the Resource

Persons was that, “the best strategy to implement & derive positive outcomes from IT

integrated educational delivery mechanisms like CAL is to empower teachers for

development of digital teaching learning material & their use. It is important to understand

that the basis behind use of IT integrated mechanism must not be its mere availability, rather

because of its qualities such as extendibility, reach ability, flexibility, interactivity that can

overcome the situational gaps in teaching learning process”. It was also suggested by the

resource persons that as these digital resources have immense power to reveal real life

situations that, no other teaching learning material can do, using them efficiently can be most

effective in difficult situations in teaching learning processes. The precise & innovative use

of ICT capability powered by teachers’ own idea & creativity can perhaps be the mostly

talked about paradigm shift and an approach for accomplishment of the vision of 21st century

teacher role.

5. Due to all these efforts, since inception up till 2009’ March, 67188 schools have been

covered under Computer Aided Learning, 102.61 lakhs children have been benefitted &

capacity building on use of digital teaching learning material has been provided to 1.99 lakh

teachers. Apart from this enormous teaching learning materials in state specific languages

have been developed especially in Mathematics, Science & Languages at upper primary

level.

An Experiment

Thousands of years before the city of Rome was ringed with its six miles of stone wall, other peoples in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa were building civilizations. New techniques of excavation, identification and preservation, subsidized by an increasingly affluent human society, and developed during the past two centuries of archeological research have provided the needed means and manpower. The result is an imposing number of long buried building sites with their accompanying artifacts. Still more important are the records written in long forgotten languages on stone, clay tablets, metal, wood and paper. These remnants and records, left by extinguished civilizations, do not tell us all we wish to know, but they do provide the materials which enable us to reconstruct, at least in part, the lives of our civilized predecessors.

Extensive in time and massive in the volume of their architecture are the remains of Egyptian civilization. The earliest of these fragments date back for more than six thousand years.

The seat of Egyptian civilization was the Nile Valley and its estuary built out into the Mediterranean Sea from the debris of disintegrating African mountains. Annual floods left their silt deposits to deepen the soil along the lower reaches of the river. River water, impounded for the purpose, provided the means of irrigating an all but rainless desert countryside. Skillful engineering drained the swamps, adding to the cultivable area of a narrow valley cut by the river through jagged barren hills. Deserts on both sides of the Nile protected the valley against aggressors and migrants. Within this sanctuary the Egyptians built a civilization that lasted, with a minor break, for some 3,000 years.

Egyptian temples and tombs carry records chiseled and painted on hard stone, which throw light on the life and times of upper-class Egyptians, including emperors, provincial governors, courtiers, generals, merchants, provincial organizers. In a humid, temperate climate these stone-cut and painted records would have been eroded, overgrown and obliterated long ago. In the dry desert air of North Africa they have preserved their identity through the centuries.

Since the Egyptians had a few draft animals, and little if any power-driven machinery, energy needed to build massive stone temples, tombs and other public structures must have been supplied by the forced labor of Egyptians, their serfs and slaves.

Egypt‘s history dawns on a well-organized society: The Old Kingdom, based on the productivity of the narrow, lush Nile Valley. The products of the Valley were sufficient to maintain a large population of cultivators: some slave, some forced labor, about which we have little knowledge; a bureaucracy, headed by a supreme ruler whose declared divinity was one of the chief stabilizing forces of the society. Between its agricultural base and its ruling monarch, the Old Kingdom had a substantial middle class which procured the wood, stone, metals and other materials needed in construction; a corps of engineers, technicians and skilled workers, and a substantial mass of humanity which provided the energy needed to erect the temples, monuments and other remains which testify to the political, economic, and cultural competence of the ruling elements and the technical skills present in the Old Kingdom.

Foremost among the factors responsible for the success of the Old Kingdom was the close partnership between the “lords temporal” and the “lords spiritual”—the state and the church. The state consisted of a highly centralized monarchy ruled by a Pharoah who personified temporal authority. This authority was strengthened because it represented a consensus of the many gods recognized and worshiped by the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom. The monarch was also looked upon as an embodiment of divinity. Some Egyptian pharoahs had been priests who became rulers. Others had been rulers who became priests. The two aspects of public life—political and religious—were closely interrelated.

In theory the land of Egypt was the property of the Pharoah. Foreign trade was a state monopoly. In practice the ownership and use of land were shared with the temples and with those members of the nobility closest to the ruling monarch. Hence there were state lands and state income and temple lands and temple income. The use of state lands was alloted to favorites. Each temple had land which it used for its own purposes.

Political power in the Old Kingdom was a tight monopoly held by the ruling dynasty of the period. During preceding epochs it seems likely that rival groups or factions had gone through a period of power-survival struggle which eliminated one rival after another until economic ownership and political authority were both vested in the same ruling oligarchs. This struggle for consolidation apparently reached its climax when Menes, a pharoah who began his rule about 3,400 B.C., in the south of Egypt, invaded and conquered the Delta and merged the two kingdoms, South and North, into one nation which preserved its identity and its sovereignty until the Persian Conquest of 525 B.C.

The unification of the northern kingdom with the South seems to have been a slow process, interrupted by insurrections and rebellions in the Delta and in Lybia. Inscriptions report the suppression of these insurrections and give the number of war-captives brought to the south as slaves. In one instance the captives numbered 120,000 in addition to 1,420 small cattle and 400,000 large cattle.

Using these war captives to supplement the home supply of forced and free labor, successive dynasties built temples, palaces and tombs; constructed new cities; drained and irrigated land; sent expeditions to the Sinai peninsula to mine copper. Such enterprises indicate a considerable economic surplus above that required to take care of a growing population: the high degree of organization required to plan and assemble such enterprises, and the considerable engineering and technological capacity necessary for their execution.

Chief among the binding forces holding together the extensive apparatus known as the Old Kingdom was religion, with its gods, its temples and their generous endowments. Each locality consolidated into the Old Kingdom had its gods and their places for worship. In addition to these local religious centers there was an hierarchy of national deities, their temples, temple lands and endowments. The ruling monarch, who was official servitor of the national gods, interpreting their will and adding to the endowments of the temples, was the embodiment of secular and of religious authority.

Egyptians of the period believed that death was not an end, but a transition. They also believed that those who passed through the death process would have many of the needs and wants associated with life on the Earth. Furthermore they believed that in the course of their future existence those who had died would again inhabit the bodies that they had during their previous existences on Earth. Following out these beliefs the Egyptians put into their tombs a full assortment of the food, clothing, implements and instruments which they had used during their Earth life. They also embalmed the bodies of their dead with the utmost care and buried them in carefully hidden tombs where they would be found by their former users and occupied for the Day of Judgment.

Holding such views, preparation for the phase of life subsequent to death was a chief object of the early Egyptian rulers and their subjects. One of the preoccupations of each new occupant of the throne was the selection of his burial place. Early in his reign he began the construction of suitable quarters for the reception of his embalmed body. The great pyramids were such tombs. Other monarchs constructed rock-hewn chambers for the reception of their bodies. In these chambers in addition to a room for a sarcophagus were associated rooms in which every imaginable need of the dead was stored: food, clothing, furniture, jewelry, weapons.

Adjacent to the royal tomb favored nobles received permission to build their own tombs, similarly equipped but on a smaller, less grandiose scale than that of the pharaoh. By this means the courtiers who had attended the pharaoh in his life-time would be at hand to perform similar services in the after death existence.

Construction and maintenance of temples and tombs absorbed a considerable part of Egypt‘s economic surplus. These drains on the economy grew more extensive as the country became more populous and more productive. Thanks to the lack of rain in and near the Nile Valley and despite the depleting activities of persistent vandalism these constructs have stood for thirty centuries as monuments to one of the most extensive and elaborate civilizations known to historians. Despite the absence of detailed records, Egyptian achievements under the Old Kingdom indicate an abundance of food, wood, metal and other resources far in excess of survival requirements; a population sufficiently extensive to produce the necessaries of existence and a surplus which made it possible for the lords temporal and spiritual to erect such astonishing and enduring monuments; high levels of technical skills among woodsmen, quarrymen and building crews; the transport facilities by land and water required to assemble the materials, equipment and man power; the foresight, planning, timing and over-all management involved in such constructs as the pyramids, temples and tombs which have withstood the wear and tear of thousands of years; the willingness and capacity of professionals, technicians, skilled workers, and the masses of free and slave labor to co-exist and co-operate over the long periods required for the completion of such extensive structural projects; the utilization of an extensive economic surplus not primarily for personal mass or middle-class consumption but to enhance the power and glory of a tiny minority, its handymen and other dependents; and a considerable middle class of merchants, managers and technicians.

Speaking sociologically, the structure of Egyptian society from sometime before 3,400 B.C., to 525 B.C., passed through four distinct phases or stages. During the first phase, the Nile Valley, which had been separated by tribal and/or geographical boundaries into a large number of more or less independent units, was consolidated, integrated and organized into a single kingdom. This working, functioning area (the land of Egypt) could provide for most of its basic needs from within its own borders. In a sense it was a self-sufficient, workable, liveable area. Egypt was populous, rich, well organized, with a surplus of wealth, productivity and man-power that could be used outside of its own frontiers. Some of the surplus was used outside—to the south, into Central Africa, to the west into North Africa, to the north into Eastern Europe and Western Asia, inaugurating the second phase of Egyptian development. During this second phase Egyptian wealth, population and technology, spilling over its frontiers onto foreign lands, established and maintained relations with foreign territory on a basis that yielded a yearly “tribute,” paid by foreigners into the Egyptian treasury. The land of Egypt thus surrounded itself with a cluster of dependencies, converting what had been an independent state or independent states into a functioning empire.

The land of Egypt was the nucleus of the Egyptian Empire—center of wealth and power with its associates and its dependencies. The empire was held together by a legal authority using armed force where necessary to assert or preserve its identity and unity.

Expansion, the third phase of Egyptian development, involved the export of culture traits and artifacts beyond national frontiers, extending the cultural influence of Egypt into non-Egyptian lands inhabited by Egypt‘s neighbors. Merchants, tourists, travelers, explorers and military adventurers carried the name and fame of Egypt into other centers of civilization and into the hinterland of barbarism that surrounded the civilizations of that period.

Thus the land of Egypt expanded into the Egyptian Empire and the culture of Egypt (its language, its ideas, its artifacts, its institutions) expanded far beyond the boundaries of Egyptian political authority and established Egyptian civilization in parts of Africa, Asia and Europe.

The era of Egyptian civilization was divided into two periods by an invasion of the Hyksos, nomadic leaders who moved into Egypt, ruled it for a period and later were expelled and replaced by a new Egyptian dynasty.

The fourth period of Egypt‘s experiment with civilization was that of decline. From a position of political supremacy and cultural ascendancy Egyptian influence weakened politically, economically, ideologically and culturally until the year of the Persian Conquest, 525 B.C., when Egypt became a conquered, occupied, provincial and in some ways a colonial territory.

Egyptian civilization can be summed up in three sentences. It covered the greatest time span of any civilization known to history. Its monuments are the most massive. Its records, chiefly in stone, picture massed humans directed for at least thirty centuries toward providing a satisfying and rewarding after-life for a tiny favored minority of its population. To achieve this result, the natural resources of three adjacent continents were combined and concentrated into the Nile Valley through an effective imperial apparatus that enabled the Egyptians to exploit the resources and peoples of adjacent Africa, Asia and Europe for the enrichment and empowerment of the rulers of Egypt and its dependencies. The disintegration and collapse of Egyptian civilization occupied only a small fraction of the time devoted to its upbuilding and supremacy.

Before, during and after Egyptians played their long and distinguished parts in the recorded history of civilization, the continent of Asia was producing a series of civilization in four areas: first at the crossroads joining Africa and Europe to Asia; then in Western Asia (Asia Minor); in Central Asia, especially in India and Indonesia and finally in China and the Far East.

Experiments with civilization during the past six thousand years have centered in the Eurasian land mass, including the North African littoral of the Mediterranean Sea. Within this area of potential or actual civilization, until very recent times, the centers of civilization have been widely separated geographically and temporally. Occasionally they have been unified and integrated by some unusual up-thrust like that of the Egyptian, the Chinese or the Roman civilizations. In the intervals between these up-thrusts various centers of civilization have maintained a large degree of autonomy and isolation. Only in the past five centuries have communication, transportation, trade and tourism created the basis for an experiment in organizing and coordination of a planet-wide experiment in civilization.

Nature offered humankind two logical areas for the establishment of civilizations. One was the cross-roads of migration, trade and travel by land to and from Asia, Africa and Europe. The other was the Mediterranean with its possibility of relatively safe and easy water-migration, trade and travel between the three continents making up its littoral. Both possibilities were brought together in the Eastern Mediterranean with its multitude of islands, its broken coastline, and its many safe harbors.

The Phoenicians developed their far-flung trading activities around the Mediterranean as a waterway, and the tri-continental crossroads as a logical center for a civilization built around business enterprise.

Aegean civilization occupied the eastern Mediterranean for approximately two thousand years. Its nucleus was the island of Crete. Its influence extended far beyond its island base into southern Europe, western Asia and North Africa. Experiments with civilization on and near the Indian sub-continent centered around the Indonesian archipelago and the rich, semi-tropical and tropical valleys of the Ganges, the Indus, the Gadari, the Irra-waddy and the Mekong. Although they were contiguous geographically and extended over a time span of approximately two thousand years they were aggregates rather than monolithic civilizations, retaining their localisms and avoiding any strong central authority.

Beginnings of civilization have been made outside the Asian-European-African triangle centering around the Mediterranean Sea and the band of South Asia extending from Mesopotamia through India and Indonesia to China. They include the high Andes, Mexico and Central America and parts of black Africa. In no one of these cases did the beginnings reach the stability and universality that characterized the Eurasian-African civilizations.

History and Civilization

We may think and talk about civilization as one pattern or level of culture, one stage through which human life flows and ebbs. In that sense we may regard it abstractly and historically, as we regard the most recent ice age or the long and painful record of large-scale chattel slavery.

From quite another viewpoint we may think of civilization as a technologically advanced way of life developed by various peoples through ages of unrecorded experiment and experience, and followed by millions during the period of written history. It is also the way of life that the West has been trying to impose upon the entire human family since European empires launched their crusade to westernize, modernize and civilize the planet Earth.

A third approach would regard civilization as an evolving life style, conceived before the earliest days of recorded human history and matured through the series of experiments marking the development of civilization as we have known it during the five centuries from 1450 to 1975.

Thinking in terms of this age-old experience, with six or more thousand years of social history as a background, it is possible to give a fairly exact meaning to the word “civilization” as it has been lived and is being lived by the present-day West. It is also possible to understand the history of previous civilizations in cycle after cycle of their rise, their development, decline and extinction. At the same time it will enable the reader to recognize the relationship (and difference) between the words “culture” and “civilization”.

Human culture is the sum total of ideas, relationships, artifacts, institutions, purposes and ideals currently functioning in any community. Three elements are present in each human society: man, nature and the social structure. Human culture at any point in its history is the social structure: the aggregate of existing culture traits, the products of man’s ingenuity, inventiveness and experimentation, set in their natural environment.

Civilization is a level of culture built upon foundations laid down through long periods of pre-civilized living. These foundations consist of artifacts, implements, customs, habit patterns and institutions produced and developed in numerous scattered localities by groups of food-gatherers, migrating herdsmen, cultivators, hand craftsmen and traders and eventually in urban communities built around centers of wealth and power: the cities which are the nuclei of every civilization.

Urban centers, housing trade, commerce, fabrication and finance, with their hinterlands of food-gatherers, herdsmen, cultivators, craftsmen and transporters, are the nuclei around which and upon which recurring civilizations are built. Within and around these urban centers there grows up a complex of associations, activities, institutions and ideas designed to promote, develop and defend the particular life pattern.

A civilization is a cluster of peoples, nations and empires so related in time and space that they share certain ideas, practices, institutions and means of procedure and survival. Among these features of a civilized community we may list:

(1) means of communication, record-keeping, transportation and trade. This would include a spoken language, a method of enumeration, writing in pictographs or symbols; an alphabet, a written language, inscribed on stone, bone, wood, parchment, paper; means of preserving the records of successive generations; paths, roads, bridges; a system for educating successive generations; meeting places and trading points; means for barter or exchange;

(2) an interdependent urban-oriented economy based on division of labor and specialization; on private property in the essential means of production and in consumer goods and services; on a competitive survival struggle for wealth, prestige and power between individuals and social groups; and on the exploitation of man, society and nature for the material benefit of the privileged few who occupy the summit of the social pyramid;

(3) a unified, centralized political apparatus or bureaucracy that attempts to plan, direct and administer the political, economic, ideological and sociological structure;

(4) a self-selected and self-perpetuating oligarchy that owns the wealth, holds the power and pulls the strings;

(5) an adequate labor force for farming, transport, industry, mining;

(6) large middle-class elements: professionals, technicians, craftsmen, tradesmen, lesser bureaucrats, and a semi-parasitic fringe of camp-followers;

(7) a highly professional, well-trained, amply-financed apparatus for defense and offense;

(8) a complex of institutions and social practices which will indoctrinate, persuade and when necessary limit deviation and maintain social conformity;

(9) agreed religious practices and other cultural features.

This description of civilization covers the essential features of western civilization and the sequence of predecessor civilizations for which adequate records exist.

Successive civilizations have introduced new culture traits and abandoned old ones as the pageant of history moved from one stage to the next, or advanced and retreated through cycles. Using this description as a working formula, it is possible to understand the development followed in the past by western civilization, to estimate its current status and to indicate its probable outcome.

Long-established thought-habits cry aloud in protest against such a description of civilization. Until quite recently the word “civilization” has been used in academic circles to symbolize a social idea or ideal. Professor of History Anson D. Morse of Amherst College presents such a view in his Civilization and the World War (Boston: Ginn 1919). For him, civilization is “the sum of things in which the heritage of the child of the twentieth century is better than that of the child of the Stone Age. As a process it is the perfection of man and mankind. As an end, it is the realization of the highest ideal which men are capable of forming…. The goal of civilization … is human society so organized in all of its constituent groups that each shall yield the best possible service to each one and thereby to mankind as a whole, (producing) the perfect organization of humanity.” (page 3).

Such thoughts may be noble and inspired; they are not related to history. We know more or less about a score of civilizations that have occupied portions of the earth during several thousand years. We know a great deal about the western civilization which we observe and in which we participate. Professor Morse’s florid words apply to none of the civilizations known to history. Certainly they are poles away from an accurate characterization of our own varient of this social pattern.

We are writing this introduction in an effort to make our word pictures of mankind and its doings correspond with the facts of social history. With the nuclear sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, it is high time for us to exchange the clouds of fancy and the flowers of rhetoric for the solid ground of historical reality. The word “civilization” must generalize what has been and what is, as nearly as the past and present can be embodied in language.

Civilization is a level or phase of culture which has been attained and lost repeatedly in the course of social history. The epochs of civilization have not been distributed evenly, either in time or on the earth’s surface. A combination of circumstances, political, economic, ideological, sociological, resulted in the Egyptian, the Chinese, the Roman civilizations. One of these was centered in North Africa, the second in Asia, the third in eastern Europe. All three spilled over into adjacent continents.

No two civilizations are exactly alike at any stage of their development. Each civilization is at least a partial experiment, a process or sequence of causal relationships, altered sequentially in the course of its life cycle.

These thoughts about culture and civilization should be supplemented by noting the relationship between civilizations and empires. An empire is a center of wealth and power associated with its economic and political dependencies. A civilization is a cluster or a succession of empires and/or former empires, co-ordinated and directed by one of their number which has established its leadership in the course of survival struggle.

The total body of historical evidence bearing on human experiments with civilization is extensive and impressive. It covers a large portion of the Earth’s land surface, includes parts of Asia, Africa and Europe and extends sketchily to the Americas. In time it covers many thousands of years.

Experiments with civilization have been conducted in highly selective surroundings possessing the volume and range of natural resources and the isolation and remoteness necessary to build and maintain a high level of culture over substantial periods of time. In these special areas it was possible to provide for subsistence, produce an economic surplus large enough to permit experimentation and ensure protection against human and other predators. Egypt and the Fertile Crescent were surrounded by deserts and high mountains. Crete was an island, extensive but isolated. Productive river valleys like the Yang-tse, the Ganges and the Mekong have afforded natural bases for experiments with civilization. Similar opportunities have been provided by strategic locations near bodies of water, mineral deposits and the intersections of trade-routes. Others, less permanent, were located in the high Andes, on the Mexican Plateau, in the Central American jungles.

Histories of civilizations, some of them ancient or classical, have been written during the past two centuries. There have been general histories in many languages. There have been scholarly reports on particular civilizations. Prof. A.J. Toynbee’s massive ten volume Study of History is a good example. Still more extensive is the thirty volume history of civilization under the general editorship of C.K. Ogden. These writings have brought together many facts bearing chiefly on the lives of spectacular individuals and episodes, with all too little data on the life of the silent human majority.

At the end of this volume the reader will find a list, selected from the many books that I have consulted in preparation for writing this study. Most of these authorities are concerned with the facts of civilization, with far less emphasis on their political, economic and sociological aspects.

In this study I have tried to unite theory with practice. On the one hand I have reviewed briefly and as accurately as possible some outstanding experiments with civilization, including our own western variant. (Part I. The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization.) In Part II I have undertaken a social analysis of civilization as a past and present life style. In Part III, Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete, I have tried to check our thinking about civilization with the sweep of present day historical trends. Part IV, Steps Beyond Civilization, is an attempt to list some of the alternatives and opportunities presently available to civilized man.

Any reader who has the interest and persistence to read through the entire volume and to browse through some of its references will have had the equivalent of a university extension course dealing with one of the most critical issues confronting the present generation of humanity.

Profile of Chandansenji

Bio Data Basically from the field of Science and Technology and wirking in the field of Development Education since 1996. Chaired different development organizations and participated in the
	Name	Chandan Sengupta
	Date of Birth	2nd February 1974
	Address	Aurovindo Nagar, Bankura – 722101 West Bengal Mobile – 08906477849 Phone – 08016210720 Phone – 03242-257864
	Academic Qualification	B Sc (Zoology Honours) M A ( Comparative Religion and Philosophy)  Completed Research in Education ( Topic: Enhancement of Critical Competencies through Computer Aided Learning Packages). Certificate in Java, HTML, Web Page Designing, Hardware and PC Maintenance.
	Work Experiences	Facilitated Supervisor Training Programmes organized by National Council of Educational Research and Training, Govt of India ( 1998-2001). Facilitated different skill enhancement programmes organized by Mahila Seva Mandal, Mahila Ashram Warddha. ( 2003 – 2007). Worked in close association with different Gandhian Institutions of Wardha ( as a gude, a technical consulate and a rector.( 2008-2010). Worked in close association with Informatics Division of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Vidarbha ( VRC Project). Prepared different training and Facilitation Manuals in local language for using in need based curriculum transaction. Submitted final document of Research to the Evaluation Committee of JVBU, Rajasthan. Accepted membership of the Network for the promotion of Girl’s Education, Capacity Building and Empowerment formed by National Council of Educational Research and Education, Govt of India.
	Technical Knowledge	A Web Designer having knowledge of PHP and MY SQL, Database applications and other web designing tools of current market trend. Some Active Projects: http://www.gvpwardha.in http://www.bankah.in http://www.swavalambi.org http://www.it.bankah.in http://www.resources.bankah.in http://www.vidarbhavrc.wordpress.com A Trainor ( Tally 9.0, Windows Applications, Photoshop, Computer Languages, Server Seide Profgramming and Client Side Programming). A content writer, Rajeev Gandhi Computer Literacy Mission, Bankura. A Trainer,  Different Development Organisations. Live Projects( Library Automation, Online Client Management System, Online Knowledge Management Portal, Online Resource Directory Portal, Content Management System).
	Basic Skills	Computer Application, Teaching Methodology and Project Planning, System Design Methodologies, Participatory Process Exercises, Resource Management System, Participatory Administrative Exercises ( Experiences of Working in Gandhian Institutions).
	Areas of Interest	Rural Development, Computer Application, Cottage Industries, Small Projects;
	Languages Known	Hindi, Marathi, English, Bengali ( Proficient); Oriya ( Basic);
	Achievements	Received award from Central Hindi Directorate for proficiency in Hindi ( all India Level). Received honour at Jain Viswa Bharati University for delivering a research note on Population Education.
	Memberships	Dept of Women Studies( NCERT), Mahila Seva Mandal, RCEAM( Rajasthan);
	Contact Details	Email: chandansenji@gmail.com            mssrfwda@gmail.com            chandansenji@hotmail.com            chandansenji@live.com            mahilashram31@rediffmail.com            senguptabqa@gmail.com Mobile – 08906477849 Phone – 08016210720 Phone – 03242-257864
	Publications	Modern Education in India ( NCERT, 1999). Tribal Education( NCERT, 2000); Organic Farming(Marathi/Hindi) -2006 Creative Learning – Mahila Seva Mandal.2007   Teacher’s Manual ( Marathi) – Mahila Seva Mandal – 2007. Population Education Perspectives ( JVBU, 2008)

Proposal

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Additional Charges beyond 40 page documents	Rs 40/- per page. Including designing, customization and uploading. Each image will be considered as a page.
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All India Camp for University Students…..

INSTITUTE OF GANDHIAN STUDIES
Gandhi Vichar Parishad
(Founded in Memory of the Late Shri Jamnalal Bajaj)
Board of Trustees
Justice (Retd.) C. S. Dharmadhikari – Chairman
Dhirubhai Mehta
Rahul Bajaj
Shekhar Bajaj
Minal Bajaj
Kumud Bajaj
II-2| |2011-12
Dear friend,
Over the last several years the Institute of Gandhian Studies has been organizing a residential
Winter Camp for University Students from different parts of India to give them a unique opportunity to
get acquainted with the thought and work of Mahatma Gandhi.
The main objectives of the Institute are to conduct short and long term courses of study in
Gandhian Thought; offer facilities for training in Gandhian constructive and social work; undertake and
promote research in various aspects of Gandhian philosophy and action; conduct national and
international seminars; provide counselling and evaluation services for those engaged in constructive
field work and undertake publications.
This year, the Annual Camp for University Students from all over India will be held from Friday
the 23rd December 2011 to Friday the 30th of December 2011 (both days inclusive) at Wardha. The
Camp will provide students with an opportunity to undertake an intensive study of Gandhian Thought,
and the struggles and movements inspired by Gandhiji in India and abroad.
The medium for the talks in the Camp will be primarily English. The discussions and interactions
in the Camp will be English/Hindi.
We will be very happy if you can put up the enclosed leaflet on the notice board, and select and
depute one or two students to attend the Camp. Since we do not admit more than 45 students, we can
not be sure that all will be selected.
We have no provision for giving Railway/Bus fare to the campers. Their board and lodging here
will be our responsibility. We will be very grateful to you if you can let us have the filled in application
of those whom you would like to recommend so as to reach us at the earliest. Those who are selected
will receive intimation soon. This will help the candidates to get the railway reservation well in
advance. We will be closing the admission of participants to the camp by December 05, 2011.
We look forward to your kind co-operation.
Thanking you,
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Bharat Mahodaya)
Encl: Leaflet.
Gopuri, Wardha- 442 001 Maharashtra (India)
■ Tel. + 91 (0) 7152- 243585 ■ Telefax: + 91 (0) 7152-240315 ■
E-mail: mahatma_wda@sancharnet.in / igsgvp@yahoo.com

The Birth of Khadi

I do not remember to have seen a handloom or a spinning wheel when in 1908 I described it in “Hind Swaraj” as the panacea for the growing pauperism of India. In that book I took it as understood that anything that helped India to get rid of the grinding poverty of her masses would in the same process also establish Swaraj. Even in 1915, when I returned to India from South Africa, I had not actually seen a spinning wheel. When the Satyagraha Ashram was founded at Sabarmati, we introduced a few handlooms there. But no sooner had we done this than we found ourselves up against a difficulty. All of us belonged either to the liberal professions or to business; not one of us was an artisan. We needed a weaving expert to teach us to weave before we could work the looms. One was at last procured from Palanpur, but Maganlal Gandhi was not to be easily baffled. Possessed of a natural talent for mechanics, he was able fully to master the art before long, and one after another several new weavers were trained up in the Ashram.

The object that we set before ourselves was to be able to clothe ourselves entirely in cloth manufactured by our own hands. We therefore forthwith discarded the use of mill-woven cloth, and all the members of the Ashram resolved to wear hand-woven cloth made from Indian yarn only. The adoption of this practice brought us a world of experience. It enabled us to know, from direct contact, the conditions of life among the weavers, the extent of their production, the handicaps in the way of their obtaining their yarn supply, the way in which they were being made victims of fraud, and, lastly, their ever growing indebtedness. We were not in a position immediately to manufacture all the cloth for our needs. The alternative therefore was to get our cloth supply from handloom weavers. But ready-made cloth from Indian mill-yarn was not easily obtainable either from the cloth- dealers or from the weavers themselves. All the fine cloth woven by the weavers was from foreign yarn, since Indian mills did not spin fine counts. Even today the outturn of higher counts by Indian mills is very limited, whilst highest counts they cannot spin at all. It was after the greatest effort that we were at last able to find some weavers who condescended to weave Swadeshi yarn for us, and only on condition that the Ashram would take up all the cloth that they might produce. By thus adopting cloth woven from mill-yarn as our wear, and propagating it among our friends, we made ourselves voluntary agents of the Indian spinning mills. This in its turn brought us into contact with the mills, and enabled us to know something about their management and their handicaps. We saw that the aim of the mills was more and more to weave the yarn spun by them: their co-operation with the handloom weaver was not willing, but unavoidable and temporary. We became impatient to be able to spin our own yarn. It was clear that, until we could do this ourselves, dependence on the mills would remain. We did not feel that we could render any service to the country by continuing as agents of Indian spinning mills.

K.L. Kamat/Kamat’s Potpourri

Swadeshi Memorabilia
Woman weaves cloth under Gandhi’s bust
From a picture postcard from 1940s

No end of difficulties again faced us. We could get neither spinning wheel nor a spinner to teach us how to spin. We were employing some wheel for filling pearns and bobbins for weaving in the Ashram. But we had no idea that these could be used as spinning wheels. Once Kalidas Jhaveri discovered a woman who, he said, would demonstrate to us how spinning was done. We sent to her a member of the Ashram who was known for his great versatility in learning new things. But even he returned without wresting the secret of the art.

So the time passed on, and my impatience grew with the time. I plied every chance visitor to the Ashram who was likely to possess some information about hand-spinning with questions about the art. But the art being confined to women and having been all but exterminated, if there was some stray spinner still surviving in some obscure corner, only a member of that sex was likely to find out her whereabouts.

In the year 1917 I was taken by my Gujarati friends to preside at the Broach Educational Conference. It was here that I discovered that remarkable lady Gangabehn Majmundar. She was a widow, but her enterprising spirit knew no bounds. Her education, in the accepted sense of the term, was not much. But in courage and commonsense she easily surpassed the general run of our educated women. She had already got rid of the curse of untouchability, and fearlessly moved among and served the suppressed classes. She had means of her own, and her needs were few. She had a well seasoned constitution, and went about everywhere without an escort. She felt quite at home on horseback. I came to know her more intimately at the Godhra Conference. To her I poured out my grief about the charkha, and she lightened my burden by a promise to prosecute an earnest and incessant search for the spinning wheel.

Gandhiji at School

We three brothers were learning at the same school. The eldest brother was in a much higher class, and the brother who was married at the same time as I was, only one class ahead of me. Marriage resulted in both of us wasting a year. Indeed the result was oven worse for my brother, for he gave up studies altogether. Heaven knows how many youths are in the same plight as he. Only in our present Hindu society do studies and marriage go thus hand in hand.

My studies were continued. I was not regarded as a dunce at the high school. I always enjoyed the affection of my teachers. Certificates of progress and character used to be sent to the parents every year. I never had a bad certificate. In fact I even won prizes after I passed out of the second standard. In the fifth and sixth I obtained scholarships and rupees four and ten respectively, an achievement for which I have to thank good luck more than my merit. For the scholarships were not open to all, but reserved for the best boys amongst those coming from the Sorath Division of Kathiawad. And in those days there could not have been many boys from Sorath in a class of forty to fifty.

My own recollection is that I had not any high regard for my ability. I used to be astonished whenever I won prizes and scholarships. But I very jealously guarded my character. The least little blemish drew tears from my eyes. When I merited, or seemed to the teacher to merit, a rebuke, it was unbearable for me. I remember having once received corporal punishment. I did not so much mind the punishment, as the fact that it was considered my desert. I wept piteously. That was when I was in the first or second standard. There was another such incident during the time when I was in the seventh standard. Dorabji Edulji Gimi was the headmaster then. He was popular among boys, as he was a disciplinarian, a man of method and a good teacher. He had made gymnastics and cricket compulsory for boys of the upper standards. I disliked both. I never took part in any exercise, cricket or football, before they were made compulsory. My shyness was one of the reasons for this aloofness, which I now see was wrong. I then had the false notion that gymnastics had nothing to do with education. Today I know that physical training should have as much place in the curriculum as mental training.

I may mention, however, that I was none the worse for abstaining from exercise. That was because I had read in books about the benefits of long walks in the open air, and having liked the advice, I had formed a habit of taking walks, which has still remained with me. These walks gave me a fairly hardy constitution.

The reason of my dislike for gymnastics was my keen desire to serve as nurse to my father. As soon as the school closed, I would hurry home and begin serving him. Compulsory exercise came directly in the way of this service. I requested Mr. Gimi to exempt me from gymnastics so that I might be free to serve my father. But he would not listen to me. Now it so happened that one Saturday, when we had school in the morning, I had to go from home to the school for gymnastics at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I had no watch, and the clouds deceived me. Before I reached the school the boys had all left. The next day Mr. Gimi, examining the roll, found me marked absent. Being asked the reason for absence, I told him what had happened. He refused to believe me and ordered me to pay a fine of one or two annas (I cannot now recall how much).

I was convicted of lying ! That deeply pained me. How was I to prove my innocence? There was no way. I cried in deep anguish. I saw that a man of truth must also be a man of care. This was the first and last instance of my carelessness in school. I have a faint recollection that I finally succeeded in getting the fine remitted. The exemption from exercise was of course obtained, as my father wrote himself to the headmaster saying that he wanted me at home after school.

But though I was none the worse for having neglected exercise, I am still paying the penalty of another neglect, I do not know whence I got the notion that good handwriting was not a necessary part of education, but I retained it until I went to England. When later, especially in South Africa, I saw the beautiful handwriting of lawyers and young men born and educated in South Africa, I was ashamed of myself and repented of my neglect. I saw that bad handwriting should be regarded as a sign of an imperfect education. I tried later to improve mine, but it was too late. I could never repair the neglect of my youth. Let every young man and woman be warned by my example, and understand that good handwriting is a necessary part of education. I am now of opinion that children should first be taught the art of drawing before learning how to write. Let the child learn his letters by observation as he does different objects, such as flowers, birds, etc., and let him learn handwriting only after he has learnt to draw objects. He will then write a beautifully formed hand.

Two more reminiscences of my school days are worth recording. I had lost one year because of my marriage, and the teacher wanted me to make good the loss by skipping a class a privilege usually allowed to industrious boys. I therefore had only six months in the third standard and was prompted to he forth after the examinations which are followed by the summer vacation. English became the medium of instruction in most subjects from the fourth standard. I found myself completely at sea. Geometry was a new subject in which I was not particularly strong, and the English medium made it still more difficult for me. The teacher taught the subject very well, but I could not follow him. Often I would lose heart and think of going back to the third standard, feeling that the packing of two years’ studies into a single year was too ambitious. But this would discredit not only me, but also the teacher; because, counting on my industry, he had recommended my promotion. So the fear of the double discredit kept me at my post. When however, with much effort I reached the thirteenth proposition of Euclid, the utter simplicity of the subject was suddenly revealed to me. A subject which only required a pure and simple use of one’s reasoning powers could not be difficult. Ever since that time geometry has been both easy and interesting for me.

Samskrit, however, proved a harder task. In geometry there was nothing to memorize, whereas in Samskrit, I thought, everything had to be learnt by heart. This subject also was commenced from the fourth standard. As soon as I entered the sixth I became disheartened. The teacher was a hard taskmaster, anxious, as I thought, to force the boys. There was a sort of rivalry going on between the Samskrit and the Persian teachers. The Persian teacher was lenient. The boys used to talk among themselves that Persian was very easy and the Persian teacher very good and considerate to the students. The ‘easiness’ tempted me and one day I sat in the Persian class. The Samskrit teacher was grieved. He called me to his side and said: ‘How can you forget that you are the son of a Vaishnava father? Won’t you learn the language of your own religion? If you have any difficulty, why not come to me? I want to teach you students Samskrit to the best of my ability. As you proceed further, you will find in it things of absorbing interest. You should not lose heart. Come and sit again in the Samskrit class.’

This kindness put me to shame. I could not disregard my teacher’s affection. Today I cannot but think with gratitude of Krishnashankar Pandya. For if I had not acquired the little Samskrit that I had learnt then, I should have found it difficult to take any interest in our sacred books. In fact I deeply regret that I was not able to acquire a more thorough knowledge of the language, because I have since realized that every Hindu boy and girl should possess sound Samskrit learning.

It is now my opinion that in all Indian curricula of higher education there should be a place for Hindi, Samskrit, Persian, Arabic and English, besides of course the vernacular. This big list need not frighten anyone. If our education were more systematic, and the boys free from the burden of having to learn their subjects through a foreign medium, I am sure learning all these languages would not be an irksome task. but a perfect pleasure. A scientific knowledge of one language makes a knowledge of other languages comparatively easy.

In reality, Hindi, Gujarati and Samskrit may be regarded as one language, and Persian and Arabic also as one. Though Persian belongs to the Aryan, and Arabic to the Semitic family of languages, there is a close relationship between Persian and Arabic, because both claim their full growth through the rise of Islam. Urdu I have not regarded as a distinct language, because it has adopted the Hindi grammar and its vocabulary is mainly Persian and Arabic, and he who would learn good Urdu must learn Persian and Arabic, as one who would learn good Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali, or Marathi must learn Samskrit.