An educator needs to understand a child’s mind: Fr. Thomas

Rourkela: While exercising their brains on abstract and theoretical things, children should not be forced to think critically until their minds get matured. To understand this, an educator should study the mind of a child and act accordingly, said Fr. K C Thomas, a renowned teacher and Principal of St. Arnold School in Rourkela.

He was speaking at a symposium for principals organized at Hotel Deepti here yesterday by Macmillan Publishers India Ltd. Thomas spoke on importance of quality education for a child. He stated that children need a different environment while an educator should understand their minds properly and communicate with them effectively.

He also dwelt upon types of intelligence- visual, bodily or kinesthetic. Thomas cited examples of Albert Einstein, APJ Abdul Kalam and Sachin Tendulkar. He said that Indians are more intelligent than pragmatic. He also emphasized on timely revision of courses of students. For a child two factors works affects more while doing some job, they are of 20 per cent intelligence quotient and other 80 per cent with heart quotient. So what our heart says we apply it with our intelligence, he stated.

Chandrajit Mitra, head of Macmillan Eastern India, spoke on the history of Macmillan group thereby saying Macmillan India has enjoyed continuity in India’s educational market for over 100 years, and today it is the preferred knowledge partner of around 15,000 schools. It is known for high-quality academic, educational, fiction and non-fiction publishing: educational course materials, science, technology and medicine, college textbooks, dictionaries, monographs and reference materials.   

“It is the support of all principals of different schools having depend on this publishers which has brought us to this position”, said Mitra.

“It is also matter of pride that we have joined hands with Frank Bros. a leading educationist. The synergies we have created through this acquisition will help us to better meet the needs of the changing education system and schools affiliated to IB, CBSE, ICSE and State Board”, added Mitra saying “The complementary addition of the Frank imprint to our group expands the range of products that we bring to you. We will continue with all existing offerings from the Frank Bros. portfolio of books like-Joys of Maths, Fundamentals of Social Science, Frank Primary Science, Joyful Living and many more”.

Among others, Vikrant Parhi, head of Macmillan Odisha and principals of different schools of Rourkela were present. Ahanaa Bhattacharjee anchored the programme.