Morning Briefing Sunday 7th January

The Times briefing for the morning of Tuesday 2nd July. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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The Times briefing for the evening of Monday 1st July. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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The Times briefing for the afternoon of Monday 1st July. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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The Times briefing for the morning of Monday 1st July. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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The Times briefing for Sunday 30th June. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app

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The Times briefing for Saturday 29th June. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app

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The Times Briefing for the evening of Friday 28th June. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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The Times briefing for the afternoon of Friday 28th June. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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The Times briefing for the morning of Friday 28th June. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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The Times Briefing for the evening of Thursday 27th June. For more on these stories throughout the day tune into Times Radio - on DAB, online, through your smart speaker or on the Times Radio app.

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[Rerun] For 2 years, starting March 2020, schools were completely shut for students in primary classes due to the pandemic. During this time, learning was at its minimum and only happened through weekly worksheets and activities that teachers would share on WhatsApp. So, after they returned to school, it was clear that even though they were in classes two years senior, they were not prepared for it. And it was put to the teachers to get them to catch up. But how did they do that?

To answer that, Indian Express’ Sukrita Baruah spent 5 weeks in a fifth grade maths classroom in Delhi to observe one teacher as she tried to bridge that learning gap. In this special episode, she joins host Shashank Bhargava to talk about what she observed. From challenges that the teacher faced in dealing with children who were at different levels and the lesson plans she used, to how family environments impacted learning and what experts say should be done going forward.

Produced by Shashank Bhargava
Edited and Mixed by Suresh Pawar

The Root Episode 6: The New Standard is broken down into 3 parts — 1) coproducers Dominique and Kestrel interview each other to get a brief feeling of how this project has impacted them individually, 2) we share interviews with 4 of our sponsors from this project, and 3) we share more on what “The New Standard” means to us, the pillars it is built upon, and what questions we all need to be asking moving forward. 

THE ROOT SPONSORS

SAMATA, CEO of Red Carpet Green Dress

“It’s mandatory listening to the point where it should be curriculum. And I always advocate for teaching people about how clothes are made - that they come from trees and farms and rivers and lakes and hands. But I think the other part is that we need to educate people about the systems that exist within the industry - not just the products and how they’re made.”

REBECCA BURGESS, Founder of Fibershed

“Our culture is so superficial right now around the conversations around race. And I think what The Root did is - it literally rooted in the variances between those of us who have been in migration patterns that just keep going, those of us who have been more rooted in place, experiences of socio-economic variation … there’s just so much that’s involved that’s so intersectional - I like that you gave space for those intersections!”

KELSEY SABO, Marketing Manager, Sustainability at MATE

“Our biggest key takeaways … having a better idea of how that white washed narrative has not been getting to the reality that sustainability at its core has been advocated for by the BIPOC community since far before any white people have been talking about it.”

The school is mine, where I worked for 28 years, getting better every year with more and more knowledge. We had working teams with teachers teaching the same subjects. The pupils had class rooms for their education. Everything was just great. The pupils got good notes. Till the municipality decided to reconstruct the school and this new school ought to have an upper secondary school under the same roof. The municipality wanted something up to date, modern. The most modern was to have a consultant. And there came a consultant, with stuck-up look who seduced the representatives from the municipality. His concept was, to be brief, let´s give the class rooms to the upper secondary school and let the pupils in the compulsory school have their lessons in the old vestibules. Does it seem stupid? Yes, of course. The consultant drew circles and figures of different kinds on the whiteboard. The teachers looked at each other and the terror was depicted in their faces. Where did this man come from? The consultant´s great idea was this: Basic units! (It´s an invention of a lunatic and impossible to translate) The teachers wriggled of pedagogic pain, please, please….. But, why are basic units so terrible? Let me exemplify with kingly words (yes, from the king who use to distribute the Nobel prices). When the king inaugurated the reconstructed school he went through the schools spaces. Suddenly he came to a very big space, with glass, glass, glass, with tables and chairs, very, very modern. The king asked: “What space is this?” Then one of the high representatives answered him: “It´s a basic unit, a space where different classes can have their education at the same time. And the king replied at once: “But don´t they disturb each other then?” And imagine, nobody in the train of wise guys who followed the king were able to give him an answer on that question…. And of course it is so, crowd together three classes in the same “basic unit” makes it impossible to have good lessons. The teachers get disturbed and the pupils too. I went to see this school so up to date, this night-mare of glass, with a teacher from Spain who visited me in my home. When we observed a basic unit where a group was having lessons three girls came in screaming and all in a mess. I said to my friend. Crowding together many classes in the same classroom letting them have education at the same time is a pedagogic invention I´ve never understood. Mikel didn´t understand it either, something that made me very happy. And a woman from Mexico with whom I had contact some years ago expressed it like this: It´s like serving the food in the bathroom. Now you have an idea of what´s a basic unit. It´s the death of an effective education. It´s a “modern” idea without pedagogic reflection. And the terrifying is that this consultant and the architect are destroying schools over all Sweden with applauses from the self-appointed experts in the municipalities, what world is this? Last year they published an investigation in the university of Queensland, the man´s name who carried through the work is Vinesh Oommen, and his conclusion was that to work in a landscaped office (which the “basic units” are kind of) is dangerous for your health. Between quotes I give you a brief translation of the results: “In 90 % of the investigation it was considered negative to work in landscaped offices because they caused a high level of stress, conflicts, high blood pressure and high staff turnover (the kids can´t finish, the school is obligatory, my amendment). The high level of noise does that the employees loose their concentration which causes low productivity. There are problems because everybody can see what you write on your computer and hear everything you say when you make a call. It causes a feeling of insecurity. Moreover, virus and microbes have got more co-workers to infect and in this way more persons get the flu. And here´s the conclusion between quotes: “Founded on these results, I think the employers in our country should reconsider the environment with landscaped offices”. The highest authority for education in Sweden, Skolverket (The National Agency for Education) has criticized this way to organize the education on several matters. It´s unfair to the boys, because they get worse notes than the girls. (But in Sweden, totally infected of feminism maybe this is okay). Instead of organizing the work teams around the subjects, which gives better teachers, they are grouped around a group of pupils. The result is that the teachers who teach the same subjects don´t have any opportunity to meet and discuss and improve their teaching skills. The construction of the classrooms, or better, the lack of classrooms leads to a way to organize the work. Instead of teaching, the teachers let the pupils do “school works” (you write about a country instead of getting education about the country). This is a problem not only for this school, not at all, it´s a national problem, and Skolverket has warned that this may be the cause of the bad results for the Swedish kids (compared to pupils in other countries) Here´s a link to a basic unit: http://www.arkitekt.se/s11065?skip11064=-1 To organize a school like this, as you already have understood, have lots of negative consequences. For me personally, it caused high blood pressure, depression and caused my early retirement pension.

The sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 3, 2019, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Carmen White-Janak, Guest Minister. DESCRIPTION This year, 2019,  commemorates 400 years since Africans were brought to these shores. This is also our 93rd year since Carter G. Woodson initiated Black History Month—lifting our collective awareness to acknowledge Black folks incredible influence, creative genius, and indelible contributions made in this country. Black history is American history. This historical context impacts All Souls as a community leader to truly embrace all souls. What if we, as a loving beyond belief community, named it, called it out and called ourselves in refusing to allow racism or any other "isms" to live among us. What if we used our collective intelligence and power to transform and transcend hatred, or indifference. What if when we passed one another in the hallway at church, work or play we actually stopped to acknowledge that we were in the Presence of The Divine. What if... SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO PODCAST: WATCH THIS SERMON ON YOUTUBE: SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: or text LOVEBB to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: Facebook: Twitter: All Souls Church Website: