Education Moulds

Playing should not be merely a routine work, but should exude some knowledge and learning that can enable a child to mould his or her personality in different fields like emotional, physical and social.

Toys at Different Stage

A child educational toy should be brightly colorful and have the ability to entice and draw the attention of a child. Red, white and black are the first noticeable colors in the eyes of infants. The eye-catching hues help the child to get drawn towards the toys and get a hold of it. The various aspects of the child educational toys stimulate the sensory organs and stir interest amongst the infants who can hardly understand anything.

The infancy stager of a child is characterized by inquisitiveness. But once they grow up they can solve their queries by asking many questions. With the passing of years, the maturation of their body parts contributes a lot to the development of the motor skills. The varied types of toys like the building blocks, puzzles, stuffed toys, reading and coloring books, arts and crafts material helps a lot to boost a child’s’ imagination capability and creativity.

When a child steps into a school, he or she is open to a lot of obscure faces. Gradually the child learns to interact and play with his or her classmates and teachers. When the child grows a little the surrounding atmosphere becomes very amicable and a lot more casual. At this stage the various child educational toys are useful and enable them to enhance their educational skills. Games like balls, skipping ropes, board games and playing cards hone their skills and teach them a lot.

About Educational Toys

Good bonding with your child is very essential as it can drive away their shyness and aid them to win their fears. Nowadays most of the parents are working and can hardly squeeze out time for their children. Therefore, they try to compensate their prolonged absence by gifting toys. Hence the demand for educational toys has escalated in the recent years. The manufacturers have taken great pain and labor in researching and understanding the child’s psychology and creating toys that will accomplish their demands.

A few examples of child’s educational toys incorporate math basics, geography and variety of games that enhance the analytical skills, kids spelling and many more. In the recent years demand of the educational toys has amplified because children now prefer those toys with which they can actively interact than the usual stuffed toys.

Play is not merely a passing of time but plays a pivotal role in improving a child’s emotional and learning capability. Playing enables to widen a child’s capacity and maximize his potentiality. Remember that different child have different development pace and hence should be tackled differently. Do not force your thoughts on your child. A child may love to play with the same toy day after day. But another child may quickly lose interest in a particular toy after some time. You should understand this difference and meet their demands accordingly.

Once equipped with a child educational toy, your child is open to a myriad of activities, which makes the game more interesting. Hasbrow’s Baby Einstein Company is recently creating waves in this arena. Besides, playing with the toys encourage the children to learn music, art, language and poetry.

To name a few interesting toys the Leapfrog’s Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set, the Fisher Price’s Laugh and Learn Home and Leapfrog LeapStart learning Table are very educative and lots of entertaining.

Hence, there is a variety of choice for your child but you should buy something, which is quite apt for your child.

The best predictor of a good ending is a good beginning. The old adage is a true today as when it was first uttered so long ago that no one can clearly say who first spoke those words. When it comes to the education of young children this proverb has such tremendous relevance that it is hard to overstate its importance. All learning and life experience is moulded by what happens to the child in the early years of his or her life. The influence of the family is of major importance but the influence of the educational opportunities offered to young children is just as powerful and, in some ways, more powerful. For it is the impact of early childhood education that determines the attitude a child will take to formal schooling at primary or secondary level.

The world today is a troubled place. We seem to be getting better at hating one another. We seem less and less able to accept people who are different from us. In a world riddled with violence, crime, bullying, chaos and unpredictability we have to ask some important questions. Why is it that some children

Do not become violent?

Do not become bullies?

Do not become depressed?

Do not loath themselves and others?

Do not despair and give up on life?

These may not be the most profound questions being posed in today’s world but they are among the most important. Where can we turn to discern the answers to these questions? What do we know that can help us unpack the issues embedded in them and come to a vision of how to raise and educate young children?

The answers to these and other questions about children are emerging from new research about how the human brain grows and develops. Although we are a long way off knowing exactly who we can prevent violence and depression we have learned a good deal about how to foster the brain’s potential as an organ to help children grow to become contributing and productive members of society. Before we explore some of the implications from this research we need to briefly review the five areas of development that all children pass through during childhood.

Understanding Child Development

There are five areas of development that children undergo as they grow to be young adults. These steps appear in a rather predictable sequence, one after the other. They are not like steps of a ladder leading to higher and higher levels. Rather, they are like a spiral of stages through which a child cycles endlessly as they grow and mature. At some point the highest level of attainment may not be reached in a given area but that does not mean the child cannot progress to other areas of the spiral.

The five areas of child development are:

oPhysical
oIntellectual
oLinguistic
oEmotional
oSocial
They can be easily remembered by the use of the rather unfortunate acronym “PILES”.

Physical Development

This area of child development is no doubt the easiest to understand and observe. Physical development includes: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, motor control, motor coordination and kinaesthetic feedback. Let’s explain each of these briefly.

oGross motor skills are those movements of the large muscles of the legs, trunk and arms.

oFine motor skills are the movements of the small muscles of the fingers and hands.

oMotor control is the ability to move these large and small muscles.
oMotor coordination is the ability to move these muscles in a smooth and fluid pattern of motion.
oKinaesthetic feedback is the body’s ability to receive input to the muscles from the external environment so the person knows where his body is positioned in space.

Intellectual Development

This area relates to the level of intelligence of a child in general and to the various aspects of intelligence that influence overall level of general ability. Among these many aspects are:

oVerbal skills-our ability to communicate with words our ideas, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and emotions.
oNon-verbal skills-our ability to use visual and spatial-perceptual skills to interpret the world around us.
oAttention span-the ability to sustain a focus on a stimulus for a sufficient period of time to interpret it and understand it.
oConcentration-our ability to utilise attention to juggle stimuli into various permutations as necessary to analyse it accurately.
oVisual-motor skills-the ability to coordinate the movements of the eyes and hands to manipulate objects effectively.
oVisual-perceptual skills-the ability to analyse stimuli visually without necessarily manipulating them manually.
oMemory-can be auditory or visual (or even kinaesthetic as in the case of remember dance steps) and can be divided into some important sub-types:
- Immediate recall-ability to hold input long enough to recall it straight away if required to do so
- Short-term memory-ability to hold input over a longer period of time, perhaps minutes or hours
- Long-term memory-ability to store input and recall is well after it has been perceived, perhaps days or months, even years later

Linguistic Development

Linguistic development refers to language usage. Like other areas of child development it can be divided into sub-types.

oReceptive language-our ability to understand spoken language when we hear it
oExpressive language-our ability to use spoken language to communicate to others
oPragmatic language-the ability to understand humour, irony, sarcasm and know how to respond appropriate to what another has said or asked as well as know when to wait and listen
oSelf-talk-the ability to use internal, silent language to think through problems, cope with difficulties and postpone impulses
oReasoning-the ability to think through problems, usually with self-talk but at other times aloud, create plans of action using words
oCreative thinking-although not strictly a linguistic function I include it here because many people use language creatively, in new and inventive ways (e.g. Joyce, Beckett)

Emotional Development

This aspect of development, along with social development, is probably one of the most underrated but yet most important aspects of learning how to live in the world. No matter how excellent intellectual, physical and linguistic development may be we are doomed to live lives of frustration and difficult if we have not gained satisfactory emotional development. It includes:

oFrustration tolerance-the ability to cope effectively when things do not go the way we want or expect
oImpulse control-the ability to think before we act and not do everything that comes into our head
oAnger management-ability to resolve conflict without recourse to verbal or physical violence
oInter-personal intelligence-understanding the attitudes, beliefs and motivations of others
oIntra-personal intelligence-understand our own attitudes, beliefs and motivations

Social Development

oSharing-knowing how to ask to use the materials that belong to another
oTurn-taking-knowing when it is your turn to do something and when to ask if you can do it
oCooperation-the skills of working with others towards a group goal of task
oCollaboration-the ability to communication your input in a meaningful way when working with others.
Again it is necessary to repeat that emotional and social development play a hugely important role in our ability to live lives of dignity and respect. They also largely determine how well we will get along with workmates, bosses and loved ones including life-partners.

When we recognise that all children pass through each area of development we design educational programme for them that are developmentally appropriate. Most pre-schools have done just that. Unfortunately many early years settings succumb to pressure and push children towards academic goals and objectives, sometimes almost obsessively. Indeed, the curriculum in our junior and senior infant classes is largely developmentally inappropriate. It is far too teacher and parent-centred and far too little child-centred. Regardless, appropriate or inappropriate, it is not enough to focus on child development alone in our work with young children. We must begin to recognise the inborn potential locked within the child’s brain.

The Human Brain

Locked inside the brain are the potentialities that make us human. We are born with the potential for:

oLove Hate
oPatience Mistrust
oTenderness Violence
oHope Despair
oTrust Suspicion
oDignity Corruption
oRespect Revenge
It is the responsibilities of adults to unlock the positive potentialities of the brain and prevent the negative from appearing.

All educational experiences of children in the early years, indeed all educational experiences of children across the entire school years, must place an emphasis on releasing the positive potential that lies within the brain. Recent brain research, much of it conducted by Dr. Bruce Perry in Texas, has illuminated six core strengths, each of them related to brain growth and development that must be a focus in development appropriate educational programmes for young children.

The Six Core Strengths

Bruce Perry and his colleagues at the Child Trauma Academy in Texas have identified six strengths that are related to the predictable sequence of brain growth and development. These six strengths, if nurtured and fostered appropriately, will help a child grow to become a productive member of society. They are:

oAttachment
oSelf-regulation
oAffiliation
oAttunement
oTolerance
oRespect
Attachment

The first of the six core strengths occurs in infancy. It is the loving bond between the infant and the primary caregiver. Early attachment theorists’ conceiver of the primary caregiver as the mother but it is now recognised that it could as well be the father, grandparent or any loving person. The primary giver, when providing consistent and predictable nurturing to the infant creates what is known as a “secure” attachment. This is accomplished in that rhythmic dance between infant and caregiver; the loving cuddles, hugs, smiles and noises that pass between caregiver and infant. Should this dance be out of step, unpredictable, highly inconsistent or chaotic an “insecure” attachment is formed. When attachments are secure the infant learns that it is lovable and loved, that adults will provide nurture and care and that the world is a safe place. When attachment is insecure the infant learns the opposite.

As the child grows from a base of secure attachment he or she becomes ready to love and be a friend. A secure attachment creates the capacity to form and maintain healthy emotional bonds with another. Attachment is the template through which we view the world and people in it.

Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is the capacity to think before you act. Little children are not good at this, they learn this skill as they grow if they are guided by caring adults who show them how to stop and think. Self-regulation is the ability to take note of our primary urges such as hunger, elimination, comfort and control them. In other words, it is the ability to postpone gratification and wait for it to arrive. Good self-regulation prevents anger outbursts and temper tantrums and helps us cope with frustration and tolerate stress. It is a life skill that must be learned and, like all the core strengths, its roots are in the neuronal connections deep inside the brain.

Affiliation

Affiliation is the glue of healthy human relationships. When children are educated in an environment and facilitates positive peer interactions through play and creative group learning projects they develop the strength of affiliation. It is the ability to “join in” and work with others to create something stronger and more lasting than is usually created by one person alone. Affiliation makes it possible to produce something stronger and more creative than is accomplished by one alone. Affiliation brings into the child’s awareness that he or she is not an “I” alone but a “We” together.

Attunement

Attunement is the strength of seeing beyond ourselves. It is the ability to recognise the strengths, needs, values and interests of others. Attunement begins rather simply in childhood. A child first recognises that I am a girl, he is a boy. Through the early years of education it becomes more nuanced: he is from India and likes different food than I, she is from Kenya and speak with a different accent than I. Attunement helps children see similiarities rather than differences because as the child progresses from seeing different colour skin and different ways of speaking he or she begins to recognise that people are more similar than different. That brings us to the next core strength.

Tolerance

When the child develops the core strength of attunement it learns that difference isn’t really all that important. The child learns that difference is easily tolerated. Through this learning the child develops the awareness that is difference that unites all human beings. Tolerance depends on attunement and requires patience and an opportunity to live and learn with people who at first glance seem “different”. We must overcome the fear of difference to become tolerant.

Respect

The last core strength is respect. Respect is a life-long developmental process. Respect extends from respect of self to respect of others. It is the last core strength to develop, requires a proper environment and an opportunity to meet a variety of people. Genuine respect celebrates diversity and seeks it out. Children who respect other children, who have developed this core strength, do not shy away from people who seem different. An environment in which many children are grouped together to learn, explore and play will foster the core strength of respect.

How the Brain Grows

The brain grows from the bottom to the top. Each of the core strengths is related to a stage and site of brain growth. In infancy attachment bonds are acquired and lay down emotional signals deep within the brain. At the same time the brain stem is seeing to it that bodily functions can be self-regulated. Later on in childhood the emotional centres of the brain come under increasing control so temper tantrums disappear and the child controls their emotional life. In mid-childhood the child’s brain begins to develop the capacity to think and reflect on the external environment. It is at this stage when the frontal areas of the brain begin to mature and it is at this stage in brain growth when the core strengths of affiliation, attunement, tolerance and respect can mature as well.

The Classroom and the Brain’s Core Strengths

The education of young children must be undertaken with the core strengths in mind. Classrooms where there is peace and harmony among a wide variety of children will create opportunities for affiliation, tolerance and respect to develop. These classroom must be characterised by play, creative exploration of objects, lessons which are activity-based not teacher-lectured. There must be challenge to the brain in the form of innovative lessons and teaching methodologies. Cooperative learning activities must be part of the school day. The classroom should occasionally consist of an opportunity to engage in cooperative, mixed-ability groupwork. There must be an opportunity for long-term, thematic projects to be explored. The teacher should be a guide, always teaching with the core strengths in mind, always observing children and noticing which of them need more structure and guidance as they grow through the core strengths. The teacher must also be a person the children perceive as predictable and caring, patient and kind; a person who will not obsessively focus on mistakes.

Whose Responsibility is It?

We have learned that the child’s brain grows in a predictable sequence and associated with this growth are six core strengths for healthy living in the world. Every child is born with a brain possessing the potential to full develop these core strengths. However every brain must have an opportunity to interact with a classroom and home environment that facilitates the development of these strengths. It is the responsibility of adults, particularly parents and teachers to get it right.

Islam is the religion of peace, and it is one of the most sacred and trustworthy religions, which has given us guidance in every aspect of life. Islam has given us education with knowledge which has no limits. The Holy Quran is the most sacred book of Allah revealed on Prophet Muhammad (SAW), for the upliftment guidance and enriched messages to the humanity.

Education is the knowledge of putting one’s potentials to maximum use. Without education, no one can find the proper right path in this world.

This importance of education is basically for two reasons. Education makes man a right thinker. Without education, no one can think properly in an appropriate context you. It tells man how to think and how to make decision. The second reason for the importance of education is that only through the attainment of education, man is enabled to receive information from the external world. It is well said that

“Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards outside world.”

This is why Islam attaches such great importance to knowledge and education. When the Quran began to be revealed, the first word of its first verse was ‘Iqra’ that is, read..

The reflective book of Holy Quran is so rich in content and meaning that if the history of human thought continues forever, this book is not likely to be read to its end. Every day it conveys a new message to the humanity. Every morning, it gives us new thoughtful ideas and bound us in the boundaries of ethics.

Islamic Education is one of the best systems of education, which makes an ethical groomed person with all the qualities, which he/she should have as a human being. The Western world has created the wrong image of Islam in the world. They don’t know that our teachings are directly given to us from Allah, who is the creator of this world, through our Prophets.

The Muslims all over the world are thirsty of acquiring quality education. They know their boundaries and never try to cross it. It is the West, which has created a hype that the Muslim are not in a path of getting proper education. They think that our education teaches us fighting, about weapons, etc., which is so false. This is true that there are certain elements, which force an individual to be on the wrong path, because as we will mould a child, they will be like that, but it doesn’t mean that our religion teaches improperly to us.

Our Holy Prophet (SAW), said,

Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.

And:

Seek knowledge even [if it is to be found in a place as distant as China. At the battle of Badr, in which our beloved Holy Prophet (SAW) gained victory over his foes, seventy people of the enemy rank were taken to prison. These prisoners were literate people. In order to benefit from their education the Prophet declared that if one prisoner teaches ten Muslim children how to read and write, this will serve as his ransom and he will be set free. This was the first school in the history of Islam established by the Prophet himself with all its teachers being non-Muslims. The Sunnah of the Prophet shows that education is to be received whatever the risk involved.

Today, the Muslims are acquiring good ideas, thoughts, knowledge, and skills, from all corners of the world. The world is moving very fast, and in this industrialize world, It is the duty of the teachers to give quality ethical integrated education to the Muslim students worldwide, because children are invaluable assets of future generations.

The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) encouraged all Muslims to acquire knowledge and share it. He said:

“Acquire knowledge, for he who acquires it in the way of Allah performs an act of piety; he who speaks of it, praises the Lord; he who seeks it, adores Allah; he who dispenses instruction in it, bestows alms; and he who imparts it to others, performs an act of devotion to Allah.” (Bukhari, Muslim)

All the teachers of either secular or religious education should give more attention to the pupils inside the classroom. It is necessary that in the Islamic system that we should consider these dear children as our own children, and put aside all other considerations, and rise above all such things and realize our duty and our mission. We should raise the standards of education and attend to the needs of these children. We should realize our duties with earnestness and awaken to the sense of responsibility. It has been seen that there are certain teacher who are not fulfilling their duties with keen interest. I would like to request all the teachers that for the sake of God, for the sake of your revolutionary duty, teach the children with devotion and dedication.

It is important that we advance our work through discussions, debates, studies, and through proper distribution of work among ourselves.

We must never forget that we are living in an Islamic State, and our aim should be simultaneously to create both an independent as well as an Islamic culture in character. Independence and richness of content are indeed among the characteristics of the Islamic culture. Our system is an ideological system.

We should make our child enthusiastic, dynamic, and this search should pervade every corner of our society. We should aspire them to be truthful and sincere.

Self-sacrifice and generosity, love of freedom, the resolve for resistance and headstrong perseverance, the courage to welcome martyrdom-all these are the new values of the new generation, which should be taught according to the teaching of Islam.

The doors of the school should always be kept open for the sake of Islam, for the sake of the Muslim Ummah.

Munir Moosa Sewani is one of the famous, prominent and creative names in the field of Education since 8 years. He is a Master Trainer In Special Education, Post Graduate, Teacher Educator and a Teacher. He is a Freelance Writer and Photographer too. He is an author of the famous self-published storybook for children named as “The MORAL STORIES FOR CHILDREN” and has also written Biology course book for Secondary Classes. He has written almost more than 40 articles on social, health, educational and cultural issues, which are internationally recognized and published on most of the famous world wide websites, magazines and newspapers. He is also a Social worker, private tutor, career counselor, musician, lyrics writer and have multi- dimensional talents. His future plan is to write dozens of informative books and articles and to work for education and media too.

It’s a dream for any student to do post graduation in management. Lots of management institutes have come up in last two to three years. Students have a lot of choices today. But students should be careful about the institute they choose. It’s as important as choosing your career path.

Just getting a degree of management course is not enough. Ultimately a student has to make a career in the corporate world. Today’s corporate world is lot different than what it was 10 years ago. Today the Global economy is much more interlinked. Problems in one part of the world spread like wild fire to other parts of the world. As we know western economies are in trouble. Greece is facing a crisis. This crisis has put a question mark on the existence of Eurozone. If no solution is found for this problem quickly, again the entire world will have a bad time. Also economies are much more open today. We can make it out from our own economy. Almost all sectors have been opened up. Earlier a few business families used to dominate Indian markets. There was a license raj. It was easy for these business houses to manage competition and customers. Customers were the ultimate losers who got bad products and services.

Now the scene is totally different. Sectors have been opened up. Competition has intensified across sectors. Customer has ample choices. Getting good growth has become difficult. Corporate executives are under tremendous pressure to deliver.

Today’s management graduates are supposed to work in such a scenario. Not only are they supposed to work but also deliver. Just classroom inputs are not going to help students to survive and grow in their careers. Many of the institutes are just doing that. They are just offering classroom inputs supplemented by some minor practical assignments. Students get certificate at the end of two years. But this certificate doesn’t mean that they are ready to deliver in practical world. Because ultimately what matters is how student applies concepts in the real life situation to get results. Just because a student is management graduate doesn’t help him in having fast track career.

That is why when student chooses management institute he should be careful. He should look at the contents of course apart from other things. Course should have practical perspective. Syllabus should be integrated with the industry so that during two years not only he learns concepts in the classroom but also gets a chance to apply them in the real life situation. When syllabus provides this opportunity, he gets ready to perform in the corporate world. Today so many management graduates pass out every year. If one tracks their career, not everybody makes it to the top. Only a few management graduates reach the top. All those lose out had only degree. But they were not ready to fulfill the requirements of corporate world. Blame goes to institutes which didn’t mould students in two years as per the requirements of industry. That is why students should choose only those institutes that really prepare and mould them to take on the big bad corporate world.

From the early years of childhood, children are growing up in environments where they are subjected to the beliefs and ideologies of whatever surrounding they happen to live in. As we are experiencing a series of wars and conflicts one after the other, it is obvious that there is a profound problem in the way we are bringing up children. The conditioning of children takes place in two significant mode of control, which is in the home and the school or religious institutes. It is through these modes, that children are moulded into persons’ who they are truly not, contributing to the perpetuation of the present world crisis into the future. The present world crisis affects us all and can be seen in the wars, conflicts and divisions of our time, which have all been the result of the lack of individual awareness and integrated thinking.

Self-awareness and integrated thinking can only come about, when there is a fundamental understanding of the self as well as life as a whole, which comes into being through self-knowledge. Therefore education in its true sense is a way for individuals to understand themselves, for it is from within, that the whole of existence is gathered. Present day education however, has placed emphasize on technique through the accumulation of information from books, which is done so in the pursuit of a future profession, in order to acquire social and economic security within society. This kind of education also imposes a form of escapism as it teaches individuals to become occupied with facts, and placing importance upon technique which inevitably brings dullness and passiveness of the mind; however, like all escapes, this inevitably brings about confusion and misery. In the present day systems of education, the teacher and authority figures ingrain into child’s mentality, the importance of practicing technique whether it is in the school where they are taught to acquire facts and information, or the religious institutes where people habitually follow principles and beliefs. However, the acquiring of various skills, rules and facts can only engulf us in chaos and suffering. Learning to read and write are necessary, as well as learning a profession, but can technique give us the ability to understand life and its problems? Surely it is secondary, and when we are taught to strive for technique we are obviously denying a far greater and significant part of life.

The school institutes condition children with information so that they can grow up into professionals, in whatever field. Therefore the individual becomes occupied with a particular area of knowledge and therefore a portion of life, as he or she becomes a specialist; the problem with this though, is how this is achieved and the intentions involved. The over emphasis of technique has given capacity, but without an understanding of life, these skills can only make a person ruthless. Technique has also provided us with a form of emotional and physical security, giving us a sense of vitality and aggressive independence. The teachers and institutes therefore strive to mould individuals into these kinds of people to fit into their perceptions and desires of what ‘should be’ instead of realizing the reality of ‘what is’; therefore, the end result becomes more important than the means. However, what people fail to realize is that, the means determines the final outcome. So, now we begin to see how the past projects itself into the future and how children are becoming the continuation of the past and present. Thus, the present world crisis continues to exist because of this.

The teachers and authority figures are maintaining these systems of control through the means of discipline that ensures a result, which is more important to them than the means. However, the fundamental problem with discipline is that it is becoming a substitute for love, and is utilized continuously as a consequence of fear and personal projections. It is commonly used in the name of a just purpose, yet it is a hindrance to freedom, and freedom in the sense of the state of mind, can never be achieved through discipline, through resistance. Also, discipline is enforced by authority figures through ‘reward and punishment’, which instills further fear. The teachers subtly condition children with this concept, encouraging them through this fear to fight for the sake of the country, harvesting nationalism and patriotism which divides people, to fight in the name of God or to fight in the name of their family. The school, parents and religious institutes do this in many ways, encouraging children to get good grades and be ‘the best’, which breeds envy and competitiveness, to be patriotic, which breeds animosity and divisions, and to be a moral person, which breeds superficiality and greed – all in the desire of a reward. Now, the fears of the consequential punishments of not following these ideals are harsh enough for individuals to not even question why they follow them in the first place, but then again, the person would not know any better, due to the extent of their own conditioning and their ultimate submission to these beliefs as ‘reality’.

Could it be possible for parents and teachers to demonstrate to the child how to be considerate of others without the use of a reward or love as a bribe? For it is in this self-centred seeking that superficiality is also born , and there can be no respect for one another when there is a reward for it, because the fear of punishment and bribe then become more important that respect itself. How can a parent or teacher have respect or even love a child when they bribe the individual with a reward, and threaten them with a punishment? Surely, this is only encouraging fear and covetousness. Again, these teachers and authority figures therefore do not know any better themselves because they too have been brought up this in this way to act for the sake of a result; and until we truly realize that there can be action free of the desire to gain, the continuation of our fears, greed and envy, which form the ego, will persist to remain a part of our reality.

All this begins to contribute to the desire of escape from ‘what is’ or the ‘present’, whether it be through the superficial modes of media, eating, religion, drugs or sex, which all provide a form of temporary self-gratification for the ego. In religion, individuals claim to love their God and may follow the beliefs and principles in order to be a ‘good’ person, however, the motives of this process are all self-centred and self-seeking for personal gratification. When the individual preys to God in a time of strife, what they are doing is projecting their fears and hopes in their ego where they can satisfy their sorrow. God or Truth, is far beyond thought and emotional demands, it is a space where the mind is still and self-aware, and a still mind is not a disciplined mind, but a mind that understands the workings of the self.

Therefore, it has been established how children are being conditioned by systems of authority and how this breeds a lack of self-awareness, the ego and desires for escapism, so now, one may ask ‘what is the right kind of education?’. The right kind of education would help children understand life as a whole and not through the tunnel-vision perspective of ‘profession’; it would help individuals become integrated beings with an understanding of the full scope of the problems and miseries of the world in an unbiased and intelligent approach. The young would have the spirit of inquiry, seeking out truth from the bigger picture – political, religious, personal and environmental, which would bring a greater significance upon the young, thus bringing forth the hope for a better world. For this to ever take place, the parents and teachers themselves, must first tear down the beliefs and ideologies they hold and cultivate an integrated understanding of themselves and life; therefore the right kind of education is not only concerned with the young, but with the older generation as well, who must not be too absorbed in their own ways. The fundamental point is that if the individual truly loves the child, for love is essential to the process of integration; they would see to it that they have the right kind of educators, who could provide the child with an integrated understanding of the world we live in, for it is only until individuals possessing this awareness, that the possibility of manifesting a better world can come into being.

Commercial lumber is basically any lumber traded in the free market system, bought or sold at either the retail or wholesale level. It comes in many forms, types and species, and is generally graded into categories of quality to enable users to select the quality best suited for their purposes.

The grading of commercial lumber is based upon the characteristics and features that may lower its strength, durability or appearance. Knots, checks and pitch pockets are some of the visual features that are a natural part of trees. While those grades that make up the vast majority of commercial lumber can contain numerous knots and other features, some grades are virtually free of such features.

Lumber can be divided into two major categories: hardwood and softwood. Hardwood lumber is primarily used for remanufacturing into furniture, flooring, paneling, moulding, cabinetry and other millwork. Softwood lumber is primarily used for construction work.

Hardwood lumber can be graded into the three main categories of factory lumber, dimensioned lumber and finished products.

There are several grades of hardwood factory lumber. The best grade is known as “FAS”; the second-best grade is “FIF”; and the third-best grade is called “Selects”. These grades are followed by “No. 1 Common”, “No. 2A Common”, No. 2B Common”, “Sound Wormy”, “No. 3A Common” and “No. 3B Common”. Hardwood lumber comes in standard lengths of one foot increments ranging from four feet to sixteen feet in length. Standard thicknesses are in either 1/8 inch or 1/2 inch increments ranging from 3/16 inch to 3-3/4 thicknesses. Hardwood lumber is manufactured to random widths as the grades do not specify standard widths.

Dimensioned hardwood lumber, also known as “hardwood dimension stock” or “dimension parts”, is stock that has been processed into specific lengths, widths and thicknesses and can be either semi-machined or completely machined products. These products are usually kiln-dried and graded into the three main classes of “hardwood dimension parts”, “rough solid kiln-dried squares” and “surfaced solid kiln-dried squares”.

Finished hardwood market products are graded in finished form and generally require no further processing. Examples of finished products include siding, stair treads and risers, trim and moulding, construction boards and timbers, and hardwood flooring. Of these hardwood flooring is probably the highest volume product on the market.

Softwood lumber has been used for many years as the primary raw material for use in construction and manufacturing. It is produced in a wide variety of products and from a wide variety of species. Softwood lumber can be classified by its species, grade and form of manufacture, and can be graded into the three main use categories of yard lumber, structural lumber, and factory and shop lumber.

Yard lumber can be further graded into “Select” and “Common” classes. Select lumber is usually not graded according to strength but rather according to appearance, as it is generally intended to receive natural or paint finishes. Common lumber is also not usually graded for stress, is of lower appearance than the Select grade, but is suitable for light construction and utility uses.

Structural lumber is almost always produced in standard dimensional sizes, graded for stress and strength, and assigned allowable structural properties. As the name implies, structural lumber is used as structural members in construction.

Factory and Shop lumber comes in a wide variety of species, sizes and grades of softwood and is typically the raw material for many different secondary manufacturing uses where appearance and finishing characteristics as well as physical properties are important, such as trim moulding and cabinet stock.

Various inspection bureaus and grading agencies typically supervise the grading processes at lumber mills, provide re-inspection services and write grading rules for the products and species they represent.

Architects, engineers and construction contractors should be well versed in the types, grades, species and physical properties of commercial lumber. The study of commercial lumber is an excellent topic for the continuing education requirements of these professionals. More information is available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.