The Psychology of Learning

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In the nineteenth century – and, in too many countries, throughout much of the twentieth – children were regarded and taught as if they were just small versions of adults. It took two educational psychologists, Jean Piaget, a Swiss, and Maria Montessori, an Italian, to demonstrate that children’s cognitive skills were simply not the same as adults’. In short, children see and analyse the world around them very differently from their parents. Of course, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, had already outlined stages which young children had to navigate to become balanced adults. Piaget and Montessori did not share Freud’s focus though on the psychological health of adults as their starting point: it was children they observed, interacted with and offered guidelines for more effective learning.

Karl Marx : Founder of Communism

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Ask students in modern Bangladesh what they know about communism and the chances are that they will mention atheism as one of its major principles. A few may talk about failed revolutions in Russia, the atrocities committed by Stalin in the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in China. Some of the world’s greatest literature of the twentieth century concerns totalitarian states, where freedom of speech is a crime and even freedom of thought is a dirty word. Very often, these books are based on Communist regimes. And then there is the threat of nuclear war between the capitalist democracies and the communist dictatorships! Even today, Russia and China are often seen as untrustworthy and the USA still does not trade with Cuba. In fact, the failure of Latin American left-wing governments is a favourite theme of western media. And all this is blamed on Karl Marx, the 19th century thinker who gave us the idea of communism.

The Industrial Revolution & the Fathers of Capitalism

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Most revolutions change national governments; a few change the ways people think about their political and social rights. A small minority might spread across a country’s borders and shape new directions for human progress. These come and go as fashions and beliefs change. They rarely last as long as a century. However, the Industrial Revolution transformed the entire world forever. It affected life expectancy, the communities we live in, where we work, the need for education and the ways we see our futures. It dictated the growth of empire, the rise of cities, and the health of the planet we live on.

The Russian Revolution of 1917

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On the morning of 17th July, 1918, the corpses of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, his wife the Tsarina Alexandra, and their four children, daughters Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia and their only son, Alexei, a severe haemophiliac, were taken into a forest, stripped and then buried, ending more than three centuries of rule by the Romanov dynasty.

A New York Times Interview with Sheikh Mujibur. What it was like never to know if that day was your last

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Here is an interview with Sheikh Mujib, written by Sydney H. Shanberg and published by The New York Times on 18th January, 1972. It describes Bangabondhu’s arrest and journey to West Pakistan, where he was jailed and lived in daily fear of execution. My thanks to former UGC Chairman, and former Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong University, now Professor of Business at ULAB, Abdul Mannan, for sending it to me for the General Education course..

The Rohingya

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Those words were used by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to describe the Rohingya a couple of years ago. He was not using them lightly. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 723,000 people have fled from Arakan Province in Burma since August, 2017, into Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina has even put the number of Rohingya refugees living in or near Cox’s Bazar at 1.1 million.

Ashoka, the Kind King

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Although Ashoka the Great died about 2,200 years ago, we can still see his importance everywhere in India. For example, he used a design that is now the national symbol of the country and is on its flag.

Sultana Razia, the First Woman Sultan and the First to be Chosen by her own People

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Sultan Iltutmish, Razia’s father, was a not a spoilt son of a royal dynasty: he had worked his own way up from being a slave to becoming a king.

Rana Plaza

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Gucci, Versace and Benetton are well-known names in the world of European fashion. Their customers are rich and their clothes are very expensive. But we must ask if the people wearing these famous brands know about the conditions in the factories where the workers make them. Do they know that many of these workers do not earn even BDT 8,000 a month for a six-day week? Do they know that the rooms where people work are hot and uncomfortable? Do they understand that their workplaces are unsafe? Do they care?