What are words worth?

Thirty years ago, an orange-bannered tabloid made its way quietly into the mailboxes of a few hundred teachers and the desks of a comparable number of principals and librarians. It got put into the folders of workshop-attending teacher-educators and book-buyers. It had a set of ambitious goals: to create conversation among a largely ignored constituency, to spark a sense of agency and a can-do spirit in a tired profession. Around twenty years ago, the two-tone masthead turned full colour, but the driving force remained the same. And a little over a decade ago, the tabloid morphed into a slick folio-sized magazine. Still the goal stayed constant. From its point of origin in the Hyderabad corporate office of Orient Longman Ltd (now Orient Blackswan) to its rocky mid-years in the sun-filled home office of Spark India to its two-roomed operation in my home, some things about Teacher Plus have not changed. It continues to keep a focus on the teacher, that person who is responsible f...

Three books, a dozen teachers, two expert voices, and a brightly painted room. The result was an hour of reflection and enjoyment, an escape into a space we had forgotten existed. Our own pleasure in the magic woven by words, the ability to travel into experiences not our own, and the possibility of discovering empathies--if not answers--in these narratives. When we at Teacher Plus were wondering what we could do to make the day special for our own community of teachers, we hit upon the idea of a session where teachers would turn listeners--not for the purpose of taking ideas back into their classrooms but to rediscover the simple pleasures of listening to a good story. The books we chose were simple, easy to obtain volumes that told stories that, despite their varied setting, were universal in the themes they addressed: boisterous classrooms, distracted students, difficult teenagers, and the never quite defined aims of education. But these themes were not wrapped in polemic or a...

How does one measure the usefulness of anything? Does it lie in its quantum of influence--spatially, numerically, intellectually, materially? Does it lie in its ability to survive over time? Or (as some in this age would have it) in the number of mentions it generates on social media? An idea that was born just over 21 years ago is now in the process of being put to rest. Not quite given up on as an idea, but in its material form, designated "unsustainable". Teacher Plus was mooted in the second half of 1988, and given shape to in the first half of 1989, in the offices of Orient Longman Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad. The ELT team in the publishing house, of whom Lakshmi Rameshwar Rao (Buchamma), Usha Aroor and Rema Gnanadickam were a part, originated the idea of a professional magazine for school teachers that would serve as a forum for the sharing of teaching ideas and experiences, and perhaps motivate teachers to play a catalyzing role in reforming classroom practice. I was recru...