Tag: Mother

  • Do Survival is the Mother of Innovation? Explanation

    Do Survival is the Mother of Innovation? Explanation

    Survival is the Mother of Innovation in Banking Sector: “Banks can provide innovative products and services to their corporate and retail customers only when creative people are in place along with the latest technology. Such people might provide innovative ideas to customers and banks. By converting their acceptable ideas into reality, banks can get an edge to compete effectively in the global village. Indian banking is also changing its shape rapidly by adopting innovative technology, products, and services.” So, what is the question going learn; Do Survival is the Mother of Innovation? Explanation.

    Here is the Explanation; Do Survival is the Mother of Innovation?

    Innovation is the key to success in any activity, Innovation banking is therefore not an exception. Innovation-banking is possible only when we have innovative people in banking. Moreover, innovative ideas of such people have to be heard at the right time by the right people. Only then the needed encouragement and support is given to convert such innovative ideas into reality. Customer Relationship Management in the Banking Sector.

    In the past, a generation gap is considered to be with a span of at least 10 years. Whereas with the improvement in the technology followed by the integration of people and places across the world on account of revolutionary changes in information and communication. The entire world has become virtually a small global village. Since all organizations and people use technologies, we find that a new generation of techno-savvy people emerging in a very short span of 5 years in every sphere of activity infusing dynamism and creativity leading to several innovations.

    Globally, usage of technology is very extensive in the financial sector of which banking sector is an integral part. Indian financial sector has made rapid strides in the late 1980s and early 1990s picking up momentum with the advent of the 21st century. Liberalization of the Indian economy has provided scope to the banking sector to reorient its focus by shifting from developmental role obligated mostly by socio-political considerations into professional financial agencies keen on preserving their bottom lines. What are Nature and Characteristics of Leadership?

    The direction in which the Indian banking is moving presently indicates that the prevailing competition will lead to consolidation and convergence. Small players will either have to forge a merger to become big players or else they will be either extinguished or swallowed by larger players in the years to come. The pressure will equally be more on the existing large players to retain their lead over others. This emerging scenario warrants an innovative approach by banks to keep themselves sailing in the sea of competition.

    No wonder we find a very interesting trend in the recent past in Indian banking. The trend is the major shift from routine banking functions to a very aggressive financial marketing organization. We find most of the routines banking jobs are outsourced, thanks to automation made possible by technology. Direct selling agents are actively engaged by most of the foreign and new generation private sector banks for marketing all the banking products with specified targets.

    Therefore, the real core people who will be retained by these banks in the long run under their direct pay roles will only be experts at senior levels in marketing, corporate and retail banking specialists along with risk management professionals who will be required in view of the impending implementation of the Basle-II norms which attaches significant to assessment and management of risk factors in banking activity.

    One can visualize the following scenario in Indian banking in the next five to seven years. State bank of India and their associate banks aiming to come under one umbrella on one side followed by mergers and acquisitions taking place between few strong nationalized banks, foreign banks and new private banks on the other side. This will leave the small players and weak banks to become extinct unless they device quick strategies to become larger and stronger.

    In this context, innovation plays a very key and crucial role in the survival of the small players and also for the large players to retain their leadership amidst cutthroat competition. Out of the box, thinking is required and such thinking needs to be nurtured by the top management. ATMs of the larger banks are either fully outsourced by the individual banks or handed over to an autonomous agency by most of the banks collectively.

    Small players in ATMs are also trying to be a part of this shared network with regard to clearing operations, Reserve Bank of India has already initiated the required steps to gradually dispense with the physical presentation of cheques and replace the same with electronic clearing in major cities.

    Similarly, the audit and inspection of the computerized branches are now being done in many cases by transfer of data files to the supervisory and inspecting authorities. Qualitative inspection and supervision of the banks by Reserve Bank of India is made possible by the technology, leaving the routine audit work to the concerned internal audit departments of the individual banks.

    With the automation of the routine work process and rapid technological developments, a host of customer-friendly banking products with flexibility is now available to one and all. Few departments of the government (e.g. customs, income tax, central excise, commercial taxes, and sales tax) have already initiated the process of EDI (Electronic Data Interface) thereby reducing the manual tasks in the preparation of documentation and enhancing the levels of automation.

    This also facilitates standardization in documentation with uniformity. This will also ensure submission of such standard data in electronic form and be scanning the physical documents where required. In the long run, this enables e-commerce to gain momentum. Therefore, banks can also equally look forward to the submission of commercial documents by the trade industry through EDI in the near future.

    Once this is done, the need for the business segment to personally visit the bank branches to submit the documents will be eliminated. When ATMs on one side have reduced the depends on individuals customers on the bank branches to conduct their routine banking operations, the EDI when gains momentum will reduce the dependence of corporate customers on the bank branches in a similar fashion.

    These developments taking place mainly on account of automation will reduce the differentiation in the service delivery systems, as they are mostly standardized. Therefore, banks have to be innovative to maintain their brand values. Few banks have already started marketing aggressively for retail business loans by tying up with a select-reputed builder and conducting road shows in India and abroad to lure the salaried people and professionals.

    This role is intermediation of the banker between the builders and salaried people and professionals can be further extended to cover other areas as well. For example, banks can connect the manufacturers of goods and services with the ultimate buyers. The process is very simple. Banks are required to have a common agency with which the entire database of all the banks should be shared.

    This data should be analyzed and classified into various segments say- according to activity, age, place, income, education, etc., of the organizations and people who constitute this data. When this process is done on all India basis, a wealth of information will be available, which can be used as a marketing tool. Few relaxations in the existing banking laws are required for this purpose.

    Banks can also play an active intermediary role in connecting the organizations and people at various segments, thereby facilitating the process of movement of goods and services from the manufacturers/producers to the ultimate users (of course through other intermediaries where they are not dispensable). Banks can finance the manufacturers/producers or the ultimate users while tying up them with one another thereby increasing their lending portfolio and in the process ensuring the end use of funds.

    Collection of data from rural places is one area where banks can boast of possessing rich information, especially the public sector banks that have almost more than one-third of the network of branches located in rural areas. Banks can play a dynamic role in the delivery and purchase of consumer durables to the rural sector by using their rural database.

    Therefore, instead of acting as financing intermediaries to some of the parties in the total chain as at present, banks can bring all the parties in the chain under their ambit. Banks can thus transform themselves into aggressive marketing intermediaries from mere financial intermediaries. This innovative approach can also be used with regard to NPAs where the products manufactured by such sick or loss-making units are of good quality but the units have become sick due to financial indiscipline or mismanagement or lack of marketing skills.

    Buyers for such products can be scouted by the banks by using the above-mentioned database and in deserving cases, buyers can be given bank finance or their own merits to buy the products of sick units. A portion of the funds thus given can be again routed back into the banks for their working capital requirements.

    Similarly, banks can play an active marketing role in venture capital financing with the above modus operandi, thereby taking part in not only financing the venture capital but also in marketing functions. Microfinance is yet another area where banks can play an active role. The objective of microfinance is to deliver a wide range of financial services say, deposits, advances, insurance, and other related products to people engaged in agriculture, small enterprises and poor people in order to increase their standard of living.

    Finance is extended to SHGs or NGOs, which is basically institutional/group finance instead of lending to individual beneficiaries unlike in the case of other priority sector/rural lending. Moreover, there is no subsidies or interest concession and the basic concept in microfinance is to give timely finance to the needy people. Therefore, transaction costs are cheaper and profitability is better under microfinance when compared to the conventional rural lending.

    In view of these factors, in the long run, microfinance is likely to replace the conventional and concessional rural lending. Ample scope is available for private and foreign banks to venture into this activity due to the above-mentioned advantages. Similarly, banks in the rural sector should actively market products like Kisan Credit Cards, Forward, Futures, and Options markets of commodities.

    While Kisan Credit Cards serve as an instrument of credit, Forward, Futures and Options markets ensure a fair price to the farmers eliminating uncertainty. However, this requires an effective network that is one regulated as well as a matured financial market in rural areas for the growth and development of these products. Rural India and its economy mainly depend upon Monsoons.

    Famine and Floods both occur at the same time in the different parts of the country causing damage to the crops. Therefore, rural insurance has to be an effective tool for hedging these risk factors. The government, banks, and insurance have to together evolve more proactive and vibrant measures to deal with this issue, both at the macro and micro level.

    There is a vast untapped potential in this area and a lot of scope for developing new and innovative insurance linked financial products. Explain Dimensions of Price Perception. The merger of developmental financial institutions like ICICI and IDBI with their commercial banking wings lays emphasis on universal banking offering a wide range of financial products under one umbrella.

    Similarly, SIDBI and NABARD are having a strategic alliance with few commercial banks to expand the reach of their products and services. Banks have come to realize that it is the survival of the fittest in the competitive environment. Therefore, when necessity is the mother of invention, survival is the mother of innovation.

    Survival is the Mother of Innovation in Banking Sector
    Do Survival is the Mother of Innovation? Explanation.

  • Mother Holle / Frau Holle

    Mother Holle / Frau Holle

    “The Fairy Tales” short story was written by the Brothers Grimm: Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters; one of them was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. The mother, however, loved the ugly and lazy one best, because she was her own daughter, and so the other, who was only her stepdaughter, was made to do all the work of the house, and was quite the Cinderella of the family. Her stepmother sent her out every day to sit by the well in the high road, there to spin until she made her fingers bleed. Now it chanced one day that some blood fell on to the spindle, and as the girl stopped over the well to wash it off, the spindle suddenly sprang out of her hand and fell into the well. She ran home crying to tell of her misfortune, but her stepmother spoke harshly to her, and after giving her a violent scolding, said unkindly, ‘As you have let the spindle fall into the well you may go yourself and fetch it out.’

    The girl went back to the well not knowing what to do, and at last in her distress she jumped into the water after the spindle.

    She remembered nothing more until she awoke and found herself in a beautiful meadow, full of sunshine, and with countless flowers blooming in every direction.

    She walked over the meadow, and presently she came upon a baker’s oven full of bread, and the loaves cried out to her, ‘Take us out, take us out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long ago.’ So she took the bread-shovel and drew them all out.

    She went on a little farther, till she came to a free full of apples. ‘Shake me, shake me, I pray,’ cried the tree; ‘my apples, one and all, are ripe.’ So she shook the tree, and the apples came falling down upon her like rain; but she continued shaking until there was not a single apple left upon it. Then she carefully gathered the apples together in a heap and walked on again.

    The next thing she came to was a little house, and there she saw an old woman looking out, with such large teeth, that she was terrified, and turned to run away. But the old woman called after her, ‘What are you afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do the work of my house properly for me, I will make you very happy. You must be very careful, however, to make my bed in the right way, for I wish you always to shake it thoroughly, so that the feathers fly about; then they say, down there in the world, that it is snowing; for I am Mother Holle.’ The old woman spoke so kindly, that the girl summoned up courage and agreed to enter into her service.

    She took care to do everything according to the old woman’s bidding and every time she made the bed she shook it with all her might, so that the feathers flew about like so many snowflakes. The old woman was as good as her word: she never spoke angrily to her, and gave her roast and boiled meats every day.

    So she stayed on with Mother Holle for some time, and then she began to grow unhappy. She could not at first tell why she felt sad, but she became conscious at last of great longing to go home; then she knew she was homesick, although she was a thousand times better off with Mother Holle than with her mother and sister. After waiting awhile, she went to Mother Holle and said, ‘I am so homesick, that I cannot stay with you any longer, for although I am so happy here, I must return to my own people.’

    Then Mother Holle said, ‘I am pleased that you should want to go back to your own people, and as you have served me so well and faithfully, I will take you home myself.’

    Thereupon she led the girl by the hand up to a broad gateway. The gate was opened, and as the girl passed through, a shower of gold fell upon her, and the gold clung to her, so that she was covered with it from head to foot.

    ‘That is a reward for your industry,’ said Mother Holle, and as she spoke she handed her the spindle which she had dropped into the well.

    The gate was then closed, and the girl found herself back in the old world close to her mother’s house. As she entered the courtyard, the cock who was perched on the well, called out:

    ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!
    Your golden daughter’s come back to you.’

    Then she went in to her mother and sister, and as she was so richly covered with gold, they gave her a warm welcome. She related to them all that had happened, and when the mother heard how she had come by her great riches, she thought she should like her ugly, lazy daughter to go and try her fortune. So she made the sister go and sit by the well and spin, and the girl pricked her finger and thrust her hand into a thorn-bush, so that she might drop some blood on to the spindle; then she threw it into the well, and jumped in herself.

    Like her sister she awoke in the beautiful meadow, and walked over it till she came to the oven. ‘Take us out, take us out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long ago,’ cried the loaves as before. But the lazy girl answered, ‘Do you think I am going to dirty my hands for you?’ and walked on.

    Presently she came to the apple-tree. ‘Shake me, shake me, I pray; my apples, one and all, are ripe,’ it cried. But she only answered, ‘A nice thing to ask me to do, one of the apples might fall on my head,’ and passed on.

    At last she came to Mother Holle’s house, and as she had heard all about the large teeth from her sister, she was not afraid of them, and engaged herself without delay to the old woman.

    The first day she was very obedient and industrious, and exerted herself to please Mother Holle, for she thought of the gold she should get in return. The next day, however, she began to dawdle over her work, and the third day she was more idle still; then she began to lie in bed in the mornings and refused to get up. Worse still, she neglected to make the old woman’s bed properly, and forgot to shake it so that the feathers might fly about. So Mother Holle very soon got tired of her, and told her she might go. The lazy girl was delighted at this, and thought to herself, ‘The gold will soon be mine.’ Mother Holle led her, as she had led her sister, to the broad gateway; but as she was passing through, instead of the shower of gold, a great bucketful of pitch came pouring over her.

    ‘That is in return for your services,’ said the old woman, and she shut the gate.

    So the lazy girl had to go home covered with pitch, and the cock on the well called out as she saw her:

    ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!
    Your dirty daughter’s come back to you.’

    But, try what she would, she could not get the pitch off and it stuck to her as long as she lived.

  • Briar Rose

    Briar Rose

    “The Fairy Tales” short story was written by The Brothers Grimm: A king and queen once upon a time reigned in a country a great way off, where there were in those day’s fairies. Now this king and queen had plenty of money, and plenty of fine clothes to wear, and plenty of good things to eat and drink, and a coach to ride out in every day: but though they had been married many years they had no children, and this grieved them very much indeed. But one day as the queen was walking by the side of the river, at the bottom of the garden, she saw a poor little fish, that had thrown itself out of the water, and lay gasping and nearly dead on the bank. Then the queen took pity on the little fish, and threw it back again into the river; and before it swam away it lifted its head out of the water and said, ‘I know what your wish is, and it shall be fulfilled, in return for your kindness to me—you will soon have a daughter.’ What the little fish had foretold soon came to pass; and the queen had a little girl, so very beautiful that the king could not cease looking on it for joy, and said he would hold a great feast and make merry, and show the child to all the land. So he asked his kinsmen, and nobles, and friends, and neighbor’s. But the queen said, ‘I will have the fairies also, that they might be kind and good to our little daughter.’ Now there were thirteen fairies in the kingdom; but as the king and queen had only twelve golden dishes for them to eat out of, they were forced to leave one of the fairies without asking her. So twelve fairies came, each with a high red cap on her head, and red shoes with high heels on her feet, and a long white wand in her hand: and after the feast was over they gathered round in a ring and gave all their best gifts to the little princess. One gave her goodness, another beauty, another riches, and so on till she had all that was good in the world.

    Just as eleven of them had done blessing her, a great noise was heard in the courtyard, and word was brought that the thirteenth fairy was come, with a black cap on her head, and black shoes on her feet, and a broomstick in her hand: and presently up she came into the dining-hall. Now, as she had not been asked to the feast she was very angry, and scolded the king and queen very much, and set to work to take her revenge. So she cried out, ‘The king’s daughter shall, in her fifteenth year, be wounded by a spindle, and fall down dead.’ Then the twelfth of the friendly fairies, who had not yet given her gift, came forward, and said that the evil wish must be fulfilled, but that she could soften its mischief; so her gift was, that the king’s daughter, when the spindle wounded her, should not really die, but should only fall asleep for a hundred years.

    However, the king hoped still to save his dear child altogether from the threatened evil; so he ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom should be bought up and burnt. But all the gifts of the first eleven fairies were in the meantime fulfilled; for the princess was so beautiful, and well behaved, and good, and wise, that everyone who knew her loved her.

    It happened that, on the very day she was fifteen years old, the king and queen were not at home, and she was left alone in the palace. So she roved about by herself, and looked at all the rooms and chambers, till at last she came to an old tower, to which there was a narrow staircase ending with a little door. In the door there was a golden key, and when she turned it the door sprang open, and there sat an old lady spinning away very busily. ‘Why, how now, good mother,’ said the princess; ‘what are you doing there?’ ‘Spinning,’ said the old lady, and nodded her head, humming a tune, while buzz! went the wheel. ‘How prettily that little thing turns round!’ said the princess, and took the spindle and began to try and spin. But scarcely had she touched it, before the fairy’s prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.

    Briar Rose

    However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and the king and the queen, who had just come home, and all their court, fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in the court, the pigeons on the house-top, and the very flies slept upon the walls. Even the fire on the hearth left off blazing, and went to sleep; the jack stopped, and the spit that was turning about with a goose upon it for the king’s dinner stood still; and the cook, who was at that moment pulling the kitchen-boy by the hair to give him a box on the ear for something he had done amiss, let him go, and both fell asleep; the butler, who was slyly tasting the ale, fell asleep with the jug at his lips: and thus everything stood still, and slept soundly.

    A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it became higher and thicker; till at last the old palace was surrounded and hidden, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen. But there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping Briar Rose (for so the king’s daughter was called): so that, from time to time, several kings’ sons came, and tried to break through the thicket into the palace. This, however, none of them could ever do; for the thorns and bushes laid hold of them, as it were with hands; and there they stuck fast, and died wretchedly.

    After many, many years there came a king’s son into that land: and an old man told him the story of the thicket of thorns; and how a beautiful palace stood behind it, and how a wonderful princess, called Briar Rose, lay in it asleep, with all her court. He told, too, how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to break through the thicket, but that they had all stuck fast in it, and died. Then the young prince said, ‘All this shall not frighten me; I will go and see this Briar Rose.’ The old man tried to hinder him, but he was bent upon going.

    Now that very day the hundred years were ended; and as the prince came to the thicket he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs, through which he went with ease, and they shut in after him as thick as ever. Then he came at last to the palace, and there in the court lay the dogs asleep; and the horses were standing in the stables; and on the roof sat the pigeons fast asleep, with their heads under their wings. And when he came into the palace, the flies were sleeping on the walls; the spit was standing still; the butler had the jug of ale at his lips, going to drink a draught; the maid sat with a fowl in her lap ready to be plucked; and the cook in the kitchen was still holding up her hand, as if she was going to beat the boy.

    Then he went on still farther, and all was so still that he could hear every breath he drew; till at last he came to the old tower, and opened the door of the little room in which Briar Rose was; and there she lay, fast asleep on a couch by the window. She looked so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her, so he stooped down and gave her a kiss. But the moment he kissed her she opened her eyes and awoke, and smiled upon him; and they went out together; and soon the king and queen also awoke, and all the court, and gazed on each other with great wonder. And the horses shook themselves, and the dogs jumped up and barked; the pigeons took their heads from under their wings, and looked about and flew into the fields; the flies on the walls buzzed again; the fire in the kitchen blazed up; round went the jack, and round went the spit, with the goose for the king’s dinner upon it; the butler finished his draught of ale; the maid went on plucking the fowl; and the cook gave the boy the box on his ear.

    And then the prince and Briar Rose were married, and the wedding feast was given; and they lived happily together all their lives long.

  • Attribution and Motivation Among Ethnicity

    Understanding of Attribution and Motivation Among Ethnicity?

    What is Ethnicity? Meaning of Ethnicity “The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.” Some about of Ethnic; Relating to a population subgroup (within a larger or dominant national or cultural group) with a common national or cultural tradition. Relating to national and cultural origins. Denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nationality. Characteristic of or belonging to a non-Western cultural tradition.

    An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups (wealth, age, hobbies), ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives. In some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, and physical appearance.

    Ethnic groups, derived from the same historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages and share a similar gene pool. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is sometimes possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group and become part of another (except for ethnic groups emphasizing racial purity as a key membership criterion).

    Ethnicity is often used synonymously with ambiguous terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic (cf. “White ethnic”, “ethnic restaurant”, etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the founding population of an area was established.

    Now reading – Attribution and Motivation Among Ethnicity; Do attributional explanations for success and failure act as an important motivational force in different ethnic groups? According to Graham (1989,1994), because attributional theory considers the role of thought in determining behavior, it is particularly fruitful in examining motivation in different cultures and ethnic groups.

    Beliefs About Effort and Ability

    Are attributional belief patterns similar among different ethnic groups? A comparison of poor African-American, Hispanic, Indo-Chinese, and White fifth- and sixth-grade students found similar attribution patterns for all groups (Bempechat, Nakkula, Wu, & Ginsberg, 1996). All groups rated ability as the most important factor for success in math. In a subsequent study comparing African-American, Hispanic, Indo-Chinese, and White fifthand sixth-graders, Bempechat, Graham, and Jimenez (1999) found cultural similarities as well as cultural specifics. For all ethnic groups, failure was attributed to lack of ability and success to external factors. In contrast, Indo-Chinese students had stronger beliefs that failure was due to lack of effort. Attribution for failure due to lack of ability is a problem for all students because it is believed to be uncontrollable.

    Graham (1984) compared middle- and low-SES African-American and White students on attributions for failure following a problem-solving task. The middle-class children in both ethnic groups were more likely to attribute failure to lack of effort and maintained consistently higher expectancies for success after experiencing failure. For both groups, this is indicative of an adaptive attributional pattern following failure, similar to that found in research by Diener and Dweck (1978). The findings of this research are important because they demonstrate the positive motivation pattern of African-American students—a pattern that has received little attention.

    Stevenson and Lee (1990) compared beliefs of American and Asian students concerning the role of effort and ability for success in mathematics. They asked mothers in Minnesota, Japan, and Taiwan to assign 10 points among ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck to rank their importance in academic success and school performance. All the mothers assigned the points in the same rank order: (1) effort, (2) ability, (3) task, and (4) luck. American mothers scored ability and effort as about equal. In contrast, Taiwanese and Japanese mothers assigned effort a higher value than ability. Peak (1993) noted that, in Japanese elementary schools, ability is rarely mentioned, whereas effort is consistently portrayed as key to success. In contrast, in the United States, students who try very hard are often labeled nerd or grind.

    These perceptions of effort and ability take on increased importance when homework is considered in the context of effort. Japanese and Chinese students spend at least twice the amount of time and effort on homework than do American students (Stevenson & Lee, 1990). American teachers assign less and consider it less valuable. Peak (1993) pointed out that homework reflects teachers’ beliefs on whether extra practice makes a difference and whether students are willing to engage in extra effort on behalf of their studies. American parents do not appear to consider good study habits as critical to academic success as do Asian parents.

    Implications for Teachers

    What can teachers draw from the attributional beliefs among different ethnic groups in terms of classroom practice? The important issue is to understand the motivational processes, such as attribution, operating within a particular ethnic group (Bempechat et al., 1996; Graham, 1994). When similarities are found across ethnic groups, educational interventions do not necessarily have to be targeted to children differentially based on their ethnic group membership.

    Graham (1989) emphasized the importance of teacher feedback in influencing concepts of ability and expectations of minority, low-SES students. Recall the previous discussion of indirect attributional cues. It is important to be aware of feedback that may indirectly convey to students that they have low ability. Graham (1994) suggested that in view of the number of African- American children in negative educational situations, it is especially important to be sensitive to how minorities feel, think, and act in response to non-attainment of goals.

     

  • The Story of a Mother

    The Story of a Mother

    “The Story of a Mother” the Short Story was Written by Hans Christian Andersen; A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so afraid that it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature.

    Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it was the cold winter season! Everything out-of-doors was covered with ice and snow, and the wind blew so that it cut the face.

    As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a moment, the mother went and poured some ale into a pot and set it on the stove, that it might be warm for him; the old man sat and rocked the cradle, and the mother sat down on a chair close by him, and looked at her little sick child that drew its breath so deep, and raised its little hand.

    “Do you not think that I shall save him?” said she. “Our Lord will not take him from me!”

    And the old man—it was Death himself—he nodded so strangely, it could just as well signify yes as no. And the mother looked down in her lap, and the tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so heavy—she had not closed her eyes for three days and nights; and now she slept, but only for a minute, when she started up and trembled with cold.

    “What is that?” said she, and looked on all sides; but the old man was gone, and her little child was gone—he had taken it with him; and the old clock in the corner burred, and burred, the great leaden weight ran down to the floor, bump! and then the clock also stood still.

    But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her child.

    The Story of a Mother 01

    Out there, in the midst of the snow, there sat a woman in long, black clothes; and she said, “Death has been in thy chamber, and I saw him hasten away with thy little child; he goes faster than the wind, and he never brings back what he takes!”

    “Oh, only tell me which way he went!” said the mother. “Tell me the way, and I shall find him!”

    “I know it!” said the woman in the black clothes. “But before I tell it, thou must first sing for me all the songs thou hast sung for thy child! I am fond of them. I have heard them before; I am Night; I saw thy tears whilst thou sang’st them!”

    “I will sing them all, all!” said the mother. “But do not stop me now—I may overtake him—I may find my child!”

    But Night stood still and mute. Then the mother wrung her hands, sang and wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears; and then Night said, “Go to the right, into the dark pine forest; thither I saw Death take his way with thy little child!”

    The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she no longer knew whither she should go! then there stood a thorn-bush; there was neither leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold winter season, and ice-flakes hung on the branches.

    “Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?” said the mother.

    “Yes,” said the thorn-bush; “but I will not tell thee which way he took, unless thou wilt first warm me up at thy heart. I am freezing to death; I shall become a lump of ice!”

    And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it might be thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, and her blood flowed in large drops, but the thornbush shot forth fresh green leaves, and there came flowers on it in the cold winter night, the heart of the afflicted mother was so warm; and the thorn-bush told her the way she should go.

    She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor boat. The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open, nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go if she would find her child! Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless.

    “Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!” said the weeping mother; and she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths of the waters, and became two precious pearls; but the water bore her up, as if she sat in a swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore on the opposite side, where there stood a mile-broad, strange house, one knew not if it were a mountain with forests and caverns, or if it were built up; but the poor mother could not see it; she had wept her eyes out.

    “Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?” said she.

    “He has not come here yet!” said the old grave woman, who was appointed to look after Death’s great greenhouse! “How have you been able to find the way hither? And who has helped you?”

    “OUR LORD has helped me,” said she. “He is merciful, and you will also be so! Where shall I find my little child?”

    “Nay, I know not,” said the woman, “and you cannot see! Many flowers and trees have withered this night; Death will soon come and plant them over again! You certainly know that every person has his or her life’s tree or flower, just as everyone happens to be settled; they look like other plants, but they have pulsations of the heart. Children’s hearts can also beat; go after yours, perhaps you may know your child’s; but what will you give me if I tell you what you shall do more?”

    “I have nothing to give,” said the afflicted mother, “but I will go to the world’s end for you!”

    “Nay, I have nothing to do there!” said the woman. “But you can give me your long black hair; you know yourself that it is fine, and that I like! You shall have my white hair instead, and that’s always something!”

    “Do you demand nothing else?” said she. “That I will gladly give you!” And she gave her her fine black hair, and got the old woman’s snow-white hair instead.

    So they went into Death’s great greenhouse, where flowers and trees grew strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths under glass bells, and there stood strong-stemmed peonies; there grew water plants, some so fresh, others half sick, the water-snakes lay down on them, and black crabs pinched their stalks. There stood beautiful palm-trees, oaks, and plantains; there stood parsley and flowering thyme: every tree and every flower had its name; each of them was a human life, the human frame still lived—one in China, and another in Greenland—round about in the world. There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the pots; in other places, there was a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss round about it, and it was so petted and nursed. But the distressed mother bent down over all the smallest plants, and heard within them how the human heart beat; and amongst millions she knew her child’s.

    “There it is!” cried she, and stretched her hands out over a little blue crocus, that hung quite sickly on one side.

    “Don’t touch the flower!” said the old woman. “But place yourself here, and when Death comes—I expect him every moment—do not let him pluck the flower up, but threaten him that you will do the same with the others. Then he will be afraid! He is responsible for them to OUR LORD, and no one dares to pluck them up before HE gives leave.”

    All at once an icy cold rushed through the great hall, and the blind mother could feel that it was Death that came.

    “How hast thou been able to find thy way hither?” he asked. “How couldst thou come quicker than I?”

    “I am a mother,” said she.

    And Death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little flower, but she held her hands fast around his, so tight, and yet afraid that she should touch one of the leaves. Then Death blew on her hands, and she felt that it was colder than the cold wind, and her hands fell down powerless.

    The Story of a Mother 02

    “Thou canst not do anything against me!” said Death.

    “But OUR LORD can!” said she.

    “I only do His bidding!” said Death. “I am His gardener, I take all His flowers and trees, and plant them out in the great garden of Paradise, in the unknown land; but how they grow there, and how it is there I dare not tell thee.”

    “Give me back my child!” said the mother, and she wept and prayed. At once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand, and cried out to Death, “I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in despair.”

    “Touch them not!” said Death. “Thou say’st that thou art so unhappy, and now thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy.”

    “Another mother!” said the poor woman, and directly let go her hold of both the flowers.

    “There, thou hast thine eyes,” said Death; “I fished them up from the lake, they shone so bright; I knew not they were thine. Take them again, they are now brighter than before; now look down into the deep well close by; I shall tell thee the names of the two flowers thou wouldst have torn up, and thou wilt see their whole future life—their whole human existence: and see what thou wast about to disturb and destroy.”

    And she looked down into the well; and it was a happiness to see how the one became a blessing to the world, to see how much happiness and joy were felt everywhere. And she saw the other’s life, and it was sorrow and distress, horror, and wretchedness.

    “Both of them are God’s will!” said Death.

    “Which of them is Misfortune’s flower and which is that of Happiness?” asked she.

    “That I will not tell thee,” said Death; “but this thou shalt know from me, that the one flower was thy own child! it was thy child’s fate thou saw’st—thy own child’s future life!”

    Then the mother screamed with terror, “Which of them was my child? Tell it me! Save the innocent! Save my child from all that misery! Rather take it away! Take it into God’s kingdom! Forget my tears, forget my prayers, and all that I have done!”

    “I do not understand thee!” said Death. “Wilt thou have thy child again, or shall I go with it there, where thou dost not know!”

    Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to our Lord: “Oh, hear me not when I pray against Thy will, which is the best! hear me not! hear me not!”

    And she bowed her head down in her lap, and Death took her child and went with it into the unknown land.