What’s one thing you wish you were taught in school?
I’ve had most of my early education done in India under the Maharashtra State Board and my bachelor’s under the Central State Board of Secondary Education, both of these being splendid educational organizations. I did my masters in the USA under Carnegie Mellon University. In all, I’ve spent 19 years of my life out of 24 I’ve spent on this planet purely being ‘educated’.
But what does being educated really mean?
To me, ‘Education is the art of making available previously acquired knowledge and developed wisdom from one generation to the next to increase their chances of survival and prosperity in social, political, economic and technical concepts and help them, in turn, do the same for the rest of the community’
Fancy words, eh?
In other words, for me to ‘EDUCATE YOU’,
- I tell you about:
- What I sensed ( SAW, HEARD, FELT, SMELLED, TASTED) or thought
- Then this is what I did (I tried, I told, I went….etc.)
- This is what happened
- This is what I concluded (Will I try something else, repeat it…etc.)
- I help you understand more about what someone else told me about
- I wait for you to try out something new
- I make sure you are able to do the above for someone else
Now, think about the ‘education’ you’ve had and I really hope you think your education was somewhere on these lines. If not, something is really wrong somewhere.
Every day, I come across a variety of things I wish I had been aware of at an earlier age. Looking back, I wish I could trade the time I spent memorizing about how to derive over 15 different formulae in integral calculus for how does paying income tax work.
That’s my food for thought this weekend… I’m planning to do my part for promoting alternative education in India. Possibly for those who cannot afford conventional education. Looking forward to more suggestions… What is alternative education? Here is a wikipedia article, I did not read. I’ll be writing my own version of what alternative education could look like next week.