Long ago in school, Sri Jayendrapuri Swamiji in his address to children distinguished an educated from a literate. It seemed a very obvious distinction to me back then. But now, after 9 years, I see how the lines between the two have blurred. When I say literate here, it is implied that I mean a literate in English.
Education for all is a Right. If parents don’t send their
kids to school it’s considered a huge crime. NGO’s along with English graduates
go to slums and teach kids English so that they can learn to “survive”. The
Government with NGO tie ups have opened evening schools for women where they
learn to read and write English. How absurd can we get as a society? Why would
a farmer in some village want to learn how to read and write when he comes back
home tired at night? Doesn't he want to spend some time with his family; sing
and dance? Education is supposed to add value to life and not decide what value is.
After
16-17 years of education in ENGLISH MEDIUM schools, I have realized it was all
such a waste of time and energy. At what cost? – My life, my future. The molding is in its finishing stages. The damage has been done. The final
touches are pending. How could someone who has no idea of my interests and
potential decide what I’m going to STUDY and how I’m going to study! I have no
inclination towards Western way of living right now. I don’t care about my
success or lack of it in the material world. But if I and my family have to
survive, let alone live, I have no choice but to join a fair-paying MNC, sit at
the desk for 8-10 hours and do something I don’t like. And to find that job,
I’ll have to fit into the boxes that are prescribed, mostly undersized. In the
process, many companies will stamp a “reject” on my forehead, I will probably
cry for not being worthy in the society and then try really hard, learn some
technical skills and join a company where a knife will always hang on my head.
I will somehow manage to fool myself and the people around me that I’m good
enough in the box like I have fooled throughout my education.
The
anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure,
punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and
to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into
strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don't
know.
John
Holt, How Children Learn
When a
child in the east, according to his traditions, wears only a dhoti is called a
half-naked urchin indicating helplessness and poverty. But when a girl in an
attempt to imitate the west wears clothes that barely cover any part of her
body is considered modern indicating progress and liberalism.
I’m in
a society where course credits and certificates are more important than
learning and personal appreciation; where children begin their introduction
with the graduation degree they hold and the university they go to [me
included]; where grandparents are proud to see their grandchildren have a life
that they didn't even dream of; where parents are proud that their children
secure ranks in schools; where teachers idealize Western methods; where
well-groomed minds want to belong to the brigade of gigantic entrepreneurs in
the city; where barefoot is considered a sign of poverty; where tar roads are
considered a sign of progress.
We
have moved from wisdom to knowledge, and now we are moving from knowledge to
information – and that information is so partial that we are creating
incomplete human beings.
Vandana
Shiva, Schooling the World
Well,
yes, the damage has been done. How do I change before I suggest that the
society should change? Talking back is one weapon most academicians propose.
But I don’t see why they would want to listen to me talk. So that’s not going
to work. Many people return to their roots like I’m attempting to do. By
turning back to the customs and traditions of my family that I left after joining
college, will I be able to do all things with the same belief that my mother
does? My “informed mind” won’t let me take things as they are. The innocence is
lost. It’s an obligation to logically explain and conclude things. The
metaphysical stance is not easily acceptable.
If
you’re raised in Colorado to believe that a mountain is an inert pile of rock
waiting to be mined, you’re going to have a very different relationship to that
mountain from a kid from southern Peru who believes in the fiber of his being
that a mountain is an Apu spirit, a protective deity, that will direct his
destiny throughout life. But the interesting observation is not whether that
mountain is in fact a spirit or whether it’s just a pile of dirt – the
interesting observation is how the education system into what that mountain is
creates a different human being with a different relationship to the
earth.
Wade
Davis, Schooling the World
Compassion
and Love taught at home through religion perhaps can never be the same as
taught in a moral science class. Cleanliness and the complexities of energy can
never be taught in a formal setting as our "holistic education" classes. How can
Lord Vishnu and his divine creation feature in a science textbook? Education
only teaches us how to exploit nature while religion and traditional ways of
teaching teaches us that we have a symbiotic relationship with nature.
So
what has education done? In Wiesel’s words: "It emphasized theories
instead of values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than
consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather
than conscience."
What Is Education For? By David Orr is a classic read
which gives us solutions for pressing questions.
