You may see a troop of figures in the distance, carrying heavy loads, trudging along towards a gray building. If you go closer, their features come into focus, features that tell a tale of torture and pain. This could very well be a posse of soldiers retreating in defeat from the front. Or, it may be young boys and girls making their way to school or college, to receive an ‘education’.
If asked, a young one may possibly let you into his mind. “It’s like going to Hell every day. All I have been ‘educated’ on is how to hate ‘education’. It hasn’t taught me much on how to appreciate this world, how to cope with it. I’ve learned something about fossils and canyons which I wouldn’t recognize if I saw and something about Shah Jahan and I couldn’t care less about him since he’s long dead and gone!”
But how else will this child get a job? Isn’t this what education is all about - a means to an end?
So the disgust with the system stems from the fact that there is no perceived relation between facts spewing forth from textbooks and the world around us. And of course, it isn’t any fun at all.
Trying to see it from a different perspective
If the young boy were to see those canyons in the movie McKenna’s Gold, he might want to visit it some day, and this may be an incentive to learn about it. Or if he were to visit the Taj Mahal and touch the cool, white marble, he might wonder at Shah Jahan’s intense love for Mumtaz Mahal and this might lead him on to wonder about love itself - the foremost emotion.
History is all about wars and cramming dates. We forget that it consists of people and conflicts arising from their psyche and environment. Characters and plots that are as interesting as the ones we encounter in films. We study the important dates in history. What about the philosophy of non-violence? What about Mahatma Gandhi’s experiments with Truth? What about the horrors of slavery and its long lasting impact on generations and races?
The problem and its solution
Everyone complains of stress these days. Stress management courses are extremely popular. Age-old insights and techniques such as meditation and yoga are simply not mentioned in thirteen years spent in school!
Music
Did your teacher say that music is for fun? Ask an enlightened psychologist who uses Music as therapy. Learn about Mozart, the man and his music, about Tansen and his legacy to Indian classical singers of our time and about music, which helps be in touch with the self. Music which can heal and soothe. Educate yourself about dance and drama and this great culture that we are part of.
Movies
Movies can be informative. Films on wild life, on literature, human dramas of the spirit- Benhur, Chariots of Fire, Born Free, The Truman Show, About Schmidt… the list is endless. Good films can open our eyes to the world.
Art
It’s high time we were seriously taught what all the fuss over art is about and how to appreciate it. Instead of looking blankly at a print of the Mona Lisa, we can learn to see beyond the surface and appreciate form, colors, and perspective when faced by these elements in everything we see around us.
Drama
Reading Shakespeare at the age of fifteen can be the most tiresome thing of all. But try enacting his plays. Speak out and hear the musical rhyme in the lines. Discuss and debate those complex characters of Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear, characters who are timeless and who reside in each of us in our darker moments. Discuss them like you would a soap opera. And see how relevant Shakespeare can be to our times.
Religion
Most of us have visited temples and churches when young. Have any of us really bothered to think about religion? Imagine discussing it in an open forum in school. We might emerge as more civilized citizens instead of the narrow-minded prudes we become.
The ideal school curriculum
So if I were to design my own school/college curriculum, here is what it would include:
- Travel
- Music and dance
- Drama and cinema
- Religion and philosophy
- Meditation techniques and physical health
- Languages
- Literature
- Art
- Nature
And through these ‘subjects’ I would impart knowledge on canyons, places, historical figures, math (yes, math through music or cooking or nature studies) and so on.
As for the means of undertaking this ‘discovery of life’, instead of classroom lectures, it would be through projects, interactive storytelling, drama, reading aloud, traveling, writing, visiting local places of interest, workshops, debates, discussions, listening to music, visiting museums, meeting people, talking about art, watching movies and plays… all through active participation and not one way instruction.
The world is changing, and let ‘education’ come to mean a ‘discovery of life’.
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—About our writer:
Sonya says, "Having successfully given up my marketing management background for a series of content related jobs, I now aim to plunge into research and writing. I love listening to music (especially opera), watching films, traveling, reading fiction and books on history, music and various other subjects. Apart from sponging off all this, I am finally trying to stir up my vocal chords to try and sing, although it may be too late!"
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