Allow me to trigger my thoughts on this topic with a quote from the genius, Mark Twain… “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to undermine the system called the school. If not for them I wouldn’t have the labels I am associated and identified with today. If not for them, my elders wouldn’t have known how to engage me till I was old enough to be independent. If not for them, I also wouldn’t know what a society means and how to survive in one!
Well, all of us have learnt to ‘survive’ in one today, in a gamut of ways. But are we really ‘living’ in one? Living with a love and longing for life itself? We bring forth our children into this world with so many aspirations, hopes and prayers. We want them to have a wonderful and fulfilling life. We want to believe that the future will be good and prosperous. We expect our schools and the education they provide to mould them into strong individuals who can be a part of this society. A society that will welcome them to live a life they want with conviction and courage. A society that will offer them a healthy variety to choose from. A society that will provide them a platform to demonstrate their capabilities to the best. A society that will make life worth living!
It is time for a reality check! Our so-called society seems to be in an unnatural flux today. Is our society cohesive enough to bind and sustain its multitude with a common thread? Does it provide each and everyone with a fundamental purpose, which is common and strong enough? Does it have a leadership that can see it through tough times and nurture it during good times? Does it have an anchorage that can be counted upon during times of confusion and uncertainty?
The answer is visibly a big NO! Today we live in a world filled with intolerance, apathy, mistrust and fear. A world torn into innumerable bits which seems to have lost its backbone to become one again. A mere collection of a herd called ‘humans’, grappling in darkness for something they don’t even know why they are fighting for? A weak conscience-less entity, caged by ritualistic and anarchic systems, functioning without a purpose or design?
Is this the place where we hope to see our children tomorrow when they come out of the safe, warm corridors of the school and home? With eyes filled with dreams, hearts gushing with hope and energies raring to go. Is this the platform that they were promised all these years of grooming and nurturing to look forward to and be proud of? Is this the perfect heaven we dreamt for them when we brought them into this world?
But the fact remains that the so-called ‘society’ is nothing but a multiplied ME! I am responsible, directly or indirectly for what I get to see and experience around me. I am party to the happenings and non-happenings that are affecting me in so many ways. Action or lack of action from my end is reflecting back at me in all the forms I get to see it in. What is this society that I am creating, either consciously or unconsciously? What am I giving this world, knowingly or unknowingly? Am I even aware of it? What am I doing today for the tomorrow? How much of my mind is thinking of what it is building? How much of my body is actually working towards it? How much of my soul is even alive to this need?
Where is education happening today? What should education really look at? What should it really mean to a world living on such delicate balances? Should it be a mere tool that churns out intelligent minds and accomplished bodies or should it build soulful human beings? Should it focus on labels and skills that one can be proud of or should it nurture genuine individuals who can live and demonstrate tolerance, love and humanness, in the true sense? Should it make our children competitors in the rat race or should it make them leaders to influence a positive change?
I have no answers that can give me a good night’s sleep to be sure that my child will step into a safe and beautiful world. But I have the hope that these dark clouds that seem to be hovering above us will vanish soon with a downpour, to brighten the skies with fresh rays of promise. Promise of a progressive world. Promise of an integrated society. Promise of a life worth living!!
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Remya writes for chillibreeze.
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