| "The whole art of teaching is only the art of | | | | children do not have. In other words, too often |
| awakening the natural curiosity of young minds | | | | we teach children concepts without context; we |
| for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards". - | | | | need to show them why learning is important. We |
| Anatole France | | | | need to focus on awakening kids' natural curiosity |
| The purpose of education is to create responsible, | | | | and teaching them to love learning. A good way |
| productive and socially contributing citizens - | | | | to do this is to place children in natural |
| people who can provide for their own families as | | | | experiences or in games where they can ask |
| well as contribute to their communities. As Toffler | | | | questions. In these settings, learning is immediate |
| says, education in the 21st century should allow | | | | and strong. Learning can be a structured |
| people to learn, unlearn and relearn. But I am not | | | | discovery process, offering students varied |
| sure our schools and colleges are committed to | | | | learning outcomes - just as our situations and |
| this. | | | | decisions later in life offering different outcomes. |
| Education is one of the most unscientific human | | | | For example, an NGO in Mumbai went to schools |
| endeavors. You do well in school to get into a | | | | with an experiment to teach students about |
| good college and earn a good degree. A good | | | | water conservation. The pupils measured the |
| degree is supposed to be a passport to a good | | | | amount of water consumed while brushing their |
| job. Based on your educational qualifications, you | | | | teeth with the tap open, and then again with the |
| can climb to a reasonably high position without | | | | tap off. Imagine, if we all learn this type of lesson |
| having to demonstrate any exceptional ability. | | | | in school, how we can apply the principles to so |
| Beyond that, however, you may have problems. | | | | many other aspects of our home and work later |
| There is no established link between your | | | | in life. |
| performance in school and your performance in a | | | | 3. Learning to Learn: |
| job. Even more importantly, there is no link | | | | The world is evolving too fast for schools and |
| between your performance on the job and your | | | | colleges to keep up. What is being taught is |
| performance in life. | | | | inadequate and outdated, or will be soon. It is |
| To be true to purpose, education should support a | | | | important that children are encouraged to |
| child develop three fundamental capabilities: | | | | discover answers on their own - through the |
| 1. Discover, develop and continually evolve a vision | | | | Internet, through experimenting and by having |
| to become a useful member of society: | | | | access to experts on the cutting edge of every |
| Many of us have an advantage - our parents | | | | field. |
| envision our future for us, driving us to work | | | | It is important that students learn the scientific |
| towards achieving this vision. However, this is not | | | | method - |
| as common among the poor. The education | | | | (a) creating a hypothesis based on observations, |
| system has to step in to help everyone create | | | | (b) designing and conducting experiments to prove |
| this vision, and to build even the poor child's | | | | or disprove these hypotheses and |
| confidence to pursue the vision. | | | | (c) arriving at conclusions while recognizing that |
| Balaji Sampath, who runs Eureka Child - an NGO | | | | the conclusions could change with additional |
| committed to improving literacy and math ability in | | | | information. |
| government schools, told us a touching story in | | | | With the level of knowledge available in the world |
| this context. Coming back from the US to do | | | | today, it is also important to exercise judgment |
| something meaningful in education, he immersed | | | | what to learn, and how and when you need to |
| himself in local issues by spending a few months in | | | | learn it. We need to teach kids when to rely on |
| a village. He was in a village classroom when a | | | | their own judgments,, and when to rely on the |
| child asked the teacher whether it was possible to | | | | expertise of others. Our children must learn that |
| travel to the moon. "You and I cannot fly to the | | | | even when you outsource the effort, you retain |
| moon," the teacher answered. "But scientists in | | | | responsibility over the result. |
| the U.S. can..." We must stop robbing our children | | | | What do you think? Do you agree with these |
| of goals and dreams. | | | | ideas about the critical capabilities that our children |
| 2. Understand that questions are more important | | | | need? Is our educational system addressing this? |
| than answers: | | | | Do share your thoughts and experiences with all |
| Our education system places undue emphasis on | | | | of us. |
| providing answers - often to questions that | | | | |