Musings on education (A parents perpective)

Are you looking to “educate” your child to be a part of the current world or do you want to raise children who will have strong opinions and create their own world based on them as they grow? Is the current school system we have benefitting the child or is it more convenient to society to keep the status quo? As a parent, these are important questions to ask before understanding the reasons we are educating out children. This article looks to help parents like me who are trying to raise non-conformist children, and those who look to educate the child for themselves rather than for what society expects of them.

The core “objective” of education is to not only develop a love for learning within the child but also cultivate an intrinsic need for curiosity in itself. Education must also involve creating a comfortable training ground in which the child learns how to pursue that curiosity with intense rigor. Kids should not be given an arbitrary volume-based target for learning, but rather a space where they can draw their own lines, in what interests them the most. Educators should nudge them in the right direction while not directing them. This can be misinterpreted as a hands off “Lets do nothing, let the kids figure it out” approach. However, I am advocating for a balanced approach wherein the kids are exposed to different spaces, new ideas and different content. Curiosity can come easily to the very young children. They are naturally persistent too. However, most “education” fails as we aren’t able to teach our kids the reason for rigor, to keep the curiosity alive by gently explaining what they have learnt and how it can be done better.

What should be taught - I have two children, each with very different personalities and what they’re most curious about. One is very interested in human emotions while the other one is curious about science and solving problems. So, can I have one curriculum that will satisfy each of them and their curiosity? I feel by putting them in the same room for “teaching”, I am doing them both an injustice. The world is infinite and the number of special interests are practically limitless. Life itself is the biggest teacher. However, you will notice that different people learn different things from similar life experiences, just because it is in everyone’s nature to focus on different things.

I once was volunteering in a class room of 2nd graders where the kids were being taught geology. The topic was to focus on rocks and understand them. The teacher kept prompting one of the children to keep his eyes on the board but the student was not interested. I knew this kid and his immense love for basketball. If suddenly geology changes to production of rubber and since of soil where rubber grows his eyes would light up. Why then do we have to put them through a class of words which will not have meaning for them . Even if his eyes are on the board his mind will wander and so it did . Very soon he asked to be excused and wanted to go to the restroom leaving critical learning time.

The best method should be project-based learning where each day the children are asked to achieve a certain objective and solve problems along the way. Most children in their early lives learned through this method. Why should we then start them on a deliberate form of top-down teaching? With project-based learning, each child would be able to exercise the faculties that they each feel curious about.

Finding the teacher - The most important ingredient in the education of the child is the teacher. It takes a while to understand the true nature of a person. Each human in immensely complex. Once a teacher decides to take a child as pupil, the teacher for the child should never change and should remain constant . A teacher’s decision to decide who to teach should be akin to the decisions Sage Parashuraman made when deciding who he would take on a pupil. The teacher not only teaches the child but deeply understands the nature of the child. They should know what works and does not work. This is unlike a report card where progress is marked against parameters of an external system. The teacher can call multiple people as subs to teach different subjects but essentially this teacher is the child's coach, mentor and everything else. We called it class teachers growing up but it was never viewed as such. Could it be the mother? Yes, it can be provided the mother is worthy of being the teacher and has no greater purpose or motives.

We spend hours finding out the best clothes to wear, the tv to buy or the next car but with respect to school we ask our neighbour or other relatives who are sending their children if the school is good. But it is not the school but the teacher that has to be sought. The school could be great as an over-arching principle like a country but it could be that they are missing the important element of teaching what you want to teach your children. Now don’t get me wrong here; It is not whether they teach football or math but rather, it is that they know the exact nature of the child they are teaching.

A teacher has to be sought whose philosophy and thinking matches one that you have else there will be a huge conflict and would never be connected to the teachers thinking and ideals.

A teacher has to be like a friend to the child and not the disciplinarian as the child has to be unafraid to ask questions. As Krishnamurthy says “the teacher needs to develop a quality of intelligence in the child.”

The role of family - In many cultures, the decision making of which school the child would go to is left alone to the woman of the house. She is making this decision in isolation having no one to discuss about what their needs are as a family and what they want to teach their children . It takes a really long time to figure out the philosophy of the family and the right school for the child so it is best that the father and mother start this process as early as when they take the decision to have the child. Like any other path of understanding, they need to take it early so they have enough time to make a clear decision.

We are increasingly sending kids younger and younger to schools. I was guilty of this too. With little knowledge of child psychology and peer pressure for the best interest of the child we send our kids sometimes as young as 1.5 years old is going to school and sometimes a 3 month old is going to a day care. At this age, all the child requires is immense love and should feel confident and protected and no one else can give that but their family.

This practice happens because the traditional family system has broken down, and both the mother and father are increasingly seeking their aspirations outside of home. We are glorifying people who are holding high positions in their career, and being a parent is not given enough importance. Hence increasingly parents are transferring the burden of decision making about the child to others. Thereby, early formative years are critically lost to low-quality food, care and Love. When you are constantly rushing, where is the time to intervene and find the moments where you can connect with the child? When do you understand their small nuances and help build them and probably give you a chance to build yourselves in the process? After all, we all know learning never stops.

To conclude, I feel a lot of thought must go in to understand the needs of education for each of our kids. We must seek an excellent teacher, align as a family and balance our own thoughts and aspirations before we start our children on this glorious journey.




References

How Children Learn (Davidson Films, Inc.)

Tinkering school - https://youtu.be/hvHViFc0ekw

Krishnamurti - What is the point of Education?

Smt. Amritvarshini & Acharaya Umesh Hegde on Indian Perspective of Education. Maitreyi Gurukul

The Whole-Brain Child Daniel J Siegel Audiobook