In the modern age, one of the biggest challenge in front of human beings in all the arenas is this – what do we do when really are not sure about what is right and what is wrong ? Time has slapped this prove on the face of humanity that there cannot be absolute wrongs or rights. So, the dilemma that we all face today is what shall we do? This becomes more severe when it comes to education. For we really don’t even know the tip of the iceberg. All the knowledge of human kind about education, how we learn, how to grow children comes out be ridiculously tiny, blatantly biased. All we know are trifle bits here and there, there is no way to have a consideration for the bigger picture and that’s what we really need if we want to educate our children rightly.
One of the most profound movie on education -“Schooling the world” proves this (I highly recommend this movie to anybody and everybody interested in education or even otherwise.) This movie talks about the damage schooling has done and is doing to our children, to our society, to our culture. It beautifully talks about various issues of schooling by taking Ladakh as a case study. This movie puts a question mark on all of us who are supporting development and schooling as a solution to better lives and a better world.
However – it’s a problem movie. It talks about problem really well without even hinting or pointing to any kind of solution or alternative. I guess this would be unfair to expect a single panacea movie on education but I do get frustrated at times because all the movies on education primarily talk about problem and they portray them really well. Other documentaries like “Waiting for Superman” or Ken Robinson’s analysis are mainly focused on the problems of education. There is very little available about the pointers to the solution for the very simple fact that we don’t know what to do?
Given the sheer vastness of possibilities, sophisticated connections of numerous variables and limit of human perceptions, we would perhaps never be able to know “everything” or even anything close to it. So, first thing is clear and needs no further explanation that we would never know enough about education.
Once we have accepted it, the challenge posed before us is – what do we do when we only know a small part of huge puzzle? What shall we do when we really don’t know what’s wrong and what’s right? What do we do with the problems of education when we really don’t know what future holds? What do we do when we have not enough idea about what schooling does to human consciousness; both individual and collective?
All the alternative schools in the world, all different types of educational reforms are doing – “what they (the founder of system / the people involved) think is RIGHT.” I think this is equally dangerous if not more. However do we have another choice? Of course we can’t just be sitting idle after uncovering various issues in current education system. We can’t help but react to the recognized damage of schooling.
I think this is a very complex and significant question and I am too ignorant to even try to attempt to answer such question. However, I am pursuing this question and I think all those who are serious about education and future of our children and our planet must pursue this question very boldly with an open mind. We should not hurry up to jump on to a conclusion or a solution just because we have had a century of head banging to fix education.
To ensure we don’t at least disturb the process of our evolution and progress we must AT LEAST –
1.) Be very cautious of our own (personal and social) biases and beliefs about education.
2.) Learn from the mistakes and not repeat them.
3.) Not hold our personal views/ideas too seriously and too tightly.
4.) Stay critical of all the upcoming methods and analyze them with an open mind.
5.) Take the best of our existing knowledge and experience.
6.) Create a common platform to share ideas and knowledge we are generating across the world. (we must work together not in isolation – this has failed)
7.) Take strong stands on things we know for sure (through multiple sources) like – negative impact of - competition, standardized tests, instilling religious values in school etc.
list can go on...
Gautam Buddha said - accepting and knowing that you are ignorant is the first step of wisdom. Perhaps this is high time we take our first step to wisdom in education.
