Response to comments

Discussions help us open our selves to new ideas and thoughts. Thank you Vijay for your interest in what I have written. Thanks for opening my mind and keeping me on the right track.

Take notice of that list again : Line 6 : To eradicate illiteracy.

This is the website of a government run enterprise. It involves hundreds of thousands of people. It talks about efforts taken with the money of the country. And quoting lofty ideals "eradicate illiteracy"?? What have we been doing for 60 years...

It is true that blaming somebody is the easiest thing on earth. I am wrong in sitting here comfortably in my room and blabbing off everything that comes to my mind when I should take a spade in my hand and get down to the base and start working. I should not be scared of getting tired, I should not shy away from getting dirty. I should not complain against any thing. I should keep my opinions to myself, use them to better my work for change.

But I am also aware that there are several projects and endeavours that have failed because they were started when the time was not ripe. Right now, I am still a student. I have woken up to my responsibility just now. I do not know where to begin. I do not know how exactly to work. Big thoughts and aspirations do not make anything real. It is in the way that you put your most mundane thoughts into practise. It is in the way that you prepare yourself to get dirty. I am still green. I know that there are many things that I am yet to learn. That is precisely the reason why I am writing my thoughts here for the world to see and share with me. "No man is an island." I don't trust my thinking ability to have completely original thoughts. I want people to respond to what I have to say. I want people to tell me that I am wrong and prove it to me.

We have no idea of how ignorant we are. I hope you will forgive me for saying this. I mean no offence. I used to have a bad habit of assuming that things that I know everybody else of my age, around me also knows. I did not know that people are exposed to different things. They know things that I don't and don't know the things that I do. Realizing this particular thing is what prompted me to put my thoughts here so I could start a dialog. A learning process if you like.
I do not want to seem like the critic with a negative attitude towards everything. I want to roll up my sleeves and work. I want to analyse why certain things are the way they are. I do not want to enforce my ideas on anybody. Only want to discuss and learn things myself. When the time is right, when I believe that I have learnt enough to begin work and have enough resources to put into use I will begin work.

Coming back to Vijay's ideas:
1) I am not against the education system. I am against its method of implementation. I am worried that the "thinking brain" is something that we aspire to have, though we have years and years of education. We give importance to paper degrees, when these give us no practical experience. We destroy imagination and discourage any free thinking. We want our children to follow set paths. This is what is wrong.
2)Something else: Why do we tend to equate money with happiness. I wonder if you have had the pleasure of reading a book for the sake of enjoying it. I do not know if you agree with me, but the experience is great. Have you had the pleasure of having a meal with family when you have jointly cooked a meal? There are a million other such wonderful experiences that the mind opens up to when you have read well and widely. This experience I want to share with every human that lives. The cab driver that you talk of is a human being who does not realise his full capacities. He does not have the pleasure of exploring his thinking capacities. Anyway, lofty ideals from me again I guess. Sorry, I am in love with the ability of the human brain and devastated to know that half of the people in our world do not realise it completely. They would love themselves better and love the world better if they knew their own capacity.
3)Life exists outside cities. A call centre worker and cab driver exist in cities. What about thousands and millions of farmers and labourers that live in villages. Have you thought of the child in villages that wants to learn, go to school and work with bright books and pencils?Do you remember the time when some of your childhood aspirations were not fulfilled? Don't you still feel sorry for yourself? Doesn't it burn you to think that the child's wishes are not fulfilled just because there are no schools for it to go to? How about those kids who are forced to work because of the selfishness of their parents? How about parents who sell their children for money. How about children that wear rags and live on air and water? We don't live on the same plane. Don't say that. It frees you from your responsibility to these children and their innocent aspirations. I live near a slum that houses many of these children. They are so innocent. But their parents, drunk and abusive and lost in their world, do not care a paisa for these little ones. They are just completing a circle. The child knows nothing better and drinks like his father, abuses his wife when he grows up. It has no other example, you see.

I disagree with you. But its heartwarming to see that you atleast care enough to respond. Thank you for letting me clarify ( yet again).

Thinking aloud - I

I was thinking aloud to another person about why this country is unable to enforce compulsory education. It is obvious that it is not possible for people to go out and make sure that each child goes to school. And anything that comes out of force is useless. But what is it that stops parents from sending children to school in spite of the fact that schools provide meals to children. I was told that these children get jobs more easily than their parents. It is easier to boss over kids and make them do work that adults would not do. So parents are happy to send the child to work so that they can sit at home and eat on the child's earnings.
This adds a rather complicated angle to the problem. It is sad that these people want to deprive kids of the blessing of education, but how can anyone blame them when they know nothing better. They have not been taught anything different. They do not have a way of earning for themselves and their families. So the only thing that can be done is to find a way of providing jobs to parents if they sent their kids to school. We cannot make beggars of them giving them food or money for sending kids to school. It is a better thing to do to help them find jobs or provide them with jobs. It is also possible to train these parents so that they can find a way to earn money for their children and themselves. Teach them something so they can set up a cottage industry. This will need constant monitoring so that people don't slip into dirty habits like drinking and squander all that they have. I cannot suggest that alcohol, cigarettes and gambling be banned. We cannot expect the government to do anything. So the only way is to keep a check on people. Teaching kids is an easy job, but managing their parents will be a tough job. With that problem in check, the next issue is how to ensure that the child does really get educated and is free from the various ills that are bound to affect him like the bad influences that he is bound to have. This can be done by isolating the child from such influences. Tough process. The only thing we can do is to ensure that the teacher is a person who completely understands his role and makes sure that the child is not affected in any way by his own bad ways.

That brings us to the role of the teacher in the life of a child. The teacher must be a person who is capable of establishing control over the thoughts of the child so as not to allow the mind to learn undesirable habits and things from people around. But this control must not stymie the child from learning and growing in the true sense of the word. Stress on positive growth. The teacher must be a person with the following qualities:

1. Infinite patience
2. Kindness
3. Love for children and teaching them
4. Good knowledge and wisdom
5. Humility, modesty
6. Honesty

I will keep adding to that list. Whether the child learns and continues to attend school depends on the teacher. It is a very likely thing that the child quits school because of the teacher.
I think the factors that keep a child away from school is also in place here.

1. Hunger - schools provide only midday meals and only on 5 days a week. The parents are not benefited
2. People employ children more often than adults. Parents try to cash in on this.
3. No interest.
4. The syllabus - it does not stimulate learning. It is beyond the capacity of a child to understand something that is not clear or evident.
5. A child's attention span is not considered in present day education system.
6. The system of judging and branding children based on marks and tough exams is very stressful to the child. Leaving school seems like the best way for a child to get rid of all that stress.
7. Teachers - even if the teacher is unable to motivate a child to learn, he should not scare a child away from it. Personal remarks, harsh criticism and violence confuse and scare away the child away from school.