I found myself drenched
with joy to find somebody sharing a very 'first-hand' personal
experience with teaching, and was able to clearly mention the role of
'trust' in the process of teaching-learning!
...
Obviously, such a person
has to be also very generous with handing out a permission,
'just-like-that' to reproduce his opinion as a blog!
...
Here it is:
(bold fonts, italics,
mine...)
quote:
“...Oh!
pleasedo create a blog with some of these ideas and discussion about
education system. u also in an earlier comment expresed similar
opinion. By the way did u see this news-article today
it implies a practical experiment implying similar adventurousness generating. I do not know at all Sugata Mitra. He seems to be doing very interesting experiment.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-n ews/NRI-education-pioneer-Dr-Sugata-Mitra-wins-1-m illion-TED-Prize/articleshow/18705008.cms
it implies a practical experiment implying similar adventurousness generating. I do not know at all Sugata Mitra. He seems to be doing very interesting experiment.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-n ews/NRI-education-pioneer-Dr-Sugata-Mitra-wins-1-m illion-TED-Prize/articleshow/18705008.cms
....
unquote:
The above was a
response to my humble request thus:
I
am almost tempted to copy paste it into a blog, and face the
'consequences'!!!
Now, I pray, I wish, that this string of comments should be preserved !!! (not the negative wish, 'should not be deleted'!!!)...
Now, I pray, I wish, that this string of comments should be preserved !!! (not the negative wish, 'should not be deleted'!!!)...
The
main quote is:
“Yr
example is indeed very interesting narayanji and reflects yr insight.
I enjoyed this occasional teaching.
There was another interesting aspect I observed. In USA undergraduate teaching is quite regulated in style. Course is almost completely pre-defined, even the book etc. One spends as much time at least in tutoring, helping students as in lecturing. Home work is given and regular quizzes, tests are given. But even in this regulated teaching a trust plays important role. teacher is trusted and also student. I remember a Tamil proverb, which I like very much -to some body climbing a coconut tree u can only help him with support till yr raised hands reach, after that it is the tree and him), I think it is important to also remember this while teaching. Perhaps because of this trust and also because of a general culture of adventure in USA one sees another phenomena often in USA (much more than India - I have confirmed this also with some others ).
Some times some students, there u can see that they do not at all follow method u taught nor what is given in all books, they may not have understood all aspects well but they are strong enough to develop there own methods and give proofs or calculations quite bizarre but quite right over all and logically also quite correct.
I think we have almost removed idea of trust in our education system to generate this kind of adventurous attitude very much needed to learn. We do not trust teacher- exam is set by some body else - nor student - more worries about cheating then actual learning- nor business and industry (who consume these students, we do not take their opinions at all). only people we trust is govt (their set rules have to be followed) and foreigners (course standards and system is set according to usa or european systems etc.)
We did have trust and much more in the past. We thought of teaching then, more as a process of enjoying together with the student and not some giving of knowledge etc. Even if we can bring back this shloka philosophy, which I like very much, and trust it implies, it will bring back a lot in our education system.
ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Let us pray together to one who protects us both (the Teacher and the Student),
Let us enjoy together nourishment from that one,
Let us enjoy together with energy and vigour,
Let our Studies be enlightening, not giving rise to Hostility,
Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.”
There was another interesting aspect I observed. In USA undergraduate teaching is quite regulated in style. Course is almost completely pre-defined, even the book etc. One spends as much time at least in tutoring, helping students as in lecturing. Home work is given and regular quizzes, tests are given. But even in this regulated teaching a trust plays important role. teacher is trusted and also student. I remember a Tamil proverb, which I like very much -to some body climbing a coconut tree u can only help him with support till yr raised hands reach, after that it is the tree and him), I think it is important to also remember this while teaching. Perhaps because of this trust and also because of a general culture of adventure in USA one sees another phenomena often in USA (much more than India - I have confirmed this also with some others ).
Some times some students, there u can see that they do not at all follow method u taught nor what is given in all books, they may not have understood all aspects well but they are strong enough to develop there own methods and give proofs or calculations quite bizarre but quite right over all and logically also quite correct.
I think we have almost removed idea of trust in our education system to generate this kind of adventurous attitude very much needed to learn. We do not trust teacher- exam is set by some body else - nor student - more worries about cheating then actual learning- nor business and industry (who consume these students, we do not take their opinions at all). only people we trust is govt (their set rules have to be followed) and foreigners (course standards and system is set according to usa or european systems etc.)
We did have trust and much more in the past. We thought of teaching then, more as a process of enjoying together with the student and not some giving of knowledge etc. Even if we can bring back this shloka philosophy, which I like very much, and trust it implies, it will bring back a lot in our education system.
ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Let us pray together to one who protects us both (the Teacher and the Student),
Let us enjoy together nourishment from that one,
Let us enjoy together with energy and vigour,
Let our Studies be enlightening, not giving rise to Hostility,
Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.”
unquote:
(I happened to
'forward' this quote above to a few youngsters, and I received an
interesting feedback too!
I am tempted to
quote a small portion of one of such feed backs...)
quote:
“While there
are always few exceptions, it is true that in this country, honesty
and integrity at this level is assumed to be implicitly present
at most places - including education and academics and even in common
place activities like restaurants and grocery shops. After all this
while, I'm not going to attribute blame on the the system or people
in India for having developed a sense of mistrust with everyone and
everything around them. I do not find it surprising that dishonesty
is prevalent in India given the extent of competition for anything
and everything, right down to survival. Right from groceries to
earning a livelihood is extremely competitive, where only the fittest
survive. When driven to a corner, it is instinctive to seek
self-preservation by dropping honesty, trust and integrity.
To
quote an example from the above post, it is natural for a student to
cheat in exams if he knows that his chances of survival are minimal
if he doesn't do well in an exam. While in US (just to quote a
country for concreteness), a student knows he will live and quite
comfortably too without having to pass that examination. For most of
us, the instinct of self-preservation has become a habit that we
don't realize that we are often even dishonest with ourselves.
Unfortunately, this is very common in
teachers/professors/educators/philosophers in India. I find it often
that I see someone making incorrect claims of knowledge on something,
just driven by this instinct of self-preservation. It is even more
painful to see that the aspect of self-retrospection is very low in
most people. The fear that you'd find yourself lacking and thereby
become useless or face imminent extinction in the competition, has
made honest analysis of oneself almost impossible.
Looking
back at my earlier school days, I have been driven by the competition
factor to say : 'Yes, I understand this' and 'I can/ should be able
do this', when in reality, I have no clue on what is going on. So
much so, that it is an everyday struggle for me now to come out
honest with myself and say "I do not understand this" or "I
am not doing this right" or "I can do this better". I
knew I don't have to fight for my food, and therefore in my
case, it became a habit at a level where I had to face competition.
For example, beating the system for scoring high marks was a
necessity for beating competition then. I'm realizing that it is
happening even now, at a different level, without my
awareness though - but that is really not any excuse to be dishonest.
If
I find that with all insulation, protection and opportunities around
me, I'm finding it hard to be honest within myself, I really do not
find it surprising that honesty and trust is rare in India where
day-to-day survival is a big chance for most people. Since you
had explicitly sent this note to me, and because I see students all
around me all the time, and being a student myself - I think I had
ventured my opinion here. Actually, no. I'm just writing this
as a reminder for myself to be aware of my habit.”
unquote:
Source:
- A very precious contributor to the rare kind of website : http://www.speakingtree.in/public/soumyasrajan
- Feed back source: A very personal and closely associated youngster, through our personal emails.
psn
(5th
March, 2013)
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