Participants: Sathyamoorthy, Nithiyanandam, Chitra Nagesh, Vidhyalakshmi, Ramasubramanian, Priya
Note: Amukta Mahapatra could not make it to this Paatashaala session, and the predetermined agenda (sharing of experience by Amukta) for this gathering had to be postponed. The group had a rather free flowing dialogue on learning, triggered off by Ram asking each individual to share his / her recent learning with the group.
Vidhyalakshmi who is currently involved with a voluntary activity of examining the papers submitted by students in the YDC contest conducted by the Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, shared her insight. The YDC is an annual essay competition with a difference. Specific questions are asked of students in answers to which they write their essays. Different questions are asked at the different levels – middle, higher and senior school students. The questions are aimed at making the students think, for his own growth, for that of his family, society and the nation. Vidhya’s insight was that students until the 8th std gave quite original and creative answers. However students from higher classes wrote very prescribed, conditioned essays in answer to the questions.
This led to a discussion on why this is so. Many related issues were brought up. A general feeling was that in terms of pedagogy, there was a broader scope for innovation and experimentation in the lower classes, which is considerably lesser or not at all in the higher, due to pressures of academic performance. Sathya also particularly felt that play and diversity is cut down drastically in the higher classes, whereas we all know that play is an important and effective method of learning. It was also recognised that this happens over a period of time, not all of a sudden, but very intensely in the higher classes, where marks and exams are given utmost importance and thinking takes a back seat.
Improving the self
Chitra Nagesh said that she feels she is learning everyday but is unable to articulate clearly what she learns. This learning for her is to improve her self and to attain equanimity in all circumstances, and she learns something or the other in this practice of hers everyday.
‘Teaching’ Gandhi to children
Sathya said that he has learnt newly that it is very difficult to teach children what one knows. His sharing with the group is as follows:
“My nephews aged 4 and 6 asked me about Gandhi and I found it very difficult to share with them what I knew. I had gone to this Gandhi course, studied Hind swaraj but I was totally in conflict as to what I can tell them from Hind swaraj that they will understand. I didn’t know stories from his life that I could tell them; what do I tell them when I myself didn’t know much?”
Priya at this point shared some thing in response to this. She said that Jane Sahi of
Ram added to this his own thoughts:
“Recently, in response to a request for an article on learning, I had written just about this learning experience – is learning a one-way process? Is it giving or taking or both? Are we giving or taking? We are doing it simultaneously! What you give is your observation, care, sensitivity… you take learning among other things. In the light of such learning experiences, the formal education becomes but a small component of one’s entire life’s learning. For example, sathya, maybe you could have shared the brute force story that we had read during the Hind swaraj session with your nephews. “
An unreported episode from Gandhiji’s life
In continuation with the brute force story, Ram shared with the group his exchanges related to this issue during the SwaRaj retreat:
“While one elderly person said the story really makes us think deeper, another person, middle-aged said that this sounds biblical and that this could not happen in real life. The same person then went on to ask whether then this is a matter of history or conviction and how could anyone be so nonviolent? I replied that he has also said that sometimes violence is the best form of ahimsa, for which his question was whether then Gandhiji only used his method of nonviolence as a strategy and does this mean he didn’t actually have such a quality? … This conversation remained inconclusive between the two of us, but when I came back I happened to read an episode from Gandhiji’s life published now in the Sarvodaya magazine, which I think lent itself to some of the earlier discussions. Please read the episode here.
There are any number of ways to create a learning experience. If one cannot tell stories, there are other starting points, for example, visually. Look at Gandhiji’s appearance. Did any other political leader dress the way he had done? He wore the dhoti. So maybe start with asking a child whether s(he) has seen any person of political etc consequence wear such a dress in public, what do they think about it and lead conversation from there. This is just one more way. We don’t have to supply information all the time.
We can have beautiful experiences in learning to do things with hands for instance. There is no need for so many words. In the violence of noise and words, can we help them to sit silently for 5 minutes and experience that silence, listen to that silence and deepen observation in that silence. Can we talk to them about keeping the neighbourhood clean and how t his can be done regularly? All this is also Gandhi.
So, learning happens in so many ways, not restricted to children or schools! In fact, more people should drop out of schools and colleges and the engineering conveyor belt, more learning can happen.”
Career Mapping
Apropos to the previous point made, Nithiyanandam spoke of the different approach that they take to career mapping in their workshops with college students. He explained how they worked backwards from any of the popular professions that are coveted and asked the students about the requirements for the particular professions. Leading backwards they explored areas of studies to be pursued and still further to then the interests that an individual needs to have to reach a particular career option. Then they examined the various career options, how career aspirations of students are formed – are they based on the interests and inclinations of each individual or by conditioning. The students then went onto map interests, career aspirations and options during the session.
This led to a discussion that included issues of conditioning, influence of media, corroding of aesthetics and simplicity in functioning in the pursuit of things that are imposed on us from all sides, how do we explore (if we explore at all) the question, “what do we aspire to be?’, how power equations seem to be very important in today’s context, that we teach our children by not in so many words, but our actions to recognise power and respond to it, and that we need to go beyond social and economic barriers mentally and not Just as gestures. For instance, the group discussed about how we look at say, a computer engineer and a post man and the resulting behaviour. We have to examine carefully how some of these fundamental inhibitions, judgments and assumptions are formed and transmitted.
