Samyuktha's live-wire book, Learning the heart way, may dramatically alter the way young people think about college or university education in future.
It may not lead to large-scale desertions from university, but at least it is going to provide an attractive option that young people forced to go to college would never have conceived of. This young woman not only 'learned the heart way' but collected a college degree as well. Now that is being able to live in the best of all possible worlds.
The serious problems affecting university education today seem to be largely self-inflicted, either by college managements or by the parents of students who attend these dreary institutions. The apathetic and lackadaisical attitude of college learners is largely a symptom of a more deadly illness for which they, in our opinion, should not be blamed. The Indian system of school education, in any case, renders them supremely incapable of taking decisions on crucial aspects of their lives or education as both teachers and parents dominate their day to day existence and insist on making all (or most) of their choices for them. Later, these include even proposals for marriage or job choices for life.
Few parents I know appear capable of solving the problem of getting their college-going children to take their academic studies seriously. The studies, first of all, are alien and mean mostly nothing to which the students can relate. University is not a learning place: it is simply a venue for mugging, a place where you study what the system decides for you. The system itself takes ages to change.
Howard Gardner, invoking his famous theory of multiple intelligences, says, "It's not how smart you are. It's how you are smart.
Samyuktha, in her evocation of her learning through the Post- school programme of The School (KFI-Krishnamurti Foundation India) has, with characteristic candour, exemplified this fact. Her intelligence has allowed her to explore, freely and sceptically. The world that extended beyond her, and this is evident in every line of her unique book. What also flows through in every small anecdote, every spontaneous perception, each gush of impressions is the genuineness of her sharing, the sense of honesty and lack of presumption. It is also perhaps typical that she focuses so little on herself and so much on the people who taught her or interacted with her.
The range of learning opportunities she availed of, or created for herself, makes this small book a truly valuable acquisition for anyone looking for a place to begin. The search for a learning space, and then the glad exploration of it, underscores a bright and serious mind, capable of great creativity and equipped with a deep social conscience. It has been a pleasure to interact with her, to share in part her dilemmas, her soul-searching questions, her vulnerabilities, her triumphs.
Why write this book?
There are many ways of doing things, whether it's making tea or the way you approach education. Choices and options these make life exciting. Today, however, we have set patterns for everything, and especially so in the field of learning. Children must go to school. They must write exams. They must do well at studies. After completing school, they must get into a reputed college. And needless to say, they have to do well there too. With all these 'musts' they are bound to have a lucrative career - the purpose of the whole exercise anyway. The paths are clearly laid. We just must follow them. Don't turn. Don't look sideways. Just go ahead. Straight ahead. And you are sure to get there. That's what everyone believes or is made to believe - that there is one 'there' and that by following a process systematically, one will arrive there.
Higher education today appears to have only three faces: engineering, medicine or computers - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the holy trinity of education. All of us have necessarily to mould ourselves and adapt to one of these manifestations. If you cannot become a Shiva, become a Brahma; if not, then a Vishnu. If you do not strive to become one of these, you are a fool. Perhaps there is something wrong with you. You must be a dullard, a dim- witted person. These are the complexes that invariably crawl into a student's mind. Parents are only too happy to see their children conform to these set patterns and do the 'same old things'. As they themselves did.
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