“Just go for it and
give it a try. You don’t have to be a professional to build a successful
product. Amateurs started Google and Apple. Professionals built the Titanic.”
I just happened to
read these lines on the whatsapp profile of one of my best friends from
college. And it struck me hard like a bolt from the blue. Being part of the
academic domain by profession, it made me wonder how true this reality is and
how far it stays from what we instil in our younger generations through the
current system of education.
Today’s education system stigmatizes failure and standardizes
creativity. And that is one of the biggest reasons why our children feel so scared
to try! That precisely is why our younger generation wants to be only engineers
and doctors even though our land is filled with unemployed or ill employed
people from these streams. Very few of our youngsters display the guts to
follow their real dream especially if it is not the fad of their times. And ultimately
we get parents and children running behind anything and everything that
guarantees good marks to ensure an easy admission in one of the engineering
colleges in the state (which anyways is aplenty!). The irony is that every one
of us would personally know some engineering graduate who is into a sales job or
one who works in a bank! I know of doctors who have moved into domains that are
in no way related to their educational qualifications. ‘Copy the Fad’ is an
unhealthy attitude we gain through our system that follows standardized
teaching and testing mechanisms.
Why do you think the guy in the class sits and copies his
classmate’s assignment just before your class starts? Is it because he likes
practicing the art of copying? Or is it because you failed in motivating him to
want to think about the standardized questions you set for the entire class, which
unfortunately did not fall into his individual interests / capabilities zone?
What if he knew that whatever he wrote in there, you would some time talk to him
about it, build on it and connect it with something he really likes to do in
life? What if he knew for sure that you are not here to assess him or compare
his work with another, based on some sort of set standard? What if he knew that
it was just perfectly ok to not write it, if he was confident enough to talk
about it and share his views in front of the class? Do you really think he
would still spend his time and energy copying something he does not care a hoot
about?
I remember one of my professors, Late.Dr.Saji.K.B.K., from my
initial days of a business administration course. One of the first assignments
he gave our class was to identify a brand that was not among the top known ones
of those times. As groups we were then to visit families and shops to try and
identify what they really thought about this brand and prepare a report on how
we could promote this brand in the market. We were very new to these kinds of
activities but were motivated by the fact that we could go out in groups and
visit places. Saji Sir, made sure he met all of us and gave us guidance at
every juncture of the project activity. Though it was only later in life that
we really heard about many of these terminologies, in the process of doing this
one simple task, we ended up learning about branding, marketing, market research,
customer satisfaction, product planning, and team work. We were at no point of
time burdened by how we would stand in comparison to others or what were the
rights or wrongs in what we were doing. We were just enthused by the novelty of
the activity and the fact that we were hanging around with friends!
These days you really cannot stimulate the students with a clay
model of a tooth or a chart on good manners. You have to be innovative. You
have to be creative. And you have to be relevant to the times in which these
youngsters live. For example, considering the happenings of the recent times, you
might as well talk about Facebook and Free Basics and through the discussions
that occur teach them about monopolistic practices, business ethics, and business
environment. Do you think anyone in your class would yawn if you were talking
to them about Facebook? But to be able to do that we all must personally put
our efforts towards having an inherent system for continuous knowledge
updation. If this sounds like something you really want to be like, using the
lesson plans you created during the first year of your teaching career will
just not suffice.
A major issue today is that information is available in huge
quantities and through numerous sources. It is so easy to get information that
we take it for granted and often even misunderstand it as Knowledge. The truth
is that a majority of us do not process the information we get and end up with
quite a lot of raw information that is in no way useful to our lives. You don’t
believe me? Try jotting down the various product lines and marketing strategy
of Team Solar Energy Company in Kerala. Else try writing a small essay on the
new Liquor Policy of Kerala and its implications on the socio political and
governance domains. I bet a vast majority of us would get fidgety in these kinds
of situations. But the very same people would be all smiles and giggles if I
reminded them of ‘Saritha’ or the Bar Bribery Scam in Kerala!
Information can be a powerful tool only if you have the
capability to process it into useful knowledge. And it is only when we combine
the apt Knowledge with our talents and skills that we get a good recipe for
success. Truth be said, many of our youngsters are unaware of their real talents
and skills. And they rarely are good at effectively combining the knowledge they
have with their talents and skills. The underlying reason for this is the huge
stress our educators give on the age old methods of standardized assessments
that actually evaluates only the information recollection skills of the
students. The sad reality is that we seldom come across teachers who are able
to positively stimulate their talents and skills.
We need to keep in mind the fact that the world moves
forward not with our academic qualifications or the colleges we attend. Every
positive surge of mankind has been due to the ability of some to be creative,
and to be fearless of failure. As educators, we need to do all that it takes to
instil in our children the fearlessness to try and fail, and then be able to
confidently get back on their feet and search for the next opportunity to
learn. That is when we can push them forward from the amateur’s zone.
Today we need teachers, who would stimulate talents and
skills rather than test capabilities. We need educators, who can impart knowledge
rather than supply information. And we so badly need mentors, who can plant dreams
in young minds and inspire them to fail. Because success is the destination and
failures pitstops that reinvigorate!
Comments