Importance of balanced approach to education: My experience, neighborhood aunties and what I want for my kid

Importance of balanced approach to education:

My experience, neighborhood aunties and what I want for my kid

                By Gopal Padhee

When I was growing up in India, I was always told by my parents, teachers and others that, to have a decent livelihood, you must study hard and get a good job. And now in my 30s, having achieved a decent amount of success in professional life, when I look back at what we studied in our schooling and the relevance of that, it seems a lot disconnected to me. The big question in retrospect is, was all that we studied and the way we did that, necessary?  And the quantum of our learning was determined by how many hours we studies. I also remember a lot of the neighborhood aunties telling me how their son was studying so many more hours than me. And they would tell that only when my parents were around.  Though I am undeniably clear that the studies that I did were absolutely required to get to where I am today. But was all that necessary?  Would I be more successful, had I been exposed to the more basic real life skills, arts and creativity?  And the importance of education was not to get a good job but more tuned towards making me a better person? Hey…. I am not questioning that I am not a better person :)
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I was listening to one of the professor the other day, and he was saying how important it is to be creative in the contemporary world in any field, whether it is technology, communication, engineering, finance etc. And everybody agrees to that, look at Apple.  But he was saying that the basic construct of our education system teaches us to be disciplined and structured, which works against creativity. And Arts always come last on priority. It is the same in every education systems in the world, i.e, USA, UK, Finland, South Korea, Singapore etc. (By the way per Pearson index the best performing education systems are East Asian and Scandinavian ones. USA ranked 14^th, and I could not find India in list of top 40). I somehow agree with him. Had I been taught to question the status quo and why I cannot do it the other way around, or third way around?  Had I been told that education is not only Science, Math, Humanities, Business but also Arts, Crafts, Dancing and doing creative things? I would have had a different perspective of looking at things. And I could have been more successful. Who knows…

Happiness is one of the reasons for education. And I can observe how much personal happiness and satisfaction a performing artist get while performing a magnificent piece of music or dance. Also they entertain and give joy to an audience, could be from a few hundreds to millions. I can assure you that this satisfaction is nothing less than inventing a scientific discovery.

But my point is not only getting immensely successful in the respective field, whether Science or Arts. But if you are expose to whole plethora of difference disciplines, your perspective of looking at the question and finding solution would be broad and all-encompassing. Your imagination is going to be of a different level.

When I look up at the important reasons for the education, I get a lot of difference answers. Notably, keeping up with the world, respect, makes the world a safer and better place, gives you confidence, economic growth of the nation, saves you from being fooled or cheated, equality, money and more than anything else, for a happy and stable life. Somewhere it said, in today’s competitive world, education is necessity, after food, clothing and shelter. (Metaphorically I agree to that, but I would give importance to something else, that I should not talk about here). But that’s not the point; the point is that education is THE fundamental way to change the world and every one’s life.

And education has to be imparted with a balanced approach. First of all it has to be fun and enjoyable. Every day the kid would get up from bed, excited and eager to get to the center of learning. In my experience, I never like studying at school. It was something that you had to do, no alternative. And I bet you, even if the toppers when they say that they loved studying, they are all lying.  The answer from the honest core would always say that we did not like studying.

And the question is what would we like the system of education for our kids?

Like most of us here, I would want education for our kids to make them independent, to provide for them, to contribute to the society, develop intellectually to make informed decision, and achieve their own aspirations. They should also develop personality and social skills, such as public speaking, initiate and maintain positive social relationships, and to cope with larger social environment. Learn how to be creative and give them a chance to identify the potential in them. The system would also supports and encourages the kids to take up different discipline of education and how to use the best of them to create better solutions to any problem.

And as parents we have the responsibility to identify and choose center of learning that imparts education with a holistic and balances approach. We owe it to them. Let’s make our kids a better person and make this world a better place.