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For those who will rather listen
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What is education?
Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think.
– Albert Einstein
What is the purpose of education?
Individual peace (happiness) and prosperity (wealth). That automatically brings societal peace and prosperity.
The point of education is to make kids understand the freedom and integrity of life. That can be only explained with love.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Integration of spirituality in education:
Education is incomplete without the knowledge of self. To meditate on the question ‘Who I am?’ is spirituality. The end goal of spirituality is to have an absolutely clear and unquestionable answer to this question.
Sprirituality must be integrated with education. Self-relaization is the focus. Each one of us must become aware of our higher self. We are links of a great past to a grand future. We should ignite our dormant inner energy. and let it guide our lives. The radiance of such minds embarked on constructive endeavour will bring peace, prosperity and bliss to this nation.
-Ignited Minds by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
If there is no wisdom as to who you are, can you draw upon meaningful conclusions? Can you see beyond your thought?
So my question to you is how you’re ever going to perceive the truth if not for your open mind – a mind that is ready to question?
The problem with blindly chasing ANY ONE IDEOLOGY is it always clings to *a part/a fragment* of reality. And thus misses the whole. So we must seek integrated education. So that our kids can experience love and goodness. So that we can be free of never-ending conflicts.
The problems with the education system
The first problem is the centralized system.
We’ve been deceived into thinking that we must adhere to or comply with the authority. Authority makes us mindless. It deprives us of our ability to think. It makes us robotic.
The present point of education is that you have to train yourself for becoming a valuable machine to the government or corporate. So that they can exploit you. So that you work hard for the existence of the authority.
Second, the belief that a system ritual/a cultural/ a belief system – is more important than the human being. That kindness ain’t worth it.
The point to be noted the current education system is invented and implemented by Britishers. They wanted mindless and efficient workers for themselves. That’s why they had created a soldier-like disciplinary system.
This is not a commentary on Job v/s business. It’s a deeply personal choice that depends upon countless factors. Both are equally important and are interdependent.
The third problem is non-revised and irrelevant content. Governments and universities are painfully slow to review and update their content – in accordance with the latest developments and research. It makes the entire system useless. Because by definition an education system’s primary role is to provide you with the right kind of information. A costly catastrophe.
The most underrated problem is the poor teaching skills of teachers. Mind you, they are PHDs, highly educated, have published high-end research papers, and are very reputable in their industry, but they are not good at teaching. Painfully ridiculous.
– Prince Manay Bora
A great teacher makes you fall in love with the subject.
Least he takes away whatever little interest you have in that subject unlike our Phd Scholars.
The fifth pity-worthy problem of the Education system is it tries very hard to avoid the most important subjects of life.
Relationships, emotional intelligence, better thinking, and ethics. We somehow seem to think that they will not make us money, so why even bother? That’s wrong. All four are pillars of any achievement you may ever achieve in life.
Well, how exactly?
You must have heard things like behind every successful man there is a woman. In the end, only family matters. Or consider why people dedicate their awards to their families. Because without family there is no one to do it for. These are the people you live with. These are the people you know inside out. These are the people you stick with despite a thousand flaws and problems.
Assuming the importance of better thinking need not be explained.
Let’s talk about ethics.
Why do they even matter? Why should you care if other people get harmed as long as you’re happy and making money out of it?
Good question.
Because you want your family to be safe. It’s as simple as that. There is no way you can create a safe and secure environment for your kids without creating it for others’ kids. The same goes for women and the vulnerable in your family. That’s why ethics are so important and unavoidable.
We need to learn, develop, and introduce (the subject) The Art of living.
Sixth, the competition and the hierarchy within the system instead of understanding and creativity.
Every person is different. And if you are not capable enough to create systems for different kinds of learnings for students, you’re not doing it right.
One should first understand a child’s quirks, nature, body type, learning process, and pace. Only then can we truly take care of them and educate them with great love. For love must spread its fire, they will give it back, once they are adults.
So there is a need to create tests and not just written tests. Tests like physical activity test, focus test, speaking test, listening test, curiosity test (it needs to be taken again and again), and an interests test. Mind you these will not be tests to judge the kids against other kids but it’s purpose is to understand the kids deeply. What are their learning types? What are their natural talents? If only we can understand a child deeply we can help him reach his excellence. Which is bound to be far greater than any excellence we can define for them.
To sum up, we need to teach individually – this can’t be done for 100 students at once.
The Solutions
Arguably one of the (potentilal) solutions is:
The Ed Tech Sector (Online Education): Testbook, Unacedemy, Byjus.
Just to report on what people have done to provide online education, these are the different forms of online education:
Moocs.
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) were first introduced in 2008. They brought the international student community together by making knowledge free for the first time. It became a hit in the next 4 years and New York Times announced 2012 as “The year of MOOC”.
The Marketplace.
Recorded courses are best suited for transactional knowledge exchange. They are taught by domain experts. It gives the best ROI and knowledge in a very short time but they struggle with low course completion rates. For example – Udemy, and SkillShare.
Toolkits.
Toolkits brought the power to teachers who possessed original information, passion for sharing, and had a loyal fan base. For example – Thinkific and Teachable.
Cohorts
They bring, the best teachers available online. CBCs give you a classroom experience wherein you can make friends and build your network and bond with the best minds across your cohort. They see a higher completion rate and give you a sense of community. Example: Invact Metaversity and Stoa. Source.
So if you are someone who is looking forward to solving the big problems of the education system, here are some nuggets of wisdom by Snake Oil Salesman:
“education businesses need to think about themselves as net exporters of culture. unless there is a strong underlying philosophy that seeps through every detail and product decision, students won’t buy it. labels and degrees aren’t culture. only culture is culture.
failing to understand that is why even top institutions in the country only manage to churn out brats with “badey baap ka beta” energy who go for arranged marriages, ask for dowry, and are still as stupid culturally as their village counterparts.
the impact that a great culture has is significantly higher for students who come from low-income rural backgrounds with orthodox beliefs that may not be the best fit for the current world.
the tunnel vision that a label can create in the mind of a person who is desperately seeking upward economic mobility can only be mitigated with a strong culture accompanying the accreditation.
without it, you get people whose buttholes get sore as soon as someone tries to add any nuance to the conventional model or builds something that may reveal the futility of and the lack of real-world resolution that is endemic to conventional degrees.
the tunnel vision means that the label is their life’s biggest achievement. it’s building an identity with all the wrong ingredients. while a good education would teach students that it’s not about the label you get, it’s about the person you become at the end of the course.
and this necessarily involves a deep focus on building a strong culture rooted in an understanding of reality and what really matters. without it, education isn’t education, it’s simply an automated stamp factory.”
The biggest mistake we are making:
We are missing out on the most important subject. We must teach it thoroughly and hence learn it thoroughly. This is going to be the key to world peace.
The Art of living:
It is important that kids learn the art of living. That includes problem-solving, compassion, and their relationships with people, property, and ideas.
So I’ll be honest. I’m myself a student of this subject. Here are a few sub-subjects I believe we must include in this:
Handling conflict.
Truth-seeking mindset.
Navigating relationships/Interpersonal communication
Wealth creation
Morality/Living with integrity
Health 101
Practical Skill Building
How to behave
I’m still trying to define the scope of this subject. Do you have suggestions? Please comment them down.
What is so big deal about this subject?
Just see what innocent Ukrainians are going through and what the rest of the world is doing about it.
We are simply indifferent. We are blind to it. We are just choosing to see people kill other people.
Each one of us is individually responsible for this brutal world.
This is a failure of our parents, teachers, schools, religions, families, governments, and our individual characters.
The Pivot: suddenly The Awakened Youth exists for an altogether different reason
To rebel is to question. It must start with questioning oneself. After aggressively questioning the ways of The Awakened Youth – reporting on social issues and current affairs (specifically hitting on human rights violations stories) – which basically made me an activist – a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change.
On intense reflection, I figured out the limitations of activism.
We can do only so much with this little power. Government is too powerful to fight against.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been an activist for a year and a half and I think there is no nobler profession. It’s just that it’s not powerful enough for bringing the results (A peaceful world) we all desire. Remember a peaceful world = a peaceful Individual.
So if the focus is a permanent change in our culture for humanity’s sake, we must be free from conflicts. You can get only so much done when you are in the conflict 24*7.
As much as I loved being an activist, for the love of leading the world towards harmony and peaceful coexistence, I’d be heading towards teaching the art of living.
The Awakened Youth is but an expression of myself. I think the most important gift I can give to this world is, my writing. Writing is not an end goal but it is a means to an end. My end goal in writing on this blog is to teach.
In a way, nothing is changing. I’m still interested in teaching how to think just the subject has changed. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to write on human rights, it just means it’s not the heart of The Awakened Youth anymore. So what’s the heart of The Awakened Youth? I’ll leave that question to you.
Kids are the future.
If I did not get proper education to understand this world, understand myself, and how to live life, then I will make sure the future generation does not have to go through the same.
We will together revolutionize how we approach education so that our kids may appreciate and get to live in a peaceful world.
See ya in our next lesson! 🙂
PS: Sorry for making that drawing. I had to. XD