2020 - A year without Travels

2020 is a year with chains for people who have the privilege of  doing regular travels - national or international. It is true that in my first 18 years, I had made only 5-6 trips outside Kolkata (with 7 years of total dry spell). But after undergraduate studies, I have never stationed myself in one place for such a long time, it made me realized so many things. Let me ponder over some of them. 

1) Travel is a privilege

This year, I learned that travel is a privilege. Last 10 years, I have been rigorously travelling in weekends and taking long breaks for experiencing new things through travels. I never realized that it became part of my motivation in life. Without travels, everything seemed dull. Then I remembered how my friends with family + more leave restrictions,  would plan only once or twice holidays and they would try to make the best out of it. I remembered some people I met during travels who were out of their home first time etc. I suddenly could connect with them. 

2) Not to boost about freedoms of travels and to understand others bindings

I was not fully bound to home this year. I could cycle through national parks near my place and also hike in nearby parks. So, my situation was not as bad as many during the pandemic. I was happy and sad at the same time for that. 

Somehow, I did not feel like sharing any updates or pictures. I never felt like that before in social media, when I used to give my daily travel updates: I used to think that the ones who enjoys such posts with experiences, would like it and nobody would feel bad/jealous as such. But this time, I felt that when there is freedom of travel missing in most part of world, I can not bring much happiness with my cycling and hiking posts.  

3) To care more 

The positive part of staying mostly at home gives someone time to think about life. I realized care to be the best positive enforcement of life. We take so many things for granted sometimes, we undermine the importance of gratitude. I am hopeful, over time, this realization will make me a better person. I still have a long way to go :-)

Thankfully, Asha for Education always gives me that opportunity to help the underprivileged in my home country. The initial feeling of helplessness while the world is suffering was less due to that opportunity given to me.  

4) The digital identity and fictional social world around it

The human touch is missing in the digital world. When we are away from human presence, we realize it. At least I did, I can switch between introvert and extrovert ways but 2020 was too much even for the introvert in me. In the first half of 2020, there was a 5 week time when I did not meet any friend, family or colleague (just cautious not to be a spreader), so absolutely zero human interaction in person those times. It made me realize no matter how much I try to be independent, we are us because of others around us.  

No matter, how many zoom calls or whatsapp video calls happen with family or friends, without real conversations, it wont work after a time. 

5) Enjoy little things of life

But some things were better for me in 2020. I could see little things, simple things. Now that I do not need to plan for new countries to go or new mountains to hike or new beaches to visit, I started noticing simple things around me. The flowers, the leaves, the shapes of trees, the riverside meadows and above all, the slow changes of mother nature around me. I even made a flower book collecting pictures of different flowers during spring (like the school times). 

I am finishing my post with few of these flower pictures without making any big philosophical statement....Lets 2020 be the year of realization and the year we learned to care for everybody in our society :-)

What is Education?

I do not know the answer but I keep wondering....so this post is a collection of my thoughts..Also, sometimes, I am utterly perplexed with the value system of society and priorities of majority in these days.

To be honest, I am not a beginner in the field of commonly accepted version of education. I have been volunteering with an educational non-profit for 15 years now. Thanks to that association, I have been part of several non-traditional education centers as well as many discussions about quality of education and I happily interacted with thousands of students and teachers. Apart from that, to get more insight, I have taught voluntarily in formal school setting and open school settings for more than a year. Above all, I am among those who somehow managed to succeed in one of most competitive form of ''Education''. That counts for something, I guess.

But I am still very confused. Pardon my naivety. Also, please note, my post is primarily in Indian context. I would not show my courage to analyze rest of the world for the time being. Like my usual blogs, it is loooooooong.
_____________________________________________________________________

Is it there to prepare us for contribution to the society?

This is probably the most glorified version of it. We build the society so that we can share the load of moving it forward. Education is there to achieve that vision.
But try to convince that to a 12 year old struggling with remembering names and dealing with piles of books to understand its significance in her or his life!!
Just as an example, I never understood how knowing the exact year of some historical event matters in that responsibility. History is one of my favorite subject. Yet, in my opinion, it should be used as a character building tool rather than memory exercise. Exercise memory and brain are good but not for getting marks.

In reality, the preparation starts after class 12 or even later, when almost everything is decided by the quality of school, the bank balance of the parents, the teachers they come across, some inherent merits and sheer luck.....Yes luck, a lot of luck is needed to succeed.
Do you know, what is the most common stream of graduation in primarily agriculture-dependent rural India? It is not agricultural science or something else. It is Bachelor in Arts or pass course - the primary reason is that the students can afford other streams. 

Is it for preparing our brain for the future ahead?

Logical reasoning via Math, understanding the world with the help of science subjects & geography, pattern recognition and communication via learning new languages, critical reasoning and memory building with other subjects. - all this,  I  can understand

But is it happening to the 95% of students in India who are not privileged to go to the top 100 schools in any state ???
During my visits to schools everywhere, I used to ask students do you know the reason why we study any subject. Forget the students, most teachers do not know. (Most common answers are - to get a job, to make parents happy, to take care of parents or to get marks)

Is it there to create a value system?

To teach values, one needs to go beyond marks and syllabus. I believe a young mind should be given time to process and they should be given non-academic books to read. I guess the ones who included literature inside the language subjects thought about it as teaching values. However, I am not sure that is working when one prepares the questions via suggestion notes to get marks.

Also, I really doubt the current system teaches anything about mutual respect...It is somehow missing everywhere due to pride and insecurities.

Is it there to create challenges and prepare us emotionally and psychologically?

This is probably true. The success and failure & its consequences on young minds can prepare someone for psychological and emotional hurdles. However, sometimes it is too sudden and too heartbreaking.

The challenges of the empowered section are different - to meet the expectation of their parents. The other section is struggling just to meet basic necessities when they grow up. Do you know many students leave schools or colleges because they could not arrange an amount like 1000 INR or they are married off because the admission fee is too high ?? Things are getting better in last 20 years but we are crushing many beautiful minds every day.

Is it there just to secure Job?

I did a social experiment in this department too. I have asked not so privileged students from different class, what they want to be when they grow up. The 6 years old students cite film-stars, cricketer etc....the 12 year old engineer, doctor, teachers.....the 14 year old - police , nurse etc. Do you notice the irony?

(You can ask your kid, the kid of your house-help, the kids in urban slums and the kids in rural areas...do the experiment yourself)

Given the availability of jobs and means to sustain a decent life, it is clear the formal education will not land us a Job. I have written in much more details on this issue in another article

https://medium.com/@padmanava.sen/direction-and-mentoring-need-of-the-hour-beyond-funding-3b05ea70392c

Is it to separate out different economic classes or workers?

In current situation, this is probably the harshest truth , I will mention here. Historically, different teachings are given to children based on their parents' job. If we think, we are past such days. It is not. With the hypocrisy inbuilt in our system, making the education one of best business, we are doing exactly that in our country. Otherwise innumerable students would not suffer because they can not expertise on a language that is not even their mother tongue.

Do we need formal Education at all?

My final question !! If there is not much connection to securing a job, would we be happier without the 10-15 years interaction with academic books and just enjoy those times the best we can . Since for most people, life after childhood is a struggle anyway! Let the nature be the teacher, let the stories be the teacher, let the playground be the teacher...and lets learn some values to give be a good person. To build things or to help the society, we may learn subjects but in a completely different format than the current one.
_____________________________________________________________________

Now , personally I always felt 'Education' is a start to a long life of learning. Education is there to ignite interests and to shape out some level of confidence to face the world with knowledge. The learning does not end in the boundaries of school or college, the knowledge does not come only from parents, teachers or books....and the formal education is merely a start when the mind is fresh with less distractions!!

Let me get even more personal..

In my life, the marks have made sure I cross the hurdles. The memory helped me to get the tag of a good student. The logical thinking helped me do well in engineering field and then the critical reasoning probably got some research done by me. But they are there to satisfy the societal norms. They do not make me a better person. The value system and knowledge gathered outside the regular job made me the person who I am. The books I read, the team lessons I got during a football or cricket match, the words of others that made a mark in my mind, made me who I am. Those values and thoughts made me enjoy the existence more. 

However, I am kind of convinced that Education should be that source of confidence imparted by knowledge, the platform of good values to be considerate and respectful, and something that helps one to take care of ones self, the immediate family,  the nature around and the greater family we all belong to.

And hope, yes I have a lot of hope when I look at the eyes of next generation brimming with confidence. A good example is this little girl in one of the most remote and troubled district of Uttar Pradesh, India.