Breaking The Education Caste-System; Barriers To Contentment

Left & Right Brain. Logic vs Free Flow. Science vs Art. These compartments, though important in order to best serve a singular focus in their study & pursuit, have bled into the collective consciousness of our society in a manner where they have, for years together, across generations of students, become hard-points, non-negotiable boundaries based on which families, educators, institutions, students themselves included, measure their intellect and choose streams, subjects, careers!

The historic inheritance of this educational-food-chain is interesting though to invest time and space in regurgitating it here means to devote even more time to what’s happened, rather than what could now be done. It may have worked once upon a time, though now, it is an entirely different time.

Interesting, that on the one hand, an increasing number of large corporations and employers across the western world are displaying a clear preference for candidates who have ‘alternative’ undergraduate degrees – read arts in particular, as they are seen to be more creative, inventive; we in India, for the most part, are still stuck in this archaic and frankly irrelevant system of Science, then Commerce, then Humanities

You’re either a Dog person or a Cat person, so goes the cliche. Mostly true. Though to treat the Science-walas as a breed unto themselves, always to stay a safe distance away & parallel to the Art-walas, is plain naive. I have known any number of individuals who equally enjoy and are talented at, on the one hand Chess, and on the other, Sketching. Are they all geniuses? Certainly not if their slightly above average IQs were the yardstick!

Then of course there’s the little matter of history which I earlier referenced. To equate an India of today, and by that, her people, to a Colonial System, is absurd. We are well and truly in a digital era, one where even in my own rudimentary understanding, a human resource would stand to benefit the self and the organization if they were to be a combination of left & right brain faculties. 

Another narrative that feeds into the elevated pedestal given to the Science lot is Competitive Examinations. Granted, exams that determine Engineering, Medicine college admissions are amongst the toughest in the world. However, I can’t help but wonder if the brilliance ascribed to these candidates is not more a consequence of the sheer numbers of test-takers. And I’ll tell you why I have this sneaking suspicion. Because tests that the Humanities & Arts walas are required to take, the ones that get you into Law, into Mass Communication colleges; they are no less a test of one’s scholastic level than any others; the number of people vying for those spots being relatively significantly less, somehow seems to cast aspersions on their inherent intellectual merit (of the exam itself)

There is also the facet of potential careers that must be examined as yet another perpetuator of this narrative around the intellectual-divide between the aforementioned streams of study. The broad assumption is that careers generated by and post an education in the sciences are more lucrative. As someone who has inhabited the creative realm for a long time, was an active part of the media industry for over a decade, I can tell you from personal experience and observation that while there may exist a disparity between packages offered to engineers vs say individuals in creative roles in advertising and such; this gap not only turns into parity fairly quickly, it can often turn tides entirely in favor of the arts-related personnel. What tends to happen is this. Granted, the starting salary of someone joining advertising, pr, films is likely to be noticeably less than the counterpart in the sciences work-sphere; the sharp learning curve, the performance & meritorious expedient rise in the creative spaces tends to be immense. This is borne out by the fact that generally speaking one finds sectors such as advertising, digital media, content creation, to be largely and relatively younger sectors. It wouldn’t for example be uncommon to find a mid-30s person being the Creative Head with a VP rank at a creative agency, with a CTC that rivals and outdoes age-equivalents in other segments

In the grand scheme of things, the final analysis and judgment in the Indian context tends to rest with Family & Society. The overbearing interference and influence of family upon an individual’s most critical life decisions, while one could debate, serves the undecided and/or unfocused well; for scores of young people, places them on paths that, in cases, might even generate the desired livelihood – but whether they generate even an iota of happiness & contentment, is a question we ought to seriously ponder.

While I do see a perceptible change in newer/younger parents’ attitudes, in percentage terms, this group doesn’t even constitute a rounding percentage point. The current generation of learners and students is often criticized for being selfish, insular, self-centred. I for one believe that if, out of that focus on one’s own priorities, is birthed a degree of personal contentment hitherto not experienced, I am happy to be sidelined by my own daughter in service of her own happiness! -

by Kartik, Founder Driveway Devi

Determination - Pinkee Chouhan

What is determination? 
Determination is the determination to do something despite a difficult situation. Resolve is the option that provides a ladder to get out of the hole instead of pushing the person to the pit of despair. There is limitless power in the will, due to which the goal is definitely accomplished.

How can you be determined? Let me share a real story of a 65-year-old lady Lata Kare Ji who lives in the Baramati district of Maharashtra. In the year 2014, her husband was suffering from a severe disease. The amount for the treatment was too much.  Her husband was an agricultural labourer and earned hardly one hundred and two hundred per day.  Raising the amount of therapy was very difficult for Lata Ji. But she wanted to see her husband alive at any cost.  That's when she heard about the organizing of the marathon and the prize money.  This made her feel a little light in complete darkness.  She had never participated in a running competition before.  Keeping in mind that most of the participants would be young, energetic and fully prepared, still, she ran in a sari and with slippers. Lata Kare was without sports shoes and without sports clothes. Her sandal broke in the middle of the way, but she did not pay any attention to it. She ran barefoot and finished the marathon.

Her determination brought her victory.  There is no solid formula to become more determined; when you want something from your heart, your determination will always be at its peak. Decision making is an intellectual and logical process, and perseverance here is related to the power of the mind.  We like to do physical activities like playing, walking, and watching movies.  Usually, our body wants comfort, so we choose situations where we have to suffer less, even during cognitive behaviour.  So we are not used to living on our own decisions.  Whenever we suffer more, our mind starts looking for excuses to change its own decision, and we also easily find reasons.  So if we want to develop determination, then we also need to practice it.  We should start with small efforts.  You can try it on small things too, such as the decision not to drink tea at a time, the decision to cut a few hours off from entertainment and follow these decisions.

Determination breaks the shackles of dilemma.  Success and failure in life are due to the mind.  The determination power of the mind keeps it engaged in continuous work. It often leads to success.  When the weakness of the mind makes a person weak while doing work, infuses despair in him, then there is a failure in the result.  Whenever a person becomes relaxed while working, the intellect also gives up. The willpower of the mind awakens immense strength in the body, also makes intellect sharp, due to which the person definitely gets success in that field. 

 

Pinkee Chouhan

The Fabindia School

pco@fabindiaschools.in

Courage - Prerna Rathod

Courage means an act of bravery.  It is to do something that you are frightened of. Courage has different meanings for different people. For example, for a dancer, courage is to be able to perform in front of everyone. For a speaker, it is to convey his views in front of everyone. For a leader, it is to keep up the team spirit in difficult times. But,  most importantly, courage is to take a stand for the right cause. 

We need the courage to conquer our fears. When we are trying to climb the steps of success, we must have the courage to face failure and accept it. It is only courage that will help us to try again and achieve success in our life.

 
There are 6 types of courage:
1.  Physical Courage: It means to do something against your fear like entering a dark room even if you are afraid of darkness. 
2.  Social Courage:  It means standing against others for what a correct cause. It may be to stand against your parents, society, for example, like organising a charity event, standing up to peer pressure.
3. Intellectual Courage involves asking questions and giving ideas during discussions or taking a risk in life to become successful. 
4. Moral Courage:  It means using our values into doing the right thing like helping a blind man cross the road or picking up litter and not caring what others will others say. 
5. Emotional Courage:  This implies always having positive emotions even if you are surrounded by negative ones. For example, caring for injured animals, helping friend grieve over the loss.
6. Spiritual Courage: This means asking questions or finding answers to questions like is there life after death? What is life? And so on.  It means opening to mysteries of life.

As Educators and parents, you must make our children understand why courage is important in our life. We can give them examples of our freedom fighters, who sacrificed their lives to achieve freedom for India. We must make our children understand that it was due to their courage to live in free India.

If children are taught to be courageous from an early age, then they will be confident to take the risk in their life. I would like to end with Walt Disney's quote "All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them".

Prerna Rathod 
The Fabindia School 
prd@fabindiaschools.in

Unity and Caring - Richa Solanki

Unity means being together. It means standing together and to work together as a team. Unity is a very important message that every parent should spend time or share with their children and also should tell about the relevance and need for unity. They should set an example by creating a healthy environment at home where everyone loves in coordination with each other. We also see that there is a fight or struggle on the basis of the individual issues of people without the unity, they cannot even understand that unity gives us strength and strength gives us intellectual food to live peacefully as well as connected with all.

In earlier times, people in the joint family were connected with their relatives. Our country is full of tradition and culture of staying together and helping each other is a part of our culture. Joint family is the biggest example. Those systems have prevailed in our country.

Unlike modern time in the past the families did not only live together but also bonded well with each other and staying united helped them in many ways.  Caring is when you think as and do something good for someone because it is the right thing to do. When you care for someone it shows love and caring for others it is wonderful and nice. We are caring for anyone, it builds feelings of love and strong relationships. Caring helps to connect with people and develop empathy in difficult times.  Caring for others is so powerful because it creates deeper bonds and supports emotionally. Caring also develops the feeling of personal growth because when we care we just gain so many skills from experience.  It also teaches important values such as patience, understanding and loyalty that benefit individuals in both their personal and professional lives.

Our mother, father, teachers, grandfather and mother, they have many challenges to take care of things and life gives them many tasks to complete. So, caring for someone will teach some new things and values of life and help us to live our life with happiness. Sharing is caring. If we share love, happiness, sorrows and many emotions and try to help someone it makes you a good person. 

Richa Solanki 

The Fabindia School

Rsi@fabindiaschools.in