Quotation

Listen to what they say of the others and you will know what they say about you.

Education: creativity is missing

SHWETA SINGH

The film Three Idiots by Rajkumar Hirani is an entertaining reminder of the apathetic condition of our education system which is based on conventional prescription, transfer of information and competition for marks rather than on critical thinking, creativity and participation of the learner. It has also witnessed systematic intrusions of communal prejudices and gender biases and, in a way, become a medium to further the process of alienation, dehumanisa tion and ‘othering’.

The Imperial College of Engineering and the classes in this institution bring to the common man’s table the point how our teaching-learning process is built around the expertise of the teacher, who deposits information in his/her students, and who, in turn, come close to the idea of containers of information than knowledge. In this context, perceptions, experiences, the cultural and ideological underpinnings of the process, etc., are rarely made explicit. Learning and mastering the curriculum is the key goal of the event.
‘Sense of hollowness’

Given the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest in this competitive world of marks and examination, social status and financial stability, the process of meaning making, action and reflection, the development of critical consciousness, or the right to choose a vocation rather than a profession gets totally lost. Thus as Krishna Kumar, Director NCERT, says: “There is a ‘sense of hollowness’, which a lot of young people today find in our institutional life. They find that nobody cares for them, the learning game is essentially a marks-examination game and the success game is essentially a game which is being played to eliminate a lot of people from the race. Thus, students do not associate purposiveness and integrity to education.” There is need for a paradigmatic shift from the ‘banking or depository’ form of education where students are ‘passive containers or recipients’ to more participatory or dialogical ways.

It is important that we recognise the learner as a ‘resource’ and not just a ‘recipient’ of information so that we do not annul the process of creativity and critical consciousness that play an important role in giving meaning to human relationships and, consequently, to education itself. It is time we recognised that India faces critical questions on issues of secularism, minority rights, gender discrimination, etc., along with a process of dehumanisation and ‘othering’ on the basis of caste/religion/ethnicity/gender.

There has been the inculcation of perceptions of ‘difference’ across communities, and even distortion of facts, especially in history and social science texts. The content of education, along with the way it is transacted, shapes the thinking and behaviour of young people, influencing both social attitudes and perceptions of what constitutes knowledge.

Efforts to address these issues by MHRD, UGC, NCERT and others are piecemeal and much is still desired. The focus should be on the content and pedagogy of education.

Source:http://www.hindu.com/op/2010/01/17/stories/2010011750021400.htm

Money is important, but how much do you need?

N. GANESHAN

How much money it costs is not the issue, but how much the money costs us is crucial

Once you get basic human needs met, a lot more money doesn’t make a lot more happiness

Money is not everything, but money is something very important. Beyond the basic needs, money helps us achieve our life’s goals and supports — the things we care about most deeply – family, education, health care, charity, adventure and fun. It helps us get some of life’s intangibles – freedom or independence, the opportunity to make the most of our skills and talents, the ability to choose our own course in life, financial security. With mone y, much good can be done and much unnecessary suffering avoided or eliminated.

But, money has its own limitations too. It can give us the time to appreciate the simple things in life more fully, but not the spirit of innocence and wonder necessary to do so. Money can give us the time to develop our gifts and talents, but not the courage and discipline to do so.

Money can give us the power to make a difference in the lives of others, but not the desire to do so. It can give us the time to develop and nurture our relationships, but not the love and caring necessary to do so. It can just as easily make us jaded, escapist, selfish, and lonely. How much do you need? What is it going to cost you to get it? It is keeping these two questions in mind that gives us a true sense of money’s relationship to happiness. If we have less than what we need, or if what we have is costing us too much, we can never be happy. We need money to eat, sleep, dress, work, play, relate, heal, move about, and enjoy comforts. We should remember in choosing our style that it comes with a price tag.

Evidence of the psychological and spiritual poverty of the rich and famous fills our newspapers, magazines, tabloids, and television programmes and hardly needs repeating here. “We always think if we just had a little bit more money, we’d be happier,” says Catherine Sanderson, a psychology professor at Amherst College, “but when we get there, we’re not.” “Once you get basic human needs met, a lot more money doesn’t make a lot more happiness,” notes Dan Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University and the author of the new book Stumbling on Happiness.

Yes, we get a thrill at first from expensive things. But we soon get used to them, a state of running in place that economists call the ‘hedonic treadmill’. The problem is not money, it’s us. For deep-seated psychological reasons, when it comes to spending money, we tend to value goods over experiences.

Money can help us find more happiness, so long as we know just what we can and cannot expect from it. Many researches suggest that seeking the good life at a store is an expensive exercise in futility. Money can buy us some happiness, but only if we spend our money properly. We should buy memories.

How much money it costs is not the issue, but how much the money costs us is important. Money should not cost us our soul, relationships, dignity, health, intelligence and joy in simple things of life. People who figure out what they truly value and then align their money with those values have the strongest sense of financial and personal well-being.

Source:http://www.hindu.com/op/2010/01/17/stories/2010011750031400.htm