The Purpose of Education

 Today I have been listening to Atishi Marlena on a podcast where she was talking about the purpose of education. Here are some of the key points which stayed with me:

.1. Education must be about teaching the processes and not about rote learning or getting fixated on some date or personality. As the famous Seth Godin says, the event which happened is of least importance than the reason because of it happened and events that would ensue because of it. Pushing our brain power to figure out the underlying reasons for anything happening, muti-disciplinary, multi-dimensionally and lateral thinking is somewhat a critical thinking arsenal which must be developed in everyone.

2. Good infrastructure creates a sense of ownership in the students. With introduction of good benches, chairs and other infrastructure in the school, students feels themselves invested and have sense of dignity by being associated with the institution. One of the possible reasons is that the government infra is similar or at par with private school infra is something which gives the students an assurance at the mental level of a flat playing field where they equally have opportunity to explore and hone their talent and compete with other students.

3. The happiness curriculum doesn’t push students directly into studies or homework or assignment thing. It tries to make education more applied and stresses on utilizing reasoning and critical thinking skills for solving real live problems through role play, which is what they have to do after years of education when they would have to step down in the real world.

4. The reason why a politician doesn’t work for the betterment of health or education or other critical areas is simply because there is lack of incentive. The biggest aim for the politician is to win the next election, so the issues he or she will select will be based on its potential contribution to get him re-elected. This is how they think and reason.