Swayam

स्वयं को समझ पाऊँ येही चेष्टा है मेरी।
इसी कोशिश में गैरों को अपना बना पाऊँ
येही अभिलाषा है मेरी।

स्वयं की कसौटी पर खरा उतर पाऊँ
करती हूँ हर प्रयत्न यही  कर गुजरने की।
इसी से किसी और की भी ज़िन्दगी संवार पाऊँ
यही  अभिलाषा है मेरी।

जीवन के आखिरी पल तक
स्वावलम्बी रह पाऊँ
येही अभिलाषा है मेरी।

Analysis in the Process of Learning...What About Assimilation?

"Do you know your p's and q's ?" We seem to often ask this question to the children when they are unable to discern the thin line that causes all the difference between two or more objects or concepts and that seems to be the very foundation of "Adult Material World", where we identify through differentiation, which is the crux of the function called "Analysis".

This is the very reason why in our existing education system of learning we believe more in the concept of organic learning (based on our five senses) like committing facts to memory or reasoning to differentiate in order to derive the uniqueness of an entity or to group or regroup the entities to conceptualise the very existence of a "belief" culminating into religious, cultural or political form. This is the primary reason why we eventually encourage any learner to analyze the very existence of an entity in its physical form and this is the fundamental principle of SCIENCE, which deals with the material aspects of an entity and even a thought and idea is immediately given a physical form or shape.

This also makes the learning process fall short of its very objective of making a learner realise the universal truth that one needs to be be aware of ones existence beyond the physical one. This is only possible through assimilation of one primary truth: "Everything is part of one, in its entirety". This is possible only by identifying one with the other leading to a more holistic approach in understanding the existence or various concepts and entities that blend with each other to form "complete one". This is not possible through our present system of education that is based on differentiation and not on assimilation. Assimilation encourages a learner to apply various concepts to realize ones own existence and this encourages the learner to realize that differences only appear in physical existence and everything ultimately blends into one whole concept of existence beyond the physical one.

Our education system ignores the very organ of human anatomy which is vital for the very existence of the process called "Learning and Education"! It is the well developed human mental faculty which makes human realize the existence beyond the physical existence and try to understand existence beyond the faculty of senses. Unfortunately, our current education system believes in unraveling the mysteries of all that challenges the physical senses by analyzing the facts and deducing or inferring the cause and effect of anomalies that defy the logic of the senses.; so do the animals with less developed mental faculty, so are they not better equipped than us to physically exist by their natural instincts in their natural surroundings?

Let us take the example of Robinson Crusoe, who,when marooned on an island was able to easily identify with the surroundings and ultimately realized that his formal knowledge only helped him in his physical existence on the island and the act of his "Man Friday" to save him from the tribal on the island makes him aware of the "Metaphysical" existence, the identification beyond the physical identity, which we cannot derive by analyzing any concept or entity. Awareness of metaphysical existence is only possible through assimilation, which we, unfortunately do not have in our current education system.

Should we not give it a thought?

What Education Really means?

On a bright and sunny day, the six year old Shiuli jumped out of the school bus and ran into the arms of her Mother. She enthusiastically handed her Annual Report to her mother and said: “Mummy look, I will now go to class two (Standard/Level two of Primary School)! I am a big girl now!” Shiuli’s Mother kissed her and absorbed the contents of the Report Card. She looked at Shiuli and said, “Dear, you have stood second in your class, then who stood first in your class?” To this, Shiuli innocently replied, “Kakoli got No. One position, but Mummy, she has got only One while I have got Two and Madhavi has got Thirty, which is more than what I got, then why Teacher said that she cannot go to class two with us?”
Henceforth, it became an unwritten rule for Shiuli to mention her position in the class while handing her progress report to her Mother. It was yet another Final Examination Report declaration day and Shiuli was to collect report of her year-long progress in Sixth standard. She went to school with her friend Tulsi and her Mother. When Shiuli received her report card, she first checked was her rank in the class. She then hurried out of the school compound to find Tulsi’s Mother waiting for them, who smiled at Shiuli and took her in her arms. At this loving gesture Shiuli blurted out, “Mashi (Maternal Aunt), I have stood sixth in the class, I don’t know whether Mummy will be happy or not.” In reply Tulsi’s Mother held Shiuli close to her and reassuringly replied, “My dear daughter, you have cleared the exam and that’s all that matters, not the position you have attained in the class.”
While reminiscing her experience as a student Shiuli, who now is a mother of young girl herself, has these questions that she is still trying to answer: We are community beings but, does our marks and competition oriented education system help an individual to be fully aware of ones own potential and how to harness it to ones own benefit and that of the community? Is our education system geared up to prepare automatons and not enlightened individuals adequately prepared to co-exist in the society and not treat anyone and everyone as a contender one needs to compete with to improve ones own existence? Our Straight-jacketing form of education system begins the ordeal of tension and stress from our very childhood and the rat-race like existence that makes an individual prematurely burn out through undue stress and strain caused by the very misconception of “Struggle for Existence” and “Survival of the Fittest” within the community, when community animals like elephants, ants, lions et al have proved it wrong through their community existence where they co-exist and not out-perform each other within the community. Education system should be a prop or chains to fetter down an individual and smother his/her creative potential? Do the parents and teachers have to educate the children through comparative analysis and invariably fail to identify the true potential of a child?
Pramila Mohanty, who is a Computer Science Teacher in a High School in Orissa, narrated her experience as a teacher:
While helping the students of Class Nine and Ten with their Computer Project and Practical Evaluation as part of the Board Exams, she used to team them up with three students in each team. While teaming the students she used to keep above average, average and a slow learner in each team and make sure that none of them were good friends, so that it would be a chance for them to get to know each other too. She used to mark them on their intra-personal (within the team) and inter-personal (with other teams) skills and all the students were aware of it. The students were also aware of being graded on their performance, so the question of vying with each other for marks did not arise. The students were encouraged to pick up a topic for the computation project either from any of the subjects they were studying in school or from their everyday life or of any commercial scenario. No two teams could work on identical topics.
It was an external evaluation day for Class Ten students and just an hour before the arrival of the external Examiner, a team realised that it had lost the program code of its project it had saved on a computer system in the computer lab. Before Pramila could find a solution (of approaching the External Examiner, who had been handed over the floppy disk of the codes that were to be verified with the one in the computer systems allotted to the teams, and requesting for some more time to recover the code), all the students of the batch had already volunteered to type the code manually documented by the members of the team and then to compile it and hand it over to the team. The students achieved this herculean task within the hour of arrival of the Examiner!
Pramila too has the following questions in mind: Why do we have to have marks scoring system of education? Does it help us to know whether the one who has secured the highest marks in all the subjects has developed into a good human being too? We say that education means over all development of a human being but in the present system of education are we also giving due attention to the health (physical and mental) health of the students, their personality development? How well equipped is the education in developing the skill of an individual according to ones aptitude, that will eventually help one to develop into a successful professional? When will the education system help the parents to think out of the box and stop pressurizing their wards to become an engineer or a doctor, etc and allow her/him to pave their own path in life?