After having spent almost 25 years in India, today when I watch Shukla Bose's video on 'Teaching one child at a time', I feel I still haven't seen the real India. When, I came to the United States, my colleagues asked me about India. The impression they had about the country was as if it was backward and dirty, basically a slum (credit to Slumdog Millionaire). And, I never believed them. Why? Because I came from there, I believed what I had seen. Akshay Kumar summarizes it well in Namastey London as below.
"Child education" has always been closer to my heart than technology has ever been. While in school and through college, I always loved doing things with my hands and I loved fascinating kids with the wonders of science, mathematics, and computer science. Science exhibitions were so much fun as was the time I spent questioning kids about their fascination, project, and its application.
I wanted to take the wonders of the real world back into the classroom. I wanted to make learning seem like an interesting project. I feel that is the way I learnt best - by engaging in something that fascinates me. I wanted to make the classroom a live experience than just walking through static pages in a wonderful text or some animations on a big TV screen. Children may awe at it but to be able to do it with their own hands, it is a mind-blowing experience! You can't beat that. The amazement in their eyes and the electrifying kick in imagination, believe me, it is a different world, it is a different experience! Check out Prof. Walter Lewin's lecture video from MIT. Some may say that these kind of resources are unavailable, but I disagree. It is remarkable what can be done with basic inexpensive stuff.
I wanted to relate the real world to the teaching in the conventional classroom. I wanted to convince them that we were there for more than just degrees and grades - we were their for a taste of life, to learn, and to have fun. I wanted to give them a feel for the things they learnt. I wanted to amaze them, energize their senses, and elate them. I wanted to infect them. And, I wanted them to infect everybody they knew, passing it on to their family and friends in the evening. Education would be so much fun.
But first, I want to go back to India, and this time, I want to go to the real India to get transformed - to kindle that fire in myself that Kiran Bir Sethi lit in her students by making them roll incense-sticks to give them a feel for Child Labor. And, only then, once I feel it myself, can I do something to change.
These kids have an incredible potential for learning. We need a freedom movement, just this time for Child Education.
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