Sathish Ganesan
It was a familiar routine. As usual, my wife was lecturing our 10-year-old son before visiting friends. "Greet them first before you do anything else", she told him. But PRADYUMNA did what came naturally to him.
My son was looking intently at the paintings, the rug, the wall hanging, everything. What did he see in them? When I asked him later, he said the things he saw reminded him of a lion's face, a dragon's wing and little boy crying. The smudges in the paintings, the design on the carpet, the stain on the ceiling had all submitted to his creative imagination.
I guess people see what they want to see. Since he was so interested in animals and children he saw only those and not the paintings, the carpet pattern or a simple stain. Then it hit me.
Why admonish a child for this? Don't adults do the same thing? The only difference being, we see our world differently, as adults. We perceive it the way we want it to be. Why? Maybe because of what we've been told, what we've seen, read and comprehended. Our entire life seems to be dictated by someone or something else rather than ourselves or our thoughts.
The other day I was watching a DVT), a documentary called the Nova series: a guide to how the earth was formed and how life first began. The DVD had talks by Harvard professors and other scientists about the origins of our solar system and planet earth and how life first began from a chemical GOO, then went on to became cyano-bacteria, single cell organisms, multi-cell organisms and so on. If you equate the life of planet earth (4.5 billion years) to a day of 24 hours, the human species occupy only 30 seconds of this 24-hour timeline.
Nothing fascinates me more than understanding how our universe was formed, how life began and where we are heading. Of late I have also been reading books on the Vedas and Upanishads and trying to interpret them. What I find truly intriguing is the concept of PRALAYA or deluge at the end of a YUGA or age.
As a child my parents did not talk about the Vedas. All we children did was repeat the SLOKAS and mantras they chanted religiously in front of the family deity My grandma would tell me bedtime stories from Hindu mythology.
The Vedas and Upanishads contain knowledge about how our world was formed. They also talk about chemicals, reactions, bacteria and energy. Gods and goddesses are nothing but imaginary manifestations of chemicals and energy. I realized that informal learning from one's family and friends fire the imagination much more than drab CBSE, ICSE and State board textbooks. It is important to give a thought to how education was imparted in times of GURUKUL, when the guru-SHISHYA relationship encouraged holistic learning rather then memorizing mundane facts and figures. Rote study cannot prepare you to relate with people and the environment.
At least at the school level, learning can be more fun if we focus on creative expressions and innovation rather than rely entirely on examinations. Children have no inhibitions. Let's not throttle their creative imagination with an overdose of boring facts and figures.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy:
Sathish Ganesan
It was a familiar routine. As usual, my wife was lecturing our 10-year-old son before visiting friends. "Greet them first before you do anything else", she told him. But PRADYUMNA did what came naturally to him.
My son was looking intently at the paintings, the rug, the wall hanging, everything. What did he see in them? When I asked him later, he said the things he saw reminded him of a lion's face, a dragon's wing and little boy crying. The smudges in the paintings, the design on the carpet, the stain on the ceiling had all submitted to his creative imagination.
I guess people see what they want to see. Since he was so interested in animals and children he saw only those and not the paintings, the carpet pattern or a simple stain. Then it hit me.
Why admonish a child for this? Don't adults do the same thing? The only difference being, we see our world differently, as adults. We perceive it the way we want it to be. Why? Maybe because of what we've been told, what we've seen, read and comprehended. Our entire life seems to be dictated by someone or something else rather than ourselves or our thoughts.
The other day I was watching a DVT), a documentary called the Nova series: a guide to how the earth was formed and how life first began. The DVD had talks by Harvard professors and other scientists about the origins of our solar system and planet earth and how life first began from a chemical GOO, then went on to became cyano-bacteria, single cell organisms, multi-cell organisms and so on. If you equate the life of planet earth (4.5 billion years) to a day of 24 hours, the human species occupy only 30 seconds of this 24-hour timeline.
Nothing fascinates me more than understanding how our universe was formed, how life began and where we are heading. Of late I have also been reading books on the Vedas and Upanishads and trying to interpret them. What I find truly intriguing is the concept of PRALAYA or deluge at the end of a YUGA or age.
As a child my parents did not talk about the Vedas. All we children did was repeat the SLOKAS and mantras they chanted religiously in front of the family deity My grandma would tell me bedtime stories from Hindu mythology.
The Vedas and Upanishads contain knowledge about how our world was formed. They also talk about chemicals, reactions, bacteria and energy. Gods and goddesses are nothing but imaginary manifestations of chemicals and energy. I realized that informal learning from one's family and friends fire the imagination much more than drab CBSE, ICSE and State board textbooks. It is important to give a thought to how education was imparted in times of GURUKUL, when the guru-SHISHYA relationship encouraged holistic learning rather then memorizing mundane facts and figures. Rote study cannot prepare you to relate with people and the environment.
At least at the school level, learning can be more fun if we focus on creative expressions and innovation rather than rely entirely on examinations. Children have no inhibitions. Let's not throttle their creative imagination with an overdose of boring facts and figures.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: