On 31 March, 2016 a part of the under-construction ‘Vivekananda Flyover’, in the Girish Park neighbourhood of Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta) city, collapsed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata_flyover_collapse This information, its visuals, and the damage to life and property, brought to fore extreme anger. KOLKATA, the city of emotions, as it has always been referred to, has lost its soul. It has become a rock! The heightened emotional anguish that I experienced cannot be put in words. Apart from being my native city, it was the state of apathy of the human being that troubled me the most. So I chose to give myself the time to let my emotions settle, before I was ready to write about it. Even after all these day, it is not clear as to who bears responsibility for what happened. The company constructing the flyover, the engineering firm that designed the flyover, or the government overseeing the project. We are seeing a classic example of buck-passing as no one is ready to bear onus for it. Looking at the city, and its history, I wonder… for this is the city of landmark bridges! Wearing the crown is the Howrah Bridge, a cantilever with a suspended span over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. A 73 years old bridge, that was commissioned in 1943, linking the two cities of Howrah and Kolkata. It weathers the storms of the Bay of Bengal region, carrying a daily traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians, easily making it the busiest cantilever bridge in the world. The third-longest cantilever bridge at the time of its construction, the Howrah Bridge is currently the sixth-longest bridge of its type in the world! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howrah_Bridge What is significant and noteworthy is that it was made at a time when technology had not advanced to the extent today. Yet that bridge has survived the test of time, weather and population. What is thus unfathomable is the case in question. With the advancement in skill and technology, shouldn’t construction get more accurate, more safe and more bankable? Then what was it that fell short? Probably the ‘human’ aspect of responsibility? In the aftermath of the bridge collapse, on 2nd April, 2016 our president, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, made a statement: What did he mean? Why did he appeal to education institutions only? Why not others?
Because therein lies our only hope..!! As a teacher when I enter a class and look at children, they are all alike. I can’t make out any apparent distinction, be it religious or other. Thank God for that! What a beautiful and homogeneous lot. Their innocent faces, pure smiles, and believing eyes can add life to any dull day. But then over time things change. The education journey which is meant to empower, begins the silent work of disempowerment. Here is how. We begin to test our little ones. We mark their work… and grade them. And suddenly this homogeneous lot is divided, into excellent, the not so excellent, and the ‘others’. And under what criteria? Their ability to memorise and reproduce. ‘We’ divide them. This divide created in the foundation stages of the child’s life, is lasting. The child spends the rest of his/her life believing that I belong to this grade or that grade. Complexes of inferiority and superiority surface right at that stage. Now the class divide, quite like that of the brahmans and the shudras and everything in between, has crept in. These divides take deep root into the souls of the children. Very few are able to break free from these shackles. These children who up until now were free spirits and believed that they could fly and be superman or spiderman or anything that they wanted, are now questioning themselves, because ‘I don’t get the marks. How can I do it?’ And they begin to give up even before they have begun to find out their potentials. These discouraged children often grow up to be the adults who give up in the face of challenges and succumb to situations of bribe, corruption, malpractice believing, ‘What can I do? I can’t change it’ and that it’s better to flow with the flow. The role of education is to foster faith, belief and confidence in the ‘self’. Yet it ends up doing exactly the opposite. One might question, so is there no need of examinations or assessments? Of course there is. But really let’s ask ourselves who needs this information more? Is it the child who has come to learn, or is it the teacher who is responsible for the learning? And what would be the right age to initiate them into taking their own responsibility? If you observe the growth and development of a child from conception to the age of 18, you will be able to witness the entire pathway of human evolution right from being a unicellular organism to a fully grown adult with all its organs and faculties ready for use to lead a ‘human’ life. This entire process takes about 18 years. And so it is only at this age that legislation hands over individual rights and responsibility to these young adults by way of driving permits, voting rights, etc. So we can safely assume here that in accordance with this growth pattern, the years that a child spends until it reaches the secondary school (about the age of 10 years), he is quite literally a little monkey(if I may say so) who is evolving and being groomed into being a human being. And so ‘monkeying around’ is probably it’s innate nature. Given this understanding, how can we then, even expect this little person to exhibit the maturity of an adult and take full responsibility of his or her own learning? At this time I am reminded of a legend that I would like to share. One afternoon, Rabindranath Tagore was taking a stroll around his open school Shantiniketan, that had open classrooms under trees. The distant ‘gong’ announced the break time. Suddenly the silent expanse, came rife with children scampering all around shouting and screaming. Rabindranath smiled at this beautiful sight and music. Walking a little further, he noticed a child who continued sitting under the tree and kept working at his slate. Tagore walked up to his teacher, and asked whether he had been punished. The teacher smiled and replied, “Oh no sir. He is the most responsible child of our class. He does not bother about play. He is so focused on academics.” Rabindranth looked at the boy and said, “Then he is not a child any more. For it is the nature of childhood to want to play. We adults school them only to bring in decorum and stability into their future lives. But that should not be at the cost of childhood. For then the craving for this unfulfilled bygone period, will render them restless for their lifetime.” This child was clearly an exception to the rule! Institutions have to take it upon themselves to relieve their students from the stress of academics. At least until the age of ten. That does not mean that they are left to simply fool around (although that too is one of the biggest joys of childhood). They should have a balanced education that allows for fun as well as academic rigour without the demons of exams taking away their sleep. A happy and content child will be a more willing child, receptive to learning. It is during the secondary years that formal exams could be introduced to encourage taking onus of their own academics. But more importantly, such a happy and stress-free child, will grow into a more responsible human being, who appreciates what he has, appreciates his community and appreciates life, not just his own, but also of others. A community that is built on play, faith, and human bonding. Then what should be the focus during these initial years? Values and virtues, ethics and principles can be ingrained into a pure and un-corrupt mind very easily. These initial ten years should focus on building these areas in the child’s personality. When children are not divided by academic grades and have opportunities to explore other talents, and discover the hidden wisdom in stories, life sketches and biographies, they have examples of ideals and role models. They get inspired. They also have the opportunity to develop confidence in themselves for all that they are ‘able’ to do. Faith in one’s abilities build strong characters, allowing them to stand by these virtues and principles, in the face of adversities. ‘This’ courage is the foundation of a strong and healthy nation. A nation with such patient schools, creating such human beings, will be a nation with a conscience, a unified community and shared responsibility. Such a nation will not have to hang their heads in shame with incidents of negligence or compromise costing lives, such as the collapse of the bridge. Do you hear your mind say words like radicle, impossible, dreamy, etc.? Well that is the mindset this article intends to question. Have we already given up? Schools as Nation Builders The formative part of a human being is spent in schools. The thought patterns of the ‘self’ and the ‘world’ are developed during these years. Perspectives take shape. Dreams are built. Visions of ‘my future’ are crafted. And it is only here that the understanding, that ‘my future’ cannot materialise without ‘our future’ being achieved first, takes root. Because they are entwined. And will always be entwined. ‘For the strength of the nation is the individual, and the strength of the individual is the nation.’ Mr. Pranab Mukherjee’s appeal was to the education institutions to work on this premise. Because once children move out of these institutions, they are almost already a part of the workforce, reaching specialisations. AND if the building blocks have been set well, if the foundations are deep and strong, and were given sufficient time to settle and secure, they can hold forth adverse climates and calamities. Greed, corruption, competitions, selfish ambitions, are the adversities that rock and often collapse the human spirit, and then we see the manifestations in the outside world. So even if the vision of such a nation seems impossible and dreamy, it is better to be believers and operate out of faith working towards a better nation, than to operate out of fear and lead our lives as helpless victims of the failing nation, succumbing to all external pressures. ‘Tis better to have tried and lost, than never to have tried at all.
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Bandana BasuWisdom lies all around us. It is for us to look for it in our day to day lives. Archives
April 2016
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