Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Why dont students challenge the exisiting norms?

We really don't find students challenge their teachers today? This is so much an Indian phenomenon...

This is how one of the conversation started today with Rishi... yes, Rishi and I keep discussing quite a few topics relating to the education in India. 

In this case it was interesting - I for one have not seen many of my students challenge me on the concept, I have seen some students who did try to put me out of the comfort zone due to attitude issues, but not on the subject matter. This too synched with what Rishi had observed, however I differed on his overall assessment that this was an Indian Phenomenon. 

We have heard about Gargi or Maitreyi who had been in a detailed discussion with the renowned saints of Janaka's period on various topics which required tremendous expertise. So it is not possible that discussion or even dissenting with the opinion of one's teacher is completely unheard of. In fact most of the early scriptures from here are in the from of a discussion and highlighting the nuances of the knowledge/philosophy. The drawback however was that not many were exposed to the knowledge as it was transmitted orally as the primary means and the written scripts were accessible only to a select few. 

I would rather blame the reason for suppression of the questioning mindset to the period when the system of knowledge transfer was broken thanks to the fear! Yes, the history of India has had enormous challenge to the survival of the religion of the masses at least a couple of times during the Mughal Period and later on during the British Rule. People being closely attached towards religion, feared the influence of the new beliefs and tried to avoid their religion being taken away! They possibly tried to prevent questioning of the fundamentals of their own religion under the influence of the new thoughts and began suppressing the thought of a creative discussion. 

Coupled with this, the system of generating mass scale clerks through the education system that was introduced during the British Era only worsened the problem. You needed people who could follow instructions while not really applying their minds!

The effect we see of this - is today in the form of people who dont think independently or question the foundation and belief!

The way forward I see is to encourage discussion as part of the knowledge discovery and dissemination. It is only through effective dialogue and discussion that one develops Independently thinking individuals who could fearlessly voice their opinions.

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