Do you believe development is possible keeping in mind the environment we live in? How?

Do you believe development is possible keeping in mind the environment we live in? How?

Does this question seem to be a new phenomenon?

I believe, at some point, you must have encountered this question. So this is not something unique or new to the best of our knowledge, right??

If such is the case then, why “our world”, I would rather like to say “we” are heading towards our extinction.

In my opinion, the answer lies in our education system. No, don't get me wrong, I am not here to blame the education system or teachers for that matter. I being a teacher myself very much part of this system. Then the question who is to blame for this??

I would say,? profit-driven notions, a culture of transfer of knowledge, and last but not least, an Individualistic outlook are the factors for our distorted knowledge. When I say this let me be very clear, this is not the accountability of one particular person or community, Each one of us is accountable for this because holistic development is a shared entity. Remember, together we can, right?

Allow me to explain it by backing it with the Ancient Indian education system that we are very proud of. Here I am not going to talk about the pedagogical aspects because it is quite vast and complex and will lead me to deviation from my point so I will stick to the physiological aspects.

Physiology-wise, the ancient education system was popular and bewitching to the masses because of the open classroom, isn’t it? Any guesses, why? After lots of reading and analysis, I am of the opinion, the setting was such to let the students connect with their very source of existence that helped them learn to appreciate, praise, and preach. It is therefore I prefer an open classroom. Having said that I must mention I am not against the walls they are very much needed but at what cost should be the deciding factor? If it is at the cost of my very source of existence I will condemn it right away and will look for an alternative to it and I guess this is what we term innovation and creativity today, don't we?

Now that we are talking about creativity, the much preached and talk of our town, I have a question here, On what basis creativity is determined? Is it on the basis of mere pre-existing knowledge which is subjective in nature as every piece of knowledge imbibed by a particular individual is subjected to personal influence, taste, and biases? How do we realize creativity in action? Is it by building upon the existing knowledge, if such is the case then can it be called a creative approach, the answer is straight away no. This brings me to my point of transfer of knowledge. In my opinion, education in our rich Ancient Indian Education was never just a transfer of knowledge but an exploration of knowledge, in other words, experiential learning. Teachers of that time never ever imposed their learning on the students but created a conducive atmosphere for experiential learning and this is what we vouch for the most in the present scenario, aren't we?

This brings me to the last point that I made, Individualistic Culture, approach, outlook, mindset, called by whatever name the effect of this approach is going to be disastrous. To address this concern let me tie up with the point of an open classroom, as I mentioned earlier open classroom is a must, again repeating myself I am not against the walls but when those walls act like an obstruction in my learning for instance; make me blind to the actual happening of the nature, ignorant to the habitat of the being that shares the same environment as I am sharing and make me less or no appreciative to the sources of my existence, don't you think it's a thing to worry about? All the above cases that I have mentioned bring me to the one and only conclusion of an individualist outlook. To break free of this we need to break free of the walls that can be the reason for our distorted knowledge.

Development at the cost of our source of existence is just a lame excuse for the very fundamentals of our existence are also the source of our inspiration. To prove my point let me back it up with some real instances, Here are some;

• Ayurveda
• Yoga
• Wright brothers’ invention of the plane
• Einsteins’ discovery of gravity.

These are the few to the best of my knowledge, feel free to add to the list.

I believe development was, is, and will always be a holistic approach [wherein very existing sources of which we are mere extensions serve as an inspiration in the process to make it happen] and not an Individualistic one, do you?

- Ms. Vinita. V. Pal

[ Assistant teacher at Sharon English High School]

#vinipens #development # ancientlearning #ancienteducation #ancienteducationsystem