Many people ask me success stories of Aarohi – what children from Aarohi have become. Also I have heard lot of people boast about their school or institution by citing stories of ‘Shining alumni’.
This is indeed profoundly grave – for according to me, herein lies a major question we need to ask ourselves –
Is education about some result / output?
Or if I rephrase this question – What would it do to the education, the learner (child) and the adult (teacher or parent)
- if education is all about the results it produces, making child successful, etc … or
- if education was least bothered with outcomes, rather concerned only with what opportunities it creates, what journey it offers, what joy it explores.
Another way to look at this aspect is … if education (and learning) is lifelong – then how can it be about success or outcome?
If what is success itself is dependent on and defined by each individual then how can education be success oriented?
It is precisely this objective, which has been superimposed on education, to turn it into a system which tries to turn out children who are purportedly successful.
I would rather, if you allow, want for me and offer to all, freedom to learn.
A perfect example of this is the paradoxical business of making contraptions. Contractions are complex systems to achieve a simple task and the reason one makes one is not because of the result – but the whole effort of doing it – the journey.
Last week when children were making some contraptions – they did not want to pause for lunch, nor were successive failures disappointing them, but the game for learning was just pure joy.
In some way, our life itself is like a contraption – at the end is just the end, but its how each stage of our life dovetails into next, while seeming impossible, is what makes life ALIVE.