What should the children know about?

While chatting with my friend Manu, he happened to say “while travelling in the metro, I always hear students discuss about PACKAGE, nothing about their skill development or other innovative ideas”. I too felt that the new generation is obsessed with the lucrative job opportunities that his/her educational qualification could provide with.

What should the children learn from educational institutions, their teachers, parents and society? Whatever it is, they should understand how people of their nation live their life as they are part of a society rather than isolated individuals which most of the people do not realise. Being part of a web of relationships, human beings are responsible towards the society along with their freedom of individual life and aspirations.  The basic lessons of life, how his/ her life is connected with the  environment and  people is important to be understood as children develop their approach towards life from the schools. Therefore the children should realise that their life is not an isolated entity. There is a larger world which is connected to their life for which they are indebted in many ways, otherwise LIFE is impossible on earth.  Unfortunately the ultimate aim of education at present is to find a way forward to acquire necessary skills to obtain a job and live a ‘happy’ private  life even though there are few exceptional cases.

Looking back into my own experience as a child, I don’t remember any teacher discussed the following things during my school days.

·        The values and  principles in life

·        the aim of life

·        how to contribute for the development of the nation

·        the issues and challenges of our nation

·        the contributions of great leaders

·        the importance of being imaginative and creative in life

·        how to be a responsible citizen of the country

·        the leading spirit of the nation

·        great leaders of the world

There are many other things which are vital to know about life that a teacher can communicate with children during the teaching hours. Unfortunately most of the teachers (there can be exceptions) are concerned about the mere academic performance of the children so that the school can be among the list of successful institutions to attract public attention. The questions remains how teachers and school as an institutions can hold a key role in moulding the future generations who can be potential contributors for the development of the nation along with finding ways for fulfillment of aspirations of their own life.

What the teachers should communicate with the children has a crucial role in moulding their character, principles, attitude towards life and the choice they make in the future course of life. They should realise the external indicators success in life such higher grades, lucrative jobs and other material comforts in life is not the ultimate objective of life, and there is a vast scope of meaningful life that is beyond the material indicators of successful life outside world. They can be the leading force of life that can contribute meaning and insight into life.

There are essential lessons that all children should learn during the childhood such as the financial management, social responsibility, communication etc. which are very decisive ingredients of life. However our educational system does not give importance to such things which are very much connected to life, instead it is alienated from the vital necessities of life. That is why many ‘educated’ people do not know how to deal with other human beings, how to communicate with others, and  how to deal with issues of day to day life. It is the utter failure of education which is largely dealt with income generation rather than equipping individuals to deal with vast arena of life.