When I walked into Doon Youth Center (DYC) 10 years back, I was intensely conditioned to think that I had the experience, wisdom, awareness and ability to answer questions of school students. After all, a person nearing 60 has enough experience to answer questions from kids as well guiding them with loads of advice! Fallacy of this conditioned thinking dawned on me very soon while interacting with students in an environment of cordiality, frankness and mutual respect.

To climb down from a self-imposed pedestal of ‘elders’, by virtue of biological age, was not very comfortable. The choice was either to hold on to that ‘cultural pedestal of elders’ to demand respect or earn it by creating a student-friendly environment. To say the least, my journey has been gratifyingly enriching and humbling. Hardly a day goes by when I am not challenged to think before responding to thought-provoking questions from students.

Contrary to general belief that teenagers are too young to think of anything other than academics, their incredible perceptive ability finds expression in a friendly and non-judgmental environment free of unsolicited advice. Consequently, students being assured of that environment at DYC, feel comfortable asking questions regarding issues having bearing on life.
One evening a class VIII student walked in to DYC and challenged me with the question ‘why should I go to school’? It was evident from his body language that he had been thinking about it for sometime. Prompted by conditioning, I was tempted to lecture him on the relevance of education to acquire knowledge, learn manners, graduate from a reputed college and settle down well in life having secured a financially sound job. Having learnt from students that they, irrespective of age, dislike advice, I decided to think of a different response. While doing so I was also guided by the teaching of another student of class XI. According to him never give perspectives to students. Instead help them to work it out without being judgmental of their perspective.
Interestingly, this poser in several forums of adults left them dumb-founded as they were too tongue-tied with conditioned learning to think of a response other than advice. Intriguingly, look of bewilderment while framing a logical response revealed their sense of helplessness. Understandably so because most us are not equipped to think ‘out of the box’.
The student, on being asked as to what made him ask that question, replied “all students in my class including girls use bad words. I do not like to do that. In the process I have no friends. And the worse is that I have started using those bad words which makes me feel angry and even worse. I am unable to concentrate on studies. Hence why should I go to school?” One may trivialize the child’s struggle thus ‘you should avoid/ignore them and focus on studies; this is a part of growing up; no other students complain why should you be so fussy; be practical’ and so forth. Will this response be helpful for an innocent teenager who is trying to learn the dynamics of life logically with a clear understanding of rights and wrongs? As adults we may gloss over this huge struggle of a teenager as a non-issue. In the process, has that child been empowered to make choices and deal with consequences, both short and long term? In other words, have we been able to respond convincingly to his question as to why should he go to school! I don’t think so!
To most of us as also the prevailing environment, schooling followed by vocational degrees in world Class Colleges signifies academic excellence and pursuit of knowledge. When an educationist like Dr Peter Mclaughlin, Head Master, Doon School says “too much emphasis on knowledge not good; A good school is not just about grades, but development of character, values, moral courage, physical strength and a sense of serving society” (Garhwal Post dated 21 Aug 09), we need to do a recheck on the validity of our perception.

World View of Few Icons.
• According To Nr Narayan Murthy, Mentor Infosys, the man whose ‘byte is better than his bark’ tells what it takes to be a good citizen: You have to put the interests of the communities above your own; education is about assuming responsibility in society, fulfilling the promise that freedom has brought to us; the first step towards being a better citizen is reaching out to the less fortunate.
• Thomas Edison never had formal education in a school. He failed around 10,000 times while working on the electric bulb;
• One may not be a super hero or a whiz kid. But nor were Walt Disney who was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas; Henry Ford who was broke at the age of 40; worlds two richest men Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are college dropouts.
• Ratan Tata’s words of inspiration to students: “I would hope that you would go in to the world — whichever area you are in — first and foremost, driven by a sense of integrity. . . I would hope that you also have a sense of social responsibility, so that you give back to the people and build the country on the basis of your skills”.
• India’s best known poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was an utter failure in school and an inattentive student to boot. He was home tutored. He was a genius who didn’t need the confines of a school for his education. TOI 8 May 2009.
• On Albert Einstein. He was average at best in his school years. He shunned certain classes for the mediocrity of education. His Greek grammar teacher, Joseph Degenhart, said “nothing would ever become of you. Your presence in the class destroys the respect of the students.” Disgusted by the rote teaching, he quit high school at the age of fifteen. Rest is history. Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school; Personally, I have learned the lessons of life only after I left the school; Try not to become a man of success but become a man of value.

Coming back to my dilemma of how to respond to the question “Why Should I Go to School?” another relevant aspect to consider is unless a student is emotionally healthy, will it be possible for that student to concentrate and excel in academics?
In the ultimate analysis, I need to confess my inability to give a convincing reply to the class VIII student. I am appealing to the readers for help.

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  • http://shishyasociety.org admin

    I have few things to say !
    Your articles are worth waiting for ! I am one delighted reader !

    And what a question. I had some serious and useful learning only after I was out of school and in college.
    School education(as if there is any education) and it’s relevance, only hit me in college.
    From my own experience , I could have avoided school, it now looks like. That understanding/conclusion is largely drawn from the answer to one question – What did I(we do) do in school ?
    Well, looks like Shagun and I are in resonance over a few radical steps in school education for our kids.
    Thanks Sushant :)

  • rajppant

    Quite an interesting question! If the schools are not imparting what they should,then somewhere we are at fault. Not only learning, but unlearning is equally important. This unlearning, to a large extent,for me was done outside the school. I was also lucky enough to be in a school where I could also ‘LEARN’ many things.
    On the matter of giving advice, I think it is the easiest & most convenient method by which we assume to have fulfilled our responsibility. Somewhere it also soothes our ego. May be with so many advisers we used to have ‘Rai-saheb’ & ‘Rai-Bahadurs’