1)?
The biggest miss of schools being shut is that the kids miss out on a lot of character building.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware of the risks of opening schools now but there’s no doubt in my mind that kids benefit in certain ways from schooling.
There’s a reason why Gurukul system existed before. The need for kids to be guided by a teacher is just too great. More than gathering info, schooling teaches you discipline, it teaches you how to respect others, it teaches how to handle different situations on your own, it also teaches a very harsh fact, which is that you cannot have things your way all the time, it teaches you to be considerate and much more to be honest. Well, sometimes you learn to fight as well.
So I’d say that with edtech businesses coming into forefront, the need to go to school might lessen in future. But then how do you do the character building that happens in schools?
For that some character building courses perhaps can help, even then practical knowledge of that would be tough to replicate.
Sports can be the alternative for sure. It builds character like nothing can. We all know that. It has to be encouraged to become more mainstream. It definitely has the power to transform one’s way of being.
2)?
The society is changing in a way never seen before. I’m talking mostly about the Indian social structure to be honest. But I’m sure it’s more or less the same everywhere.
The mindset of trying to become a skilled worker is slowly changing. The younger ones are more inclined towards owning, innovating and mainly doing things on their own terms than anything. More and more youth care less about acquiring a title than doing what they love to do.
That ‘safety first’ attitude towards life of the previous generation is being replaced by ‘live first’ approach of this generation.
I personally think that whatever is happening is in perfect order. The two viewpoints might collide quite frequently but if you observe carefully then you’ll understand the harmony in this order.
So the two generations need not collide as I see in many households today, instead should just acknowledge the difference and accept the change which is constant.
Om Shanti….?