Time paradox

 Sorry, I could not keep my promise. Part 2 of my previous post, will surface at some point I guess. But not today. Maybe not soon. Instead I will talk about more random thoughts.

What I am feeling this moment is 'longing for a transient moment to last a bit longer, knowing that it won't."

Is it the impossibility, or improbability of it that attracts me to it? I don't really know. The perceived value of transience  is quite high. Not just for me. But it is also ingrained in a country like Japan, where the fleeting cherry blossoms are absolutely revered and enjoyed by all, precisely because of the short life span of a few weeks.  

Yet, 'sakura' (cherry blossoms) may not be the perfect metaphor for my feeling. Since spring is a yearly affair, a falling sakura snowflake also is a promise for the next season. A start of a new period so to speak.

Whereas my feeling does not seem to have the hopefulness and at the same time the mundaneness of a return. Mine is an end of sort. A looking forward with a view of looking back kind of thought.

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In other news, I have stopped posting on most social media now for a while. Guess I needed the distance. I had almost started to represent something with my thematic posts about my travel experience in Japan. But from the very start, I don't want to sell the brand that is 'Japan'. I only want to coincide, flirt with and interrogate, understand and occasionally be understood by what I believe is the intrinsic core of the country. 

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I guess the idea of loving something you know will soon disappear can be viewed as wasteful. But I am trying to explore if it is okay to love fully, knowing the blemishes and imperfections, knowing the expiry date, and loving it for that moment. Will the future me still remember, and be able to look back fondly on such a moment?

Maybe I will talk about my struggles with the concept of permanence another time. 

But that's it from me for now.

今日はここまでです。

We, the heroes

Super heroes don't just talk about improving their cities nor do they give fancy speeches in public halls. They don't advertise their thoughts and reasons for what they do, they simply inspire us by their actions (and of course their cool costume).
If I were a super hero, this blog would merely be my costume. The real inspiration however comes from physical actions. And so I thought I need to do something.

I will be going to India for two months, and my prime objective there is to gain some first hand experiences, volunteer through some organisations who are already in the field and to come back with more stories and thoughts which I can add here.

I believe each of us have a super power but we need to search for our own gifts. It may or may not be so obvious. And once we discover our power, we may need to design our own costume as well. I just hope when the time comes, we don't get too bogged down with the costume, and can still concentrate on saving the world and thus ourselves.

Changes to the Existing Education system: some ideas

I had posted this article quite some time back on a different blog where I contribute articles occasionally. But I am adding the link here so that it can remain in my catalogue of thoughts on the current education system.

Click here to read the post.

To summarise I have asked for two additional subjects
India today - Current affairs and discussions on different topics
Innovation - To promote independent thinking and thinking out of the box

In general I wanted to make learning fun, more intuitive and less parrot like in nature.

To all this I would like to add another compulsory subject in schools.
Education and teaching - I know this is an applied subject and that we rarely learn any applied subjects in school, but I think this one can be an exception. There is a dearth of good teachers in our country. And one of the reasons for that is teaching as a profession is hardly made popular. this will ensure that children appreciate the job of a teacher from a young age.
Another reason is it will keep all the teachers refreshed with the basics as well new techniques of teaching.
A subject like this will introduce fundamentals of psychology, philosophy and communication to the children at a younger age.

Technology Vs Teachers

Technology plays a big role in today's education. Easy availability of computers and accessibility and affordability of internet connection means that an unlimited quantity of information on an unlimited number of topics is available for free at our finger tips. People have wondered if there is any need for teachers at all any more?
I saw this innovative approach used by Sugata Mitra here, and it made me think.

The large amount of information on the internet is similar to the huge amount of products and shops which are available within the real world. Just like people flock towards the product/shop with the most glossy look or in other words the product that is advertised more and made more visible, similarly within the virtual world some applications, or websites are advertised better and made more visible and hence they are the most popular. Using the model of learning using the internet, one cannot guarantee that the students will open the right sites and go about the process of learning in a systematic way. I therefore think it is very important that there are teachers who can push the students in the right direction. Giving assignments or open ended questions on different topics and asking them to do a research maybe one way of doing this.

Also there is so much information on the internet, but there is no obvious way of making sure of the correctness and validity of the data. Teachers are therefore required so that students can come and verify their findings, understand its context, and discuss its application for the problem at hand.

I also feel that the maximum impact of the internet based learning can be seen on the young minds in remote villages and rural areas just because good teachers don't want to go there, and these children are so unaware and unexposed to the rest of the world that exposure in any form is better than none. But unfortunately remote villages also mean that they may not have internet connection or even electricity to run computers. What can be done in this case? How do we solve this problem?

One idea I had was the introduction of compulsory community service for a fixed period for city schools/colleges. There are countries around the world where compulsory military service is required by everyone. Why can't we have something similar in India. Make students from secondary or high school (maybe in 9th std and 11th std) go to nearby rural areas and conduct workshops under the guidance of their teachers. The state government / local governing body can distribute the responsibility to all the schools and colleges of that area. The school that shows the best results could be rewarded.

So far I am sticking with the following equations

Technology + Good teachers = Best education

But in the absence of good teachers, technology + helping hand from other privileged sector of society =  Decent education