Vitality in Education

Generation gap and Literacy are two most widely discussed topics globally, and this blog post quotes an incident from the recent past, which makes us question whether the above two are really the ones that must be enforced upon someone or is there anything else more vital!

We have a house in Chromepet (a place in Chennai, Southern part of India), which we had rented to two families. The smaller portion is taken for rent by a very old couple, the wife of the family being an absolute illiterate. Also, they belong to a very orthodox family, very reserved and pious.

The husband of the family was a retired purohit, and they lived on his pension. All their monthly expenses like rent, grocery and medicine depended wholly on the pension, and all this was managed mighty well by the literate husband of the family. All along, this wife has been leading a life completely encompassed by the walls of the kitchen.

It so happened, that one day we visited them to collect the rent, only to find that the husband of the family had passed away. The wife of the family, (who always sees my father as her son) started crying at the sight of my father, which finally subsided after a small consolation session. We advised her to go back to her village and stay with her relatives.

But, her reply stupefied us. She refused to go back to her village, and told us that, she would still pay the rent and continue to be in the city. Suddenly, she seemed to have got this courage from nowhere and got ready to face the rest of her life, without wanting to be a vegetable under the mercy of any of her relatives.

This is when, I contrasted her life with that of ours'. We, seemingly young and healthy, are very under-motivated and feel depressed at the slightest defeat, whereas she, although being very old and infirm physically, has this tremendous courage, determination and confidence to face the world (being an illiterate widow with no practical experience of the world's functioning!).

Today's youth lack even the basic confidence to come up before their own class and talk a few words about themselves for 2 mins. I would say this lady's confidence towers over that of any learned next-gen youth!

Isn't this, what needs to be taught in schools and inculcated to the young minds? Isn't this confidence more vital than the wars and the 'ashoka-planting-trees' stories that we read in history?

I reckon its time to rethink !!