thenewconstructs’s blog

My wife Girija and I recently visited Isha Vidhya outside Coimbatore, on the recommendation of a friend, Deepak Satwalekar. His description was intriguing: the foundation is using three very different models of education to cater to different sections of society. What we saw turned out to be even more extraordinary than Deepak had described.

Isha Rural Schools:

There are 6 Isha Rural Schools in operation today, with plans for setting up at least 20 more across Tamil Nadu. These schools are set up with the intention of equipping rural children with the skills, knowledge and confidence to make it in life.

Given that speaking English and computer literacy are basic to life in the 21st century, the school uses English as the medium of education and supplements class work with video-based as well computer-based learning. Since English medium schools are not entitled to state funding, Isha depends primarily on donations in addition to modest fees from parents.

We have visited many government-run as well as private schools, but what struck us at the Isha schools was the atmosphere of fun, curiosity, energy and enthusiasm. The teachers were committed and well trained, supporting children to help them learn at their own pace. Undoubtedly, these schools will produce capable students with basic life skills as well as a love of life-long learning.

Isha Home School:

The Home School, at the Isha Yoga Centre, is comparable to a top-notch international school, with children paying full fees. Students are assigned to “houses” where house parents (typically a husband-wife couple) take care of them in all ways. Each house is a complete floor with dorms for boys and girls and a common area where children assemble for learning.

Up to 5th standard, the class follows the Montessori method – combining children of different ages and providing tools to kindle each child’s innate urge to learn rather than imposing information or knowledge in traditional lecture-dominated instruction.  

Afternoon sessions are focused on arts, crafts and sports. Beyond class 5, the students go to classes by subjects, with exposure to examinations only in time for the Board exams.

According to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, the visionary behind Isha Vidhya, “We will make sure the child is exposed to every little thing in life. He should know how to fix a bicycle. He should know how to milk a cow - he should know everything”.

Interestingly, the Home School does not allow computers in classes, relying instead on traditional methods of library research. The house parent we met said that these kids all have access to their own computers and already know how to Google any subject; it’s more valuable to teach them alternative, more creative paths of research.

There is no doubt that Isha Home School will give its students the solid foundation they require to be the best they can in life – being productive, responsible and contributing members of the world.

Sanskriti:

Based on the traditional Indian model of ‘Gurukulas’, Sanskriti is a completely different model of intensive and extensive education aimed at promoting excellence in different fields. We couldn’t visit this school ourselves but were briefed by one of the Isha Home School house parents whose daughter is a Sanskriti student.

The kids here are subject to a rigorous schedule of early morning yoga and meditation, combined with traditional subjects like language, math, science and social studies. Hands-on experience in agriculture, dairy farming, along with intensive training in music, dance and arts, make this a unique and exclusive educational experience. All in all, Isha Vidhya is truly innovative in its choice of models and is making a mark in the field of education in India.

The New Constructs is an initiative to examine our beliefs and assumptions - about life and living - that we need to reinvent in order to create a more inclusive and sustainable world. It is an opportunity for each one of us to connect, collaborate and co-create the world that we will rebuild for posterity. We hope to leverage Connected Intelligence
in realizing the Connected Age.

Do you have any unique schooling models
to share? Please feel free to comment. We look forward to your active participation. Join the discussion on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

“My idea of Village Swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent of its neighbors for its wants, and yet interdependent for many others in which dependence is a necessity”. - M K Gandhi.

It could be a movie, but it’s true. Born in Kuthambakkam in a well-to-do lower caste family, Rangasamy Elango describes himself as a rebellious youth who was committed helping his village escape the stranglehold of a caste-based society. Elango went on to graduate in chemical engineering and work in organizations like Madras Refineries and Oil India, but he was always drawn back to the village.

When the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution revived Panchayati Raj – village government — Elango jumped into the fray. He campaigned for the post of Panchayat President at Kuthambakkam – a village of around 5,000 people less than 60km from Chennai.

Elango won the elections with a comfortable margin, thanks to overwhelming support from his own caste. But he wasted no time in winning over the higher castes. He gained credibility by cracking down on his own caste’s main source of livelihood, brewing illicit arrack (liquor). At the same time, he began searching for innovative ways to create new jobs, especially for the villages’ poor and landless.

He looked for problems that could be turned into opportunities. The village needed a new storm drain – estimated cost Rs. 420,000, following state tendering and contracting procedures.  Instead, Elango found inexpensive leftover materials from a local factory, employed his own villagers to provide the labor and completed the job for just Rs. 220,000. Instead of applauding him, the state’s bean-counting bureaucrats accused Elango of not following rules, and he was suspended from his position

Elango was despondent. His wife suggested he read Gandhi. Those pages of wisdom and generosity brought Elango renewed energy and focus. He recognized the integrity in following his Dharma, his duty. “I saw that the right thing to do was to carry on my work and face the challenges,” he says. Meanwhile, villagers and the local newspaper let it be known that they wanted more good government and fewer bureaucratic rules; they wanted Elango back.

The Chief Minister of the State heard and read about the case and, in classic Tamil movie style, called a Gram Sabha meeting; 2,000 villagers showed up to support Elango. He was soon re-instated.

Elango promptly proposed a bold social experiment – a housing colony for poor families from different castes. The Chief Minister was so excited by this program that he sanctioned Rs. 10 million for the construction of a colony of 100 houses in Kuthambakkam.

Elango used innovative building materials – mud bricks – that were low cost and eco-friendly. He also used local labor, providing employment to 200 families for a year. The villagers chipped in 10% of their wages for the cost. The experiment has been such a success – yes, the different castes are living happily side by side – that the colony has become a model for other districts in Tamil Nadu.

Elango has gone on to provide other alternative jobs to illicit brewing, including village self-help groups that are involved in contract manufacturing and food processing. He recently launched an e-learning center, and is intent on helping prepare the village’s unemployed teenage boys for the working world.

Perhaps best of all, Elango is borrowing a page from Gandhi by sharing his ideas and methods. He has set up a Panchayat Academy, and so far more than 100 villages have sent their Presidents for training. What can we contribute to the goals of enlightened village governance in terms of our time, energy and ideas?

Do come forward and share your own examples of such remarkable human beings – people who give us hope that we can create a much brighter future for all of us.

The New Constructs is an initiative to examine our beliefs and assumptions - about life and living - that we need to reinvent in order to create a more inclusive and sustainable world. It is an opportunity for each one of us to connect, collaborate and co-create the world that we will rebuild for posterity. Please feel free to comment. We look forward to your active participation. Join the discussion on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

“What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful”. - Dalai Lama

My mother’s elderly cousin, Neelamani, sometimes came to family gatherings, but I knew little about him. We exchanged pleasantries, and that was about it. Recently, however, we found ourselves in conversation at a family get-together at my parents’ house.

Neelamani told me that he was informally mentoring some youngsters in his local community in Chennai. He told them about eminent people who had achieved something in life. He helped them improve their communication skills, especially in English. In the process, he helped them build self-confidence, and realize how far they could go in life.

I was impressed that Neelamani, at age 76, had taken it upon himself to make a difference in the lives of these young people. He was impressed with the New Constructs, and invited me to come and speak with his group.

A few days ago, Neelamani felt chest pains. He asked a neighbor to take him by scooter to a nearby lab. Peacefully, serenely, sitting there in the lab reception area, waiting his turn for an ECG, Neelamani passed away.  

Speaking to my mother and his brother, I learned that Neelamani had been a qualified company secretary, working in IPCL, Vadodara for most of his career. Having lost his wife to cancer more than two decades back, and with both his daughters married and settled, he decided to spend his retirement years in Chennai,  probably because he loved  Carnatic music.

His younger brother suggested that Neelamani work with youngsters and share his love for reading, music and communications. That lit a spark, and at age 70, Neelamani found his true calling. Working through his friends’ children, and their friends, he built a group of more than 20 youths in his neighborhood who attended his sessions for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. On a typical day Neelamani might conduct three separate sessions – six hours a day, talking with young people, helping them learn history, culture, communication and self-esteem.

I asked Neelamani’s brother and daughters to organize a meeting with the youngsters. My wife Girija and I met a few days ago with 14 of them at Neelamani’s small but well-appointed apartment. We asked them to recount their own experiences with Neelu Uncle (as they called him) and how they had benefited from his classes.  

“He was so affectionate and friendly that I could confide in him more than my own parents”.

“I had no ability to even read English, let alone speak fluently. Over the last two years I have developed the ability to read and speak confidently”.

“Before I met Neelu Uncle, my reading was restricted only to my text books. He encouraged us to read a wider range of books and now I do that for at least 15 minutes every day”.

“He shared with us the life stories of great men like George Washington Carver, Madame Curie, Abdul Kalam, Gandhi. We were truly inspired by these stories”.

“He would open every class with a newspaper cutting and ask us to read and discuss the implications of that news item. We have never had such exposure in the past. He taught us how to think”.

“He always said that my effort is to develop you so that there is one more youngster who can take India forward”.

“I am so inspired by Neelu Uncle that once I pay off my educational loans and get settled, I want to help other youngsters just like he did. I don’t think he is dead. He lives on in our hearts”.

These were a few of the voices I heard. I was truly moved by the experience – the impact that single, lone person managed to create over the last 5 years of his life.

The New Constructs is an attempt to identify, showcase and celebrate people like Neelu Uncle. People who manage to find meaning at any stage of their life and dedicate themselves to being happy and useful. Do come forward and share your own examples such remarkable human beings – people who give us hope that we can create a much brighter future for all of us.

The New Constructs is an initiative to leverage Connected Intelligence in realizing the Connected Age. Please feel free to comment. We look forward to your active participation. Join the discussion on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards”. - Anatole France

The purpose of education is to create responsible, productive and socially contributing citizens – people who can provide for their own families as well as contribute to their communities. As Toffler says, education in the 21st century should allow people to learn, unlearn and relearn. But I am not sure our schools and colleges are committed to this.

Education is one of the most unscientific human endeavors. You do well in school to get into a good college and earn a good degree. A good degree is supposed to be a passport to a good job. Based on your educational qualifications, you can climb to a reasonably high position without having to demonstrate any exceptional ability.

Beyond that, however, you may have problems. There is no established link between your performance in school and your performance in a job. Even more importantly, there is no link between your performance on the job and your performance in life.

To be true to purpose, education should support a child develop three fundamental capabilities:

1. Discover, develop and continually evolve a vision to become a useful member of society:

Many of us have an advantage – our parents envision our future for us, driving us to work towards achieving this vision. However, this is not as common among the poor. The education system has to step in to help everyone create this vision, and to build even the poor child’s confidence to pursue the vision.

Balaji Sampath, who runs Eureka Child – an NGO committed to improving literacy and math ability in government schools, told us a touching story in this context. Coming back from the US to do something meaningful in education, he immersed himself in local issues by spending a few months in a village. He was in a village classroom when a child asked the teacher whether it was possible to travel to the moon. “You and I cannot fly to the moon,” the teacher answered. “But scientists in the U.S. can…” We must stop robbing our children of goals and dreams.

2. Understand that questions are more important than answers:

Our education system places undue emphasis on providing answers – often to questions that children do not have. In other words, too often we teach children concepts without context; we need to show them why learning is important. We need to focus on awakening kids’ natural curiosity and teaching them to love learning. A good way to do this is to place children in natural experiences or in games where they can ask questions. In these settings, learning is immediate and strong. Learning can be a structured discovery process, offering students varied learning outcomes – just as our situations and decisions later in life offering different outcomes.

For example, an NGO in Mumbai went to schools with an experiment to teach students about water conservation. The pupils measured the amount of water consumed while brushing their teeth with the tap open, and then again with the tap off. Imagine, if we all learn this type of lesson in school, how we can apply the principles to so many other aspects of our home and work later in life.

3. Learning to Learn:

The world is evolving too fast for schools and colleges to keep up. What is being taught is inadequate and outdated, or will be soon. It is important that children are encouraged to discover answers on their own – through the Internet, through experimenting and by having access to experts on the cutting edge of every field.

It is important that students learn the scientific method –

(a) creating  a hypothesis based on observations,
(b) designing and conducting experiments to prove or disprove these hypotheses and
(c) arriving at conclusions while recognizing that the conclusions could change with additional information.

With the level of knowledge available in the world today, it is also important to exercise judgment what to learn, and how and when you need to learn it. We need to teach kids when to rely on their own judgments,, and when to rely on the expertise of others.  Our children must learn that even when you outsource the effort, you retain responsibility over the result.

What do you think? Do you agree with these ideas about the critical capabilities that our children need? Is our educational system addressing this? Do share your thoughts and experiences with all of us.

The New Constructs is an initiative to leverage Connected Intelligence in realizing the Connected Age. Please feel free to comment. We look forward to your active participation. Join the discussion on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.