Madhukar Shukla posted this article from around 1970 What is education for? And a quote from it :
"The plain fact is that the planet does not need more "successful" people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it..."
Unfortunately, we are caught up in a system of measurable outcomes. Towards the end of her book 'Cleverlands', Lucy Crehan says while discussing the Canadian system of education:
"It is a sad but unavoidable truth in most developed systems (though Finland seems to be an exception) that unless desired outcomes are measured in some way, they are not prioritised by governments. There are logical reasons for this (I hesitate to use the word ‘good’): that when taxpayers’ money is spent on public education, they have a right to see that their money is being used effectively. But when important things are left out, we either need to move away from such an audited system, or embrace the attempt to measure these skills so that they don’t get sidelined."
One system which has to some extent escaped this criterion is some of the religious Deras which unfortunately have been exploited for the personal gains of the religious teachers ( always disputed by their followers) like Satya Saibaba, and used by politicians. May be one answer is to debpvelop mote Deras of a good kind.
"The plain fact is that the planet does not need more "successful" people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it..."
Unfortunately, we are caught up in a system of measurable outcomes. Towards the end of her book 'Cleverlands', Lucy Crehan says while discussing the Canadian system of education:
"It is a sad but unavoidable truth in most developed systems (though Finland seems to be an exception) that unless desired outcomes are measured in some way, they are not prioritised by governments. There are logical reasons for this (I hesitate to use the word ‘good’): that when taxpayers’ money is spent on public education, they have a right to see that their money is being used effectively. But when important things are left out, we either need to move away from such an audited system, or embrace the attempt to measure these skills so that they don’t get sidelined."
One system which has to some extent escaped this criterion is some of the religious Deras which unfortunately have been exploited for the personal gains of the religious teachers ( always disputed by their followers) like Satya Saibaba, and used by politicians. May be one answer is to debpvelop mote Deras of a good kind.
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