Forty years ago..... Now I am sounding exactly like those old people who will tell all fairy tales from their child hood, romanticizing them and always ending with "kaala kettu hoyitu". No, I am not going to say that. Nor do I say that our country was better - it is financially much better now.
Forty years ago, when I was studying in school in remote village, there would be class debates with topics such as "Which is better, village or town". I don't think the kids now a days can relate to these topics. Not even in remote villages. If at all there are schools in villages and if there are kids in those schools.
But my point is, we should have debates in our schools - not on trivial topics. Does not matter if mom or dad would write the speech for children, and kids just memorize and utter them. But debates needed in the schools should be on contemporary topics - how do we reduce unemployment in our country, how do we handle the imminent water crisis in our cities and villages. For metro cities the topic can even be, how do we handle garbage in an efficient manner. Or how do we increase the tolerance in our people. (Yes, I used the T bomb. Sorry for that). Or by expanding the horizon - how do we solve the crisis in Syria, or Palestine? How do we resolve Kashmir issue?
You think that, why should we terrorize our children telling them about all these almost unsolvable problems. But my opinion is, we adults have trained our brain in a certain way - we have our loves, hatreds, fears which stop us from looking from a fresh perspectives and finding solutions.
But not kids. They have fresh minds. They are not afraid. They are not prejudiced. And they are really innovative. You only need to open their minds and you will be awestruck by the ideas they come up with.
And more importantly this may a create a generation of "thinking" adults.
Forty years ago, when I was studying in school in remote village, there would be class debates with topics such as "Which is better, village or town". I don't think the kids now a days can relate to these topics. Not even in remote villages. If at all there are schools in villages and if there are kids in those schools.
But my point is, we should have debates in our schools - not on trivial topics. Does not matter if mom or dad would write the speech for children, and kids just memorize and utter them. But debates needed in the schools should be on contemporary topics - how do we reduce unemployment in our country, how do we handle the imminent water crisis in our cities and villages. For metro cities the topic can even be, how do we handle garbage in an efficient manner. Or how do we increase the tolerance in our people. (Yes, I used the T bomb. Sorry for that). Or by expanding the horizon - how do we solve the crisis in Syria, or Palestine? How do we resolve Kashmir issue?
You think that, why should we terrorize our children telling them about all these almost unsolvable problems. But my opinion is, we adults have trained our brain in a certain way - we have our loves, hatreds, fears which stop us from looking from a fresh perspectives and finding solutions.
But not kids. They have fresh minds. They are not afraid. They are not prejudiced. And they are really innovative. You only need to open their minds and you will be awestruck by the ideas they come up with.
And more importantly this may a create a generation of "thinking" adults.
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