Teaching the Basics at School
When I heard that the Stampede at the Naina Devi Temple in Himachal Pradesh was caused because of a rumor, I felt the need to post a thought that has been in my mind for quite sometime. The thought is about our education system delivering what it needs to deliver.
One of the many purposes of education is to educate on how to be a responsible citizen and more importantly a responsible human being. So what does a responsible citizen mean? It’s not just voting in elections and paying your taxes, it’s about being actively involved in whatever kind of work you do so that you make the place around you a better place to live in. I would say be a human first, then a citizen.
The stampede mentioned above resulted because of Crowd Panic triggered by a rumor. If people there knew how to react to rumors and behave in a crowd and not to panic, may be the incident could have been averted.
What irks me is the fact that most of us lack knowledge (can call it common sense or anything you want to) about some of the basic things that we need to know. We live in a society, and in a society we need to act and behave in a particular manner. In our day to day life, haven’t we found people spitting on roads & other public places, people behaving indecently, people not caring for fellow human beings, people not caring for precious resources being wasted around, etc., Its not that these people are doing these stuff knowingly & intentionally but because no body told them that it wasn’t right. A little bit of education will go a long way…
School is not the only place where we learn but it is one place where a uniform knowledge can be imparted to a wider audience. We usually learn a lot of things by being a part of society and interacting with people around us, but not everybody gets to learn every essential thing. There needs to be some form of a structured/formal way. We take for granted that children will learn about these things from their parents, friends, society as they grow but most of the times that isn’t the case.
What I think will be appropriate is a subject taught at school that will teach students some of these basic things. Well, there was a subject in my school called as Moral Science which told us to be Good Samaritans, but the same subject also said fear God. We need something that talks about practical things, based on reasoning and logic.
A few things that can be taught at school (that I can collect at this moment):
- How to behave in a crowd, at public places.
- To understand and respect differently-abled people.
- How to act in case of emergencies.
- To care about fellow human beings.
- To care for our natural resources.
- To respect Life.
[There are lot more that I cannot think of as of now…]
What I wish is that we all grow a little more mature and responsible as human beings and citizens of earth.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
True. Civic sense is an important learning that needs to be done at the school level. But would it be possible to teach common sense? I doubt that. But at least, a basic course in emergency preparedness would do some good.
Nice write.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Yes well, you’re an engineer - make a slightly detailed plan now, yea?
August 6th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I completely agree with you about the lack of general awareness or should I call it common sense. And the way you have approached the issue and found the root cause as schooling, perfect. I really believe in such a place and want to start something of the same. I have blogged about the same here http://veetrag.net/2007/05/22/school-of-thought/
August 7th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
@Wesley Thanks. ‘Civic sense’ is the right term that I was looking for.
@Nimish Yes well, I am no educationist…
@Veetrag From the last line on your blog post “A school where Humanities would be the subject with highest priority.” is something that we need.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
hmmm.. very true.. in our education system instead of teaching how to live life .. they teach how to pass exams. That is one of the main reason of increasing population of educated illiterates !