Ahead of defining a process where the learner can actually learn at ones own pace; at the time when the person deems fit and with a mentor to guide the person when the person wants to learn. Let’s clearly analyze the needs or perhaps even wants to embark on a journey of learning.
The inherent need to learn is due to the fact that we need to constantly improve, learning need not be limited to the amount of knowledge obtained from books or associations with scholars or any such structured syllabi but in fact from the everyday learning from life itself. To think of it, what can be a better school than the school of life! Having said that; it is also incredibly difficult to learn from life, if at first we do not have a form of education which makes us interpret the knowledge available to us. We would never have learnt the importance of freedom unless we have at some point been denied it. Learning is interpreting and understanding reality in a different way. Learning involves comprehending the world by reinterpreting knowledge1.
The glorious fact remains that the learner has differentiated himself from the rest of the crowd and has set the stage for success by simply acknowledging the need to constantly learn and by taking the very first step of understanding the need to learn.
What if the learner does not have time – can they find it?
What if the learner does not have the resources – can the universe in some form create the resources?
Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. Once the battle is startled, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance. The Universe in its entirety will stand by you.
With technology today, perhaps the art of learning has been simplified to such an extent that it is not only accessible but can also be all pervasive. In the days of yore we have heard the hardships of travelling to a far of land to learn, we have heard of the greats who have graced our planet but how did they travel in 1815? Let us for a brief moment reflect on the hardship faced by these personalities and how much more could they have done had there been correspondence education, distance education or for that matter even online education. These luminaries would have spread the “cheer of knowledge” perhaps more effectively. How many more luminaries could the world have witnessed and how much more of a better place would the world have been? These luminaries are set apart in the grand stage simply because they taught, they mentored, and they were there when the avid student needed them. Is this serendipity or is this just how the world operates that the seeker always finds the answer.
1 quoted in Ramsden 1992: 26
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Versatility in Education - I
It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought - that is to be educated. – Edith Hamilton.
There is conceivably no greater transgression than to stand between a person and his development. The thoughts that govern your action, values and your inherent success in life are those that we have derived from education. Education is not only about learning but also about un-learning and re-learning to adapt our ways to the transient moments which as a collection make up our lives in its magnificent entirety.
To surround this level of importance in a brick and mortar school and adding the burden of fixed time, fixed schedule and fixed dates is perhaps akin to expecting absolute freedom flourish in the rigid realms of dictatorship. This though has been thought over innumerable number of times by the great leaders of the past who evolved the concept of distance education (a.k.a.) Correspondence education in the Asian context with the limitations that were then in force. The critical link between correspondence learning and the inherent amount of knowledge grasped is the mentor.
We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. When Sir Winston Churchill said this he more than likely meant the incredible amount of knowledge which is passed on by virtue of living life itself aptly encapsulated in the word ‘Experience’. Instruction ends in the class, but education ends only with life and mentoring shows us what is between the lines of text, hidden between the words, the inexplicable formula for success.
Having said all that has been said is there a process where the learner can actually learn at ones own pace, at the time when the person deems fit, maybe after work , maybe before or for all the reasons in the whole wide world even during work. And more importantly can there be a mentor to guide the person when the person wants to learn?
There is conceivably no greater transgression than to stand between a person and his development. The thoughts that govern your action, values and your inherent success in life are those that we have derived from education. Education is not only about learning but also about un-learning and re-learning to adapt our ways to the transient moments which as a collection make up our lives in its magnificent entirety.
To surround this level of importance in a brick and mortar school and adding the burden of fixed time, fixed schedule and fixed dates is perhaps akin to expecting absolute freedom flourish in the rigid realms of dictatorship. This though has been thought over innumerable number of times by the great leaders of the past who evolved the concept of distance education (a.k.a.) Correspondence education in the Asian context with the limitations that were then in force. The critical link between correspondence learning and the inherent amount of knowledge grasped is the mentor.
We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. When Sir Winston Churchill said this he more than likely meant the incredible amount of knowledge which is passed on by virtue of living life itself aptly encapsulated in the word ‘Experience’. Instruction ends in the class, but education ends only with life and mentoring shows us what is between the lines of text, hidden between the words, the inexplicable formula for success.
Having said all that has been said is there a process where the learner can actually learn at ones own pace, at the time when the person deems fit, maybe after work , maybe before or for all the reasons in the whole wide world even during work. And more importantly can there be a mentor to guide the person when the person wants to learn?
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