Saturday, March 29, 2008

The raison d'être

One more ‘coaching class’?
It is 18 years since I floated this simple outfit, and called it THE GENIUS. Those who do not know about us – students, parents and well-wishers seek many answers from us.
Why one more ‘coaching class’?
‘Don’t we have too many already?’
‘Do you have some unheard-of USP?’

This is my answer. This is an institution that hopes to fill a sore blank in the system that calls itself “educational” but is a far cry from what it ought to be. Sorry, teachers and trainers, pedagogues and patriarchs, guides and gurus, – my basic intention is to merely make up for what you ought to do, but plead lack of opportunity and dearth of time beyond your "syllabus" and your "curriculum". You therefore concentrate on training your tenderfoot novices for no more beyond their examinations. Most Indians believe in those pieces of paper that the world calls ‘certificates’ in the pursuit of which parents drive the children they love up the wall, round the bend, and down the primrose path seeking something elusive that they never get out of the system.
The system
When the flaws in the system are pointed out, we very conveniently blame our erstwhile masters the Brits – for Macaulay’s Minutes, for the English language that probably lowered the importance of local languages, and the organization of the curricula. The Brits left our shores a full 60 years ago, and wisely the White Man changed the academic structure in his own country soon after 1947. We Indians consolidated it, bolstered learning by rote, annihilated originality, institutionalized plagiarism, and promoted the provision of vast amounts of information to be crammed by hapless children, assimilated, and ingested by them, and, in our notorious examinations we lauded bilious regurgitation of it all. In the process, we created a vast horde of counterfeiters of knowledge, infringers of information, bootleggers of stale nausea, while we prided ourselves on a small handful of institutions like the IITs that thrived on originality, research, and genuine knowledge for the sake of knowledge. We could sink our heads in the sand and pretend that the IITs were showcases for the success of our education system.
“THE GENIUS”
I would call my institution “The Genius”. I decided way back in 1990 that this would train a generation of children in thinking skills. Skills that had no place in the scheme of things. Skills for which neither parents nor schools seemed equipped in a part of the country where culture and intellectual strength abounded some centuries earlier, but had been given the cool go-by in preference to a cram-and-reproduce culture. After high school, students entered college and expected teachers to provide notes, day to day guidance and close attention.

Those who knew a balance sheet when they saw one stepped in with alacrity, became publishers, and provided ‘made-easies’, ‘10 years questions answered’, and opened up opportunities for a multitude of ‘coaching’ institutes. In fact, for a B.Com. degree in English language medium, you can buy notes in Hindi with simple grammatically atrocious English translations in the margin to cram and pass with honours!
We are not a ‘coaching class’
‘The Genius’ would not be a coaching class! Children who attended schools under the ‘system’ would come for an hour every day to have fun with facts, with thoughts, and with ideas. The name has now become a household word in Central India for ‘intelligence development class’. I dislike the word ‘class’ – it smacks of division, it reeks of caste, there is a stench of culturelessness. For years we conducted our sessions without even chalkboards. The students sat around the room like they would for a party, or they lounged on a carpet on the floor. The theme was always ‘fun’. It meant laughter, music, serious thought, punctuated by humour. Today we have regular hobby sessions for 600 children from twenty different Indore schools - confining our activities to stuff that is intellectual. I have repeatedly spurned the lucre that would be mine if I franchised business people around the country to run their carbon copies of my classes. Where would I find mentors with strong language skills, wide reading, deep understanding, high intelligence, and the devotion needed to honestly guide a generation of youngsters? My well-wishers and I must fight this dearth as long as the system prospers.
Success stories
An old student appears for a competition on a TV channel, wins all the way, and finally triumphs with laurels - a plum scholarship for a 5-year Engineering programme in a leading British University, all expenses (including travel, living, and accommodation) paid for the entire period. Another old student, presently in the London School of Economics completing her post-grad degree finds my email address somewhere and sends me generous kudos: "I felt alive (when I was at THE GENIUS) - because every day was another notch that I had pulled myself up by. Because it gave me a reference point in life about what kind of a person I wanted to project myself as, to the world. It became important for me to know about art, literature, theatre, sports, politics, music... I learnt that there was a power in knowledge, and I learnt that clichés are clichés for a reason. All through my life, and now, when I am in London, I have seen the world come alive around me - because I have those reference points. This frame of mind, this conditioning, this was the greatest gift I got from you and aunty. I guess I can never thank you enough for it."
I think existence "outside the system" is the way THE GENIUS ought to be... I would urge the world to ponder over the lacunae in the systems in their countries. The future generations of many oriental peoples are victims of such systems, - the world has to be a better place for the sake of the future.

5 comments:

Pam Iype said...

Excellent blog! Congratulations on a great job at The Genius. All the best,

Pam

Anonymous said...

hey there uncle!!!!!
I have always been very proud to be associated with "The Genius".
I guess its not only for the little children to learn here... but all mentors too...
Like how i did...
1st may 1999... My first day to the Genius....and today...
wundt have imagined me to be how I am today.... without Aunty and U...
Thanks a tonnnnn...
Neha

Anonymous said...

hi uncle,
I was in genius from class 2 to class 6,but after that i had to leave due to some reason(although i think i was an idiot to do so).I always thought you were right about tv being such a waste of time.Even after I left,I followed your principles and never watched tv,read good books and participated in competitions.I am currently in class 9 and i want to join again because when I sit and think,i imagine how life would have been if i would have never joined genius....I would have never had any confidence,never developed a liking for books,never developed the talents i have.I just want to say two words-"Thank you"...moving on to your blog,it was excellent,as usual.The sirpur lake,indeed,is in a pitiable condition.When i sometimes have a look t hindi papers,which speak of so called "Developed Indore",I laugh my heads off..how can indore ever be developed if citizens don't have a inch of sense in them?
Thanking u and aunty,
tejal
PS-could i please have your email id?Please send it to me on karmalkartejal@yahoo.co.in

Anonymous said...

hello Prasan
This is Gabriela. We met in Varadero about 2 weeks ago. I'd like to keep in touch with you. Please email me at gabyhervas777@hotmail.com

Unknown said...

Hello Uncle
Felt really nice to see ur blog.It just made me remember my old days wen I was a student at The Genius and also that time wen I was a mentor there.

I feel really proud that I was a part of The Genius as a student and a mentor too.

Regards to you and aunty.
Paridhi Chhabra