Conversation with Students in India – Part 1

There were some interesting interactions with the students I would like to share here:-

At the start of the session I asked the class two questions.

How many of you like learning?

…1 hand goes up...

How many of you have been called a bad student by somebody in your life

…Half the class puts their hand up

One student by the name of Sudhir, approached me after talk. He told me that even though he did well in class, he did not feel satisfied with what he has doing. It was troubling him.

Another student shared with me his passion for music. He asked me how he could combine this passion for music to create a project related to the engineering course he had just finished. Another discussion we had with the students was the activities they could engage in related to their passion. Mahesh (a post graduate student) shared with us his interest for computers. He also liked reading about personality development tips. So we came up with an idea of starting a blog related to personality development based on his research of the internet.

I want to be a...?

I want to be free!

I was taken aback when Prashant, a student from the diploma in engineering program, stood up and told me he was interested in tattoo art. I was so happy for him, because I knew how hard it was to stand up and speak out about a field you are passionate about. It becomes harder if it is a career that is not very popular among your peer group and family. Prashant was already a hero for me.

I saw his eyes light up, when I told him that it was such a fascinating field of interest. We then discussed ideas, on how he could make a list of the top tattoo design artists in the world, and create a study, skill development and career plan based on that.

Alan was another student passionate about Music. We discussed the story of artists and how he used to take part in several local competitions and upload his videos on the internet.

We discussed how making his music, listening to other musicians and uploading videos on the internet were good immediate ideas for him.

Many of the students were in engineering at the training session. So we brainstormed a list of learning ideas for this as follows:-

1.  Prepare a list of the top hundred leading minds and thinker in your engineering field and study their work

2.  Make a list of all the courses related to engineering online and watch them

3.  Make a reading list of books and blogs on engineering that you can read.

4.  Take one engineering concept and study it in depth by reading books, watching videos on it.

5.  Study the history of the subject.

All these questions proved to me there was a lot wrong in the education system? Nobody seemed to ask these students the right questions.

The education system was scared to ask these students this question.

‘Is this what you really want to do?

What if they lost one admission in the process.

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