Why don’t students' question more often - Andy’s Story

In Educational institutions you are considered a good student if you are very bright on the academic side and not very rebellious. But some students ask questions. Questions seem like a form of rebellion. Many of them are very valid questions. They are considered rebels. How dare a student question the textbook? How dare a student question authority?

Can’t authority be wrong sometimes? Can’t authority be questioned sometimes? As a student I was part of both the groups. I would not question, because I was worried it may have been wrong. But then I questioned my reasoning behind not asking more questions. Soon I was a menace in class.

7 Lessons Play Can Teach a Child?

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
― Plato

Till the fifth grade, life mostly revolved around play. There were at least three - four hours of play everyday. The big open playground next to my house played a major role in making that possible.

Children of different ages from the 1^st to the 12^th grade would come together and we would self organize ourselves and play late into the evening. There was an element of intelligence and superior understanding in all that we did. There were various things I learned from play which include:-

Pre Primary School - The Extra-ordinary Genius of Little Children

Till the age of six or seven, I remember school being lots of fun. In school, there was lots of play, experiential learning and activities. Everyone participated in the classroom and we were all intelligent and got stars for our work. I also got to spend lots of time with my family. I was definitely learning a lot in this environment. Why was learning so much fun at the pre - primary level?

Image - rochester.kidsoutandabout.com

Follow Your Passion

I decided to take a gap year from my college education in 2013. I started thinking about the various projects I wanted to work on in this period. How I would continue my education in this period? I decided to google some ideas and here are some insights. 

The Human Baby and the Baby Giraffe

Who is a true teacher?

I was fortunate growing up. I had a few teachers that I will always remember and who developed a deep love for learning in me. Learning was always fun and interesting when they were around

What was different in them? I always wondered. A quote I read recently presented one possible answer to this question I had as a child.

Pico Iyer - Learning Biography

British born essayist and novelist of Indian origin. Author of several books on cross cultural experiences like Video Night in Kathmandu and The Global Soul.

 With Mr Pico Iyer at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012

Sean Parker - Learning Biography

He is an Internet Entrepreneur. Founder of Napster and Founding President of social networking site Facebook.

Early Passion for Computers

Faced several hardships at school and also was an asthma patient. This did not put him down. His father a government oceanographer, introduced him to computers. He spent a large amount of time in high school learning coding, hacking and programming techniques on an Atari 800 computer at home.

Combine Skills, Differentiate Yourself, Change the World

If you are talented at one thing, see how you can develop additional skills or talents that will complement that one skill. 

This combination of skills will differentiate you, help you stand out and create awesome work in your field. 

Scott Adams did it, you can to

"I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The “Dilbert” comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That’s how value is created." - Scott Adams

Scott may have not been the most talented cartoonist, but he knew how to combine relevant skill-sets. Find out more - http://dilbert.com/blog

 

We all can do something similar too and change the world in our own little way.