So, today was the first day of college. And let me just
start off by saying that my college is one of those blessed ones with an
amazing faculty. I mean, it isn’t a normal college where a professor comes into
class, gives a bunch of knowledge and leaves. Instead, we’re encouraged to
participate, to voice our opinions and also recommended to not form opinions
based on other people’s beliefs. With these kinds of thoughts, we were
introduced to an Environment Education class.
The lecture lasted for one and a half hours and during it,
not one minute was spent in reading from a textbook. Heck, we didn’t even have
a textbook. Instead, half an hour into the class, we were asked to form groups
and pictographically represent on charts what we thought was the reason for the
conditions of the environment today.
The second lecture was a bit more interesting than the first
one (I mean, Environmental Education is good, but it can be only so good. It’s
too monotonous!). Post-lunch was the elective session (in Liberal Arts, you get
to choose a couple of electives to study with your core subjects, thus
combining different subjects from different streams). We were given an
introduction to law, the constitution and intellectual property rights. Again,
there were no textbooks. The professor just kept asking us questions in order
to get us to say the right answers and also showed us a couple of videos to
explain more on the subjects.
When I think about my previous twelve years of studying, I
remember the hefty textbooks, the blank mugging late into the night and the
likes. My friends who joined the not-so-modern-thinking courses such as
medicine or commerce are still undergoing the same routine, whereas, I have
been introduced to a new approach to the whole teaching and learning
experience, which makes studying so much more fun and interesting.
What I wonder, is that, when is everybody going to adopt
this new methodology and start making a student’s life easier. I don’t want
this to happen only because I’m a student. Obviously, it’ll be a lot more fun
as a teacher too, to start interacting with students and exchanging ideas and
basically reviving the spirit of knowledge for learning and not passing exams.
That way, wouldn’t our country, or even the world, make more progress?
Obviously, it’s a very idealistic thought and is very
difficult to implement. Both students and teachers are hardly interested in
carrying out their respective duties because they’re only doing it for the
money and society status. But aren’t courses like Liberal Arts recognised in
the world? Aren’t there so many colleges offering such kind of courses? There
also are so many teachers and students teaching and studying because they have
a passion for it. Why can’t this kind of thing be encouraged? Why do we still
want to be stuck in this orthodox thinking?
Take a step yourself and start studying the things you love,
even if it wouldn’t pay a lot. Encourage your teachers who you think seem
different from the rest to engage and interact during lectures. Do it, if not
to help the world by embracing this most imminent change, but because it is
some serious fun. Go!
