What are we educating our students for? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Speaker: It has been said that in teaching we are trying to achieve some final output. Right? So we already know what kind of output to produce. We already have it in our mind that this is the output that we want to produce, and getting the student to that kind of output is what we call as transformation. Is that transformation or is that manufacturing? I would also take it pertinent to ask here, ‘who is the master who is determining that output? Who is the one who is determining that this is the output we want?’
Faculty 1: The market.
Speaker: Wonderful. The market! So teaching the institution is essentially a supplier to the market then! Is that what teaching is? To supply the finished product to the market; is that what we mean by teaching?
Faculty 2: This is just one dimension you are looking at.
Speaker: Please tell me as many dimensions as you can.
(One faculty member talks something about learning-unlearning and definition of transformation).
Speaker: Sir let us keep this very simple. Who determines the destination for the student? Who determines the want of the student as well as the teaching apparatus?
Faculty 3: Student himself.
Speaker: But the question is that where does it come to the student from? The student says, ‘I want to do an MBA’ Why does he say that he wants do an MBA? Why does he say that he wants to be transformed?
Faculty 4: That comes from the environment.
Speaker: So essentially, what we are saying is that teaching is dictated by the environment and the environment is essentially the society. In case of MBA institutions, essentially it is the corporations. So what we are again saying is that it is the corporations who are dictating what we are going to teach. So teaching is nothing then but a supplying of information which will make a student adjustable in that particular corporate. Very simply, very honestly I am trying to understand, with you, ‘what is it we are actually doing?’
What do we mean by teaching?
It is a wonderful thing. You see, someone comes on this podium that is being used since a very long time, and that fellow has an industry experience, we very proudly announce that it is our good fortune that the fellow with so much of industry experience has come over to speak on this academic podium. Conversely, coming from my experience in industry, the industry usually refuses to have anybody with it who has a teaching experience on his CV. We claim and shout from the rooftop that it is our good fortune if we get somebody here at this podium who has experience in the industry, but if you want to go to the industry, in India, not in USA as there the situation is different, with a lot of experience of teaching on your CV, you are likely to face a lot of hindrances. Now what does that tell about the relationship between the teaching institutions and the society, the industry in this case? What does that tell? Who is the master and who is the slave? Who is dictating terms and to whom?
Faculty 5: But there is a difference between training and teaching. Training can be scientific. There can be specific modules and I can deliver them for specific outcomes. Teaching is not a scientific or a mechanical process. As per my student learn-ability, one has to modify.
Speaker: Yes, one has to modify. You customize the process of passing the information, but the ends are never customized. The ends are always the same, coming from somewhere else. You can customize the method. There are people who learn or absorb in one particular way, so if the institution is a good one, then they will have that particular way in which they will have class for them or a teaching session for them. But all that is about the process.
Faculty 6: Industry also indirectly provides employment to teachers when they want their executives to be trained. Also when someone decides to become a teacher he might choose to not to join the industry at all.
Speaker: That is right. But the important question that lies ahead us is- what is it that we are preparing our students for? We are preparing him to just become a part of the same system that exists outside. In other words, for us, practically, teaching has become a furtherance of what already exists. So, there is the industry outside that requires a lot of people to sell its products, and if the industry requires people who can sell a mobile phone or a shoe or a condom then we will produce people who can sell shoes and condoms very effectively. And isn’t that what teaching institutions pride themselves on? That we have a great relationship with the industry and we conduct industry sponsored programs courses so that they can hire more and more from us.
Faculty 7: But teaching is also about enabling the student.
Speaker: What do you mean by ‘enabling’?
Faculty 7: Enabling is, giving them a context, a world view in which they can use, they can apply, their minds and think.
Speaker: Yes, but what kind of world view do we give them? Whose world view do we give them? There are as many views of the world, as there are minds in this room. Whose views are we transferring to the students’ mind? The question is that. When I am using the word ‘enabling’ then I must mean nobody’s view. The student must be able to open his own eyes and look at the world freshly, very innocently. Are we doing that or we are just transferring information given by some other master into the chip of the student’s mind? So there is that American corporation, and its CEO has written a book which as has been said, suits him. And what do we do? We become agents of that corporation and transfer that information to the student. I am using crude words but isn’t that what we are doing? Acting as agents. It hurts. But aren’t we?
Faculty 8: When you are saying these things, which institution are we taking as a benchmark?
Speaker: It does not matter whether there exists a benchmark or not. It is our life that we have to live and its our life we are looking at.
(Lot of members have become very uneasy and are trying to defend their minds) .
Speaker (with a smile): I understand that it provokes but just be calm.
Faculty 9: There is a difference between a teacher, a philosopher and a spiritual guru.
Speaker: So, now we are saying that there is a difference between a guru and a teacher.
Faculty 9: What is teaching, in what context? In what perspective are we dealing with this question?
Speaker: You tell me, because we all are teachers. My question is honestly, directly that what are we doing?
Faculty 9: But we live in certain environment, and we have to follow what happens in that environment.
Speaker: Do we really have to? Do we really have to or have we chosen to?
Faculty 10: I do not take it that we are just passing information.
Speaker: What else are we doing? I would be glad if we are not doing that. But what else are we doing? You would have heard of computers that play with top rank chess players. The computer has been programmed to meet the chess player. It first started with Kasparov. The computer meets the chess player, gets beaten once, gets beaten twice, but it has a software that keeps ‘learning’ and ultimately it beats the No.1 chess player of the world. Today, we have technology that can probably do everything what a human mind does. Technology that collects experiences as much as the human brain does, learns in the context we use ‘learning’ and acts also. Is there anything that we are doing and that technology cannot do?
Faculty 11: Emotions.
Speaker: Emotions come from thoughts, thoughts come from experiences. You can very well have robots that display great emotions. We already have them. Emotions do not make us human. It is something else. With you, I am searching for that.
Faculty 9: There are values and ethics too.
Speaker: Values and ethics are fed into us. They are as much a part of our programming, as they are a part of computer’s programming.
Faculty 9: So are we talking about creativity?
Speaker: I am not talking about it yet.
Faculty 12: Consciousness?
Speaker: Let us not jump the gun. First of all we need to understand what the ground reality is, only then something can happen.
(The question remains, ‘what are we educating our students for?’)
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.
