Versatility in Education - III

The paradigm of education has always been looked at as a one way street (i.e.) What our mentor has to offer to us. How can we in the true sense of the word “Know” what is being told? What does it mean to know is a question in itself, in a MBA program everybody hears terms such as SWOT analysis, PESTEL etc is knowing just what SWOT stands for and what needs to be filled in each column? If that is so then what is hearing, understanding or even comprehending? To say “I know something” is to accept great responsibility of being able to mentor based on that and actually accepting that we know without stopping to learn.

More often than not, we hear about all this in class in the case of conventional education, books in the case of correspondence education and are mentored in the online classroom. Can we at that point in time hear what is being said, relate it to something that we have done in the past, and to learn how differently we could have done something if we were equipped with this new found knowledge. If we can get past doing all this and do the entire process more than a few times then perhaps we are a step closer to knowing.

Characteristically when we work we implement what we know that that is what we think is perhaps the best perspective, when we learn we acquire new perspectives, even great ideas which sad but truly are not implementing right away and then the spark dies. So the value addition of practicing while learning is eliminated. To quote Albert Einstein who said “The only source of knowledge is experience”, in perspective can we use the information we learn while being educated in the University of Life and at about the same time implement it with work to have “knowledge” or for us to be able to know. Most traditional forms of education do not offer to us the flexibility of being able to implement what we learn as and when we learn it.

I have been reading and have been impressed by the new methods of learning Online sounds like a plan. We have the doyens of the industry contributing to the industry on the likes of Jack Welch. Jack Welch has initiated his own program, so has Brian Tracy so has Ken Blanchard. What draws these management gurus to actually do all of this? In the previous post we discussed about the luminaries spreading the ‘Cheer of knowledge’, lo and behold we have it here. These distinguished personnel are leveraging on the world space (no, not the radio) but the internet. A global platform, a world leader, an established ‘guru’ brilliant! If this doesn’t sound like a plan then what else will. Online education is perhaps what the Wright brother did to travel, what ford did to automation. Will there be a method, a process, a something better than this? Perhaps yes but as of now this stands as the most likely success scenario for these luminaries to teach all of us. I am due to read and have more discussions with some of the leading brains in the industry from entrepreneurs who have taken cognizance of this to the professors, some from the IIM. All excited that I am about the prospect of learning so many things about this from them, will update this blog most likely sooner than expected.

Versatility in Education

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought - that is to be educated. – Edith Hamilton.

There is conceivably no greater transgression than to stand between a person and his development. The thoughts that govern your action, values and your inherent success in life are those that we have derived from education. Education is not only about learning but also about un-learning and re-learning to adapt our ways to the transient moments which as a collection make up our lives in its magnificent entirety.

To surround this level of importance in a brick and mortar school and adding the burden of fixed time, fixed schedule and fixed dates is perhaps akin to expecting absolute freedom flourish in the rigid realms of dictatorship. This though has been thought over innumerable number of times by the great leaders of the past who evolved the concept of distance education (a.k.a.) Correspondence education in the Asian context with the limitations that were then in force. The critical link between correspondence learning and the inherent amount of knowledge grasped is the mentor.

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. When Sir Winston Churchill said this he more than likely meant the incredible amount of knowledge which is passed on by virtue of living life itself aptly encapsulated in the word ‘Experience’. Instruction ends in the class, but education ends only with life and mentoring shows us what is between the lines of text, hidden between the words, the inexplicable formula for success.

Having said all that has been said is there a process where the learner can actually learn at ones own pace, at the time when the person deems fit, maybe after work , maybe before or for all the reasons in the whole wide world even during work. And more importantly can there be a mentor to guide the person when the person wants to learn?