Babysitting has it's joys. I've been around my 5 and 7 year old niece and nephew lately. It's interesting to see how children learn how to socially interact and associate cultural inferences to what they learn in classrooms and from peers. The important topic of the 'kind of education' comes to mind when evaluating well-roundedness and social intelligence.
Being brought up in both India and the States has brought to my attention the significance of academic versus social intelligence. There is a thorough and distinct difference that exists in ways how children are exposed to new ideas and topics. Granted it is next to impossible to beat years of solid academic foundation, but it is also crucial to note that a well-rounded and multifaceted training technique has its perks and advantages than to just having a sound academic background.
Because the academic base in Western school systems is weak, there are plenty of third party services available to weaker students for help with basic schoolwork and comprehension (i.e. Kumon, Sylvan) . The American education system, however, does an excellent job in providing students the opportunity to excel at sports, music, school government, hobby and social clubs, etc. which in turn leads to creating more opportunities for pupils to grow socially and pursue passionate arenas for expertise.
The Indian school of thought is a little reverse in this aspect. No doubt that the Eastern culture focuses more on the mathematics and sciences, sometimes mixed with rote learning techniques, but in turn the overall populace is much more sound in solid academic principles. However, students lose out on social and passion driven activities that eventually lead to more rounded individuals overall.
With the reverse of the American case in play, third party institutions that provide such skills within the Indian education system are the pillars needed to fill this gap for young students. One such institution is Discover Life based in New Delhi. Working with private as well as public schools, they seek to provide the training and skill set that can be of great asset to youth in today's highly competitive and fast paced industries.
The answer to a perfect education is a complex one and requires restructuring and reprioritizing on several levels of the education sector, but perhaps the first step towards acheiving this ultimate goal is to address the weakest links of the system. A confident and goal-oriented group of young individuals have the power to focus their energy and interest given the right direction through an organized learning experience like Discover Life.
The extra effort that will be required to fulfill the program successfully will in turn be an asset to the participants involved and pave the path for a well prioritized and real world applicable education system in the future.
Having been lucky to experience both, I truly believe that these types of goal-driven and leadership programs are the answer to India's intelligent yet confused student base. Do you get it? A revolution is in motion.
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Passion or Success?
Interesting topic of discussion - having brought up in America by an Indian Air Force pilot turned perfection-seeking businessman has its perks and discussions. My dad is an extreme overacheiver - by all standards. He runs two independent businesses simultaneously, can fly MIG's, graduated top of his MBA class, got a full ride to any school he ever went to, and was in fact invited to every institution he went to, and he has majored in Physics, Mathematics, Economics, and now Restaurant Management (lol, seriously; although the coursework was 100% practical).
Our discussions stem from a random statement of observation, but lead to debates about the definitive and practical nature of the topic involved. We try to keep it as civil and impersonal as possible, but considering that the topics discussed contain all the ingredients that we are so so passionate about, it does in fact surface some interesting observations and opinions we have about each other and the phenomena in question.
Our most recent (and recently most often) topic of discussion has been putting a good passion to a good professional use. Clearly this has a direct correlation to my leaning career switch from engineering to writing. I have always believed that passion cannot be defined. It's something you feel towards an activity or hobby and you can be either naturally gifted or uselessly horrible, it is nonethless something you truly enjoy and are most comfortable doing. My dad puts forth that no matter what, to some extent you have to be putting your interest to practical use for it to be a true passion.
This is a good stance when given its practicality and nature of my current state, but I still disagree on the count that it defines the intensity of your liking towards the subject. There are millions of people that work in monotone paper pushing jobs just to pay their bills, and they are indeed passionate about something or another. One might be instinctively good at painting or reading or dancing, but just because they might not have a practical use for it yet, doesn't mean that their passion is not valid. There are perhaps some logisitical and reasonable barriers that prohibit them to put this hobby to practical use limiting the applicability to their current professional state.
It cannot be argued that if there is a way for you to convert your passionate hobby to good monetary use, you should pursue it whole-heartedly and aggressively. But aside from the lucky few, most of us have to subside our true passions and resort to logical avenues that can assure job security and a steady income; mostly because that is how success is measured in today's world, and success is more profitable than passion.
The true question when making career decisions and professional choices is to answer what is more important to YOU? Passion or success, because initially, it is not always possible to redeem both at the same time. It takes baby steps in either direction to incorporate both these elements. If you're lucky enough to let success wait its turn, then I would suggest that pursuing that true hobby is a much better route - it makes for less confusion later on when professional and passion fronts are in full swing, and making either choice seems completely unfair to the other.
Our discussions stem from a random statement of observation, but lead to debates about the definitive and practical nature of the topic involved. We try to keep it as civil and impersonal as possible, but considering that the topics discussed contain all the ingredients that we are so so passionate about, it does in fact surface some interesting observations and opinions we have about each other and the phenomena in question.
Our most recent (and recently most often) topic of discussion has been putting a good passion to a good professional use. Clearly this has a direct correlation to my leaning career switch from engineering to writing. I have always believed that passion cannot be defined. It's something you feel towards an activity or hobby and you can be either naturally gifted or uselessly horrible, it is nonethless something you truly enjoy and are most comfortable doing. My dad puts forth that no matter what, to some extent you have to be putting your interest to practical use for it to be a true passion.
This is a good stance when given its practicality and nature of my current state, but I still disagree on the count that it defines the intensity of your liking towards the subject. There are millions of people that work in monotone paper pushing jobs just to pay their bills, and they are indeed passionate about something or another. One might be instinctively good at painting or reading or dancing, but just because they might not have a practical use for it yet, doesn't mean that their passion is not valid. There are perhaps some logisitical and reasonable barriers that prohibit them to put this hobby to practical use limiting the applicability to their current professional state.
It cannot be argued that if there is a way for you to convert your passionate hobby to good monetary use, you should pursue it whole-heartedly and aggressively. But aside from the lucky few, most of us have to subside our true passions and resort to logical avenues that can assure job security and a steady income; mostly because that is how success is measured in today's world, and success is more profitable than passion.
The true question when making career decisions and professional choices is to answer what is more important to YOU? Passion or success, because initially, it is not always possible to redeem both at the same time. It takes baby steps in either direction to incorporate both these elements. If you're lucky enough to let success wait its turn, then I would suggest that pursuing that true hobby is a much better route - it makes for less confusion later on when professional and passion fronts are in full swing, and making either choice seems completely unfair to the other.
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