Sunday, October 18, 2015

LBS Diaries Part 15 - Teach India

There are a number of OTs here who have had the opportunities to work in diverse capacities before coming to LBS. And i consider myself fortunate enough to be part of that group. It started with a stint at Deloitte Consulting, then freelance writing and teaching assignments while preparing for Civil Services, then the ITBP story, then the IRS Customs story and finally here. And if you ask me what I have enjoyed the most, I would tell you that the teaching sessions have been fascinating. And ergo when Anurag who is part of the Social Service Society here at LBS told me about the teaching assignments here on Sundays, there were no second thoughts.

I had been given the task of teaching Mathematics to students of Class Eleventh and Twelfth but today was the first session and given the holiday season, the attendance was kind of thin. So we all decided that an introductory session was a better way to go about it. I asked them about their teachers and what they felt about the overall impact that the Kendriya Vidyalaya was having on them. And it was nice to find them fairly happy with their school and the respective teachers. I have had my entire school education in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and was blessed with wonderful teachers so much so that I never felt the need for extra tuition for any of the subjects. Good to see that the standards have not depreciated in all these years.

From faculty we moved on to career and all that jazz. I remember when I was in class twelfth, there wasn't much clarity. Or rather we didn't make much effort to get clarity as no body had any clue in that small little town. And when the crowd is plagued with ignorance, herd mentality takes the control. Same is the case with millions of others. We all regret not having that guiding star in our lives. So whenever I see these young ones, I look out to help them in anyway possible. Save some of their struggle, add a little pace to their pursuits.



Some of them wanted to join the Army, some of them wanted to join the government and rest who had no clue pretended that they were aspiring to be engineers. But as with UPSC, not all of our plans become reality and hence we should always be ready with options. Not to discourage anyone to take up the venture of his/her liking but its always smart to have a Plan B. So we talked about lot of options that one has after school and after college. We deliberated upon the pros and cons of all the decisions we might make in our careers. I hope it gave them some clarity.

Meanwhile I was giving random fundas, Anunaya Jha dealt with the nuances of Economics and Bhanu Prabha taught the arts students and i am sure with her superb background in management they would have gained a lot. Ran Vijay and others went to the Central Tibetan School where they had similar discussions. And BTW it is quintessential to highlight here that we walked all the way to the Kendriya Vidyalaya and back. And we thought POLO ground was history now. So they said. It was great to interact with the school kids and we all look forward to such sessions. Hope we can inspire them to be part of the India's development story.

Lastly would like to share these beautiful words by Abraham Lincoln "The Philosophy of the School room in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next".

  

2 comments:

Prathibha said...

You, Mr. OT should conduct a class or two on Time Management!!! :) Of course, through your posts! Awaiting!!!

Genie said...

Haha. Let's see if i can manage some time for that! ;) :D