By Subhasis Chattopadhyay –
Why are students suffering so? How can students get 100 out of 100 in a subjective paper like English in their board examinations? And yet, these students have neither heard of St. Augustine of Hippo, nor have they heard of the Buddhist Sage Vasubandhu, nor will they ever know of Father Teilhard de Chardin. Yet they are made to feel that they know it all. Our youth are not proud. They are provoked by their elders to feel they have achieved something.
In Christian schools they do not teach Hindu or Muslim students of the glories of studying philosophy or theology. And what goes by the name of Catechism in Catholic schools in India, is a variant of the old-school moral studies. If one were to ask one of our toppers, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” They’d say something like the following, “I’d want to be a doctor”, “I’d want to be a teacher”, or “I’d want to be a rocket scientist”. But none would say “I’d want to discover new stuff”, “I’d want to be a singer”. Leave alone the most important thing in life, for they have not been taught that one thing necessary for living well: “I’d want to be happy”. Therefore, children are suffering from excessive stress. They are breaking down and now, suffering from clinical depression which forces some of them to commit suicide. The endless nagging of their parents; peer pressure and the pursuit of money have all come together to finish the youth of India. Our children are suffering and we are doing nothing for them.
Children are increasingly feeling lonely enough to veer towards relationships which are harmful in the long run. Adolescence is arriving earlier than before and they do not know how to cope with new emotions. And Indians are bickering over religion, politics and imagined subtleties regarding who has scored more than whom.
Yet, nothing matters except being happy. Happiness is our aim, yet we teach our kids to be smart with no training in emotional maturity. Parents pack their school bags; intrude in their private space and chaperone them like imbeciles. This needs to stop ASAP. Our kids are crying out for understanding and relief from constant academic pressure. Swami Vivekananda wanted education to be holistic, as did St Ignatius of Loyola earlier. But unfortunately, what saints think are ultimately forgotten over time till new saints are formed. Very few know of the doorkeeper Holy Cross Brother, Saint André Bessette. Schools do not teach that they also serve who stand and wait. But John Milton, the English epic-poet, knew this. Hindu and Christian schools in India have ceased to make saints. They aim to make their students toppers and money-making machines.
What strikes me every time toppers are felicitated is this: where are the failures, where are those who could not make it? For the Kingdom of God is not filled with the learned; then Saint John Vianney would not be there today. Ananda was the Buddha’s favourite, and the most learned man of his time. Yet only much later in life did Ananda understand what it meant to be enlightened. And the Man from Galilee was just a carpenter and a fisher of men. Yet we do not teach these to our kids.
Read also https://indiancatholicmatters.org/my-kids-a-good-kid/ by the author. His thoughts on education can be read also at https://philpapers.org/archive/CHAROM-4.pdf . The author who annotates the Bible for ICM was the chief guest at the annual function of the senior section of the Jesuit run premier school, St. Lawrence, Kolkata in the winter of 2018.
Please see here for the event: https://stlawrencehighschool.edu.in/page/galleryimage/178
Disclaimer: the author is neither a Christian, nor had been educated at St. Lawrence.