On Thu, 2008-04-10 at 23:11 +0530, Ramjee Swaminathan wrote: > What we need to do is to make the child blossom on its own, giving it > a good environment, choices, and feedback as parents and as folks not > interested in Dgeneration . As the Godfather2 dialogue goes - it is > difficult, but not impossible. ;-)
i left school when i was 12. i learnt, later, that the most important thing you learn from school which i missed - and which you can't really learn from parents - is socialisation. facts, knowledge and even learning methods (learning-to-learn) can be picked up elsewhere - from parents, on your own, whatever. for socialisation, though, you need to interact, perhaps not only with peers but with lots of people at any rate. i think one of the main reasons for success of some of india's "elite" schools, including the IITs - given the relatively poor quality of "education" itself - is the selection process and socialisation within a specific, highly screened, group of peers and mentors that eventually becomes a global professional network. i wonder whether the importance of this role for schools will decline with the increasing popularity of social network services. perhaps not, though - young people in particular seem to use social networks not so much to meet strangers as to cement and sustain bonds with people they meet in person.
