EDUCATION and CAREER
Years ago, when I was in school, I was often asked by elders in the family about what I wanted to become. I remember that my answer was always, unhesitatingly, 'teacher' that too for kinder garden coz im too fond of kids that I feel a career with them will not be a career at all but fun filled environment. Who will not like the innocence of the kids?
But now I am working for a company with hectic schedules though the thought of getting back to my dream profession has not vanished but my idea to become a teacher has changed to a lecturer!! Yes that might probably be because of the impact that my lecturers had on me in college, many of them even turned out to be my role models!!
To begin with, thanks to my exposure in the field of education, I constantly ask - what should the purpose of education be? Gandhi had said, "By education ,I mean an all round drawing out of the best in child and man - body, mind and spirit." That does sound vague and distant doesn't it, if one goes by what one sees today in the name of education?
Let me not get stuck with definitions at this stage, and instead move on to a more complex question - the relationships between our potential as human beings, the education system, the work we do in our lives, and our ability to be happy. What are the mechanisms available for each of us to realize our innate potential through work that pays, and makes us happy?
Our education system creates round pegs that have to fit in square holes - there are postgraduates who ride motorcycles and deliver pizzas at your door step; mad caps like me; who earn a lot every month and still cannot be happy.
All of us would have known of people who have education totally unrelated to the field of work. Someone with history as main subject in college gets into banking profession, after finishing B.Sc chemistry, you can find people who start learning CA!!? Does all this mean education need not be related to the field of study?!
It takes all kinds of persons to make this world, to produce all kinds of goods and services. We give something (our understanding, skills.), and take something back. I'm not sure if that maximizes our potential. I also wonder if the business of happiness is connected to these things, or is, as they say, "in the mind" and related to a sense of fulfillment (not just in a material sense).
But even now if I want to I can throw away my job and move towards a career of my choice. But why am I hesitated to do it?! Is it because I am lazy or is it because I am afraid of not getting a pay as good as the one I am getting right now?! I seriously do not know…
