SEVEN-MILLION WONDERS
“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child…
There are seven million.”
Of late, I find myself reminding my young-students about the three pillars of learning: Curiosity, Trust and Risk.
Curiosity is the most important
pillar… the corner-stone. Every piece of learning starts from this… for every
one of us… and, it starts when we are little babies and lasts a lifetime…
Perhaps, that’s why it is called the ‘childlike curiosity’… If we are eager to
learn, all our lives, we are expected to
be little children… We are expected to be struck with wonder… The sense of
wonder…
Lee Ann Womack sings in her
beautiful song- ‘I Hope You Dance’:
“I hope you never lose your sense of wonder…
I hope you still feel small standing beside the ocean…”
Imagine, learning without this
childlike curiosity… this sense of wonder. Imagine gazing at a star-studded
night with a heart bereft of awe… Imagine standing beside the glorious ocean unable
to feel small...!
Sometimes, I feel like screaming,
standing alone under God’s gigantic canopy-of-golden-stars:
“O Lord, please keep me eternally struck with
wonder… eternally feeling small before your infinite vastness… eternally
childlike…”
Similarly
about the second pillar of learning – Trust.
How can learning ever take place
if we are unable to trust in our own instincts? The gut feelings - the hunches
- come when we deeply trust in our own instincts… The more we trust in our
instincts, the more we are able to learn and absorb…
Whenever someone tells me, “Go by
your gut,” I do realize that he is urging me to trust my innate creative
hunches… He is urging me to build more and more of this strength… and, thereby,
build more and more learning ability.
Imagine being blessed with the finest
teachers and the choicest privileges in life but unable to trust in one’s gut-feelings,
unable to muster enough trust to go by the gut…
Yes, it is nothing short of a
curse in life!
Finally, the third pillar – Risk. No teacher can teach us till we take those risks, till we attempt to ‘do’. It is by attempting to do over and over again, that we develop self-confidence… Learning is almost an impossible proposition till we take our risks, till we ‘do’, inspired by our hunches…
Therefore, imagine the quality of
learning when we do not take enough risks, when we fail to act on our hunches,
our inspirations and gut-feelings.
I have been teaching young-ones
over three decades now… Only to come closer to the truth, that unless the three
pillars stand erect in the hearts of my students, it is just not possible for me
to teach them…
When the pillars stand erect,
the student is ready…
And, lo, the teacher appears!
the student is ready…
And, lo, the teacher appears!
Did I say, “Of late, I find myself
reminding my students…” Or, did I mean I find me reminding myself?
Whichever way, let my eyes be
able to see those seven-million wonders … and, not just seven!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Vivek D'Cunha
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.. Pooja