CAN GOOGLE TEACH US HOW TO 'FEEL'?
“We live in a world where there is more and more information,
and less and less meaning.”
In yesterday’s TOI,
there was this interesting article about the plight of teachers inside the
classrooms, in these ‘information-overloaded’ years… The class rooms of some of
the ‘Best schools’ have Wi-Fi connection and students can obtain answers,
examples and options without even waiting for the teachers to come out with… In
fact, the teacher is, often, left blinking… sorry, dumb-founded!
‘’They know it all…
and, what am I doing here?” This
question haunts many, many teachers, particularly the ones who aren’t tech-savvy…
“They google
mechanically,” tells one of my friends, who is, like me, an old-school-of-thought
teacher, “they do not do it out of childlike curiosity.”
Is it true?
I think, it is. The
way the young ones ‘search’ on Google is more as a habit… It is there handy, so
just click it… It is just as their hands reach a calculator even to find how
much is 3 plus 2!
Just imagine, how
we did it when calculators were not there… even the mighty calculations!
Now, the patience has
turned paper-thin… So, the so-called school and college Projects, through which
the young ones are expected to learn their subjects the ‘practical way’… yes,
even those doctoral ‘thesis’ works have become just a mockery… It’s all there
in tons and tons and it is there just a click away!
“There is no depth
in their knowledge,” says another friend of mine, “It’s all superficial and a
show-off.”
Is it true?
Again, I think, it
is. I meet scores of parents, who complain the same way as teachers do... “Our
kids think, that they know more than we do… They think that our knowledge is
outdated and of any use. We have stopped
advising and lecturing to them.” This, invariably, is the tone and tenor of
parents’ complaint…
Google gives us loads
and loads of information. But, it doesn’t give us the ability to ‘filter’ this information…
nor does it give us the ability to ‘feel’… It can never give us the gift of ‘childlike
curiosity’ and the enormous prerequisite of all understanding, called – ‘the sense
of wonder… Awe’… It happens to us not when we google, but when we stand alone
before the ferocious ocean… It happens when we stand looking up at a stars-lit
night… It happens when we sight a new-born for the first time… It happens when
our hearts go quiet in an intimate embrace… It happens when we send our
departed loved-ones down into the grave or up into the flames… Can Google teach
us how to feel, how to love, how to laugh, how to cry, how to apologize and how
to forgive… and, how to bounce back?
It needs a different
kind of Wi-Fi connection, sir…
True, Google can
make our kids into great robots… But, certainly, to make them into great ‘human
beings’, there should be a different source, a different knowledge…
The ‘depth’ comes
from this source…
“In this world of
numbness and information overload,” counseled Patrick Ness, “the ability to
feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.”
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Shripad Kulkarni
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