Welcome to the summer, welcome to ice cream, swimming pools and sun burns! And even better: A huge welcome to all the 200 Udayan Care kids, who met alltogether at my little Home in Greater Noida for four days – and suddenly the word heat got completely different dimensions…
Today I would like to point out an issue which I realized to be very important during my time in India: It is a matter of my personal importance to convey my girls a critical perception towards daily life situations.
Of course it is not my aim to teach them to be constantly suspicious towards each and everyone – it is amazing to have the faith (in God or destiny or simply yourself – as you wish) that life is good and everything will be alright.
But in some situations it really pays off to be mistrustful. I will give an easy example, which has been observed a hundred times in the Home I live in:
In the evening I sit together with some girls at the age of about 19 years. One of their favorite series is Vampire Diaries, about which we chat from time to time. It is getting dark and one of them starts telling some vampire stories to create a creepy atmosphere. Another girl is shivering with wide eyes. I am joining the game and tell them about the mermaids in “Pirates of the Carribean” who seem to be just beautiful and lovely with their perfect face and voice. But when the love drunken fisherman leans over the rail to kiss one of them, she will drag him out of the boat and into the deep ocean.
When I finished the story, the girls stare at me in horror. “Didi, when did that happen?” “Never”, I told them laughing “It’s only a fairy, made by some tipsy or bored sailors.” But that explanation did not seem to calm them down. On the contrary: “Didi, I know that there are mermaids existing, as well as ghosts and vampires!” “No didi, that is rubbish, there are no mermaids, but vampires surely exist!”
No expression of humor in their faces. I can hardly get that they really seem to be serious about that. “Believe me didi, that is true”, she says severely. “Ok, see sweetie, I do not believe those stories, let it go.” Her expression is as serious as if she would have to inform me about someones death. “I will not let it go. When I know the truth, I want to share it with you.” I stagger traumatically. “How can you know this”, I ask. “I saw it on the television!” Well, thanks Vampire Diaries.
But actually it is not the fault of the TV programme, which obviously could be of higher quality often. I see the problem in the way in which children learn to handle information they get daily from everywhere. It all starts in school, where the kids mostly are taught to learn whole book chapters by heart. They are not experiencing and thinking about what they read – you could ask them a question which not even needs a fine grasp but they will not be able to answer. No wonder, you are bored in school, when you just soak up everything like a sponge and press it out when needed.
To me, this has nothing to do with real, passionate learning. Learning means discovering something with all your senses, asking questions, being mistrustful, trying out, researching and finally understanding and possibly creating an own opinion. And that is not only how it should work in school. If one is striving for the truth and does not want to be a victim of constant cheating, being smart and asking questions will – in my opinion – be the best way to resist.
Of course that way demands some serious usage of brain cells which can be exhausting. But I would never like to bring up children who never ask, never think, who only listen and repeat. Because this does not only lead to narrow, uncreative grown-ups but also can end in horrible consequences.
I think not only but also in the German past you can brilliantly observe what can happen, if one provides a complete set of moral concepts while everybody else is just falling for his nice speaking and believes easily every word.
There is one fantastic advice which can be given to everyone – no matter if young or old: Sapere aude, an old latin phrase which can be translated as follows: “Dare to know.”
chrissindia 