Dr. Mahendra S. Kanthi, PH.D Economics, retired as the Professor in economics at Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan, USA. Dr. Kanthi is highly respected by his colleagues for his dedication to other activities which have strengthened educational and cultural relationships at SVSU. He is currently the Chairman of Kittur Rani Chennamma Memorial Committee, Kittur.

 The reason for going to school is to acquire knowledge and apply the gained knowledge correctly to the required field. This motive has changed over time as students are not being taught for understanding but for the sake of memorising which is wrong. Teaching should not be based only on the teacher’s knowledge as the students should be allowed to think and express their view on what is being taught and not just accept it as it is.

 Teaching should be an interaction between the students and the teachers, and this can be achieved when the students are being taught how to critically think, analyse and find the best solution in numerous ways. The psychology of teachers has to be moved from teaching students how to memorise to the impact of knowledge and the understanding of such knowledge in the students. Some of the ways it can be achieved are:

1. Involvement of students in more practical works: It is widely known and often said that practice makes the man perfect. Knowledge can be impacted theoretically but what is knowledge if not given the opportunity to apply what was learned in the class. If not backed up with practical understanding in the areas needed, what was learned can quickly be forgotten. And even without this, proper understanding cannot be achieved if everything taught is just within the four walls of the classroom. Using the engineering students as an example, we would realize that teaching in this field cannot be complete without practical works, and if all that is taught is how to memorise, then we would only be producing Engineers that are below standard.

2. Use technology: Since we are in the days of technology, teachers need to use this to the advantage of the student. Technology is here and has come to stay. Therefore, teachers need to use this technology to teach the students in the classroom and beyond. With this, the knowledge of the students will be broadened, and at the same time they will be familiar with the technological instruments useful to their field of study, and that’s like killing two birds with one stone.

3. Exams are useful as it is a way of testing the knowledge of the students but education should not be based on examination alone, and this is a mistake that most teachers make. Teachers teach students these days more on how to pass an exam rather than how to understand the course of study which should be rectified as soon as possible.

In conclusion, knowledge should be applied and not memorised, and teachers should be encouraged to make this happen.

In this article, read about the thoughts of Dr. S. V. Gorbal – Principal, Jain College of Engineering and Research, Belgaum. He talks about how one can craft ones own life and how a person’s financial background should not be the determinant factor of one’s destiny.

Dr. S. V. Gorbal completed his Ph.D – Mechanical Engineering, From Vishweshwarya Technological University, Belgaum. He started his career with academics as a lecturer in engineering college, and now has 22yrs of teaching experience. He previously worked with BOE – Board of Examiners, VTU and currently nominated as Academic Senate Member of VTU.

We are all born with different status. Like it is popularly said that all fingers are not equal. The “fingers” used in this statement is just a figure of speech as its meaning goes beyond just fingers. This simply means that everyone has a different background, different status and different connections to the opportunities of life. (The word poor is not limited to financial status alone)

But having all these opportunities and connections or not having from birth doesn’t fully define your future (take note of the word ‘fully’). It all depends on the individual. Because we are born to a rich family does not mean we cannot die poor and because we are given birth to in a poor family does not mean we have to die poor. In fact, I will say if you are born poor it is not your fault, but dying poor is totally your fault and no one else’s. Many of us blame our parents for not being able to give us the life we want, not being rich enough to quench our taste for a good life, but instead of dwelling on this blame, it can be channelled into doing great things so that our own children would not feel the same way about us.

Changing our lives is totally dependent on us. The actions we take, the company we keep and the will to actually want this change and actualize it. There is a popular saying that goes like “study the conventional way and dump it”. This implies that we should learn the way things worked in the past, learn the mistakes made by our parents (not limited to them though), then after learning it you dump it. How do you learn the conventional way? No matter the experience we claim to have, we cannot know it all, learning is a process that is perpetual.

There are new things we learn every day and thanks to the available resources and technology of this generation, there are provisions for books, videos and even electronic books by successful people that give insights on how they transformed their lives from being an ordinary citizen to people we all look up to. These books should be read on a regular basis in order to enable us to have the kind of mind-set they had that changed their lives.

The thought of being poor alone should be a drive to succeed not an excuse to remain poor. Consider the lives of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and even Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani who happens to be the richest man in India currently. These people listed above were not born into a wealthy family, but they strived against all odds and made themselves big enough to have an economy of a country at their fingertip, so if they could make it from their backgrounds, what will be your excuse not to?

Our mind is embedded with ideas, all we need to do is fill it with enough information, train ourselves to manipulate these ideas into realities and trying to make the connections required to make this happen. Though some of us may find it difficult to motivate ourselves that’s why it is mostly advised to have a mentor.

So who is a mentor? A mentor is someone we trust enough to want to emulate, a person we run to for advice. These people help make us better, when we are confused, they help put us on the right path, and they don’t necessarily have to be our parents. If you are born poor it means you have to work twice as hard as the rich kids will. So ask yourself this, do you want to keep being a victim of what the world throws at you or you want to assume responsibility for your life?

“Remember it is not your mistake if you are born poor but it is your mistake if you die poor”

Dr. Arun Patil Ph.D (Tech) Chemical – Tech, From University of Bombay. He worked in the industry for 7 years then moved to academics as a professor in engineering college with 35 yrs of teaching experience in university level, college level and school level . During his tenure he helped establish three other engineering colleges.

Dr. Arun Patil has rich experience in the teaching industry. Read the views of Dr. Arun Patil on his view
on what should be ones point of focus during student days. He also talks about how are life and education different now compared to his times.

Q. What was your main point of focus during your student days?

My education started in a rural setup with Kannada as a medium of instruction. Two things happened to me during the 7yrs of my rural study.

• I gained immense confidence in myself.
• I was allowed to articulate my views. Not only in home environment but also in school
  environment.

Teachers of those day have helped me immensely to focus on my views. By a narrow miss in the
medical rankings, I chose B.Sc for my under grad studies. i wasn’t really much focused on my career until my final year. Since I wanted to do my further studies, I started applying to many courses. Information was not readily available in those days as it is now. Finally got selected in three institutions. One was University of Bombay, second was IIT Kanpur for a special program and the third was Baba Atomic Research Centre. I was not sure on where I should go. And nobody in the local were knowledgeable enough to help me understand which one to choose. First interview was on 6th of July in Bombay. (He remembers the date very well). There was a selection procedure and I was selected. The director of the institute Prof. Khane, called me and congratulated. But I hovered around and he asked me what the problem was. I candidly told him that I have these three admissions and I don’t know where to go? He told me to show all the three letters. He kept aside
the letter of University of Bombay and the other two he tore and threw them away. And that was the turning point in my life.

Q. How education is different now compared to your time?

It was a totally academically loaded environment. We were constantly thinking of new things
focusing on research. During that period as a part of technological association, Tata and Godrej had initiated lecture series where two noble laureates would come and address us. I was the chairman for that association for 8 yrs. I had a lot of opportunity to interact with about 10 global laureates. We had that kind of a charged atmosphere that emphasized a lot on thinking, research and development. In spite of being just a student, I got such huge opportunity. And that’s because I could talk. I could express my views freely. All thanks to my primary education for letting me do that. In fact I was picked up by the Chairman of Tata Chemicals. The experience taught me to look at problems in a holistic way. Also the professors there were of such high caliber. There was one professor called Prof. Iyer who’s one of the noble laureates. That percolated down to students and inspired them to aim high. This was one of the greatest things that i achieved which gave me immense confidence in myself. And that confidence allowed me to do all kinds of unrelated things
like cloud seeding, water purification which I was not exposed to earlier. I had confidence that I could technically succeed though I was not familiar with that particular technology.

Q. Taking a cue from the experience you just mention, for students, parents and teachers who think that during education days, all students have to do is focus on academics and the rest follows later, what have you got to say?

Focusing only on academics during student years is wrong. Academics and other related experiences go hand in hand. Because according to me a doctor is known by his stethoscope, a lawyer is known by his black coat. An engineer should be known by his ability to solve problems. Engineer is a problem solver and for this to happen he has to have 2 basic things. One, he needs to have a broad based understanding of basic engineering and second, build on that what his interests and specialization is. Once this combination comes into play, he is confident to tackle any problem. Not necessarily that he has to do it by himself all the time. He can approach others and take help. But it is his responsibility to get it solved.

Key takeaways:

1. Let children express their views freely without being judged.
2. That in turn helps them to articulate well.
3. Take help of a mentor to make decisions.
4. Student days are not only about academics.
5. Extra circular activities and participation in other related school programs help gain immense confidence in a student.

Watch out for more insights by Dr. Arun Patil.