For me the essence of education is to teach our children Enquiry, Introspection and Expression. These words may sound straight forward but for me they mean the world of education in its entirety. In this ever changing world if our children have the ability to ask the right questions, raise the right issues, get into the depth of situations around them they get an acute understanding of the world around them. This habit of Enquiry leads us to be more sensitive to the world around us and its needs and requirements.

The more technology and gadgets surround us the more we tend to get away from ourselves. It is increasingly becoming essential to teach our children to just hold back and do that ‘precious nothing’, a time that enables them to be with themselves and look within for the true meaning of their existence. As idealistic as it may sound, some very common issues plaguing our society today like greed, corruption, hatred all stem from the fact that ‘We’ are not in touch with ‘Ourselves’. Deep within we are all the same. Introspection allows us to be in touch with ourselves and our abilities, thereby enabling us to live up to our potentials.

Individuals who question and also seek answers need platforms to express themselves. The beauty of this expression is that it can translate and transcend itself into any form right from art to creativity to invention to innovation to literature to science to social change to political expression to education to technology to fashion et al, this list is endless, infact every profession in its true sense is an Expression of man.

In a recent conversation with Mr. Sanjiv Kumar a passionate educator and change agent who heads the Takshila Education Society he happened to mention that the challenges of education are so great today that it is very difficult to maintain and give high quality education to large numbers. But he believes that the best way to prepare children for the future is to expose them to as many challenges and opportunities as we can during their schooling. So he goes out of his way to provide as many activities in his schools to ensure that through them the children learn a lot of valuable life lessons that rarely books can impart.

So the answer I believe is to prepare children who have the skills to learn whatever they need to learn to survive in the ever changing world. I hope and pray that in the next decade marked by the arrival of 2011 we can create educational institutions that nurture children who express themselves with freedom within and an understanding outside.