[Reader-list] Article on De-schooling

[Chintan]

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From: Chandni Parekh

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/learn-as-you-will

Excerpts from Shubhangi Swarup's article:

Kanku’s parents are among the few in India who have been inspired by the
philosophy of ‘de-schooling’, which aims at de-institutionalising the
individual. Manish says the factory schooling system works to suppress all
uniqueness in children and mass-produces humans fit to be recruited by a
world that is run on deeply flawed economic beliefs. Manish looks at the
natural wisdom and unbridled imagination of children as a fragile natural
asset on which contemporary schooling superimposes the mediocrity of uniform
thought. “Learning is as natural as breathing, it happens as we go along,”
says Chandresh, a family friend and parent of two vibrant kids who are
undergoing de-schooling. “A school unnaturally divides our day into learning
time, food time, playing time."

An American citizen, Manish Jain lived the NRI dream before moving to India.
With a masters degree from Harvard University in education planning, policy
and media under his sleeve, he went on to work on Wall Street as an
investment banker. He also worked in Washington on interna­tional education
policy. Eleven years ago, Manish decided to reverse the family’s migration.
“I survived the horrors of suburban American life, the high point of which
was going shopping to malls and drinking with friends. It was lonely. It was
alienating. To live in a flat, too scared to talk to strangers.”

Manish returned to his native Udaipur to set up Shikshantar, where new ways
of education are explored. Manish, who could watch seven to eight hours of
TV every day and drink gallons of Coca-Cola, has now given up even tea.
Although de-schooling is a concept introduced by American thinker Ivan
Illich, for Manish, de-schooling is similar to Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of
Swaraj. “Very few know that Gandhi was also a great critic of modern
society,” he says.

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More about Shikshantar here:
http://chandni.posterous.com/shikshantars-swaraj-university