Something for Nothing!?

Education is one of the major foundation stone every parent wants to lay for their child’s future. Journey of education starts from home and leads to school which is only 1 dimension among the multiple dimensions it has. During my schooling it used to be as simple as English medium and state syllabus. Different states have government schools with regional language as their medium and some schools with central (CBSE or ICSE) syllabus. Sports used to be optional, and any other extra-curricular activity was just for performance during annual day. Creative art like dance, music, drawing etc. were considered as hobby and can be pursued only till 9^th grade because 10^th  grade used to be public exam and deciding year for your future. It’s a little surprising to believe that 1 year decides the entire life but that’s a vast topic which I might plan to write sometime in the future 😊. Parents take pride in displaying their kid’s talent in family gathering or with friends with a caveat that my kid is good at studies, but this is just for time pass.

With emerging time, reality shows and digital media gave a bigger platform for creative arts. School evolved from 6 subject to 12 or may be even more. Parents never question the system, and they want their kids to excel in each and every subject because kid can come first only if he is good in all the 12 or how many ever subjects are part of the curriculum.  When the same kid wants to learn more than one creative art, everyone questions why are you putting your kid to so many classes?

Life’s journey doesn’t start with a definite destination. Destination is an end and in life, end is death and not what you become as an adult. If I knew I will become a lawyer when I first went to school, why would I study the same set of subjects which an engineer or a doctor study until 10^th grade? When our mind doesn’t question the school syllabus who do we question creative learning? When my daughter was 7, she wanted to learn Skating, Ballet, Bharatanatyam, drawing and many more. I was able to give her opportunity to learn everything. It was her interest and curiosity and for me it was only learning. If a kid has capacity to learn English, Kannada, Hindi, mathematics, science, social studies etc. at that age, then why not explore more? School subjects are not out of choice but still parents never ask are you interested? When it comes to extracurricular, we always feel its optional. I was told by many that I am torturing my kid by putting her to too many classes. I smiled to them and never felt the need to explain or justify because I knew my kid was enjoying. If a kid can learn 7 subjects in school in 1 day and parents never felt it was torture, then how did 7 different classes on 7 days of the week become torture?

When we learn a math equation or about battle of Panipat or chemical composition of alcohol, no one questions what will you do by learning that? But if I am learning guitar or dance or taekwondo or anything which is not part of my school curriculum, lot of questions arise. The main question revolves around how does learning all this give you monetary benefit?

 When I learnt Bharatanatyam, my fee was Rs40/- per month but now the fees are in thousands. May be that makes us question what we gain by learning all this.  My mother wanted me to learn because it gave me joy. She wanted to me learn everything possible because she did not have the opportunity to go for classes apart from school. It gave me discipline, courage, satisfaction, confidence, smile and much more than I can even realize that I have learnt because of dance. If you have learnt “something” and that is not helping you earn money in your life, don’t think it is “nothing”.

Everything we learn does contribute in one way or the other in our life. Dance taught me to practice if I want to perform well, taught me to have patience while waiting for my turn to go on stage, it taught me to forgive when I went wrong, taught me that if I have to succeed, I have to be with my team and support each other, balance ones weakness with other’s strength, it taught me with or without makeup I will  have what is mine and people will see what they want to see in me and not always what I show.

When my mother gave that Rs40/- every month, she was only paying for the dance every week my teacher taught. But this “something” taught me much more than what I thought I will learn. For all who think, I did “nothing” learning this “something”, I can say “You will only know what you have, when you need it and all this “something” we learn in life will help us see what we have and how we can use it at the time of need”.

Our life is made of lot of something which we choose, others choose for us and what God chooses for us. Disregarding all “something” because it is not giving us what we want or what society wants to see or what others expect from us doesn’t make it “nothing”. What we have will always be with us whether we value it or not. Allow this “something” to add value to you and eventually even “nothing becomes something”