Skip to main content

Giving Knowledge, Gaining Knowledge

Since May, I have been teaching a young boy (8-year-old), music. Manish, a less privileged boy, is currently my pupil. Tejomay Charitable Trust has enabled me to impart musical knowledge to an enthusiastic pupil. Till now, I have covered multiple topics essential to building a strong foundation in music.
Previously, I had taught English at Samriddhi Trust (A bridge school for the economically and educationally backward classes) to a girl older than I. She learnt 5-6 lettered words by the end of our 3 week reading concourse. Bolstered by my success, I began keeping a lookout for similar opportunities.
After a few years, I was given a teaching responsibility again. It utilised my education of 8 years in music. Finally possessing the prospect to give back to society, I leapt upon it. Seeing an individual with a passion for learning music at such a young age was new to my eyes. Of late, scientific education and sports seemed to grab the limelight. With great zeal, I began tutoring this musicophile.
I was confronted with numerous challenges at first. Resources were a cumbersome obstacle. Fortunately, the Internet was able to provide an adequate stock of sheet music. Knowledge retention was another difficulty I do still encounter. Repetition does not considerably assist the process of teaching. Having faith in the power of curiosity, I began motivating Manish to question and answer questions.
Hot on the heels of my problem-solving spree, I looked around for my next opponent. I did not have to strain my eyes. Music requires the learning of complicated Latin terminology and theory. Any musical beginner is easily dissuaded by such boring theory. Manish too was no exemption. Thinking of innovative solutions was the only feasible way of enchanting the boy. From using MIDI Sequencers to Playing example pieces, my list of such solutions was lengthy.
As I continue my journey as his teacher, I have had realisation dawn me. My current stint as a teacher is providing a new perspective to music. I provide knowledge and gain it too. I teach to learn. Such an experience is not typical in life. We must grab the opportunity by its horns, and unlock our true potential. We must teach to learn.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Demerits of Merit

Adam Weishaupt once said, ‘Meritocracy is not a pass/fail system, but rather a system that allows each person to find their own highest attainment.’ Every word in that sentence was wrong. Meritocracy is precisely a pass/fail system. Meritocracy is exactly what prevents a person from finding their own highest attainment. Meritocracy provides us with the difference between what we get and what we deserve. A supposedly unbiased characteristic, determined solely by the ‘innate’ qualities of a person, their education and experience, merit has been the long-standing basis for capitalism. However omnipotent this golden ideal sounds, the idea of merit is explicitly the cause for inequality across the world. It only makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer. What is merit? Merit is a quality of every person based not on their wealth, social standing, race, gender, caste, creed, sexuality, political position, nationality, et cetera, rather on their innate talents, acquired skills, earned achiev...
Post a Comment
Read more

Virus and Economy: The Cause

Economies are like wooden skyscrapers; beautiful, but volatile. A single spark can begin its crumble to shambles. Thankfully, we have the government to fight the raging inferno-like economic crisis when the spark burns. Yet again, we face the same situation due to the pandemic: A crumbling skyscraper with flames licking its foundations. Thus, our government must again don its kevlar suit and extinguish the fire before it extinguishes us. Governments of the past have dealt with post-virus economies in varying hues of terrible, horrible and villainous. Fortunately, our governments are much better equipped than those of the past with knowledge, both empirical and theoretical, of handling economic crises. Our adept handling of the financial crisis of 2008 (albeit our significant role in its beginning) proves that our current knowledge is enough to mitigate the crisis, if not solve it. Yet before we solve a crisis, we must know what it is caused by.  THE CAUSE Every economic shi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Save Dissent NOW!

A patriot is one whose heart beats true to the country. While our archetypal vision of a patriot happens to be of pre-independence liberators and smartly dressed khaki suited army men, they happen to be a minority in the patriotic community. Howard Zinn, historian and playwright, once said: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." His words imply the significance of dissent in any nation. Agreeably, dissent plays a remarkably fundamental role as the guiding star of a nation's democratic polity.  The real heroes of any nation's success lie shadowed and filmed over by overhanging politicians aiming to desist dissent amongst the voters. While we continually see incumbent governments whipping out advertisement campaigns and fiery speeches for patriotism and army service, almost rarely does any incumbent parliamentarian wish for active citizen participation.  Dissenters in India who reject the incredulous proposal of the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, have tak...
Post a Comment
Read more