‘It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.’
–Albert Einstein
I did not completely comprehend the depth to which this quote goes. But recent experiences have shown me otherwise . We as students have constantly undermined the effort it takes to teach any topic and generate a certain level of enthusiasm for it. But now the tables have turned and we have become the teachers even if for a day, and the responsibility we have to undertake to mold young minds into more scientifically inclined generation of tomorrow definitely takes our breath away .
‘WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY’
While we attempt to inculcate curiosity in young minds we must also consider that we are slowly becoming their role models.
With this in mind we go forward to the underprivileged schools in the city with an aim to modify the current educational system from a rote based system to a more practical way of learning concepts, be it Mathematics ,Biology ,Physics or Chemistry. The program is Vigyan Vahini..!
Vigyan Vahini is a nonprofit organization reaching out to rural and semi urban school children to offer them a means of learning science through Mobile Science Lab for laboratory experiments.
While urban India has made impressive progress to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century(with tabs and smart boards making it to some classrooms), rural school education in India has never quite made it out of the 19th century. This is especially true with respect to science education due to the lack of adequate laboratories in the schools. Vigyan Vahini’s vision is to reduce this gap as much as possible at the educational level by offering rural and semi urban school children a means of learning science through laboratory experiments.
Objectives of the program are:
• To provide rural school children with an opportunity to learn the basics of science through experiments and to handle scientific apparatus.
• To create awareness of the importance of science in the lives of rural school children by discussing concepts such as cleanliness, hygiene, safe drinking water, and the environment.
• To bridge the gap between urban and rural education.
• To convince people that most of the age-old superstitious beliefs can be proved wrong by science.
• To spread the message in rural communities that science can help solve the problems in their everyday lives as much as it does for the urbanites.
There are so many things one can learn through this program. One can strengthen their foundation of a particular subject, one can learn to see from a teacher’s perspective, one can know the joy of giving, the joy of teaching kids, the joy of being a role model, the joy of being productive and I can go on and on with this. The look on their faces, when the mystery of their lives got revealed with a simple explanation, is simply priceless.
As a student part of the program, I say without hesitation that this is what I want to see in ‘Things I have done this month’ list, this is real fun. And gives me immense satisfaction.
