Education and Stress: Dr. Shriniwas Kashalikar

Most of us get disturbed by what is going on in the field of education. But we do not understand the causes of the chaos and the remedy for them.

We will be benefited if we review in brief the concept of education and merits and demerits of the traditional education system in brief.

Education is defined in various ways but it can be safely said to have three domains, which are as follows.
The first domain is called AFFECTIVE DOMAIN. This means the state of mind. In simple words affective domain relates to how we feel. Thus when our mind is full of alertness, attention, enthusiasm, buoyancy, affection, concern, joy, tolerance, self esteem, mutual respect, mutual trust, commitment, dedication, confidence, positive and victorious spirit, we would call it healthy affective domain. In addition the zeal and concentration needed in the pursuit of excellence in intellectual field, tenacity and endurance required in skillful activities and patience and commitment essential for satisfying and socially beneficial actions constitute affective domain. The purpose of education is to nurture this domain by designing suitable curricula and syllabi.

The second domain of education is called PSYCHOMOTOR DOMAIN. This implies ability to appreciate skills and ability to perform physical and mental skills, with speed, accuracy, elegance, ease of performance etc. This may involve appreciation and performance of skills such as surgery, playing a musical instrument, playing basket ball or doing carpentry! The purpose of education is to nurture this domain through not only designing suitable curricula, syllabi but also by providing sufficient practical and demonstration classes with all the necessary equipment.

The third domain is called COGNITIVE DOMAIN. Cognitive domain incorporates accurate perspective, contemplation, correct perception understanding, conceptualization, analysis and recall of problems, ability to evaluate, synthesize, correlate and make decisions, appropriate policies, plans and expertise in the management, administration, etc.

It is clear that all the domains have three components viz. Cognition [Perception], affect [Feelings] and conation [Response].

Let us consider the traditional system in a dispassionate manner and scrutinize the merits and demerits. It is obvious that we will not be able to consider all the details of the system as they varied from time to time and from place to place. But a general review of the system would help us to overcome our disturbance!

This can be done only if we rise above the petty considerations of religion, region, caste, political power and other vested interests. This would help us rectify the present education system.
Conversely, unless the existing education system is rectified appropriately subsequent generations may not be able to develop the three domains of education adequately.

Many of you may argue here that this task can not be accomplished by common people, but can be successfully accomplished only by the politicians, political advisors, the decision-makers and the top administrators.

This argument is valid, but not completely. It has to be appreciated that no statesman, no political leader, no policy maker and no administrator can bring about change in an existing system unless, there is consensus about these changes in the vast majority of people whose cooperation in such matters is very vital.

So let us take at least a cursory look at the traditional system of education in India.
The traditional education system in India in general ensured that:
a] Careers were not selected on the basis of monetary gains,
b] Careers were not selected arbitrarily on the basis of idiosyncrasies and whims,
c] Some lucrative careers could not be sought after obsessively, in preference to the others,
d] All careers ensured income and production from early age,
e] All careers ensured that society was benefited,
f] All careers ensured security to all the social groups,
g] All the careers ensured intimacy and closeness between young and old in the families.
h] All careers ensured ethical education and passage of experience from generation to generation.
In my view these were merits.

(But it is also true that: The traditional system was apparently marked by deprivation of scholastic education on mass scale, apparently unjustifiable distribution of a variety of jobs, deficient infrastructure for collective scientific and technological efforts, an element of arbitrary imposition of hierarchy and).

But the point here is to see how the transition from traditional system to the present one has failed to preserve and nurture the merits and discard the demerits and thereby lead to multiplication of problems!

As the education shifted from homes, home industries and farms to; nurseries, K.G. schools, schools, colleges, universities, corporate industries, research institutions etc.
Cognition suffered because of:
a] Huge number of students, in a single class making following three things almost impossible. These things are i] individual attention ii] dialogue iii] discussions,
b] Lack of adequate salary, accountability, incentive and economic security to the teachers taking away the initiative of nurturing cognitive domain
c] Increase in alienation with respect to student�s background and aptitude
d] Lack of adequate incentive to the students in the form of creativity, production and earning, service to the family and service to the nation, takes away the motivation required for building up cognitive domain
e] Lack of conviction essential in the growth of cognitive domain in the teachers and students because of outdated practical and demonstration classes, lack of interdisciplinary dialogue and in general the irrelevance of education to the realities of day to day life in as much as almost predictable consecutive unemployment at the end! The lack of conviction could be partly due to lack of participation by teachers in decision-making, policy making, development of curricula, syllabi etc.
f] Emphasis on recall and hence rote learning thereby denying free inquiry, reading, questioning etc. thereby directly thwarting the cognitive domain
g]] Too many examinations with irrelevant parameters or criteria of evaluation [besides being unfair in many instances] lead to misguided and in most cases counterproductive efforts thus adversely affecting the cognitive domain
h] Competitions where the manipulative skills, callousness, selfishness are given more respect, destroy the enthusiasm of growing in cognitive domain
i] Information explosion can affect cognitive domain by either causing enormous and unnecessary burden on memory or inferiority complex
j] Pressure of interviews causing constant tension and sense of inadequacy, right from the tender age,
k] Protracted hours of homework in schools denying the students their legitimate right to enjoy their childhood and make them physically, mentally and intellectually unfit to grow in cognitive domain
l] Irrelevant and unnecessary information loading in lectures in the form of monologue, leading to suppression of the spontaneity, originality, interest and enthusiasm so much required in cognitive development amongst the students,

Affective domain suffered due to,
A] Isolation of the children from their parents and their domestic environment at an early age [Making the parents also equally sad]
B] Lack of warm bonds due to huge number,
C] Cut throat individualistic and petty competition,
D] Inadequate facilities of sports, trekking, educational tours, recreation and physical development etc
E] Alienation from one�s social environment and culture

Psychomotor domain suffered due to
A] Almost total lack of opportunities to actually participate in skillful activities such as drawing, painting, sewing, sculpturing, carpentry, knitting, weaving, music, agriculture, horticulture, other handicrafts, various sports, performing arts etc.
It is important to realize that promotion of psychomotor domain is evident but in its caricature form. It has no concrete economic realistic basis. The activities have no economic incentive and no productive element.

The present education system in India; basically and almost completely prevents a huge section of society such as teachers, students, clerks, servants, sweepers and many others such as education inspectors, etc. from being creative and productive. In addition it causes colossal loss of space, electricity, construction cost and so on. In addition because of the typical emphasis on rote learning it leads to phenomenal waste of educational material such as paper, bags, pencils, ball pens etc.

Lack of productive element in education not only causes colossal loss to nation but it also causes economic loss to children while suppressing and starving their psychomotor domain! The lack of productive element and economic incentive is a single most important cause of
1] Reduction in the dignity of labor amongst those who continue to learn, as well as reduction in the income of the concerned families and the nation
2] Lack of education, lack of employment and starvation or criminalization amongst those who are forced to drop out because the poor villagers� children normally contribute to the earning of the family.
3] Inhuman suffering of those dropouts, who somehow manage to get into cheap labor for subsistence.
It has to be appreciated that billions of rupees are spent on construction, decoration and maintenance of schools and colleges. Billions more are spent on payment of millions of teachers and other staff members engaged in unproductive exercises. Billions are spent on electricity, and so called educational material. Billions more are spent on the exams conducted to test the �capacity and merit of rote learning�. This way we weaken the national economy, jeopardize the developmental activities and force millions of students to drop out due to economic reasons and get into the hell of child labor, besides starving and suppressing the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of millions. In short, present day education system harnesses [amongst those who continue to learn] arrogance coupled with lack of confidence leaving all the domains viz. cognitive, psychomotor and affective, [including creative and productive skills and physical health] defective, deficient and underdeveloped. Further, when this education fails to give a job, it tends to create vindictive attitude transforming an individual into a criminal or develops frustration and transforms an individual into a mental wreck.

It must be appreciated that some institutions and individuals are making illustrious efforts in the direction of rectifying the education at their level.

But the chaos in the present education and the resultant conceptual stress cannot be managed effectively, unless we propagate this conceptual understanding about education and try to see that suitable changes are made to nurture cognitive, affective, psychomotor and productive domains all over the world.

In short it can be stated that every school, college, university etc must become the centers of production and service besides being centers excellence in science, art, literature, philosophy etc.
The student must have economic incentive for what he/she is privileged to make. Besides, everybody connected with education directly or indirectly must be involved in production or service.
Everyday approximately
20 % of the time must be spent in production, service etc.
20 % of the time must be spent in physical activities
20 % of the time must be spent in personality development and
20 % of the time must be spent in entertainment
20 % of the time must be spent on cognitive domain
Production may be of suitable items and service can involve community projects such plantation, cleanliness etc.
Physical activities can include sports, exercise, trekking, hiking etc.
Personality development refers to broadening of perspective through various means such as invited guest lectures, seminars, discussions on holistic health, educational tours and visits to places where the student gets exposed to rapid developments in the society such as laboratories, airports, government offices, share market, farms etc.
Entertainment could include playing musical instruments, dance, painting or anything that makes a student happy such as mimicry, singing, story telling, drama, movie etc.
Development of cognitive domain can include teaching of languages, history, geography, mathematics etc with utmost emphasis on interpretation and relevance in day to day life. Thus typical questions in the examination of history, languages should be totally done away with. The subject such as economics, psychology, civics, philosophy, logic, sociology etc must include field work and made relevant to the present society.

Conceptual stress arising out of chaos in education can not be managed effectively unless and until a situation where millions are �imprisoned� in unproductive work and millions are forced into unemployment and inhuman cheap child labor is eradicated through law and government rules, besides public awareness.

The details of practical steps can be developed by interactions amongst the people active in the field of education all over the world.

DR. SHRINIWAS KASHALIKAR

FREEDOM FROM
GOD

DR.
SHRINIWAS
KASHALIKAR

God and His worship have been a part of human civilization for millennia. In fact many philosophers and seers consider God to be unanimous with truth, rather, absolute truth.

However for an ordinary person like me faith in God appeared to be paranoid! I never could really understand or appreciate why an individual should suffer the burden of this belief or faith in some other entity alien from himself or herself.

In addition, God and everything associated with God insisted on surrender; unquestioning and unconditioned surrender!

The freedom of an individual and his or her behavior, emotions, thoughts and reasoning were brutally challenged in these �God� phenomena and stories and doctrines associated with them.

I observed that suppression of such reasoning lead to thriving of coercion, oppression and exploitation.

My urge for freedom, rational thinking and my conscience thus felt suffocated in everything associated with God.

But it was not easy to overthrow the overwhelming influence of religious and pious activities and their deep impressions from the early childhood. This was also because, everything sublime, selfless, subtle, serene and supreme also; was associated with God and related phenomena.

In the course of time, I came across the theory and practice of NAMASMARAN and realized that there is no necessity to believe or disbelieve God. What is important is practicing NAMSMARAN like we practice bath or brushing. The objective change common to individual and the universe become self evident. The imagery; both atheist and theist begin to disappear.
The prejudice about theist or prejudice about atheist disappears. In fact all prejudices disappear!

You may not believe in anything I have shared here. It is up to you to verify if the chasm between ideals and practices of human beings can be narrowed through NAMASMARAN.

DR. SHRINIWAS KASHALIKAR

Importance
Of
Managing Stress

Dr.
Shriniwas Kashalikar


The only way of effective stress management is to understand the nature, causes, dimensions, mechanisms, effects and principles of management of stress. Basically this involves improvement in cognition, affect and conation. In other words, this involves improvement in our views, our feelings and our actions. In my book, �STRESS, UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGEMENT, A WAY TO TOTAL WELL BEING�, I have discussed these things.

But having studied the basics required in stress management one looks forward for greater efficiency.

For more effective management of stress, management of conceptual stress is essential and for that, further improvement in views, feelings and actions is essential. For this, it is imperative to study issues, which affect private as well as public life and especially those issues, which are pertinent to our fields.

Please remember, without evolving views, feelings and actions with respect to issues in individual as well as social life, pertinent to your field, stress in general and conceptual stress in particular can not be managed effectively.

Unfortunately many of us try frantically to manage stress [and conceptual stress], without this understanding and as a result, create and perpetuate misery for themselves and the society. All short cuts marketed under the disguise of stress management can at times be temporarily useful but ultimately prove useless and even counterproductive in personal and social life.

Now let us see why effective stress [and conceptual stress] management is essential.

Every one of us has stress. Thus a student may have stress of examination or competition and a doctor may have a stress of treating a difficult disease. A farmer may have stress of drought and a mill worker may have stress of lay off. A Prime Minister of a country may have stress of a crucial decision making such as nuclear testing, dealing with religious sentiments or flak from media etc.

It has to be appreciated that just as the causes of the stress vary, the implications of the stress also vary.

Thus the adverse effects of the ineffective management of stress in individual life as well social life vary. Thus the student may avoid appearing for examination, the doctor may shirk from his duty, the farmer may commit suicide and the mill worker rendered jobless may be forced into illegal underworld activities. The wrong decision of a Prime Minister may influence not only his life but also that of the generations after generations of one or more countries, in adverse ways.

This clearly illustrates that the adverse effects of stress are not restricted to one�s own body and one�s own family. The ineffective management of stress by political leaders, industrial leaders, union leaders, media leaders, religious leaders and in general people involved in decision making can adversely affect various walks of life and even the future generations directly or indirectly.

This is comparable to most dangerous and rapidly spreading pandemic infectious disease. The patient suffering from such infectious disease, if does not undergo proper treatment, then he/she would harm himself/herself as well as the others.

Effective management of stress [and conceptual stress] therefore, is vitally important for one�s own well being and that of the society as well!

Dr. Shriniwas Kashalikar

Meaning
of
Conceptual Stress

Dr.
Shriniwas
Kashalikar

Conceptual stress is not a separate entity. It is a part of over all process of stress. We can also call it intellectual chaos or stress, born out of various other causes, which may be physical, instinctual, emotional etc.

In modern life where the pace of change of life has become very fast, we are unable to understand the rapidly emerging new issues in life. Our conceptual framework gets shattered and we become helpless and miserable. This state of helplessness and misery and consequent deleterious effects on individual and social life, constitute conceptual stress and it has acquired menacing dimensions!

Morality, ethics, customs, traditions, conventions etc. i.e. guidelines of past in every sphere of life are being proved to a large extent; inadequate and also irrelevant.

To give a simple example, cancer phobia [excessive and unfounded fear of cancer] is nothing but a case of conceptual stress. Cancer phobia many times results from inappropriate views, feelings and actions [conceptual deficiency] about the phenomenon of cancer, its nature, its symptoms such as pain and its outcome.

What are the symptoms of cancer phobia?

A patient of cancer phobia may suspect that he/she has cancer, whenever he/she gets pain. If he/she gets repeated pain, in a particular organ then he/she starts suspecting cancer of that particular part! This leads to morbid fear, anxiety, worry, and sense of helplessness.

Conceptual stress involves defective or deficient perception, deficient ideas, inaccurate thoughts, disproportionate emotions, unreasonable instincts and unnatural physical needs, which are associated with abnormal electrophysiological interactions between various neurons in the brain. The secretion of different neurotransmitters, secretion of hormones and metabolic activities are abnormal and involve deleterious effects on personal and social health.

Conceptual stress is minimal or absent if you are totally ignorant and adjusted to a self centered, petty, indifferent, reflexive, passive, and stereotyped life style like a lower animal.

Conceptual stress is maximum; when your perspective assumes global dimension, your feelings reach out to the miseries of the millions and your thinking reaches out to the mysteries of millennia! Your conceptual stress magnifies when your heart starts bleeding for suffering in even the remotest part of the world and even to the suffering of animals!

Your conceptual stress worsens when you actually start searching for solutions as you come across conflicting opinions.

This stress gets further multiplied when you start coming close to the solutions and begin to encounter difficulty in expressing them.

This becomes more disturbing when you see every one turning away from you and your solutions being proved ineffective, though not inaccurate! Since you are not proved wrong, you do not find valid reason also; to abandon your views and mission! You land in an agonizing question, �Why you are ineffective if you are accurate?�

At this point the very foundation of your existence begins to shake and your existence almost gets uprooted!

Then gradually if and when you begin to see increasing matching, agreement, or harmony between your life and the universe [which in most cases would constitute changes in the direction of global welfare] your conceptual stress begins to get relieved simultaneously as that of the others!

It is true that we manage to ignore some questions, and rightly so e.g. mathematical problems need not as a routine, bother a biologist. Similarly, problems in one�s educational career are best dealt with in the text-books and guides of those subjects and or solved by the expert teachers in that particular field!

But there are issues which are a] unavoidable, b] are faced by most of us, c] affect our personal and family lives immensely and d] affect the well being of the society immensely.

These issues produce CONCEPTUAL OR INTELLECTUAL STRESS in almost every one!

One of the most practical and super-solutions provided by the seers and sages; is NAMASMARAN i.e. remembering your true self. One can give it a trial if one wishes and get the empowerment to get intellectual clarity and clues to act appropriately and satisfactorily and overcome conceptual stress.

SHRINIWAS KASHALIKAR

If you were to listen to the introspective soliloquy of an honest media person, what would you find?

�The media is supposed to be not merely factual but it has to be realistic. Reality is that which transcends what merely happens or merely appears. Reality is the direction of future events. Realistic means having the vision of this blossoming future amidst what is visible! Media has to express explicitly and convincingly; it�s profound and clear vision of this blossoming of the billions and realization of their sublime aspirations all around the world.

I am aware of this. But it is not easy to do what you want to do. You are usually dragged by your instincts, passions, temptations, vested interests, pressures and so on. We media persons are most likely to get enamored by the glamour and glitter to which we are always exposed and therefore are likely to get mislead by it! In turn we are likely to mislead the others! We media people are also exposed to and are likely to be affected by the daily petty politics of power and its frenzy.

In fact we media people seem to be caught in the unending pressures of the glamour, glitter, petty politics of opportunism and power, nuisance value, cynicism, personal temptations and so on.

We seem to lose the vision of blossoming of our own and that of the mankind, in the course of our job! We seem to degenerated in that sense!

But it is important to note that everyone including the media people who are shrouded by the forces of degeneration have a definite and realistic hope!

This realistic hope comes from NAMASMARAN, which is remembering your true self. NAMASMARAN can protect we media persons just as everyone else; from the disturbing and stupefying illusions and delusions created by rapidly changing environment inside and outside!

Dr. Shriniwas Kashalikar