HAPPINESS CURRICULUM – THE MYTH, THE REALITY AND THE ROAD AHEAD (3)

The Indian Mind has always pursued Happiness as the sole objective of its existence. But the realization of happiness has always been a mirage. Every time one feels happy, it appears to be lying somewhere else. Here. there. and somewhere. the mind chases happiness. The Zen Master Chuang Tsu says “Happiness is the absence of striving for Happiness.” How true! The chase appears eternal and always wanting in its efforts. In this context, the words of the Zen Master appear quite relevant. It is not a chase. It is the simple realization of the Being. Staying with the Being is possibly the best gateway to happiness. Says the Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Nyat Hanh “Happiness is available: Please help yourself to it.”

Happiness indeed a feeling to be shared. Any happiness that one retains within the self, starts slowly decaying and loses its fragrance and flavour. Supporting this view, the most celebrated Guru Mahrishi Mahesh yogi says “Happiness radiates like the fragrance from the flower and draws all good things towards you.” . No wonder, Dalai Lama says “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion; and if you want to be happy practice compassion.” Compassion is more than empathy. It lies in the power of giving- giving everything what you can, not only what is material, but all that is the source of one’s existence.  The power of giving – the ability to reach out to others indeed generates happiness. This would be possible only where there is harmony within and harmony in practice. It reminds me the story of a great king in Tamilnadu one of the southern kingdoms of India, Paari, who will returning to his Palace on chariot through a jungle, found a plant – a climber – standing without a support. He could empathize with the plant and left his chariot over there allowing the plant to climb over it and walked all the way back to his palace. In true compassion, one would be able to offer the very soul of one’s existence.

Mahatma Gandhi says “Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in Harmony.” This real points towards the much-needed synergy in our existence – manasa, vaacha, karmana – by thought, by words and by action. Thoughts indeed seed the future course of happiness. In tune with what Gandhi says, Khalil Gibran remarks “We choose our joys and sorrows, much before we experience them.” This would indeed mean that Happiness is indeed a matter of choice – a consequence to our thoughts, intents, attitudes and designs and the nature of actions that define our pathway.

All the above arguments and discourses indeed point to the need for carefully designing and articulating a thought process among the growing children so that they are able to make right choices and become responsible for the course of their own destiny. The collective choices all the learners would make in the course of empowering their own learning curve will define the collective happiness and the destiny of the country. This idea is in congruence with the statement of Kothari commission in its report on education “The destiny of a nation is shaped in her classrooms.”

Given this responsibility, the curriculum designed for any country should bear in it the fundamental elements and inputs that would target achieving this goal – to make a nation of competent, confident and contributing citizens who are happy and will make the nation a happy place to live in. The question therefore arises: “What should go in to the design of a curriculum that nurtures happiness?”

This would be the most appropriate occasion to recall the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore from Gitanjali:

The child who is decked with prince's robes

and who has jewelled chains round his neck

loses all pleasure in his play;

his dress hampers him at every step.

In fear that it may be frayed,

or stained with dust

he keeps himself from the world,

and is afraid even to move.

Mother, it is no gain,

thy bondage of finery,

if it keeps one shut off

from the healthful dust of the earth,

if it robs one of the rights of entrance

to the great fair of common human life.

The words of Rabindranath Tagore depict the real challenges of the early childhood where the child is directed to dream – dream all that the parents could not achieve in their life time; all that the society wants them to do; all that the teachers and educational visionaries want them to prove; all that a nation wants them to articulate for its own economic wellbeing – and in fulfilling all these expectations, dreaming for everyone, the child is left with no time to dream for one’s own self. The younger generation are designed to be the couriers of everyone’s dream and yet everyone pities with the fate and burden of the child.

The mirth and laughter in the early childhood is nature’s gift and we have no right to steal it or taint it with colours and flavours of our own choice. Unfortunately, we impose a childhood on them that is encapsulated into a knowledge package and bereft of freedom, laughter and joy.

The existing pattern of compulsive learning in a stressful environment only resembles the story of over-feeding the geese to fatten up their liver so that they have a greater weight while selling in the market. This practice did exist in certain European countries where the geese were overfed and even when they could not eat any further steel rings were slipped into their necks to push the food into their liver. This would increase the fat in the liver. Hence, they had a better market value and brought better prices for the owners. No one worried about the pain and sufferings the geese underwent. Creating an atmosphere of compulsive learning and to drive them to learn whether they have an aptitude, liking or a choice is a psychological cruelty. To add further challenge, the prescription of formal inputs of learning that would curb the freedom of thinking and help in monitoring their learning is still worse.

Michelangelo, when asked how he could sculpt such a beautiful piece, said “I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Every child is an angel and waiting to be liberated free. Creativity and innovation are the fundamental pursuits of any active human mind. All that it needs is empowerment through appropriate skills and an environment of unconditional love, where he could work with passion. John Ruskin was not wrong, when he said: “When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” Can we let love and skill work together?

(To be continued.)