I think when it comes to education we need to go back to the basics. We have made the system needlessly complex and it has not surprisingly failed.
A few years ago, at the university, all of us in the student housing co-op were required to attend a presentation by a HIV+ man. At one point he took out a small polythene bag. It had about 70 pills and he said that he took them daily for avoiding getting sick. The pills would make a substantial snack. So why so …

Brand Blanshard wrote eloquently about American education in his essay “Quantity and Quality in American Education.” The essay was published nearly half a century ago but the message is universal. Thanks to Anthony Flood for making it accessible. It is a long and thoughtful essay, worth reading in its entirety. The last bits resonate most forcefully with me, and so I present this extended quote for your reading pleasure and intellectual delight.

Legend has it that Arthur Rubenstein was once asked on the street for directions to Carnegie Hall. “Pardon me sir, but how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” He said, “Practice, practice, practice.”
Here’s something you may enjoy listening to. A Scientific American podcast (mp3 download ~9.5 MB) on what it takes to become an expert. Anyone can provided one puts sufficient sweat into it and does so smartly over an extended period of time. So all of you who have small children, pay special attention.
The Expert Mind and the …

Liked this email I got from Uday. With his permission here it is:

I worry about the kids. The kids I know hardly have any time for themselves. They are always busy with school, homework, tuitions, tennis lessons, tabla lessons, and preparing for this or that exam. There is no unstructured time for them to just do what they feel like doing, or for just doing nothing. I suspect (just a hunch, no proof) that it could be causing these kids to be unimaginative, non-creative and dull. They need to take a time out. But that means they have to reduce the “academic” …

People I would have loved to have shared a drink with includes Richard Feynman. Never had the good fortune of meeting the man or even sitting in at one of his lectures. But thanks to the magic of the world wide web, at least I can get a good idea of how delightful he must have been in person. So get yourself a large coffee, sit back, and learn from the master as you watch the Sir Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures delivered in 1979 at the University of Auckland. “A …

Brand Blanshard was only 92 years old when he delivered Boston University’s 111th Commencement in 1984. Titled “The Habit of Reason.” I came across this magnificent piece here. I consider myself lucky to have stumbled upon it and so should you since you are reading this. Appropriately the piece is thoughtful since he urges the students to think.
The piece resonates deeply with my own feelings about the goals of education. He says, “Life is a succession of big and little crises, and one main aim of education is to …

Well, what do you know. IRDF, which runs schools in rural Andhra Pradesh, features in a BBC story. Very pleased to see that as I help out with IRDF by pestering my friends for financial support.

I am having a conversation with a bunch of people on the net about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and its relevance to education. I am of course speaking there from an Indian perspective. I would like to share it with you. Of course, you may have already read many of my arguments about the OLPC here already. So pardon me for some possible repetition.

I need help with replying to this email which has been sitting in my inbox for a while. Every time I open it with intentions of replying, words fail me. Any suggestions from the gallery on what the appropriate response should be?
Atanu:
I read your article on name change and I found it fascinating. Do you have a numerologist you could recommend? I’ve just written my first novel and I need to choose between my name and married name. Thanks so much.
All the best,
Novel Writer
Thank you kindly for any …

From Bath, England, Keith Hudson’s Daily Wisdom mailings are a source of endless delight and surprise. Wide ranging and eclectic, Keith’s musings are edifying to say the least. Here, for the record, is today’s bit which focuses on a topic close to my heart–education.

Surendra Kaushik is a professor of finance at Pace University in New York. His article Do Not Reinforce Two Indias is worth a read.

This is a true story. The faculty member involved emailed me yesterday. Scene: an IIT professor interviewing a potential candidate for PhD in a technical subject.

The San Jose Mercury News has a recent report about how mobile phones are going to be for India what the PC was for the US. Naturally, they quote the most passionate evangelist for the mobile web, my colleague and MD of Netcore, Mr Rajesh Jain. The matter that the article focuses on is of paramount interest in the context of India’s development: the mobile phone revolution in India.

George Bernard Shaw had claimed with characteristic immodesty that “when I want to read a good book, I write one.” Fulfilling a perceived need is a defining characteristic of entrepreneurs. Like great artists and poets, entrepreneurs see the world not as it is but rather how it ought to be. And they follow that creative vision to create something of value. Ricardo Carvajal is a visionary and an entrepreneur in that sense. I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife Jeanene Bluhm Carvajal, the creators of the Instituto …

Thanks to all of you who have written to me in response to my post “Interested in Transforming Education?”
First, it is very gratifying to note the volume of emails I received. I will, time permitting, respond to all of them. For now, I think it would be proper to answer some frequently raised questions.

It was bound to happen, wasn’t it? Google getting into education. Not directly, of course, because Google does not create content. Google enables the transmission of content. So here is UC Berkeley on Google Video.
The University of California, Berkeley is the preeminent public research and teaching institution in the nation . From classic literature to emerging technologies, the curricula of our 130 academic departments span the wide world of thought and knowledge. Supported by the people of California, the university has embraced public service as an essential part of its …

To paraphrase one Nobel prize-winning economist, once you start thinking about Indian education, you cannot think of anything else. The subject fills you with awe, wonder, anger, disappointment, hope, despair, and immense sadness.
India has an astounding number of schools: more than one million by some estimates. But it is deeply disappointing that over ninety percent of India’s children drop out of school by the time they reach the 12th standard. Of the small percentage that actually go on to college, very few graduate as professionals.

Tell me a good story and I will listen with wide-eyed childlike wonder. Tell me a good tale and I will learn the lessons that humanity has accumulated over the ages. Spin me a yarn and I will consider you my teacher. There is no more effective way to make me understand what the truth is about the world.
The stories we tell each other reaffirm to us our shared humanity. The best ones are the ones which have been told over millennia, have evolved organically, have encapsulated the wisdom of …

I have never had the pleasure of meeting Richard Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988). Reading the Wiki entry on Feynman is both humbling and delightful. What a prodigious brain, what a sensibility, what delight he takes in being alive and learning. But to get a better understanding of who he is, you need to watch an interview of his The Pleasure of Finding Out Things. It is 50 minutes long. I have spent too many hours watching that video. Here was a kindred spirit, I …