A young boy appeared for an interview for the job of a shepherd.
The farm owner asked, “Why do you wish to do this job?”.
The boy answered, “Its gotta be fun being with the sheep.”
The farmer remarked, “But what if some sheep are difficult to be with?”
The boy answered, “Its gotta be learning with the sheep”.
The farmer questioned, “Which one do you want, fun or learning?”
The boy wondered aloud, “Which one will I get?”.
To us the boy’s answer shakes a common misconception - that learning is fun, or should be made fun. But learning is far from fun - it is tough, challenging, frustrating, overwhelming, and even painful.
Our friend Umesh wanted to learn golf. His coach gave him 100 balls and said - “swing”. An hour later he came back with blisters in his hand, a sore shoulder and more than 30 balls lost! “Golf isn’t fun” was his first remark, with a big sigh.
Our son, at 7 years old, wanted to write cursive. But the pencil wasn't ready to cooperate so readily. It would hardly follow the instructions his brain was giving. An hour later the pencil and notebook were found on the floor and my son swinging from tree-branches outside. “I will type” was his emphatic decision.
But as expected, both my son and Umesh were back to their learning field soon. What followed was more effort, more struggle, more failures, more persistence and learning! Yes, it was not the fun that drew them to learning, but the desire to learn that drove through all its trials and tribulations. It's amazing that in spite of all the bumps, all its non-fun ingredients, we love to learn.
At Aarohi we have always highly valued the love for learning, usually expressed with the expression “I hate learning this”. Far from making learning easy or fun for children, we throw the whole challenge to them and sit back at the flanks and enjoy their bumpy ride.
The amazing part is the kind of comments we get from children, like "I totally enjoyed it though I hated doing it so many times"; and another, "I liked that I only had to decide and do. I did not like what I made. I will make it again next time". and yet another, "Me and my friends made a complete mess. Hope my mother does not ask to show what I did."
What we have learned from children is that while fun is not important, a more sublime joy runs deeply through our veins when we engage in challenging diligence. If you want any proof, watch a ten month old learning to walk!
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚛 (𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢), 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 shepherd's 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚎, 𝚎𝚡𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚍, “𝙰𝚑, 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚘𝚢: 𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚏𝚞𝚗, 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐!”
We acknowledge hat for many of you this Jagriti program is gonna be NO FUN- its mostly confusing, vague and DEMANDING
- Demanding that you PARTICIPATE in the sessions
- Demanding that you TRY things at home
- Demanding that you share and respond to the prompts in this WA group
- Demanding that you step our of your comfort zone into the zone of LEARNING