Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

An old, fragile man tells a young mind that knowledge is within our soul, and we must strive continuously to acquire it. This must be a lifelong process of engaging in rational dialogue and dialectics, not letting profound notions impair our process of discovering knowledge. Education and knowledge were there to be developed with conscious effort, not a rote and mundane process to be passed on. This man was Socrates who not only inspired the young mind of Plato but continues to inspire the idea of what education should be like thousands of years later.

The aforementioned idea is reflective of how children are like ‘tabula rasa,’ a clean slate, and the process of education must enable growth. It must not be a process where they are expected to reproduce others’ ideas in a disinterested manner. Education must enable children to reach new horizons, not revolve around the groundline set for them by their predecessors. Children must be taught how to think, not what.

This tradition of Knowledge as a process has a long history in India. In ancient India, Nalanda, Taxila were only some of the places that enabled rational dialogue to enable the growth of students. Medieval India saw developments like Sufi-houses which empowered children to question deep-rooted beliefs and set new ways of thinking. Shantiniketan in modern times, based on Tagore’s idea, sought to free the mind from pre-held prejudices and helped each young mind to be nurtured.

The nurturing of young minds can occur only when a wholesome environment is available, so benefits are reaped. If children are taught how instead of what to think, they can make more of their strengths and weaknesses. This, in turn, can enable them to act on their true calling. One cannot imagine the loss the world would have suffered if Sachin Tendulkar was taught that sports cannot be a viable career or if Pandit Birju Maharaj were told he cannot dance because it is the preserve of females.

It is equally important for children to be taught how to think, not what to think because of the flux the 21st century has to offer. With women adopting more and more visible spaces, hitherto marginalized castes asserting themselves, and new ideas like LGBTQIA taking root, traditional thought processes may prove futile. Children need to be enabled to rationalize these changes themselves (which their preceding generations didn’t face), so they can chart out a suitable way to adapt and become productive members of society. For instance, if children are taught that genders are fluid, they will more readily accept the third gender as opposed to those who have been raised with the idea of creating binaries.

The adapting process is critical for children even in the face of the vast economic changes of the 21st century. With greater digital divide, new startups, technological advancements, children’s potential cannot be curbed with pre-existing ideas. They must be allowed to develop new ideas, spaces, technologies. The growth of Facebook or Tesla reflects not age-old traditions but young minds striving to push these predetermined boundaries and in the process, revolutionizing the world. If today, children are making objects to be launched into space with ISRO, it’s only because they were taught how not what to think.

How to think is also a critical element in the engagement with the various environmental problems of the world. With increasing pollution, new diseases, depleting resources, and haphazard development, children must be enabled to think in a manner that enables them to tackle such problems effectively. Greta Thunberg’s efforts in this regard point towards the role education of the right kind can play in greater awareness generation. That children are abstaining from bursting crackers even when parents don’t is a small step in this direction of children being taught how to think.

The idea of educating children with an enhancing their capabilities to reason has found reverberation in light of the cultural changes also. With greater globalization and access to new and unprecedented levels of information, children can be made to understand how to filter out the filth and learn from the best. For instance, learning about cultural practices like FGM, dowry or domestic violence as practices that violate human dignity must elicit a response of rejection – which can only happen if children’s minds are nurtured to enable reason and rational dialogue.

The nurturing of reason has manifold ramifications, including political students have men up against regimes they thought were violative of their rights and have been inspired to question why certain things must be the way they are and why change needs to be created. The recent Hong Kong protests or the Tiananmen square protests saw the youth and students engage in large numbers, question authoritarianism, even bear the wrath of the slate. All of this was a product of small minute changes in pedagogy where minds were becoming more and more free to reason, question and push boundaries.

This pushing of boundaries, however, is hampered if children are taught in a manner that emphasizes on rote learning and mundane repetitions. Children are not empowered to seek change, view growth and development as a routine process, and are skeptical of change. This has many negative consequences children live their lives with unfulfilled potential and are unable to contribute their part. Einstein’s being expelled from school for he was not “capable enough” only goes to show how standards to capability need to change.

If this is not done, it can give rise to bigoted and biased minds who trim on centuries-old ideas, averse to development. The instance of many children showing caste biases reflects how a clean mind was polluted with the help of an education system not enabling critical thinking. That many children take to crimes (as was the minor in Delhi gang rape) or terrorism is another instance of how children have not been able to achieve the ability to think rationally.

In order to enable children to think rationally, a multifaceted approach needs to be adopted. The government must put greater thrust on not just teacher training but also parents’ awareness generation. There must be a bid to introduce new curricula that enable children to take up subjects they enjoy rather than thrusting upon them set standards. Children must also be given lessons on ethics and critical reasoning along with a push to boost novelty and innovation.

The innovation must also stem from children being engaged in extracurricular activities, creative arts, and sports. The end of education must be wholesome development, not clearing examinations and obtaining medals. Children must be seen as ends in themselves, with infinite potential, and only a deeply transformative change in the way children are taught to think can help realize this goal.

The government for its part has brought in various changes for empowering children to develop their ability to reason. RTE, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and various scholarships make education more accessible. Teacher Training is an effort to educate educators. The 25% reservation for students in RTE seeds to create more diversity and awareness in schools. NITI Aayog Thrust via SEQI to assess quality of education, and World Bank’s Star scheme to help states achieve standards are also a push in the right direction, though many more efforts need to be made.

It is evident that that the future of the world lies in the hands of children who will become the leaders of tomorrow. And all efforts must be made that these children have the capacity they need to lead – to think rationally and act accordingly with grit. And this can only happen if they are taught how, not what to think – a process that will need all teachers to become Socrates in their own right, developing the true potential of their students (Platos) through a lifelong process of rational dialogue, not letting pre-found notions impact our process of discovering knowledge.