Power of Public Education

In the past I had a very from-the-outside-looking-in kind of opinion about public education. I used to think that it was all about the quality of education. But, all that changed after I started getting an insiders view of public education in the US through my wife’s experiences as an elementary school teacher.

One of the first things I realized was that public education shapes a nation. It is the most powerful establishment through which future generations are shaped and readied to keep a country striving forward. But the key for any country to be able to achieve this is to make sure that public education is available to each and every child, that there is an established standard and infrastructure for education, and community involvement.

The second thing I noticed was that it’s not about the quality of education. It’s all about every child receiving 12 years of education. More than how good US kids are in math as compared to Indian kids, what matters more is that, as a percentage of population, more US kids are educated than Indian kids. Having most of the young generation going into adulthood with at least a high school education is the best thing public education can offer.

Thirdly, it’s not about being good in certain subjects, it’s about having the freedom to learn and experience everything. Public schools should not only be centers for learning math, science, geography etc. but also where children have the freedom to grow their own personalities, explore their talents, and other avenues of interest and curiosity. It has to be an all rounded education.

Fourth, think local and national. Public education should not ignore the local culture, languages, civics, traditions, history, geography etc. Along with the national agenda, state governments and local communities should have room to introduce local curriculum into the education system. It’s a way for safeguarding local knowledge, languages, culture, and traditions; from being erased by a National agenda.

Finally, the most important of my observations–public education is the ultimate equalizer. One of the key ingredients for Freedom is equality, and public education if done right, can create a level playing field when children finish high school and enter into adulthood. The equating factor is that everyone received the same kind of 12 years of education. They may have other differences based on wealth, religion, race, color, caste, language etc. but when it comes to paving the path to the future through higher education, their professions, businesses, day to day interactions, public services; a nation can be assured of an equality established by public education.

Related:
State of Education – Kerala vs. Karnataka
The Uneducated American

Strange Coincidences: The Inseparable Helmet Shield

Ordered a white russian. The waitress said, “Its funny you’re drinking those because Jeff Bridges is upstairs eating right now.” The Dude!!
– A tweet by @jcroft

For those who have watched “The Big Labowski”, the hilarious coincidence by @jcroft is both funny and intriguing. We have all had these kinds of “Strange Coincidences” in our lives, and like most of you I have always been fascinated by them, especially the more complex coincidences. The ones where not only many prior events have to line up correctly, but also seems like even the stars have to line up correctly.

So here is one such Strange Coincidence that I experienced recently:

The Inseparable Helmet Shield

Sometime towards end of July 2009, as my wife and I were selling and getting rid of things we owned prior to moving to India for a year; there was this strange coincidence that happened with a helmet shield I owned.

At that time we had already sold our condo, and so we were staying at my friend Sunny’s place. One of the last few things I had to get rid off, was a Shoei helmet, which included two shields: a clear one and a bluish iridium shield. So, I listed the helmet for sale on KSL Classifieds, which by the way is a great local online classifieds in Utah.

After a few days I got a call from someone who was interested in buying the helmet. I can’t remember if it was the same day or few days later, but the person who called came by and had a look at the helmet. He liked it, size wise it fit his head, and so the helmet was sold. But, one thing was missing, the bluish iridium shield. I could not remember where I had kept it, and so the guy ended up taking the helmet with just the clear shield.

A few days later, the day before we were to fly out to Dubai, as we were doing a final clearing up of things, I found the missing blue shield. At that point, we were out of time and so decided to put the shield in a bag which we were to drop off at the DI (Deseret Industries), a local thrift store that takes used items. The initial plan was to drop off the DI bag on the way to the Airport. But as the list of things to do before we headed to the Airport started to grow, my friend Sunny offered to help drop the bag off at the DI.

Flash forward to a month later, Sunny pings me on GTalk, and says he has to tell me about the “Biggest Coincidence” that happened, and it’s about the blue shield. After I had left, and after procrastinating for a while, Sunny had a look at the bag he was supposed to take to the DI and figured he liked it. So, he decided to keep the bag instead, and started transferring its contents into plastic bags. Which is when he came across the blue shield. Since he knew a couple of colleagues who rode motorcycles, he decided to give the shield to either one of them.

Sunny took the shield to work, and gave it to the first colleague he ran it. But, that colleague did not have a Shoei helmet, so the colleague decided to give it to his brother who had recently bought a used Shoei helmet. To make a long story short, that brother was the guy who had bought my Shoei helmet. And so was reunited the shield and the helmet, and ends this long tale of Strange Coincidences.

So many things had to happen and line up for this elaborate coincidence to take place, and the sheer probability of this probably makes winning a lottery seem easier.

Amartya Sen explores “The Idea of Justice”

This post is inspired  (and in a way I am inspired to write again on KarmaDude) by an interview I heard of the revered Dr. Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and economist. As articulate and lucid as he is in his conversation and as verbosely profound he is in his writing, Dr Sen never fails to instill a sense of ponderous thought and an almost sub-consciously Socratic experimentation on topics we otherwise hardly think about. One such topic is the idea of what is “just” around us.

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