My Philosopher King

A few years ago my King said something that led me to become a better person in all forms possible. He said “You cannot give what you don’t have”. Yesterday was another such day that wanted me to be the best at what I do as he thanked the teachers and encouraged us saying, “We must be doing something right”.

The depth of the insight that he possess for the education of his citizens is immense. All we have to do is follow into his philosophy and be guided with his dreams for this little Great Nation. Just a little effort to understand the profound thoughts that even a little dose of the “SMART” (Sincere Mindful Astute Resilient Timeless) theory will do us a lot of good. And I have only my King to thank for such wisdom.

His concern for our youth and their engagement, their learning, their abilities knows no bounds. While our children need to be empowered with modern technologies, they must not lose the touch of the ancient goodness and values that has carried us through the most trying times. ‘Information overload’ indeed is an area we might have to work on.

Getting experienced educators to accompany him, His Majesty made us understand where we stood. It helped us realize what we need to work on as educators in the 21^st century. It gives us a clear picture about what is happening beyond our classrooms and the paradigm shifts that can happen in the way we teach and what we teach.  

Any eminent educator begs for an understanding that education is not all about teaching students the content. As Mr. Kapur puts it, what will happen when the content they learnt is obsolete? What do they do then? Where do they go?

We just have to prepare our children to become lifelong learners. Show them the way. Guide them – just like the famous Chinese proverb of teaching a man to fish. The saying goes so well in the Bhutanese communities too – Bey jim ley toen jim ga (instead of doing it for the person, its nicer to teach the person to do it).

Professor Rishi mentioned the power of Buddhist philosophy in the world today. While many teach and learn it, the Bhutanese have been living it.  We are sitting on this gold mine of a ‘mindful’ path that has been passed down to us by our great ancestors that can give us ultimate happiness. Our philosophy of life has always been in line with what the world is seeking in the 21^st century. We have all it takes to lead us to the ‘ideal education’ most desire.

As teachers we have to take the time out to reflect on what we have and work on what we do not have to be able to give to our students. We have to understand the needs of our students now more than ever as it is not information (that is available all over) that our children long for, but the ability to understand ‘life’ itself and how to ‘live’ it.

They need a guide by their side, not a sage on the stage. We have known all this all along, but where have we reached? We have lost many students as they chose to ‘give up’ on us. It is perhaps now time that we reach out to our inner self to become better than ever and ‘give’ what we have in the best possible way. 

As Sadhguru puts it, let it be not just instruction of information, but inspiration and transmission of a lot more.