Reward intelligence and effort, and not rote learning, says OSHO. The education system we follow in India was started by the British government to create clerks. No government wants intelligent people… then it is easier to exploit them, rule them, to avoid any revolution, and easier for mediocre people to become leaders. The British government managed beautifully. For 25 years, for almost one third of his life, a person is processed in such a way that he turns out either to be a station master, a head clerk, or a postmaster. These were the needs of the government. All the gold medallists in the universities disappear — you never hear of them again. In the university they get gold medals, but in life they become head clerks but don’t go further. Reformation Not Enough The whole system is wrong. So it is not a question of reforming it; it is a question of revolutionising it. A real educational system will take care of the whole individual; this education system takes care only of the mind. The whole individual means the body, mind, heart and soul. Unless education takes care of all these four in a balanced way, it cannot create a whole individual. For example, the university does nothing to the body. Much needs to be done with the body because everything else is based on it. It needs not only exercises, yoga, aikido and other systems of training, but it also needs a systematic, scientific approach to food — because what you eat, you become. We should make it a point that non-vegetarian food is not allowed in the universities because to kill, to do violence just for food, is so ugly and inhuman.... Non-vegetarian food makes you insensitive, it makes you hard. And it creates anger and violence which can be easily avoided. Couch Potato Syndrome Taking care of the body means the body should be given adequate exercise. Students are sitting in the universities the whole day and in the night they have to do their homework and they have to go to the movies. They become just sitting idiots. The body, by nature, is not created just to go on sitting. Students should be walking, running, swimming, climbing trees and mountains. Their bodies should be given a chance to achieve their natural potential. But the body is a neglected part; nobody is interested in it. We live in the body, but we don’t think about what we are eating and whether we exercise. Scientists say that as far as the body is concerned it seems to have the capacity to go on renewing itself for 300 years. So if people are dying at 70, something is wrong. Nothing is wrong with the body; we are just giving it the wrong food, no exercise or the wrong exercise. My first concern is the body. Experts in diet should be consulted. Taste cannot be the decisive thing; taste can be added to anything. But the basic thing should be the science of the body. Doubting Is A Good Sign Professors should give more emphasis to discussion, to doubt, and they should destroy completely any textbook belief system. Those books should be removed; then you would see an explosion of intelligence. But to doubt seems to be doing something evil, and to have faith seems to be spiritual and religious. Just the reverse is the case. To have faith is evil; to doubt is natural. Go on doubting until you come to an indubitable fact. So universities have to change their whole attitude about doubt and belief. And it is not important that you pass the examination; those five examination questions can be answered by a person who knows nothing else. I am against examinations because they create a totally wrong approach. The student becomes interested only in passing the examination. So rather than reading the book, he looks for a shorter version or a key. The professor has answered questions which are probable examination questions, so the students read just these and nothing else. It is the examination system that creates a wrong attitude. My idea is that students should be given credit by each professor, every day, just the way they take attendance. And the credit should be given according to the intelligence shown by the student. Rote Learning, A Waste Our whole system depends on how much you can memorise, not on intelligence. But memory is not something great; a computer can do it. And soon there will be no need of any memory; you can just have a small computer in your pocket and any answer you need will be immediately available. Why waste time and life and torture people about memory when memory has nothing to do with intelligence? Right now, our education system is based on memory. I would like it to be based on intelligence. Every professor should give credits every day, not just at the end of the year, because that creates trouble. Students don’t take any interest for the whole year; just for one month at the end they are torturing themselves trying to learn everything at once. I would like them to get credits every day, and if somebody is intelligent enough to get enough credit in six months to pass to another class, why make him waste six months more in the same class? The moment he gets the required credits, he moves to the next class. So nobody passes, nobody fails; people simply move. Then the university becomes a moving phenomenon. People are moving according to their intelligence, and there are no fixed barriers. Instead of memory, reward intelligence. People of good memory need not be people of good intelligence. Memory functions mechanically and intelligence functions non-mechanically. The Last Testament, courtesy: Osho International Foundation.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 00:33:57 +0000
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