Inspire Your Child Inspire the World
"It would be wonderful if this world was
guided by little children, because they
are closer to life than anybody else."
Sadhguru
Question: I have two small children. They are very happy at home, but when they go to school, it becomes a war zone. They have to be equipped to fight a battle everyday.
Sadhguru: If children are very unhappy at school, I think we need to examine the teachers, because it is a natural human trait that when you get to know something that you did not know, it brings much joy to you. Learning is a natural human trait; it should make you joyful. If learning is making people miserable, then we have not understood what learning is.
Unfortunately you are not sending your children to school because you want them to know or you want them to learn, but because you want them to earn. that is why you are sending them to school. It is an unfortunate way to handle education. that is not education. You want them enslaved, so the teachers are doing the job for you. You want them enslaved to what you call as economic wellbeing, so the teachers are just doing the job for you. You are not sending your children to school because you want them to develop a thirst for knowing, irrespective of whether they are going to make money or not. So you better change your attitudes about education.
At Isha, we have come up with a school where the whole focus of education is not about suppressive information, but about kindling the thirst for knowledge. If the thirst for knowledge is kindled in the child, you cannot stop him from learning, he is going to learn anyway. But instead of kindling that, you are suppressing it, beating it down with your idea of what education is; because your idea of education is social status and money. This is a wrong way to approach education altogether.
So children, these joyful bursting pieces of life, slowly become sad like this, because you are just disorienting them completely with the kind of compulsions that you have built within yourself. You are trying to put the same compulsions upon the children, which is not necessary.
Question: I find the concept of your Inner Engineering as a way of life for children very difficult, because they have to meet children from different walks of life and different social backgrounds. How does this Inner Engineering, which I would like to give my children at home, withstand the competition, the pressure, the kind of lifestyle that other children have. How can my children go into this?
Sadhguru: The pressure is only because you are putting two absolutely unique beings in comparison. Is there one more person exactly like you on this planet? No. There is only one like you. So each being is an absolutely unique being. That is so for your child also. But now you are trying to put them all into the same compartment and compare them with something that they can learn - ABC or 123 or something - and make them feel better or worse about it.
So it is you who brought that competition and comparison, because for most parents it is not about education; it is about first rank. All they want is their children to sit on top of every other child's head. They are not interested in learning, they are not interested in education, they are not interested in career, they are not interested in anything. Their whole effort in their life is how to sit on top of the pile. Isn't it so? Everybody wants to sit on top of the pile. Everybody cannot sit on top of the pile. Only a few will sit. Others will naturally end up at the bottom and get suppressed, isn't it so? Whatever activity, if our focus is just to sit on top of the pile, naturally many others will get suffocated under the pile. This is bound to happen, there is no other way. So that orientation of education has to go. You may think, "No, no, I cannot do anything, the schools are like that." No, schools are just catering to your attitudes. If your attitudes change, the schools will
"It would be wonderful if this world was
guided by little children, because they
are closer to life than anybody else."
Sadhguru
Question: I have two small children. They are very happy at home, but when they go to school, it becomes a war zone. They have to be equipped to fight a battle everyday.
Sadhguru: If children are very unhappy at school, I think we need to examine the teachers, because it is a natural human trait that when you get to know something that you did not know, it brings much joy to you. Learning is a natural human trait; it should make you joyful. If learning is making people miserable, then we have not understood what learning is.
Unfortunately you are not sending your children to school because you want them to know or you want them to learn, but because you want them to earn. that is why you are sending them to school. It is an unfortunate way to handle education. that is not education. You want them enslaved, so the teachers are doing the job for you. You want them enslaved to what you call as economic wellbeing, so the teachers are just doing the job for you. You are not sending your children to school because you want them to develop a thirst for knowing, irrespective of whether they are going to make money or not. So you better change your attitudes about education.
At Isha, we have come up with a school where the whole focus of education is not about suppressive information, but about kindling the thirst for knowledge. If the thirst for knowledge is kindled in the child, you cannot stop him from learning, he is going to learn anyway. But instead of kindling that, you are suppressing it, beating it down with your idea of what education is; because your idea of education is social status and money. This is a wrong way to approach education altogether.
So children, these joyful bursting pieces of life, slowly become sad like this, because you are just disorienting them completely with the kind of compulsions that you have built within yourself. You are trying to put the same compulsions upon the children, which is not necessary.
Question: I find the concept of your Inner Engineering as a way of life for children very difficult, because they have to meet children from different walks of life and different social backgrounds. How does this Inner Engineering, which I would like to give my children at home, withstand the competition, the pressure, the kind of lifestyle that other children have. How can my children go into this?
Sadhguru: The pressure is only because you are putting two absolutely unique beings in comparison. Is there one more person exactly like you on this planet? No. There is only one like you. So each being is an absolutely unique being. That is so for your child also. But now you are trying to put them all into the same compartment and compare them with something that they can learn - ABC or 123 or something - and make them feel better or worse about it.
So it is you who brought that competition and comparison, because for most parents it is not about education; it is about first rank. All they want is their children to sit on top of every other child's head. They are not interested in learning, they are not interested in education, they are not interested in career, they are not interested in anything. Their whole effort in their life is how to sit on top of the pile. Isn't it so? Everybody wants to sit on top of the pile. Everybody cannot sit on top of the pile. Only a few will sit. Others will naturally end up at the bottom and get suppressed, isn't it so? Whatever activity, if our focus is just to sit on top of the pile, naturally many others will get suffocated under the pile. This is bound to happen, there is no other way. So that orientation of education has to go. You may think, "No, no, I cannot do anything, the schools are like that." No, schools are just catering to your attitudes. If your attitudes change, the schools will
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