State of General Educ LO7204

Ram Sundaram (sundar@sriven.scs.co.in)
Mon, 6 May 96 13:25 GMT+0500

Replying to LO7119 --

>Come to think of it though, as a thought experiment, if all universities
>were suddenly extingushed what would emerge to take their place, as they
>emerged out of the liberation of intelligence that was the renaissence?.

If,
That's a very interesting thought. I have some random thoughts on that

My first question is, why only universities ? why not schools too ? :-).

Considering the above scenario, I would like to see the resurgence of the
ancient "gurukul" system. The term in quotes is Indian and it is practiced
in some parts of my country, India and the practice is dying.FAST.

It works like this.

There were "gurukuls" for different areas of knowledge. (The Vedas,
warcraft ...).Students "enrolled" at a very early age (5 - 7 years) The
teacher not only taught subjects like science, philosohpy etc but also
instilled the important values to live in the world. (compassion ,
fairness, honesty...). The education continued for atleast a
decade.*guesstimate* During this time the student lived with the teacher
and did chores for the teacher around the house. It was the teacher's
responsibility to expose the student to the real world gradually. (shades
of this is seen in McKinsey's "mentor" system)

In fact it is not very ancient. My music teacher, who was 77 years old,
learnt music under the "gurukul" system.

More as I think about it I feel the secret to learning organizations lie
in ancient Oriental (Japanese and Chinese) and Indian practices.

..ram
sundar@sriven.scs.co.in

The Shark - He glides silently , focused on his prey , giving no clue
whatsoever of his presence.
And when he attacks, its usually for a clean , effortless kill.

-- 

sundar@sriven.scs.co.in (Ram Sundaram)

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>