For no other reason than to amuse myself, I will jot down a few thoughts of mine, which I believe will show a very counterintuitive perspective to the core idea of this conference (PlacEX18) which is to get inputs from the industry around which to build courses and curricula so that the students who graduate from this academy are ready to be employed.
Each of the speaker until now - which is lunchtime - has provided a lot of valuable points which are no doubt food for thought. However, it has all been from their own areas of expertise. I am not faulting them for that; in fact, I am guilty of the same in preparing my presentation, which I now hope I might not have to present at all. But I digress.
However, what about life itself? The word "skills" has been used extensively today with the narration being that skilling is important and can be imparted. There might have been a slight difference of opinion as to which kind of students need it, but there seems to be unanimity about skills.
That got me thinking... what about failure? What about learning how to learn? Nobody would have reached where they have without hitting a few bumps on the road, without having failed. The taboo against failure and death still remains prevalent in most aspects of life. If it were up to me, I'd add in a heavy dose of philosophy in class. Teach them that it is OK to fail, that as long as you have two hands and two legs, you should be able to put food in your stomach because people with far less than that are surviving and in some cases are doing very well in life.
You will inevitably fail. It's not an "if" but a "when." So train to handle that. Death comes to us all, so learn to value life and to be grateful for the life you lead. I'd like to have the students learn to be unafraid to try new things, to be encouraged to travel, appreciate that each one is different, to live life and to not just survive.
Communication is to be taught; to read books is to be taught; understanding but evaluating before accepting any concept is to be taught. Tell them about the failures of the past and present greats so that we know that they too are humans; or alternatively, we all are superhumans. There's a lot beyond the syllabus.
Let us teach life.
Each of the speaker until now - which is lunchtime - has provided a lot of valuable points which are no doubt food for thought. However, it has all been from their own areas of expertise. I am not faulting them for that; in fact, I am guilty of the same in preparing my presentation, which I now hope I might not have to present at all. But I digress.
However, what about life itself? The word "skills" has been used extensively today with the narration being that skilling is important and can be imparted. There might have been a slight difference of opinion as to which kind of students need it, but there seems to be unanimity about skills.
That got me thinking... what about failure? What about learning how to learn? Nobody would have reached where they have without hitting a few bumps on the road, without having failed. The taboo against failure and death still remains prevalent in most aspects of life. If it were up to me, I'd add in a heavy dose of philosophy in class. Teach them that it is OK to fail, that as long as you have two hands and two legs, you should be able to put food in your stomach because people with far less than that are surviving and in some cases are doing very well in life.
You will inevitably fail. It's not an "if" but a "when." So train to handle that. Death comes to us all, so learn to value life and to be grateful for the life you lead. I'd like to have the students learn to be unafraid to try new things, to be encouraged to travel, appreciate that each one is different, to live life and to not just survive.
Communication is to be taught; to read books is to be taught; understanding but evaluating before accepting any concept is to be taught. Tell them about the failures of the past and present greats so that we know that they too are humans; or alternatively, we all are superhumans. There's a lot beyond the syllabus.
Let us teach life.
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