Very first Holi Celebrations

We had our first Holi celebration at buildingBlocks. The team was presence in full strength and was equal to the challenges thrown at them.

As an organization, we take pride in our collective creativity and our diversity of experiences. So, Holi was a great time for us to see how we can apply our diverse and creative minds to come up with something which has nothing to do with software, websites, educational materials (the usual stuff we produce).

We decided to throw ourselves into the rings of collage making. There were two teams: circle blocks (the communicators: Bharti and Aditya) and triangle blocks (the softies: Yogita and Vinod).

The theme was simple Holi and buildingBlocks/imom. We got some expert judges also involved in the whole process: Upma (Designer of paridhan fame) and our very own Dr. Neha Gupta. The competition was intense and victor decisive – overall we had a lot of fun with some colors, gujia, wonderful salad and incredibly creative collages. Here’s thanking all the members of buildingBlocks team a big thank you for their incredible camaraderie and initiative.

Better Education For A Better Tomorrow

I get very disappointed whenever I read any newspaper; it is always painted with crime stories. And the most frightening part is the exponential rise in crime, not only by the uneducated strata but also by the so called ‘well educated people’ of society. Why is it so? Is it only the economic disparity which is to be blamed or lack of spiritual and ethical foundation are also responsible for the same.

Have you ever noticed the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” and wondered why it is not straight. Simple; because its foundation was weak and as the time passed it could not stand its own weight. No one wants his/her child to be like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

We need to give a strong foundation in terms of ‘holistic education’ to the child in his/her early years, so that he can become a complete human being who can face the adversities of life with integrity and come out a winner in the real sense.

How buildingBlocks intends to complete education?

The last two posts talk about the caveats or problems in the current schooling system and the ideal role that education needs to play. This post would highlight how we at buildingBlocks intend to play a role in completing the education. The chart below would give a pictorial view of what are the aspects of education that we would emphasise on:



Obviously, Vedic Teachings and Yoga are nothing but some examples of providing a spiritual experience and physical exercise respectively. So, if we add the incomplete education system of today and the buildingBlocks experience, it would complete the educational experience of the kids of today. Our experiments at the Arya Samaj, Moti Nagar are good examples of how this correction in the system works. Additionally, you can see how this complete system works in the picture below:



Finally, if you think there are some holes that exist in this holistic educational framework, please feel free to add anything through the comments section.

holistic schooling system

I reckon our organization is as strong as the research that we put in definition of our course curriculum. We have decided to invest into this very important and often overlooked aspect of education, the curriculum.

In order to ensure that we do justice with the same, we spent close to a month to come up with the role of education in the society. Can education be limited to the box of market based education, which is pervasive in today's world?

a). Is the education system limited to produce linear dimensioned individuals (read doctors, engineers, CA's, journalists etc).

b). Or is the purpose of the education to produce people who have multiple dimensions -- leaders at work, participants in community, compassionate for poor or the disadvantaged, ethical in their dealings.

After the brainstorming sessions with several eminent educationists and thought leaders, we have come to the conclusion that education is supposed to do (b). Unfortunately, what it's ending up to do is (a) and yes! that's true even for the creamy schools. The results are evident in the failure of the evolution of the Indian society into a ethical, compassionate and homogenous group. The results are also evident in today's kids becoming good engineers and doctors, however, insecure and lacklustre leaders.

We also came up with the model for holistic education -- and what it essentially means. Additionally, we analyzed what's being done by today's schools and where is the education system miserably failing and the role that buildingBlocks can play to complete the education -- I plan to cover this in two-three entries. This entry would just talk about what is holistic education:



As shown in the picture, the education is more than the commonly perceived academics and physical education. Education includes other very important fields like moral/ethical, spiritual, civic and creative education. If you think that there's more or less to education than this -- please enrich the discussion with your comments.