Curiosity - The thirst for knowledge and other reflections

I  have a confession to make. I'm an incorrigible science junkie. I fell in love with science in senior high school. My first real introduction to the world of science was through the elegant and exquisitely shaped molecule called DNA. It was Circa 1984 when my Science Teacher showed us a model of DNA. It was love at first sight and by the time I finished school, I had maniacally devoured most of the back editions of the venerable Popular Science (just to inform readers who were born into the Age of Internet,  this magazine was a must-read for every nerd in school and college, between the 1960s and 80s) and even managed to make sense of the more abstruse Scientific American. This addiction had its pleasant consequences (I could show off my newly acquired knowledge to girls in school) and unpleasant ones too (my science teachers weren't too impressed with my new-found passion and 'down-graded' me for not sticking to the syllabus!). Nevertheless, I was hooked to science and had begun a life-long affair, with a particular fetish for molecules and sub-atomic particles. I remember collecting pictures of molecules and particles, the way kids collect pictures of cricketers. I was fascinated by Hemoglobins, Collagens, RNAs, Bosons (not the least because it was named after an Indian) and Neutrinos. 

But, as is almost always the case, there was a hitch...I was terrible in Mathematics and still break into a cold sweat even when my son (a strapping young lad with no fear of the subject) has to appear for a Math exam. The disappointment notwithstanding, throughout my adult life I have been able to sustain my curiosity and interest in all aspects of science. I chose Biology in College because I thought it would help me to delve deep into science, without the constricting Math handicap. It was the best decision I ever took. The next best decision I took was to become a teacher, in my early Thirties, which was actuated partially due to this insatiable curiosity of the unknown. This curiosity soon spilled over to other equally vast and exciting areas of knowledge in the field of Literature, Social sciences, philosophy and even mysticism. I realized, quite early in life, that all knowledge had to converge somewhere and fields and specializations are merely human constructs created for convenience. This perceptiveness of the unity of knowledge or 'Consilience', (to borrow E.O. Wilson's title of his book by the same name) has a made this journey a joyous one.

My long journey of "pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and not for any further goal," (an Aristotelian ideal) has been a roller-coaster ride, experiencing wonderful insights alternating with intellectually demanding but ultimately futile dead-ends. No subject was too remote, untouchable or impregnable and this relentless quest for knowledge, bordering on unrestrained 'infovory' (rhymes  well with carnivory!) One has spent many a holiday enjoying works ranging from how Stalinist Russia exploited viruses for treating bacterial infections during World War II to studying about paranormal investigations, conducted almost a century ago, in The Theosophical Society on the "extrasensory perception of subatomic particles."  I have traversed through some of the highways, the streets and even the dark, narrow, shadowy by-lanes of knowledge. One has been entertained, amused, tickled, provoked, introspected, reflected, amazed and even blinded by the genius and brilliance of great minds of the past and their timeless contribution to the inexorable march of knowledge, only to be completely flummoxed by a core tenet in Indian philosophy which maintains that the pursuit of knowledge and philosophy is irrelevant and may actually be a serious hindrance to attaining  Moksha (total knowledge). Paradoxes galore!

This leaves the seeker of knowledge with the question...what next? Is this state of thirst for knowledge, ultimately, no different from the condition of a drug addict waiting to get his next fix? Does the "knowledge junkie" undergo stresses and strains to understand a difficult concept...losing sleep over it but once he gets it, feels on top of the world...till the next problem comes along? Prof. Biederman, a Neuroscientist with the USC College of Arts and Sciences, Southern California, seems to acknowledge this when he says " The brain's craving for a fix motivates humans to maximize the rate at which they absorb knowledge."

Teaching for curiosity - The evidence

I have no special talents. I'm only passionately curious. - Albert Einstein

As a self-confessed knowledge junkie, I have serious philosophical and existential questions on the limitations and at times, the futility of pursuing knowledge. But, as a teacher of young people,I have no doubts whatsoever, on my function. I see my role as one who creates the right conditions for curiosity to be triggered and expanded in young minds. I'm a father of two and after watching kids closely for many years, am convinced that curiosity is an innate quality expressed by all children. It is as fundamental as thirst for water or hunger for food. It is a truism that this quality in human beings is the engine for all growth and growth of  civilizations. The greatest minds  have all had high levels of curiosity. And it is little wonder that people with high levels of curiosity also exhibit intelligence and knowledge of the world.

I thought  about it for years and wondered whether curiosity, the thirst for knowledge and intelligence were somehow related. The connections were obvious and seemed intuitively true but I hadn't come across any evidence. The evidence came to me from an unlikely source....Molecules! I had subscribed to "Molecule of the Month" from online scientific magazines and one such molecule, the almost unknown Neuronal Calcium Sensor 1 or NCS-1 landed in my mail. Scientists from University of Toronto and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute collaborated to discover this molecule in the Hippocampus region of the brain in mice. (The Hippocampus region of the brain is known to play an important role in memory and long-term learning). Mice which expressed more NCS-1 molecules in their Hippocampus were observed to explore their surrounding more (i.e., more curious) and also had superior memory of what they learnt in the process. 

This was the clinching evidence I was looking for! The study concluded that the molecules in the brain that controlled learning and memory also controlled curiosity. From a teacher's point of view, the study directly implies that if a teacher is able to foster curiosity in children, he will automatically foster intelligence and vice versa. More research needs to be done but here is something to start working on.

Teachers, almost all over the world, at times, feel harassed by the incessant questioning of students of young minds. But some of us have the courage to answer these questions and provoke them to ask even more questions. The trick is not to dampen their curiosity but fire up their minds with ideas, images, thoughts. It doesn't matter if one is not able to teach everything in a particular topic...just make sure that you have fueled their curiosity enough to enable them to carry on the inquiry. Research has shown that delivering content to kids without context or generating inquiry, demotivates students, dulls curiosity, seriously affecting learning. Authentic learning doesn't seem to happen without curiosity. So, it goes without saying that generating and sustaining curiosity in students is crucial to learning and curiosity is killed when teachers instill fear. Fear is key to control of students but kills all freedom of thought and curiosity. Fear kills all teaching-learning processes. It is up to each one of us to rescue and revive the natural curiosity lying dormant in all our kids.

Now, what are we doing to our kids?

What motivates teachers? A personal journey...

In my earlier avatar, before I became a teacher, I used to be a regular sales & marketing guy, always on the run...for the next big deal or the next big break. The transition from a marketing guy to a full-time teacher was rather sudden as I had  been scarred and disillusioned (fortuitously, I feel now) with the Corporate world and couldn't carry on with Life, keeping up appearances that everything was hunky-dory. The desire to 'sell' simply fell away...like a rotten fruit off a tree. 

But I was a 'driven' individual and had to do something with a whole life ahead, a family to support and this exasperating urge to find meaning and purpose. I was 31 and completely at sea. 

After a painful process of soul-searching, delving into past experiences, on a balmy summer day, walking barefoot on a beach in Madras, feeling the warm salty breeze on my skin,  I realised that I enjoyed teaching. It was my Eureka Moment! During my early sales & marketing days, I was called, 'The Teacher' (somewhat derisively, I remember) by colleagues because of my penchant for explaining the subtleties of the product. It struck me that I could make a living and still save my soul, as a teacher. I rushed home, almost ecstatic, to my wife proclaiming I'd decided to be a teacher. She was a worldly-wise woman, beginning to get rather weary of her husband's wayward ways and asked drily "soru poduma?" It was the Tamil equivalent of  "will it bring home the bacon?" This devastatingly simple, staid  question posed by the Woman-of-the-House who had her feet planted firmly on the ground was a challenge I was confronted with. But I had found purpose, taking an inspired leap into the unknown, and all I had to do was to find the means to realise it. 

I'm reminded of Paulo Coelho's words from his enchanting allegorical novel The Alchemist "...when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

Soon, I came across a lady from an 'intentional' organisation looking for a committed teacher. I confessed that neither did I have the experience nor the relevant degree in Education. She thought I would make a good teacher because of my unconventional background and not necessarily in spite of it. She trusted me more than I trusted myself . Before I knew it, I was hooked for life teaching wide-eyed students. The Director of the school had warned me that teachers earned peanuts. I didn't heed it...I had found more than what money could possibly give...meaning and purpose (forgive the cliché) which eluded me all my life. 

I have been teaching for more than a decade and am still excited by the possibility of a student completely stumping me with a question  and I respond with an honest "Gee, I really don't know...could we learn about it together?" 

To be vulnerable seems to the best way to learn...every moment, every day.

Now, what motivated me to be a committed teacher and sustain my interest for more than a decade? It was definitely not the money...not the almost non-existent career growth prospects. I  was seeking answers for all these years till, I came across a pop-psych book tantalisingly titled Drive - The surprising truth about what motivates us. Authored by Dan Pink, a maverick and one-time speech writer for Al Gore, this book completely demolishes our notions of reward and punishment, incentives and rest of the Brazilian carnival.

The book comes highly recommended as it has interesting insights on what drives human beings to be motivated and excel in their chosen fields. 

I have uploaded the Royal Society of Arts animation production of Dan Pink's famous TED-2009 talk which crystallizes the essence of his book. Enthralling...

You could watch his talk on Motivation too at Dan Pink TED Talk

Dynamics of Power Distance and Teaching

Last week, just ahead of the start of the new academic session, I had the privilege of participating in a teacher's workshop. The workshop was conducted by an experienced teacher and consultant. Darlene was an expert on cross-cultural teaching practices and had worked in many parts of the globe, from the U.S. to Turkey. She had the unique opportunity to work in different cultural milieus which helped her have an insight into how schools in different nations in the West and the East approached the teaching-learning process.
What made the workshop stand apart from other workshops in the past was its honest attempt to explore cultural differences that exist despite the fact that education today in some of the best schools in the world is going 'global'. Darlene began by gently introducing the work of the influential Dutch social anthropologist, Geert Hofstede's seminal work on "assessing and differentiating national cultures and organisational cultures" (to unabashedly quote Wikipedia!). She skillfully weaved Hofstede's work around the teacher-learning process and helped us unravel the hidden assumptions (icebergs!) in our relationship and interactions with students. It was a fascinating experience to be exposed to our own assumptions (faulty, as it turned out...) and become uncomfortable, which was 'good'. Darlene's caveat "learn to become comfortable with being uncomfortable" had the ring of truth about it, paradox notwithstanding.
Darlene focused on one of the basic 'problem areas' representing cultural dimensions of the teaching-learning process in a school - Power Distance (PD). PD is a problem area and is defined by Hofstede as "the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally." Hofstede also measured the Power Distance Index (PDI) between the  less-powerful and the more-powerful members of an organisation in a country. 


The below animation, produced by Interfacet, an online workplace training company, beautifully illustrates how Power Distance works - 

This rather intriguing take on the teaching-learning process had an electric effect on the teachers in the workshop because most of us had worked all our adult lives in 'organisations' which believed in and sustained high PD between teachers & administrators and between students & teachers. When a question was posed whether it is possible to reduce the PD in a top-heavy, hierarchical system, a teacher, obviously defending the system he was comfortable with, shot back in alarm  with a clear, unambiguous message "...low PD, no teaching happens, high PD, teaching happens". 
The implications of working in a low PD culture was frightening for some of us, to say the least. The reactions ranged from, "what about the authority of the teacher?" to "there will be a breakdown of order in the system". The reaction which encapsulated the hidden fears was "There will be chaos!" Interestingly, one also sensed an ideological divide (!?) between the 'conservative' and the 'liberal' teachers. One group favored the high PD system whilst the other wanted to explore the possibility a low PD culture. The liberal teachers felt that a classroom set-up with a low PD between students and teachers could (my italics) engender creativity. 
To be sure, the workshop made most of us sit up, think and question our assumptions. A day after the workshop, a  fellow teacher and a dear colleague who was 'senior' by many years, asked me a question, revealing in its simplicity "Rajesh, is our relationship a high PD or a low PD?" To me, this was a glowing testimonial of the impact of Darlene's workshop.


Talking about 'Power' and our vexatious relationship with it, maybe there is a simpler, although less practiced, solution...

The Liberal Arts Education - A perspective

I was invited to a wedding reception last week where I had the opportunity to interact with a father whose son I taught some years ago. He was an affectionate and enlightened father who cared deeply about his son. The son had difficulty in the straight-jacketed approach to learning in school and was faring miserably in the standardized tests. On inquiring, the father proudly announced that his son had discovered the joy of learning at a School of Liberal Studies. The father's eyes said it all!

Do standardized tests do more harm than good?

I came back home happy and excited, lapping up almost everything there was on Liberal Arts education. The person whose work left an impact on me was Ken Robinson. A British-born Educator, based in the U.S., Ken has some very deep, incisive points to make on why modern education is a mess today. 

I have attached a video of the animated version of his famous TED-2006 talk on Education - Changing Paradigms.

 Absolutely riveting stuff! A must watch...

Ken Robinson

Emotional Connectedness - The Holy Grail of Teaching

I have this habit...whenever an old student meets me after a prolonged hiatus, I pose a standard question, "what do you miss the most of school?" . The responses usually hover around friends, the fun they had, the mischiefs they hatched together, the 'rules' they broke regularly, the teachers they 'outwitted' and, more often than not, the adult (and, not necessarily teachers alone!) who left a deep impact in their lives. 

On probing deeper, one comes to know that the adult, who held his/her hand during a vulnerable period, the teacher who listened and understood without judging, the teacher who used to have friendly banters with them after class hours, was the one they missed the most. Even the subjects they cherished learning, were of teachers they loved and respected. The rest of the subjects, and its practitioners, however important, were, at best a confusing blur, relegated to some deep recesses of their memories of school.

I'm of the strong conviction (albeit, open to be contradicted and debated upon) that good teaching is not simply a matter of 'good technique' but springs from the heart of the teacher who takes the 'risk' to reach out to his students and make authentic connections with them.

In the words of the Parker J. Palmer, an American Educator, "If we want to develop and deepen the capacity for connectedness at the heart of good teaching, we must understand—and resist—the perverse but powerful draw of the 'disconnected life'" 

We are all familiar with the cynical teacher,  living the disconnected life who simply attempts to to connect with a dead memory of his subject and lamely expects his students to make sense of it. 


Something to ponder over...

Classroom Management and the 'Illusion of Control'

I have been a teacher for the last 11 years and have had memorable experiences in the classroom and, to be honest, many stressful sessions too. Reflecting on the highs and lows of my teaching career I can say, without batting an eyelid, the most stressful classroom situations were those where I wanted to 'control' the behaviour of students. Paradoxically, the more energy I invested in class control for teaching to happen, the less teaching and thereby, less learning happened. One may have won, in the battle of wits with students but it was always a 'pyrrhic' victory as the teacher in me knew that I had failed. I called it the  teacher's 'Illusion of Control' and was rather smug about the phrase-coinage only to be soon informed that it was a common tendency well-researched in the field of psychology.

I realised, rather painfully, a flexible, pliant approach is the only way to ensure 'class control' (for want of a better phrase!). Meaningfully engaging a class full of energetic, intelligent students is like trying to hold on to a water balloon. The more tightly one tries to grasp it, the more likely it is to just burst. If, instead, one gently cups the balloon in an open palm, one is more able to 'manoeuvre'  it without getting all wet. To flow with the moment is, I dare say, still my biggest challenge as a teacher. 

(From Tony Gurr's blog, allthingslearning.wordpress.com)

A wise saying;

The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way
and lets the Tao speak for itself.’
 - Lao Tse

Teaching - a profession in crisis?

Last fortnight I was 'talking shop' with a colleague over tea. We were sharing the difficulties of the teaching profession. My colleague had been a teacher all his adult life but was completely disillusioned with his profession and declared that he no longer wanted to be a teacher, actively contemplating to start life anew, selling 'commodities'. He was known to be a good teacher and it shattered me completely to hear that he saw no future in his chosen profession.


Where are we headed as teachers? What is the true role of a teacher in this technology-laden, information-saturated world of ours?


The profession seems to be in a crisis...teachers no longer enjoy the teaching-learning process, we no longer seem to share a caring relationship with our students... the 'emotional connectedness' is missing. Teachers complain about low salaries but are actually lamenting the fact that there is no 'soul' in teaching...we are drifting, rudderless in a vast sea. We are more concerned about our home-loan mortgages, car loan EMIs and the latest gizmo in the market than in learning about our art and bringing passion to it.


This web log is an inspired attempt to understand the practice of teaching and give voice to the practitioner...his trials and tribulations, angst at the system, his hopes and aspirations. It is an attempt to explore the the teaching-learning process...what does it mean to be a teacher? and hopefully, help the teacher to rediscover his love of teaching.