In one of those long bus journeys, I was curious to know facts about snakes. (after spotting that green snake in Kudremukh, wanted to know how to distinguish poisonous and non-poisonous snakes). So I started reading about snakes on wikipedia through my mobile. What caught my attention is the mention of the 'Irula' tribe in the article. I have heard about the tribe from a friend who stays near Nellore where the tribe is native. This tribe is famous for catching snakes with bare hands. They are adept at dealing even the venomous snakes and know how to identify venomous and non-venomous snakes by the look and behavior. Now I was more curious to know the tricks of the trade. I searched more on the web, but could not find much.
Thats when I realized that these skills are passed from father to child generations down the line. These cannot be acquired in a school or over internet. If this is the secret sauce of the Irula tribe, then this can be the case even in other socio political scenes in India. Indians often encounter the question why the Gandhi Family are the first family in Indian Politics? How can Shruthi Hassan dream to be a marvelous actress? Why someone with a Tata surname have more business intuition than even the best MBAs? I always felt that being in the family implies being in the blood. So Rahul Gandhi carries the more charisma as Rajeev Gandhi who in turn has bettered Indira Gandhi. Similarly Ratan Tata has acquired more business intuition as a kid itself which is way beyond an Ivy-League MBA grad. This does not limit to specific geographies. If George Bush Jr. can prove to be successful President and Hillary Clinton a successful Senator, it is because of their association with their family members who have been there and done that.
Then what kind of traits can and need to be passed down to generations through a family school? Aspects which relate to intuition, (business trends), emotions (theatrics), acute sense (art/fashion) and extensive knowledge in specialized field (like snake spotting and categorization). Modern education (alas I can no longer call it Western education) can teach rationality, logic based and repetitive activity based learnings. It cannot teach intuition, emotions, sensitivity and extensive specializations. These are left for the students and it conveniently factors it as the 'student's ability'. If some one has already found/acquired any of these abilities by chance he is a whiz kid or gifted child. But unlike the modern education, the gurukul education or the trade based (or caste based education) gave the lee way to nurture these abilities in a child while he is young. This made most students (gifted and so) more useful to society. This ingredient is missing in the modern education. Imagine a child of software engineer, wants to pursue a sales career. He can earn an MBA degree from one of the best B-Schools in the world, thanks to his Dad, passing down his intellect and money. But he can never sell in his lifetime until he is on field and acquires the right skills. He would be bogged down by his shyness, his chutzpah of placating others to buy and his approach towards the work as a job. Now just imagine a small grocery shop owner, he would put his kid in the shop when he is 8 years old and by the time he is a teenager, he would have given away his shyness and chutzpah. He also develops an intuition on identifying customers who will buy and on how to bring repetitive business. I believe most of us would agree to this example. So now if we are encouraging family schools and trade based schools, are we also patronizing caste system in a way? The response to do this will answer why Indian society cannot do away with caste system.
Thats when I realized that these skills are passed from father to child generations down the line. These cannot be acquired in a school or over internet. If this is the secret sauce of the Irula tribe, then this can be the case even in other socio political scenes in India. Indians often encounter the question why the Gandhi Family are the first family in Indian Politics? How can Shruthi Hassan dream to be a marvelous actress? Why someone with a Tata surname have more business intuition than even the best MBAs? I always felt that being in the family implies being in the blood. So Rahul Gandhi carries the more charisma as Rajeev Gandhi who in turn has bettered Indira Gandhi. Similarly Ratan Tata has acquired more business intuition as a kid itself which is way beyond an Ivy-League MBA grad. This does not limit to specific geographies. If George Bush Jr. can prove to be successful President and Hillary Clinton a successful Senator, it is because of their association with their family members who have been there and done that.
Then what kind of traits can and need to be passed down to generations through a family school? Aspects which relate to intuition, (business trends), emotions (theatrics), acute sense (art/fashion) and extensive knowledge in specialized field (like snake spotting and categorization). Modern education (alas I can no longer call it Western education) can teach rationality, logic based and repetitive activity based learnings. It cannot teach intuition, emotions, sensitivity and extensive specializations. These are left for the students and it conveniently factors it as the 'student's ability'. If some one has already found/acquired any of these abilities by chance he is a whiz kid or gifted child. But unlike the modern education, the gurukul education or the trade based (or caste based education) gave the lee way to nurture these abilities in a child while he is young. This made most students (gifted and so) more useful to society. This ingredient is missing in the modern education. Imagine a child of software engineer, wants to pursue a sales career. He can earn an MBA degree from one of the best B-Schools in the world, thanks to his Dad, passing down his intellect and money. But he can never sell in his lifetime until he is on field and acquires the right skills. He would be bogged down by his shyness, his chutzpah of placating others to buy and his approach towards the work as a job. Now just imagine a small grocery shop owner, he would put his kid in the shop when he is 8 years old and by the time he is a teenager, he would have given away his shyness and chutzpah. He also develops an intuition on identifying customers who will buy and on how to bring repetitive business. I believe most of us would agree to this example. So now if we are encouraging family schools and trade based schools, are we also patronizing caste system in a way? The response to do this will answer why Indian society cannot do away with caste system.
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