Are you in the 21st Century?

Prannoy Roy, a talk show host from India, asked a question to a leader in one of his interviews “Are you in the 21st Century?”

Times have changed!

The leader must have said something that to Roy seemed so old-fashioned.

Like going on a vacation in a bullock cart. Or sending your precious kids to an institutional school.

Hey, wait a minute! What do you mean, you would ask!

Exactly…..what do I mean?

Prannoy may have a certain concept of what constitutes 21st Century. Maybe fuel propelled vehicles with 4 wheels or more, instant communication with people around the world, medical advances etc.

In the same way most people at present also have a certain idea when they think of the 21st Century.

That doesn’t mean the majority is right, does it?

The majority thought the earth was flat 1000 years ago, so what?

The majority send their kids to school, so what?

What the majority are realising slowly now is that times are changing….and are seeing that more and more parents are taking a conscious decision to provide something better for their childrens future than sending them to instituitional organisationss called schools.

Are you in the 21st Century?

Let us look at the 22nd Century perhaps….when parenting and education would not be outsourced to so called experts.

When parents and children spend time together learning and having fun, developing bonds that will last a lifetime.

Times have indeed changed

When the Government and Commerce would stop trying to fit all individuals into uniform molds called ‘good consumers or useful slaves’ for their own benefit.

Let the movement roll on.

Jai Hind.

Home schooling?

What? Homeschooling?

Many people ask me….You mean you dont send your kids to school?

Yes, I say. They all want to know why….

I say, let me ask you a few questions….

Why do you send your kids to school?

Learning at School

To learn, ofcourse, they say!

I ask them: How do you expect your kids to learn at school?

Why, from the text books ofcourse, and the teachers etc…

I ask them, what world are you living in? Don’t you know that if you want your kids to learn something from school text books, you are way behind the times? Knowledge is advancing so fast that by the time the textbooks your child gets are out they are already atleast a decade old?

If you want to find out or learn about anything, where do you go to now?

Smart way to learn

Did anyone say ‘google’!

Oh, it is as if a light bulb popped open in their brain…they wonder…..what on earth!

Then they say, aha, we send our kids to school so that they can ‘Socialise’ and learn to mix with other people.

I look at them and ask again, politely…where in the real world would you expect your child, assuming he or she grows up, to ‘socialise’ only with people his same age??

Are you preparing for the Real World

What kind of artificial ‘socialisation’ are you talking about? Would it not be better if your child mixes with their neighboring kids and with their brothers and sisters at home and around? Learning to share and play together?

By this time, the parent who asked me the question is left wondering why he or she did not think of all this before.

I reassure them, that there is still time. If you believe your kids are the most precious gifts you have, you would do your best for them. Since you thought that sending them to school was the best you could do for them, you did that. Now that you know there are better ways, think about it. Plan it as a family, pray about it. See if you have the necessary time and resources to homeschool.

Hey, homeschooling works!

Then be ready to change!

Hope you have a wonderful day ahead. Life is full of challenges and changes.

Some teachable tools

Some notes on my experiences with teaching kids:

Education

Mathematics

In Mathematics there has been a surprising loss of certainty amongst experts. Many of them are not sure if 2 plus 2 is 4 anymore!

How did this come about?

Set theory is the absence of the singular, which is the hallmark of humanism. Contrast it with the God of the Old Testament who said He is One God.

Set theory can be manipulated the way anyone wants. It demands Pluralism, humanism and relativism. It denies absolute truth. It puts off average students from Mathematics.  It stresses on non essentials, belaboring concepts that are trivial, giving insufficient emphasis to concepts that are fundamental, it doesn’t devote adequate time for students to master the real basics of Mathematics. Average students have been turned off Mathematics, just as Morris Kline predicted.

Growing up and bringing up Teenagers

I am surprised at the number of people growing old who are totally disconnected from the world of their children and grand children.

I am reminded of a vast sewer flowing out from under a city. In this sewer come floating down all sorts of garbage. The broken tins, rotten fruit, and damaged furniture all remind me of the adolescents growing up in today’s world. These adolescents have already destroyed the purity of their lives by giving away their emotional and physical purity, which God has given them in the first place, to the first person or idol they encounter in their teens.

Would you buy a half eaten chocolate or a rat eaten apple with your hard earned money? Would you not rather look at it with disgust and throw it in the garbage?

Parents who were supposed to ‘parent’ their kids through childhood and adolescence have been seduced with the idea that it is more important to ‘secure a future’ for their kids by working hard and long hours away from their very kids!

Parents have been fooled into thinking that the ‘world’ knows better than them how to bring up their kids, and how to let their kids find ‘happiness’.

I am reminded of a custom practised in villages of India, when youth of both sexes are allowed to mingle at certain festivals. They do that under the eyes of the whole village, so that the intentions behind seeking the opposite sex are honourable. But, you may ask, what do you mean by honourable?

A man and a woman have different and at the same time similar needs. Sex, companionship and support could be common needs. He needs respect, she needs unconditional love and acceptance. For meeting all these needs, God has ordained only one way in which man and woman can come together, and that is the institution of marriage.

Honorable intentions means one person is not trying to defraud another. Now in 2010, where do young people go to meet each other? In darkened pubs and secret parties. Are their parents present there? Ofcourse not, parents have far more important things to do, right? Right! Like amassing more wealth, spoiling their health, working like slaves for someone else, visiting Doctors, the list goes on.

And what happens when the parents become too old to work, too old to care for themselves?

Do they then realise, too late, how they have been deceived? Yes, sadly, but it is too late by then.

My patients

Being a Doctor and especially a Physician in Private Practice provides me with unparalleled glimpses into the lives of a vast spectrum of people. Rich or poor, sad or happy, the variety is amazing.

I am privileged to be a part of and help so many lives. I thank God for that.

God has given me two ears and two eyes but only one mouth. I believe He has a purpose for that.

As a Doctor I believe my main part in their therapy is in listening to my patients, and their relatives. More than half the treatment comes with empathic listening.

I will be putting up some of my experiences with patients here, with the aim of improving the present Doctor Patient relationships and also providing some entertainment in a depressing world.