The Inspiration for Inspire

At the onset of a new year, a recount from the founders on how the journey of Inspire began...

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.                          Thomas A. Edison                                   

This one-percent though small carries a lot of significance – quite simply, it differentiates someone who completed something successfully from someone who did not.

It is this one-percent that makes an explorer sail in search of undiscovered lands; an inventor labour to craft that unknown miracle that could change the world; a writer pen hundreds of lines to find that perfect prose.

It is this one-percent that brought together the founders of Inspire.

Inspire started as a thought – to bring a change in the 'learning' experiences for a child.

Radhika Suri and Sameera Sood had been educators for many years. They had seen how parents though keen and involved in their children's education were hampered by lack of understanding of what actually 'good' education is. They often based their choice of schools on factors such as infrastructure or catch phrases used in the brochures. On the other hand the school promoters and publishers used the advantage of the situation parents were in to create a successful business model based mostly on superficial elements.The entire industry built around the child paid little attention to what the child really wanted!

The inspiration behind Inspire is the child. 

One of Sameera's fondest memories is of a day when she wore a pink sari on a school occasion. She recalls vividly one compliment among many that she received – this came from one of her students who said "Oh! You look so nice today! Just like a strawberry ice cream!" She had been teaching her class colours. The little child's simple and honest response showed her attempt to extend and apply her learning beyond the class. This has remained with Sameera after so many years.

Radhika recalls how during a class she realized that teaching demanded more listening than speaking. One of her students when asked a question responded exasperated and confused. "Arre Ma'am! Aap chup rahogi toh sochunga na!" (I can only think if you keep quiet!) Radhika calls her it her 'Lesson on Teaching from a 4-year old.'

Unlike Radhika and Sameera, Tilottama comes from a corporate background. Her first interest in education came from the time her son started school. When she began hunting for a 'good' preschool for her son, all the schools she visited looked more or less the same and said the same words. In many of the schools she saw children moving around mechanically with expressionless faces. Ultimately she settled for a school which had strong recommendations from some parents she knew. What she found later in the school was something she had hated as a child – homework! Toddlers were expected to complete worksheets to be signed and graded by the teacher.

Each such experience that the founders went through was like a seed for thoughts of doing something different - wherein a child would be loved, respected, asked, listened to, given opportunities to explore her likes – to channelize the boundless enthusiasm and energy that the child has.

The learning experience would make the child look forward to learning.
The learning tools would be appropriate to enforce this learning in the child.

In its journey, Inspire looks to find many persons who share this thought of bringing in a change. A change that must happen among schools, teachers, parents and even children – in order to be effective.

It is Inspire's aim for a collaborative and accelerated effort towards better education. 

That is the remaining ninety-nine percent...the journey for which has only begun.

Series - Education for Future & Schools of Tomorrow

The pace of change and technological advancement in the world has been exponential in the last century or so.

The light bulb was invented in 1879. Since then, we have seen the invention of cars, the telephone, air travel, radio and television.

For today's common man it is hard to imagine how life would have been just a hundred years ago. Unimaginable inventions like submarines, spacecraft and even the atomic bomb have taken place.

Computers, micro-processors and most famously the Internet have come to occupy a place in our everyday lives.

Cloning, 3D Television, holographic images - the world around us is changing at a relentless pace.

That brings us to the question of what changes should we bring in education to keep up to the huge changes happening in our world today?

Think about this - children who are starting Kindergarten today will retire by 2065 or even later. We can only imagine what their world will be like during that time. If we are unable to predict, let alone visualise the future, how can we provide education to our children that prepares them for the future?

As parents and educators we often marvel and envy at the ease with which children learn to use and adapt to technology. They seem to pick up and learn to use the latest phones and gaming devices almost instinctively, while we adults struggle to figure out the mechanics of how they work.

This is a simple example of how we need to test our paradigm of education, reinvent our understanding of teaching and learning and make it relevant for today and also for the future that is nebulous and uncertain.

Beginning with this, we will publish some thoughts we have on this - what changes we can bring and how to the system of education that is rapidly getting out-of-date.