School of Learning…

                        Where there are no holds barred!

This morning I was touched by a newspaper article I came across on A School For Grannies.

Warmed by the thought of Professor Bangar, The Founder of this innovative school, and the zeal and the burning desire of his real old 30-odd students(one of whom is 92 years), I felt compelled to applaud it.

Age definitely must not be a restraining factor at all when it comes to Learning. Not alone from our environment and experiences but also the academic learning.

So very often we come across young and old people with regrets for not having understood the worth of or not having had the means or money for receiving education at the right time.

Most touching are the very common cases in our country where children have to give up education and take on working instead to support themselves or lend a hand in earning for the family.

And if we talk about women specifically we all know heart of heart, how despite having the Right to equality in education, young girls desirous of studying are made to quit schools for their brothers when family can support education for just one and how girls are instead forced into household chores and not provided even the elementary education.

Many, if not all, such children, irrespective of their gender, grow up into adults feeling lacking and inferior.

And as they grow further mature or old, they have this constant nagging feeling that life could have been different had they received education at the right time.

Yes, you and I can vouch for that it indeed would have been so! But why should they live on with that regret now and forever? Each individual has a right to education and he or she should exploit the right whenever best he can.

While all children, boys or girls, rich or poor, must receive the formal education they are rightful of, at the same time the eager grown-ups and even the elderlies must be encouraged and assisted to pursue education no matter how old they are!

Let the school of learning be open for one and all and let there be no holds barred!

Kudos to this School for Grannies! Let’s have more of those!

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
                                                                                            - Mahatma Gandhi