An Educational Experiment … Unschooling the mind

A spellbinding read!

Taking a year off from school after 10^th class, may seem ‘out of syllabus’ for many students in India. But that is exactly what a 16-year-old Sagarikka Sathya had done. 

It was during those months that Ms.Sathya adorned the hats of a traveler, a learner, a blogger, an investor, an intern (to name a few). She chronicles her disciplined repertoire in her book - My Unschooled Year.

 

Not a ‘brake’ but a well-deserved ‘break’:

Let’s admit - this would not have garnered attention in the west, as taking a year off from school is as common as arranged marriages in India. And in India, taking a year off from school is as uncommon as arranged marriages in the west! 

Well, that being said, the book encapsulates the unusual journey of an erstwhile happy-go-lucky student. It is a journey worth sharing with your friends and family, a journey that can be safely introduced to your child and a journey touted to continue even after it terminates.

If Dora and Bujji look into a map to guide them in their path, Sathya’s map was handy too, only that it was prepared along the way! The journey was prepared hoping to elicit the 21^st century skills in her. Peppered with twists and turns, it was an adventure worth of Robinson Crusoe. 

So, does she reach her destination? Is it one year wasted, or several years gained? Read out, to find out...

The Content:

Keen observations of myriad kinds by the author, classified into seven chapters is followed by her suggestions. ‘Notes from Parents’ constitute a good guiding tool for parents who should be reading this book. Name the subject you study in class, she has used them during these sojourns. Mathematics, Commerce, Accountancy, Stock marketing, Travel, Cinema, Climate, Biological systems- all became a hands-on experience for the author.  Her confident intervention during her car accident (which she describes briefly in one chapter), shows how much the young girl has evolved from her previous self. As for the craftsmanship of the words, fastidiously structured with the usage of rustic simplicity coupled with a droll sense of humour; her choice of vocabulary is commendable for a novice writer(though it can be improved at certain places).

She starts her book with a discussion on ‘Discipline and Time Management’, without which her unschooled year might have been a disaster. She ventures into the business world in the next. This is ensued by several travelogues written during her travels to various places.  ‘Meeting people’ emphasizes her frictionless camaraderie. She ends personally, with a note where she elucidates her bent of mind. All these constitute this one-time read.

Nirmala . S .Varrier, a prominent educationist based in Trichy says that retrospective introspection is needed for students. The year proved to be an inward journey for the author (as she learnt about herself) apart from discovering her outside world. All this is evident from the excerpts she gives through the course of her book

Miscellaneous thoughts on the book:

Somewhere near the middle of the book, I wrote limericks concerned with the constitution of the book on its margins; the words came too fast for my racing pen!

Here is one such attempt:

“ One year off, the risk is a constant ache,   

   but that’s the best risk you’ll ever take!

  Problem over problem- be it a quake,

  But you learn only through a mistake.

  It was anything but a ‘break’,

  So, students give this a try, for God’s sake !! ”

While reading, it would evoke in an adult reader, a certain feel of positive dwarfism about Sagarikka’s opportunity.

Her personality radiates through her paean. The book also works at a rather curious level of achieving its objective. This is starkly evident by the first read. To harvest the optimum benefit from the book, I suggest you to look through the lens of a teenager, as the idea of a year off may be dismissed as a deviation by the child’s parents/guardian. 

This book seems to be written for the affluent children only. Think about a child, who falls below the poverty line, taking a year off from school. His/her only way out of the vicious cycle of poverty is through education. If he/she were to ask for such beneficial internships at a star hotel or a saloon operating for the rich, I am sure that child will be driven away. 

Sad reality, but it’s time we think inclusive education for all. You may reciprocate in thought with this. 

Undoubtedly, she has taken the ‘road not taken’. The indomitable pressure of higher education, she would have gone through in her later years is evident as she would have been automatically pushed into the rat race that our country’s children are sent into. 

As she says, instead of running or crawling in the race, she chose to create her own space.

In a nutshell:

The book is an absorbing read that I would recommend to any student who wishes to transcend the limitations of being a part of the throat cutting competitive arena that our country (or our planet, for that matter) really is.

 

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5.

Happy reading!