When Education Kills Curiosity
Recently, another 16-year-old in Kota took his own life — the fourteenth this year. His classmate, speaking on camera, said he didn’t know who he would be if he didn’t crack the exams. Tragic as it is, we don’t need statistics to see that the system meant to prepare our children for life is draining life out of them.
A nine-year-old once asked me, “Why should I learn multiplication when my watch can do it faster?” That question is the diagnosis: children sense what many adults refuse to admit — the world they are growing into has already outpaced the one we are preparing them for.The coming decades will be defined by volatility and velocity. AI, automation, and algorithmic decision-making are redefining what it means to be human. As Yuval Noah Harari warns, “In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.” The future will reward those who can connect ideas, not those who memorise facts.
AI won’t replace humans — the real danger is humans behaving like machines.To survive and thrive, children must learn to learn, unlearn, and reimagine. As Sir Ken Robinson noted, human communities rely on diverse talents, not a singular conception of ability. Education must nurture curiosity, empathy, collaboration, and problem-solving — the very skills that define humanity. Schools should teach children how to think, not what to think; courage, imagination, and conscience, not mere compliance.Instead, India’s mainstream schools still produce efficient imitators rather than original thinkers. Sociologists highlight a sharp distinction: socialisation — teaching empathy and cooperation — is treated as the family’s job; social control — discipline and regulation — is the school’s.
Our system wasn’t broken by accident; it was designed to feed bureaucracy and conformity. Our education rewards compliance, not questioning; fitting in, not standing out.Progressive education, often dismissed as indulgent or urban elitist, must become mainstream.
The world we are preparing our children for values originality, adaptability, and human connection — not obedience. Rooted in autonomy, inquiry, and real-world relevance, progressive methods like project-based learning, travel-based learning, and community-led initiatives help children engage, experiment, and solve problems. In fact, India’s ancient gurukul system thrived on inquiry-driven, mentor-led experiential learning, a tradition replaced by colonial-era rote schooling.Yet, meaningful reform challenges powerful interests. Schools today often serve political, corporate, or bureaucratic convenience. A system producing compliant consumers is easy to maintain; true change is disruptive and uncomfortable — and essential. Without it, we risk raising generations fluent in textbooks but illiterate in life, facing climate chaos, AI disruption, and moral uncertainty with no creativity or courage. The consequences are visible today: unemployable graduates, frustrated youth, and fertile grounds for social unrest. Education is civilisation’s survival kit, not an industry. Progressive schooling must become the only form of schooling for the future. Otherwise, education itself will be the world’s most sophisticated failed experiment — and those suicides in Kota will remain haunting reminders that the system collapsed long before the students did.
The writer is Director, The Wonder School, Pune; views are personal
