What is the role of Education today? We have always held that what education needs to teach students are the attitude, skills, and knowledge that will sustain in a multi-cultural and diversity-rich environment. So that no matter where our students go, they will not only fit in with the society but be an asset to it. It is for the same reason that parents have chosen this school for their children. The Gurukul has always valued parents for their support, participation, and cooperation in all areas, and received it. The faith and trust of the parents, students, and staff is what makes the Gurukul what it is today – a sincere and dedicated institution committed to Education!
What schools need to include as an essential objective is to help students recognize who they are, and what they want to do in their life. That they should choose based on love and not wealth, recognition, or livelihood. If they choose based on love, all the other things will follow smoothly. The aim of Education should be to bring to the students awareness that they are ‘guests’ on Earth. Like guests, they don’t have rights, but responsibility to observe the formalities that befits a guest. It means that they understand what it is to be a guest, that they interact without disturbing the environment, without hurting the planet. They do what they can to leave people positive about their visit, and in turn, they are taken care of too.
BCG has evolved upto its full potential, and today its direction is towards further growth. To expand beyond its boundaries, our schools have a curriculum that lays the world at the child’s feet, which builds in students a responsibility that is not confined within the narrow range of man-made boundaries; but is inclusive and global where the child realizes him/herself as a world citizen. Education should be able to teach a child to find his/her natural expression beyond the boundaries of race, caste, creed, nationality or the realms beyond emotions of jealousy, violence, or rejection. This is possible when the environment in Education is non-threatening, and people work fearlessly, with complete devotion and responsibility. When every educator believes in freedom, growth, and sensitivity, it is possible for schools to instill the value of these in their students.
As it has been in the past, and always will be, the decisions of the Management have been focused on what students need today and what they will need tomorrow. We strove against all odds to reduce stress on students, to nurture their tender minds and hearts with love and care, to develop their thinking to be inclusive, global, and sensitive. For this, their learning environment, their curriculum, and their exposure has to grow and broaden, to encompass their mighty potential and brilliant minds. Our children are very capable today. They are faster than us, they are smarter than us, and their behavior today is only an example of their impatience and frustration at having to slow down for us to keep pace with them. They want challenge, they want an opportunity to use their minds, and they want people around them who can meet their needs for emotional and intellectual interactions.
We need to feed their minds with healthy food, not instant food. We need to teach them values that will last, not those that are temporary and short-lived. We need to plan their future for sustenance that will satisfy, not instant glory that leaves one frustrated. Our children will learn from our example, and I urge you all from my heart, that let's work together to give our children a world they deserve. Not a world that is slowly dying from violence towards people and the environment, but a world that is moving towards wisdom, towards light, and towards peace! Let no God or People be greater for us than our children, for they are the very face of God, and to serve them is to serve God himself. If we give them hate and war, they can create a Hell; and if we build for them a world of love and peace, they will build a Heaven for us.
Mr. Vikram Patel
Chairman - Bombay Cambridge Gurukul
