Category: Education

The Habit of Reason by Brand Blanshard

Brand Blanshard was only 92 years old when he delivered Boston University’s 111th Commencement in 1984. Titled “The Habit of Reason.” I came across this magnificent piece here. I consider myself lucky to have stumbled upon it and so should you since you are reading this. Appropriately the piece is thoughtful since he urges the students to think.

The piece resonates deeply with my own feelings about the goals of education. He says, “Life is a succession of big and little crises, and one main aim of education is to supply us with the strategies necessary for dealing with them. Furthermore, dealing with them thoughtfully may become a habit. Indeed, my thesis today is that if you have acquired that habit of reasonableness, you will have acquired the best thing that an education can bestow.”

Here are the concluding paragraphs of his address.
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Thoughts on Education and OLPC – 1

I am having a conversation with a bunch of people on the net about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and its relevance to education. I am of course speaking there from an Indian perspective. I would like to share it with you. Of course, you may have already read many of my arguments about the OLPC here already. So pardon me for some possible repetition.
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Numerology Question

I need help with replying to this email which has been sitting in my inbox for a while. Every time I open it with intentions of replying, words fail me. Any suggestions from the gallery on what the appropriate response should be?

Atanu:

I read your article on name change and I found it fascinating. Do you have a numerologist you could recommend? I’ve just written my first novel and I need to choose between my name and married name. Thanks so much.

All the best,
Novel Writer

Thank you kindly for any help.

Competition and Choice

From Bath, England, Keith Hudson’s Daily Wisdom mailings are a source of endless delight and surprise. Wide ranging and eclectic, Keith’s musings are edifying to say the least. Here, for the record, is today’s bit which focuses on a topic close to my heart–education.
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Liberalize the Indian Education Sector

This is a true story. The faculty member involved emailed me yesterday. Scene: an IIT professor interviewing a potential candidate for PhD in a technical subject.
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Desperately Seeking India’s Google

The San Jose Mercury News has a recent report about how mobile phones are going to be for India what the PC was for the US. Naturally, they quote the most passionate evangelist for the mobile web, my colleague and MD of Netcore, Mr Rajesh Jain. The matter that the article focuses on is of paramount interest in the context of India’s development: the mobile phone revolution in India.
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Instituto Thomas Jefferson

George Bernard Shaw had claimed with characteristic immodesty that “when I want to read a good book, I write one.” Fulfilling a perceived need is a defining characteristic of entrepreneurs. Like great artists and poets, entrepreneurs see the world not as it is but rather how it ought to be. And they follow that creative vision to create something of value. Ricardo Carvajal is a visionary and an entrepreneur in that sense. I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife Jeanene Bluhm Carvajal, the creators of the Instituto Thomas Jefferson (ITJ), during my brief visit to Mexico City exactly two months ago as their guest.
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Interested in Transforming Education? (Part 2)

Thanks to all of you who have written to me in response to my post “Interested in Transforming Education?”

First, it is very gratifying to note the volume of emails I received. I will, time permitting, respond to all of them. For now, I think it would be proper to answer some frequently raised questions. Continue reading “Interested in Transforming Education? (Part 2)”