We are made of the elements of the universe by its processes and principles. The universe has evolved and perhaps, learnt all this over many billions of years by ceaseless trials, changes, and adaptation without violating any of the physical laws.

A mother delivers a baby into the world, who does not “know” anything. He is alive and sufficient to learn, all that is necessary to live for many years to come. The child learns from the external environment about itself, and about the world around, while exploring and interacting. He learns to organise the knowledge and experiences in ways that we have not yet deciphered fully.

The child grows and develops due to which there is enrichment and enhancement in life. To what extent will he live, experience “living”, and be aware of the processes of life? We do not seem to know enough about this to be able to teach children.

However, it seems that when clear and defined knowledge forms in the mind, it can enable further knowledge acquisition in the same domain more rapidly. The basic energy of “knowing”, the feeling of knowing, born out of knowing what we know, seems to prevent new knowing to happen at certain times and in certain fields. Numerous kinds of filters operate instantaneously when new stimuli or new knowledge is experienced. The feeling of knowing seems to express itself in many ways. We see it as resistance to change, opinionated attitude (opinions could be conclusions from receipt of inaccurate or unverified data), unwillingness to explore and experiment, and a multitude of other possibilities.

A muscle trained to perform a certain skill develops ease to do that particular operation. The ease and familiarity appears to create reluctance to learn a new skill, unless it is an extension. Could there be something similar to this happening in the mental and psychological functions too? Could formation of a value system or the cultural attributes in an individual, depending on what the child was born into, be inhibitive for the person to learn and change later on? The physical laws obviously were in action to influence and determine the origins and the nature of organic matter. Is the physical law of inertia also the reason for the mind to tread repeatedly into previously learnt patterns? Is that the reason for the mind not to be able to breakthrough itself and instead breakdown when something new or different is demanded?

How do some people breakthrough the repertoire of responses available to face the unfamiliar challenges? How do they graduate into new paradigms to face future better while others breakdown under similar situations? All of us have the choice to either breakthrough or breakdown. Can we educate children to breakthrough and not to breakdown? How do we make children pliable and capable of learning something new, particularly in the realm of habits, ways of thinking, and cultural practices etc.?

It is necessary to relate the above questions to a challenge we face frequently in our school so that we understand it. The backgrounds of our children are obviously different from the kind of values and practices we would like them to learn. The ambience is quite different from what they have experienced previously. For some students, it must a cultural shock.

A few of the crucial differences could be in terms of the expected attitude, ways of speaking, type of thoughts, type of language used, quality of inter-personal relationships. Some children come into our school with a frivolous attitude, casual ways of relating to their work, so deeply ingrained, that any attempts to influence them, and counsel them makes them feel tortured and targeted. Many of the children come from circumstances in which they did not receive appropriate guidance during earlier days; and they do not pay heed to the logical and affectionate requests. The child considers any stronger “request” as too much pressure and breaks down. The apathy or reaction to the demand for improvement can be such as to make a child report the incident in a different light to the parents, who would not understand the matter in a proper perspective.

Situations of the type described above are often experienced all adults, both at home and in the schools. However, as an educator we wonder if there is any magical way out of this impasse! Is there a way of explaining or interacting with the child such that he breaks through instead of breaking down? The matter conveyed and explained through an affectionate relationship may hold promise.

In one of the conversations of J Krishnamurti, he hints that a breakthrough out of existing patterns and bonds is an instantaneous process. One does not need to go through the various struggles and incremental steps in knowing. He seems to indicate that we adults could speak to the subconscious of the child. What does this mean?

It is Hobson’s choice. We must attempt and enable a child to breakthrough to new paradigms on an ongoing basis, which tantamount to learning continuously. Otherwise, he will breakdown. To attempt this we must have experienced breakthrough. Have we?