Another post on education

With a "Teacher Amma " at home we often have heated discussions about education, the schooling system and especially its impact on kids, the country, the globe , the milky way and so on...
Pararelly what my Sanskrit teacher once told us in class also dawned on me...She said that No teacher "teaches" anything to a student .. It is already within the kid and she simply taps it out of him..Viewing teaching in this new limelight I can now visualize the refinement involved in the profession.Education itself is simply a realization process within the student's mind and the teacher is a catalyst to aid the completion of this beautiful process...With four courses in theoretical computer science I am tending to be a mathematician, so I will pick up examples of teaching maths.
My ground rule now is
1.The teacher/guide should not give the solution to any problem in the beginning.ie No method should be written on the board directly.

2.The teacher should break the problem and maybe give an example of the expected results and not immediately go ahead and give the solution.Maybe you have a Newton sitting in your class..Give him enough motivation to rediscover calculus.

3.The full pleasure of education can be enjoyed when it self becomes a realization process.Reinventing the wheel is fun.In the process failing is fun.Retry is superb.And finally when the solution is presented the student understands the idea , the mind behind the solution and also appreciate the great thoughts..

If not calculus atleast some basic tricks..For instance dont tell him that if the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 3 then the number is also divisible by 3.Help him discover it own his own..Give examples...Remodel it into a simple linear equation problem .And finally see the answer boiling out..

With this kind of realization process comes a new level of maturity.The maturity to appreciate great interpretation.After presenting a new algorithm to us in class which was better than the previous idea my prof remarks "Ah Ha!".
When I get a chance to teach..After I present someone's great ideaI want ppl to "realize" on their own..And then say an "Ah ha!" and not an "Ayyo!" .And I guess the Gurukula system is the best form of schooling.No doubt.