"The Pedagogical Life" | An educator’s travelogue of ideas

A collection of thoughts on  education, its purpose and method, presented in ‘The Pedagogical Life- Essays on Educating India’, is an educator’s travelogue of ideas and experiences accumulated over the years. The book maps strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary education system. The author vehemently advocates teacher preparedness, value based education and technology integration as integral parts of an efficient school system.

While touching upon modern approaches to impart holistic education, the author emphasises on the time-tested tools like storytelling, heritage education and positive reinforcement. Ashok Pandey, a distinguished educator, has drawn heavily from his experiences of setting up new benchmark schools and experimenting on evolving philosophies in the classrooms. When he talks about the collaborative relationship between the school and parents, one knows where he has come from.

Pandey believes in turning students and teachers as independent ‘imagineers’ and the principal playing the role of an alert observer, coach, amentor, and an assiduous facilitator. He rightly makes a case for the teachers being treated as assets for the schools if the results are to be rewarding. The book spotlights much debated Right to Education Act (2010), landmark legislation, as an opportunity to pass on the benefit of education to fight inequality.

The foremost concern for the country should be to make quality education accessible to all, particularly to the marginalised. The author’s experience of working in India’s premium schools like Mayo College and Delhi Public School has helped him pick the pearls of classroom practices and yet question the shortcomings of the system in a detached approach. The purport of education, as a noble service, lies in extending the benefits to the last child in the country. Some of the other vexed issues in our teaching-learning process concern school-wide discipline, reward, punishment, and collaborative problem-solving. The author has dexterously handled these problems.

The book is a journey of the optimism in an era of rapid and unprecedented social changes. It serves some freshly squeezed ideas; presented in simple, conversational language from the contemporary trends in education across the globe. It is engaging, enriching and inclusive – a collector’s pride for aspiring educators, especially those inclined towards engaging students in an evocative learning process. The thought process unfolds logically and seamlessly on a diverse canvas of the contemporary school system. 

(The book reviewer is an author on education related issues)