Experiential Learning

This new-age terminology is not actually new. We have recently come across the news on how babies react to taste and smell in the womb. There is a reference in the Mahabharata of Abhimanyu the son of Arjun and Subhadra who has mastered the skill of penetrating an artillery formation while in his mother’s womb. There is another reference to the Vedic sage Ashtavakra* who learned the chanting^# of the Vedas while in the womb of his mother.

The education system however believes in learning first and then having the experience (missing in most cases, unfortunately). Surprisingly when a child is born, the parents consider themselves more knowledgeable than the child! Physically the parents are older than the child, however, they got the role of the parent only when their child was born! Hence the parents and the child are of the same age! The child is just born so is the latest version of the human, hence must be more knowledgeable than the parents!

So, in due course when the child grows up the parents start teaching and correcting the child, without allowing the child to experience. This ideally should have been the other way around. When a child is born it is a great opportunity for the parents to make corrections to their own shortcomings in their life by observing the child! Ideally what the parents should do is make the surroundings conducive for the growth and experiential learning of the child without too much meddling!

When William Wordsworth said “The child is the father of the man”, it was not just a poetic expression, but a very serious statement for each of us to reflect on.

* Ashtavakra is the author of the text Aṣṭāvakra Gītā or Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
# It is said that once when his father was reciting the Vedas, he erred with regard to the correct intonation. The foetus in the mother’s womb is said to have called out and indicted this to the father, who felt offended and in angered cursed that the son be born with eight deformities. Hence the name Ashtavakra – one with eight deformities.</pre>