Preparing Children and Youth for Life

Project for Reforming Elementary and High School Education globally to integrate tools for aid in growth and development of children at all levels - physically, mentally, intellectually and spiritually, and not just making them memory machines to pass exams, compete and earn a living.

Earning a living is critical for our survival but is something that an individual can manage to do without attending school as well, simply because of our intact survival instincts. There are numerous examples in this regard of highly successful and millionaire business tycoons, who did not attend school, and some dropped out as they found school education of no interest and value addition, rather a waste of their time and money, and they went out in the world on their own and conquered. In fact, many of them turned into philanthropists and have been playing instrumental role with their efforts and contributions in making our planet a better place to live.

From the current situation of our world, we know that our planet is in crisis, with extremities of emotions and actions in all directions - destruction and aggression, fear and depression, violence and crime, and not to mention all the damage that is ongoing and has been done over several decades to mother earth and the space around, with absolute thoughtless and regardless actions of human superiority over all other life on the planet . 

So clearly, the current education system is missing on the very roots of the teaching content, that is, 'How to live', something that is more fundamental than earning a living - learning if taught and received justly, can help ground a growing individual, and holds the potential of a better future not just for an individual, but for society at large, heading towards healing our planet of all the damage that humans have done to it.

Current education system globally is primarily designed to prepare children for competition and making them job ready in the material world. It does not impart any education on how to live life peacefully despite its various challenges, hardships, stresses, and more importantly, spiritual growth as a subject is not even on the agenda of any school curriculum. Spirituality is still seen as an esoteric subject that some cynics become curious about later in life, or is a subject of self-exploration or in guidance with some mystic Guru from the Himalayas, while in reality, since all of us are born with a spirit inside our body, beside our mind, (in fact the very reason we have a body and mind is for the spiritual growth can't be an endeavor for a limited few. In fact, spiritual development leading to its liberation is the very objective of human life on a subtle level, with our body being nothing more than an abode for our spirit. On the gross level, what we do is all that we need to support our body.

Unfortunately however, we become engrossed with the body alone neglecting our spirit and exhaust all our education, energy and resources in the care for the needs our body, which is a faulty system grounded on faulty perception of the fundamental reality.

Collective spiritual awakening and spiritual growth of societies at large is the only way to bring peace to the planet without a doubt and without an alternative. And so spiritual awakening is certainly not a subject to be left to mystics and their followers, but inevitably need to be included in school curriculum in order to provide the right foundation to every growing individual enabling them to live a wholesome life with their full potential, so that they become instruments of constructive contributing in societal development, adding to peace and harmony on the planet.

Through this Project of Reforming education curriculum, especially at elementary and high school level, inclusion of the ancient wisdom of Vedic Science in its various forms - theoretical and practical, is being proposed, to strengthen the foundation for virtuous growth and development of children - physically and mentally, so that they grow up as adults who are wise and responsible, strong and kind, compassionate and considerate of all beings on the planet with universalism as a value ingrained in their core, instead of producing self-centric graduates with a restricted worldview and mindset of earling a living for themselvesand not the ones who just want to earn a living or thrive in businesses or yet, possess all kinds of luxuries and comforts in the material world, without  much regard or recognition of anything else in life outside of their own needs, other than their family and personal relationships.

In Ancient system of Education, practiced in India hundreds of years ago, called Gurukul, children at the age of five would be sent to live in the care of a Guru (teacher), where they would spend next ten or more years of their childhood and adolescence learning spiritual texts, yoga, Ayurveda,  philosophy, all of which, first and foremost imparts wisdom of we really are as humans in body,  what our purpose in life is and how to achieve it, while keeping ourself healthy physically and mentally throughout our life via yogic and Ayurvedic regimen and practices, as we grow spiritually exploring our nature further and learning about our place and role in the universe. 

That education and knowledge gained was not limited to teaching the means to survive in this limited material world. Competing to make a living is an animal instinct. Humans innately being animals with their redundant instincts have the ability to do so, probably without going to school as well. Yes, the level, the kind of jobs, the skills and everything are different fordifferent jobs and needto be learned, however, there are numerous examples of multi-millionaire business tycoons who did not attend school, or were drop outs as they didn't see much meaning in school education and chose to begin their life on their own.

As humans, we have a higher purpose and responsibility, and also have internal resources in our reach, including but not limited to our intellect, but we need to learn how to access those resources and use them for higher purpose. Learning to align with our own 'Real Self' can be seen as the sole purpose of life, because once that is achieved, nothing else is unachievable. For the wise, nothing else is even needed afterwards as they learn to rest in their inner core, one with their source, pure consciousness, themselves becoming refined and pure. After that, what follows is pure selfless love and indiscriminate service for all beings.

Every child equally deserves to receive love, care and virtuous education, no matter the circumstances they are born in and the family they come from. 

Most of the physical and mental disorders that emerge later in life have roots in the childhood, with some of them leading to behaviours and emotional states like anger, frustration, fear, resentment, guilt, resulting in depression, violence or crime. 

If all children are loved and cared well for in the years they yearn comfort and safety, along with ingraining high moral values in them in those years when their heart is fully open to absorb and molded into virtuous responsible and compassionate beings, then we can save humanity and the planet from crisis.

 ॐ  (AUM) (OM)