HYDERABAD: Sciensation, a media firm working towards promoting research based learning in schools, had recently organised a Socratic Dialogue “Understanding APJ- Actuate and Proper a Journey” to get students to discuss Dr Kalam’s ideas and the role of youth/students in realising that. Sriram Karri, a renowned moderator and one of the guests of the students’ dialogue opened the discussion mentioning that only a very few leaders like Dr Abdul Kalam and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru were popular among children as they were a very few who had the courage to address children.
Dr Vivek, a visiting faculty of IIIT Hyderabad and one of the guests had put the discussion into context, by saying that he had seen the country change a lot over the last 45 years. He said that students now have a great environment which helps them in knowing many things and that they now have a chance to ask a lot of good questions. He had then answered a question from Stuti- “Why should I ask questions.”
He said that people may tell a lot of things which are not true and that his grandfather had told him that if a cat crosses the road, it is inauspicious. So he asked the questions to not believe in people directly.
Talking about inspiration, one of the guests Saketh explained a story in which a son emulates a father and chooses robbery as his profession. At the end of the story, a seventh grader Karthik asked- “How did the boy get out of the house, if it was locked?” Saketh confessed that he had not thought of it.
Sriram said that you can answer questions by imagining about it yourself. Karthik had then come about a variety of answers and strategies which could be inserted into the story. He said this was the reason why he likes interacting with school students.Moderator Tarun explained the name of the event using the Socratic Dialogue method, he chose not to state the answer, but to help students in arriving at the answer. He had explained the words propel and journey and their relevance to the event. He had then offered an analogy. He asked why a few students were unable to ask questions and he had asked ideas to get them to ask questions. The students came out with suggestions. He had then said that a few students are self-actuated while most aren’t. He had then asked why it was important for Dr Kalam to actuate and inspire school students?
One of the students had said that since students are educated, they’d connect and understand Dr Kalam’s ideas. One of the students, Stuti had said that Dr Kalam felt that children would comprise the next generation of a nation. One of the students said that students have a lot of ideas. The event took place on Saturday in the city.