Can sensitivity be taught?

 

Having established sensitivity is important, let us look at the prospect of creating a sensitive society.  What does that mean? To mean it means a society which is aware and accepting of other people's existence without seeing them as a threat to their space or existence. 

Even though it sounds like a dichotomy, I do want to raise this issue can sensitivity be taught. I was looking into reasons for sensitivity being personal, and some things that I found explained it. It is more pertaining to one’s reaction to one’s background, people or larger environment.  Hence the need to take a journey back to our formative year.

Clearly, our education system does not incorporate sensitivity training as a norm. However, the lack of sensitivity training does not signify the absence of education. As part of the education system, some schools do have moral science or value education as part of the curriculum. However, it is at the prerogative of the school to include moral education as part of the curriculum. It is not mandated by the state structure to include moral science classes.

One has to understand, it is not just a matter of one subject is included to make things right. It is the effort to teach the right thing based on correct information. Take history for example. One of the most controversial subjects because it is not based on facts but on oration. And also who kept more facts. Documentation was the key right. For eg, India as a culture is not a huge fan of record-keeping, or if they were records, could have been destroyed by continuous invasions.  The incomplete reporting, out of place interpretation and sometimes the maligned presentation can lead to a history textbook full of errors and a generation misled.

The languages have also not been spared. English and Hindi course books in Rajasthan clearly convey the bias against women. An illustration of games will only have boys or a description of a famous poet would enlist his wife’s role as a follower and a child bearer. These instances might seem subtle but they create an impression on a young mind at a place which is supposed to be impartial and unbiased.

A 2005 report by Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education, MHOD on Regulatory mechanisms for textbooks taught outside of Government system has clearly recommended that government issues a set of national guidelines to ensure that curricular materials adhere to constitutional values and the aims of national policy. State governments would be responsible for ensuring that private bodies do not flout these. The idea was to ensure to stop any communal bias that they had observed in various courses taught. https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/textbooks.pdf

Now that we have covered one base, we go to another. If I take a trip down the memory lane, I don’t think my books will stand out immediately. In fact, they will not even make the list. So why did I mention them first? The reason being, it is subtle and needs to be brought to attention. Three boys playing a game will not bother me. Mostly because, I was allowed to go out and play games, with boys but in the villages where the book is taught, it is not. Thus forms that boy’s definition of normal. It is normal that boys play games and girls don’t.

Coming back to my memories, they would more be centred on teachers, what they said, how they made me feel and how I reacted. I have done that umpteen number of times. My mother was a teacher and three years after her death, I decided to commemorate her memory by dedicating a web page in her name. I now sit back and see students joining in and the beautiful things they write, I feel honoured to see she touched so many lives positively. Teachers have that impact. But I have done enough teachers’ training to know, sensitivity is a rare commodity. Despite an extensive student learning program, one basic component that teachers miss is navigating emotional cues. More often than not it is referred to a school psychologist/counsellor if the school can afford, or brushed under the carpet if it can’t.

I would talk about parents and peers but that I think is another part of the same equation. Their role in teaching sensitivity is skewed. Reason being most of the biases originate from our safe haven home. Gender, race, caste are, to say the least, some of the prejudices we have found their foundation at home. In order to have an impartial view, we need an institution, a structure which encourages impartial thinking, and critical thinking.

To be able to do this we need a curriculum which encourages open-mindedness, ability to question, and problem-solving. And for that we need to equip our curriculum makers, our institutions and our educators.  Efforts are already underway and a consciousness seeping in. Miles to go before we sleep.