Fr Anant Nayak

The pandemic has the potency to polarise people in the long run. The loss of someone very close or the fond memories of school friends hound us and often set us apart. A feeling of helplessness creeps in. The existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger who experience the existential crisis after the world war defined human being as ‘dasein’ – a being thrown into the world. The being needs to exist before becoming a responsible dasein Existence precedes essence. Our essence is formed by fighting against the situations and surroundings – sitz im laben. Often people are crippled by dilemma is ‘to be or not be’. Should a child attend an online education? Does a child profiting anything from online? Where we are heading without education? Are we creating zombies for the future? This dilemma need to be resolved.

Gautama Buddha rightly advocated the eight fold paths which begins with the right thinking and right action as essential for attaining salvation. The online education is going to determine our future no matter what tyranny it may bring about. Friedrich Nietzsche said “to live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering”. It is time to realise the way of doing anything as it gives the charisma to endure it anyhow.

Charles Darwin propounded the need to adapt to the new situations to exist and survive. Everyone is like a being there – a ‘dasein’ – in the world. A knife gets sharpened only when it is used frequently. It corrodes when it is at rest for long a period of time. This is true of education. Education trains, activates and sharpens the mind to solve the profound riddles of life like the little stroke one day felling the mighty oak. Students are under the care of a school teacher when they are on line. Should we deny this protection by procrastinating it for another day or year? The children who are active in the online class room are learning what we have not learnt as children I can see some children who do have accesses to a phone but no net or vice versa. History is our best teacher. Blaming the situation in which we are like cutting the branch on which we sit. Like a responsible dasein we need to stand out.

Circumstance forced people like Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Abdul Kalam Azad to study under the street light. What is required is the will to be .Where there is a will the action happens. Students like to happily move around like the little grasshopper. A day will come the joyful days will suddenly come to an end and the little hard working companion will ask ’what have you been doing all these days?’ I do visualise a Marxian haves and haven’t a huge gulf between those who are seriously attending online education and those who are least bothered about it. We need to stand out like a responsible dasein to be counted among the haves. Some find a safe haven in going for some form of online education without the their school teacher’s accompaniment. It will probably widen the gulf, a great chasm when they come back to the school. They find their teachers as strangers and vice versa. So there is a need to become visible in the class with the camera on. I had an embarrassing situation last year. Two students came to the school. They were seriously gazing on the notice board. At first I could not recognise them. So I asked them” What happened? What can I do for you? “Father, don’t you know me’, came the quick reply. I was ashamed. What did those students probably think about their principal? ‘My teacher does not recognise us.’ I wish let it not happen to anyone in the future. Counselling has become an urgent need of our time. We have already empowered some of our teachers as councillors. They have already met most of the class 9 and 10 students. Any parent or student feeling the need to talk on any problem they face with regard to the students’ study shall not miss the opportunity to talk to the teacher-councillors. The class teachers will guide you to the councillor. This one of our attempt to bring the school closer to you even from a distance.

This e-magazine is one of our attempts to bring our children under the same roof. This is the common platform they can share their ideas and thoughts. It is again an attempt to bridge the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have notes ‘. I wish every child in our school be in the fold of haves. Take part in this endeavour and be united with the entire school community.

I thank all the parents, guardians, teachers, students and well-wishers for your support and concern to us.

My appreciation and congratulation for the e-magazine team. Let many more students pen their feeling in the next issue. May God bless you all!