Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/84

 ﻿________________

in our we need suddenly called into action and she has to think what she should do next. Should she make coffee country instead or should she use the tea bags a salesman today, millions of had left three days ago? This is a trivial example of little inventors problem solving. Even the laziest among us rather than solves problems, often by bypassing them. a few great thinkers. Every problem is a challenge we face. Most of them we solve easily. The more difficult ones, we tend to postpone or bypass. But rarely do we consciously face a problem as a challenge or an opportunity. If we do, and if we succeed in solving such a problem, we feel we have made a breakthrough and get a sense of achievement. This experience gets etched in our mind, perhaps forever. This is the kind of problem solving we want to introduce. In this, there is a consciousness of the nature of the problem and it evokes a feeling of challenge. When the problem is partially or completely solved, there is a sense of achievement (a "Eureka" feeling). After the problem is solved, the individual is distinctly wiser and more experienced than before. At present, our education system ignores this kind of problem solving. It assumes that when the required background information is available, it will be applied and the problem will be solved. When faced with a problem, most of the students bring the activity to a halt and wait for further instructions, while some bypass the problem without solving it. This is often at the cost of quality. The few, who take up such problems and follow them through, have the stuff of which inventors are made. This is the orientation we want to give: everyone making little inventions or big inventions, as the problems turn up. The problems that great thinkers grapple with, lead to discoveries. The problems that everyday life throws up, lead to inventions. Without belittling the importance of great thinkers, what < Rural Development Through Education System 71