Teaching Methods

I grew up as a punjabi kid in a largely caucasian elementary school. Other kids, being curious, would ask me so many questions. Sometimes I felt to answer these questions would require so much time and background I was overwhelmed on where to even begin. I would just make up something simple and brush it off. Most of the time I probably didn’t even know the answers. The questions often came from a comparative standpoint, and I wouldn’t know enough about Sikhi or the other religion to be able to make the comparison or know what was being compared. In fact it has only been the last few years where I have felt comfortable answering these types of detailed questions about Sikhi.  

When we think about the way that we generally teach children, we teach the names of the Gurus, the 5 K’s, basic history, and ooda ada, but we don’t actually teach any depth. Most of what we teach is basic facts. Even the history that we pass on is a pretty basic understanding of a few key events. Many people might not even know what Vaisakhi is about, Diwali, or the meaning of Ik Onkaar. Of course people have to have an interest, but at the same time we also have to be aware to impart such knowledge in a way that makes sense to the next generation. 

I think unfortunately when we build a base knowledge of Sikhi, sometimes people don’t know where to start and they start with rules and visible differences, etc. rather than starting with the way of living. The focus should be on the application of the knowledge we get from Gurbani into our lives and how it relates to our lives right now. It should be on basic principles, like what is our purpose and which tools does Sikhi give us to achieve them and to live a fruitful life. Sikhi is meant to be helpful to us through our challenges in life. Unfortunately, I think the way of teaching that has been engrained for years in India was of rote memorization. This has carried over for how we teach Sikhi. A person could know the names of all the Guru Jis but not understand the significance of even having a Guru. The other cultural thing that carries over is not to question and do what your elders tell you. Again this prevents people from learning to some extent as well. 

When we come into a family, we all come from different loks (patal lok, bhoom lok, etc). This means in our past lives we may have been on land, water, sky, etc. and thus at varying levels of spirituality before we got this life. Not everyone is at the same stage. There are members of the family that are meant to uplift the rest. Children may be young in age in this world but we all go through so many millions of life forms to get here and they may bring a spiritual elevated mind to the family unit. When we look at the Sahibzaade, or Guru Harkrishan Sahib Ji, we realize what the potential of a child could be. The faith of the younger Sahibzaade was so strong that they didn’t give into bribes, or fear based tactics.  When they faced the Mughals and were able to distinguish and tell them what it meant to be a true Muslim, one who followed the Quran. They lived by compassion, truth, love, humility and contentment. We should focus shaping the mind so our youth combat every pressure they face in today’s world and tomorrows. Rather than getting caught up in arguments about how we should look and what we should be eating, I think its important to be digging deep into our own paths. The more we do that, the more we have to offer our own children as they are growing up and we teach them about Sikhi. I'm not sure we have achieved this yet in most Gurdwaras, but it should be an effort we make to do a new way of teaching and learning. It can be incorporated into our families and khalsa schools as well.