When I started the class today morning, some of the students were still glued to their laptops or hand-phones. I , being quite particular that all my students should be attentive during the lecture, paused for a while, and digressed from the main topic. I projected a scenario in front of them.
I pointed towards a student and asked him to imagine that " Your grandfather had a heart attack a few days ago, and he was rushed to the A&E department of the hospital. After all the necessary tests, the specialist doctor suggested that he needed immediate surgery. So his surgery was scheduled for the next day. You along with your parents were waiting outside the operating theater, while surgery was going on inside. After a few hours, the doctor came out and told your family with a long face, "I am very sorry, but we couldn't save him." After a few days you came to know that actually your grandfather died due to the negligence on the part of the surgeon. Half way through the surgery, his mobile phone rang, and after seeing that it was from his wife, he took the call. And it took almost two minutes to finish the call, but by then damage was done. Your grandfather's one of the main coronary arteries had leaked, which resulted in his eventual death."
After describing this to the class, I asked them, "How do you feel if this would have happened with your family?" Everyone said, "No way, how can we allow this to happen?" "How can the doctor be so careless and negligent?" "Why did he have to use his phone that time, even though it was for a very short duration, this is totally unacceptable?" "Such doctors should be sued in the court of law and severely punished, etc., etc."
Then I asked them," Aren't you all doing the same thing?" "This is the time to focus on learning and understanding the topic. Rather than doing that, in between you check your phones for messages, type responses to those, and the smarter ones even succeed in answering their phones also. In the doctor's case, a person lost his life; in your case you are playing with your future. It is as serious as that case; the only thing is that you will realize this later when you won't get a chance to turn back the clock."
So in short, the message I was trying to give to my students was that for effective learning, focused effort is required, and for that they have to avoid all the distractions!
I pointed towards a student and asked him to imagine that " Your grandfather had a heart attack a few days ago, and he was rushed to the A&E department of the hospital. After all the necessary tests, the specialist doctor suggested that he needed immediate surgery. So his surgery was scheduled for the next day. You along with your parents were waiting outside the operating theater, while surgery was going on inside. After a few hours, the doctor came out and told your family with a long face, "I am very sorry, but we couldn't save him." After a few days you came to know that actually your grandfather died due to the negligence on the part of the surgeon. Half way through the surgery, his mobile phone rang, and after seeing that it was from his wife, he took the call. And it took almost two minutes to finish the call, but by then damage was done. Your grandfather's one of the main coronary arteries had leaked, which resulted in his eventual death."
After describing this to the class, I asked them, "How do you feel if this would have happened with your family?" Everyone said, "No way, how can we allow this to happen?" "How can the doctor be so careless and negligent?" "Why did he have to use his phone that time, even though it was for a very short duration, this is totally unacceptable?" "Such doctors should be sued in the court of law and severely punished, etc., etc."
Then I asked them," Aren't you all doing the same thing?" "This is the time to focus on learning and understanding the topic. Rather than doing that, in between you check your phones for messages, type responses to those, and the smarter ones even succeed in answering their phones also. In the doctor's case, a person lost his life; in your case you are playing with your future. It is as serious as that case; the only thing is that you will realize this later when you won't get a chance to turn back the clock."
So in short, the message I was trying to give to my students was that for effective learning, focused effort is required, and for that they have to avoid all the distractions!
very good example to demonstrate the value of mindfulness in our daily work.
ReplyDeleteExcellent explanation
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