 This lecture is titled Divergences and Convergences and as the title itself indicates, we are interested in reviewing ideas that we have explored earlier and in addition to that we also want to keep adding to the previous ideas. So let us first of all review the ideas that we have explored so far by looking at each one of these carefully. Later on we will also develop more refined activities around these ideas. So let us look at this first slide which tries to recapture what we had said earlier. We had looked at diversity and its blends in languages, cultures, academic realm or domains through a focus on the evolving sense of self. For that purpose we also looked at the notions of play, creativity and enjoyment to strengthen the sense of self for which the students presented their views on Shikshant Mihai's notion of flow or autotelic activities that really we feel very deeply involved with and therefore we are willing to invest more energy and derive greater pleasure from these activities. So that is why we had looked at the notion of flow in order to strengthen the sense of the self. Later on Professor Shikshant Mihai went on to develop the notion of flow as a fairly complex thing which is not good in itself because you know the notion of flow or deep absorption and enjoyment can be used for very creative as well as fairly destructive activities also because the notion of creation and destruction is really highly dependent on the value system of a given society. So keeping that complexity and difficulty of that notion in mind, Professor Shikshant Mihai later on developed the idea further and he explained it in flow, the psychology of optimal experience where the term optimal of course refers to the most desirable or satisfactory experience and in that he tried to establish the need for the sense of the self to be strengthened through activities that are autotelic and he actually also tried to explain why he feels that symbolic activities that is the term that he used in this next essay which refers to you know internally devised reasons for choosing an activity and ascribing certain value to it. So he talked about the significance of these inner drives once again in psychology of optimal experience. So the idea was to understand the evolving sense of the self as you grow up and to also find ways in which one can you know continue to grow and find one's bearings. In order to take this idea further what I would like to do is to again go to the resource of psychology but this time to look at Eric H. Erickson's childhood and society in which he offered this notion of psychosocial stages and the idea behind psychosocial stages is to basically try and see how you know as biologically we grow within different stages of our lives there are different desires and also social institutions and social relationships that define our growth patterns. So therefore he looked at these stages and I am going to primarily concentrate on you know the stage of childhood and not so much on infancy but each stage that he has identified is defined by the pattern of crisis and growth a sense that you know you have entered a new realm of experience and at the same time the sense that you know this also can be resolved and also experienced in a very very positive manner. So this is what we are briefly going to look at only to add to what we have already done. So let us look at this next slide where Eric H. Erickson has talked about the fourth stage of a human beings life of course he calls it eight ages of man but in any case this is the fourth stage where he says that you know six years to start of puberty this is the stage covered in this period that he has identified which is marked by industry versus growth. Now the idea behind this again is let us try and see what he has to say about this particular stage according to him the inner stage seems all set for entrance into life except that school life must first be school life whether school is field or jungle or classroom and that is really a marvelous statement I thought because he is not restricted to only societies and economic groups where you know where childhood is defined through academics although we belong to that framework but it can also be a process of learning when a child sort of enters the world of any occupation you know training for any occupation whether the child is in a forest area or you know wherever. So now in other words this is a stage of learning, learning vocations, learning skills for future vocations and the reason I have chosen this stage for discussion with you is because I am gradually beginning to also contextualize this whole discussion of creativity in terms of the institutions within which you have grown and the institutions which have also in that sense shaped you. So let us say this is the first important stage of entry into the world when you are being prepared for a vocation, the second stage is that of adolescence which according to him is a period which covers 10 to 18 years and it is defined by identity versus role confusion. These quotations are directly from the book so whichever way Professor Erickson has explained the terms we have retained those references verbatim. Now in this particular stage and let me quickly read the relevant part that in puberty and adolescence all samenesses and continuities relied on earlier are more or less questioned again. So there is a sort of kind of consolidation that occurs in a particular stage and then new sort of abilities have to develop. So according to him all samenesses and continuities relied on earlier are more or less questioned again because of rapidity of body growth which equals that of early childhood and because of new addition of genital maturity. So this is what he has to say and if we move to the next slide that refers to youth and adulthood and this covers a very large period of 19 to 40 years and the crisis here is related to intimacy versus isolation. So again here he points out that the strength acquired at any stage is tested by the necessity to transcend it in such a way that the individual can take chances in the next stage with what was most vulnerably precious in the previous one. So what was vulnerably precious in the previous stage was a sense of identity. Now in this stage according to him the young adult emerging from the search for and the insistence on identity is eager and willing to fuse his or her identity with that of others. I sort of feel very troubled by this constant use of only the male agenda so that that is something that I think while using language I would like you to remain as gender sensitive as possible but in any case according to him so again the search for identity and then you know extending that identity according to him to fuse the identity with that of others. So larger sense of participation in the world emerges in this stage. You can keep these stages in mind you know I am not really suggesting that it is a very simple kind of a module and a simple kind of framework that will explain everything about each stage because we craft are and we create our own sort of life patterns also and the cultural differences can also be so so important in defining our identities. So I have actually tried to point out very clearly in order to warn you again simplification I mean although I am using these structures so that there is a sense that we can talk about various complexities in ways that lend to clarity of understanding. But at the same time after gaining a certain clarity I think one has to sort of abandon just simplistic thinking. So that kind of balance between simplistic thinking and clarity I think I would like you to keep that in mind. And therefore I would like to point out to you that the complexity of conflict between notions of the individual and society also they vary such a lot from society to society that you know this pattern can yield very different results. The other aspect of Ericsson's psychosocial insights it needs critical review both in terms of distinctive features of the Indian milieu but also the significance of the changing social identity of girls because in his explicatory model I do not get the sense that he really has actively understood the life pattern of girls very clearly and I am sure there are very important scholars who have contributed to that field to enhance the various stages in terms of the pattern of life of girls in terms of their biological growth patterns and also in terms of the psychosocial dimensions that ensue. So this is missing from the study but we keep this in mind in terms of a certain sense of evolving the idea of evolving self the idea of the crucial nature of childhood experience and so it gives us a kind of anchor and clarity. So please try and review it critically but the whole idea is to come back to the context in which right now we are working. When I talk about IIT system please remember that I am equally interested in any other system you may be part of. The only reason I need to talk about the IIT system is because that is the system in which I am teaching and most of my students belong to that framework but the ideas that we are talking about they are relevant for every kind of educational system and therefore I hope you will maintain that balance and not really sort of feel that this is an IIT centric discussion because it is actually a wider discussion. So so far as the IIT system is concerned there is inevitably focus on engineering and technology education and there is also apart from the academic nature of the institution which of course you know has its you know great importance but there is also this social valorization of engineering and technology by middle class in India which pumps up these institutions and also many processes through which you as a young person may have gone through in order to enter the IIT system. For example from childhood to adolescence you may be dedicated to this very focused study of subjects that can help you gain entry in a very very competitive system. We have to keep these things in mind in order to now within these systems and within these context find our bearings in such a way that we can give strength to our sense of self not really to sort of rewrite what has happened but to rewrite a new script so to say. So now a few questions perhaps can be posed for your consideration and let us look at them very carefully. I like you to look at the slide carefully because this will these are questions that you can actually think about a great deal and very carefully. So let us say if you were to keep this spectrum of childhood to adolescence or early youth pattern in mind so let my question to you is when did you begin to notice a sharp sheism in the way various branches of learning were supported or rejected. So the assumption behind this question is related to the fact that of course children are prepared to sort of find their occupation their vocation through training and also therefore there are various kinds of subjects that are taught various ways through which children are taught. So my question is related to this sort of concern about what happened to you during that process can you look back and think about it not look back in anger but look back in terms of trying to understand a sort of pattern that is now part of you. So when did you begin to notice a sharp sheism in the way various branches of learning were supported or rejected during your schooling? Did the polarization of learning activities cause any distress or misgivings? I deliberately kept this question open-ended because I really can't predict which way your sort of response will go. The third question is did this polarization help you focus on your aptitude for a specific area of learning better? So there are all kinds of possibilities to do so do think about these questions and then based on this reflection write a short description of an event that stands out in your memory with reference to any of the points in the previous slide for this autobiographical narration you can use any mode of writing for example an essay a play a poem a short story. Secondly if you were to create an ideal world how would you construct the schooling system and I really like you to feel free to explore it explore any possibility that strikes you without feeling hampered at all. So now that you know this kind of composition exercise would be undertaken by you the whole idea is related to experience knowledge building composition that is the these are the three activities that we are trying to evoke in different combinations and that is why we have labeled this particular lecture divergences and convergences.