What to tell to kids?

Pre-session blues

I have been asked to talk to kids from 8th ,9th and 10th standard of a school (SNBP School, Morwadi, Pune). My friend Mrs. Sharmila Balan, who came up with this bright idea of making a bewildered engineer talk to young direction seeking kids, mentioned 1 objective for the talk :- Encourage and Inspire the kids. With those heavy targets and reflecting back at the clueless-ness of my own adventures in life, i am obviously much in a fix.

The problem is, i don’t know what the kids want to know. It is a class of 100 young minds, each with a sure shot uniqueness about them (unlike adults who are averaged out in life as years pass by). I wish i could have a discussion than a monologue in an actual class where i could see the faces of the kids! That would have been ideal.

Yet there must be common questions that a majority of these kids may be subscribing to in their own heads. Had i been in this similar situation as part of the sorry group of kids forced into a online webinar, here’s the kind of questions that would run through my mind:

• Why am i supposed to sit and watch this stranger talk about strange and weird stuff that i have no clue about?
• What are my friends thinking, lets check on whatsapp
• Oooo ‘interesting’ people from the other class are also here!!
• What should i eat?
• How can i fool the world that i am actually fully aware and attending with utmost sincerity?
• Hey look, bird fight on the window!!
• How is this webinar relevant to:
  • What i like to do?
  • What excites me in my world?
  • If i am tech savvy, how does this talk relate to my interests in the fashions of my time – AI, big data, machine learning, robots, 3d printers, drones, space age, NASA, ISRO, military stuff, etc?
  • If i am not tech savvy, then how does it relate to the arts, philosophy, sciences and the curiosity of nature?
  • How about human mind?
  • How about social relationships, world politics, society as a whole?
  • Will this talk help me in finding my dream job?
  • What could be my dream job, that is a big question no one helps in answering!!
  • I know engineers, doctors, scientists and cooks (thanks Master Chef series), but i don’t know what they really mean, what they do (except in Master Chef).
  • I can’t decide what i will become? What will i be able to do?
  • How does this talk help me with my marks?
  • Everywhere i see, it is too hard. Too many people to compete against. I’m scared. I wish i knew a silent space with simple work that i can do and earn with with dignity and comfort.
  • i don’t understand why we study, what we study. Its not connecting with what i know i love, arts, sciences, technology, society and so on. I don’t know why? Or is it that i am too dumb and can’t make the obvious connections?
• I have had enough, too many these digital things and classes! I want to get out, out there like i used to. I want to meet my friends and play and chill out. I want none of this adults telling kids what to or what not to do shit. I am out.
• Oh this is going to be boring, like everything else. Lets see if this speaker makes a joke or something to excite me. Else i’ll just sleep over the talk or do other important things.
• How is this relevant to COVID19 worries and tragedies?
• How can i show off and impress my peers about my obvious smartness?

On the contrary, here’s what the adult real me worries about this talk:

• Shit, what have i got into!
• I have so many things to talk about, but i fear where to begin?
• I fear about boring the shit out of young minds, and making another fool of myself (my specialty).
• Should i talk about the love of making things by hand? Why we must do it? and so on?
• Or should i talk about the perils of technology and how it is shaping the modern world towards ‘smartism’?
• Should i discuss my favorite – how humans are coming to rely on, fast track evolve and enjoy techno-human systems, dangerously more than building trust between themselves? What is the changing nature of community thanks to the social technologies of the internet?
• Or should i discuss what it closer to them rather than bother them with my interests?
• Sharmila asked me to bring in the aspect of sustainability in the domain of technology and its development and consumption. That is a super interesting topic, but i am too naive and philosophical about it to begin with. How should i touch upon that?
• I have only 1 hour, too many questions, too many unknowns and too less time. I wont also have any feedback from the kids, how will i know if i am speaking to closed minds (thanks to me) or getting along with them (being tolerated)?
• What if the gods of the internet decide enough is enough? I should send in a backup presentation to them so if not the full wrath of the gods, i should at least be able to conduct an audio session from my end while others can present the slides.
• I can tell them about my journey, but its hotch-potch. I can tell them why i do what i do, and so on. But is that what they wish to know?

Shweta, my friend, gave a good suggestion responding to my above distress – “You tell them what drives you, you don’t have to worry about whether the same thing will drive them or not”

So here’s what i made – in the shortest while.

makers-25July-2020

Post session reflections

It went OK i guess, but i had no real feedback. Sharmila called in to say it was great and the teachers found it interesting. But i wish i had more feedback. Here are some of my own criticisms:

• Counter to expectations of an attractive and attention catching talk, this was dull. My slides were dull, without animation, images or videos.
• I rushed through the content, but i guess in that short while i had to.
• My examples were not rehearsed, and the flow was wavering a lot. That must have confused many people. Not a good sign of a potential teacher.
• I stammered. That’s not interesting to any listener, unless its a discussion.
• I made some sweeping generalizations, while missing out on practical stuff. For example, it would have been nice to have a good slide on projects they could make at home, etc.
• I should have put captions on the images i showed of my work. Some explanation on the sides could have helped.
• More videos of my work could have helped.
• I could have concluded with some contact information on the ending slide.
• Overall, my approach was too vague, a bit confused.
• Technicalities were plenty, i didn’t know how to manage the presentation on one hand and see the viewer’s screen on the other. People kept joining in and i could not approve all of them as that would interrupt my flow (whatever it was).

Overall it went OK. But i am always skeptical. The teachers were very kind and seemed to be interested to work with students on vocational out-of syllabus learning. Lets see where this goes!

Special thanks to Sharmila Balan for giving me this opportunity to interact with her school and kids!