E39 – Manish Jain on Unschooling, Gift Culture and Deep Localisation // Freedom from the Shackles of Education

Nov 15, 2018

“The current education system is based on an 18th century factory industrial model … at best it is irrelevant and at worst it is a criminal activity- dumbing people down and destroying their creativity, people becoming disconnected from and embarrassed about their culture, losing connection with the natural world and their communities” Manish Jain

E39 – MANISH JAIN ON UNSCHOOLING, GIFT CULTURE AND DEEP LOCALISATION

FREEDOM FROM THE SHACKLES OF EDUCATION

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About this interview:

How can we revolutionise learning and education to serve humans and non-humans better?

 

In this episode, Amisha sits down with Manish Jain, an un-educator, giftivist, writer, and co-founder of the Unschooling movement founder of the Unschooling movement in India. We hear the story of his own schooling and unschooling, as well as the pivotal moments that led him to question some of our most deeply entrenched societal norms around economy and education.

Manish started his first social enterprise at the tender age of 8 and always had a strong preference for ‘extra-curricular’ learning. By the age of 23, he had already maxed out on the dazzling lifestyle of a Wall Street banker and seen how the system was rigged for the rich to get richer whilst pointing a finger at cash-poor illiterates.

He followed a deep calling to serve in academia and international development but soon discovered that none of the so-called experts actually had any answers to the greatest questions of our time. He resolved finally to move back to India and ‘study’ for 9 years at the feet of his Grandmother in her village.

Manish speaks about the fears that hold us back from disrupting systems that no longer serve us and what we as individuals and communities can do today, for free, to create radical shifts in education and the economy. He tells of the magic that happens when we weave a field of trust in our community, why he supports ‘alternative child labour’, and his latest projects establishing a self-designed learning university inside a jail and spreading unschooling in government schools.

“I have had two very strong gurus in my life, one is my grandmother, and the other is my soon-to-be 16-year-old daughter who has never gone to school. These two people have given me a deep insight into a whole different set of realities and possibilities, a world that exists beyond my schooled, conditioned mind.” Manish Jain

Manish Jain is an un-educator, giftivist, inter-cosmosvision facilitator, filmmaker, urban organic farmer, slow food chef, compassionate clown, writer, organic intellectual, masti yogi and co-founder of the Unschooling movement. He is deeply committed to regenerating our diverse knowledge systems and cultural imaginations. He has served for the past 20 years as Coordinator and Co-Founder of Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development based in Udaipur, India and is co-founder of the Swaraj University,Creativity Adda, Learning Societies Unconference, Walkouts-Walkon network, and Udaipur as a Learning City in India. He is a featured speaker/advisory member of the Economics of Happiness network for localisation. He recently helped to launch the Ecoversities Network. He has edited several books on Vimukt Shiksha (liberating learning) on themes such as learning societies, unlearning, gift culture, community media, and tools for deep dialogue. 
To find out more about Manish, visit www.schoolingtheworld.org

To connect or work with Amisha, visit www.amisha.co.uk  

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