-Mukesh Sharma, Director, Prometheus School, Noida

Contemporarily, we are predisposed to equate busy with success. Being busy translates to arduous work, denotes importance and is directly proportional to triumphs. However, when two of the world’s most prominent and successful people, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates concluded that busy is the new stupid in their discussion, it paved way for reflection.

Despite its glorified notions, being busy tends to have an adverse effect. It makes us hurried, results in short-sightedness, expands blind spots exponentially and results in missed opportunities.

Often, in order to see children succeed and help them discover their talents, they are thrown into a state of constant overwork. Planning one thing after another, their timetables resemble that of an optimized train schedule. However, this brings into question whether this busyness is truly a measure of how well they will do in life.

At Prometheus, our learning pedagogy encourages students to explore and discover the world around them as they deem fit. They indulge in experiential learning which allows sensory cognitive development. This is what we believe should be the crux of motivation. The children should be left to wander, experience and explore their world on their own. They should not be bound by time limits because evidently, time is the most important commodity one has. Hence it should be valued highest instead of filling it with activities to keep one busy. When we continue to live and encourage children to live in this busy state, they are bound to grow up and ask, “where did all the time go?”

The essence lies in slowing down and allowing the brain to grasp concepts organically thus resulting in a more positive and productive learning outcome. As Jamie Smart said, “If being hard on yourself was going to work, it would have worked by now.” The myth of busyness makes one lose sight of what matters in life. It drowns the more natural processes like trusting your instincts and intrinsic wisdom which is a crucial developmental step, especially for children. Thus, being busy is only the illusion of progress, not progress itself.

Also read: Prometheus School, Noida joins the IB continuum club