How much time do you spend in classroom?

By the time an average person post graduates and joins the work force reaches about 25 years of age. Professionals like doctors, chartered accountants take a few more years to join the work force full time. Of these learning years how much time does it go inside the classroom?

Stage of Education	Number of Years	Working Days	Number of hours	Total hours spent in classroom
Pre-School	3	200	4	2,400
School (1 to 12)	12	200	6	14,400
Graduation College	3	180	6	3,240
Post-Graduation	2	180	4	1,440
Total hours spent in the campus till completion of education:				21,480

By 25 years the total number of hours a person has lived is 2,19,000 hours. So less than 10% time of a person’s life is spent on the campus. Time at campus doesn’t equal to time in classroom. Exams, out of classroom activities, picnics, free periods, absence and “bands” even further reduce the hours by 1% - 2%. 

So by the time a person starts to work he is spending about 8.5% of his life inside the classroom. It is surprising that vast majority believe that education mostly happens in the classroom even though they spend so little time inside the classroom. There is abundant evidence that formal schooling and classroom method delivers best results. However it is wrong to think that education happens only in classrooms.

Experience is the best teacher.

Much more than classroom humans learn out of experiencing things. So field trips – general reading – social interactions and pursuing one’s interest are much more productive than mere classroom education.

 I am not saying that classroom education is not important or required. I am saying its not enough. Relying on schools and colleges to build a career for your child expecting too much. Remember it only can motivate child to learn for the rest of his life. So what can a parent do in the remaining time?

A simple way is to give variety of experiences. Visit to historic museums along with learning about history will make the topic interesting. Zoo and aquariums teaches more about science if guided in proper manner. Actually growing a plant can teach a lot of science than text book picture of different stages of plant life.

Real world experience or real world requirement of education is a much bigger force than making them sit in class and teach.