LEARNING FOR JOY

I grew up in a system where grades were everything. Parents worried, institutes profited, and children learned not for joy but out of fear. Over the years, I realized this was not education it was a race, and worse, a meaningless one. The irony is that children remember every cartoon they watched, every game they played, but forget most of their lessons. Why? Because cartoons were fun, while classrooms were stressful. That simple truth holds the key: if education becomes joyful, learning will never be forgotten. In my book We Are Hiring Average Grades, I showed how marks are poor predictors of success in careers. In reality, curiosity, mentorship, and values matter far more than distinctions or percentages. If companies stop hiring for grades, and classrooms start teaching for joy, then the entire ecosystem will change. Parents will stop stressing, institutes will stop profiteering, and children will finally learn for the right reason: to understand, to grow, to be happy. This book is my attempt to show that education must become a blend of fun and knowledge. Not just textbooks and exams, but projects, play, stories, and moral science. When we make this shift, we will create a generation of thinkers and innovators, not just degree-holders. I believe the day we judge education not by marks but by smiles, not by ranks but by curiosity, we will have an education system truly worthy of our children. — Dr. Abhishek Gilara