The Slumdog Post

This post just had to be written. After hearing about Slumdog Millionaire and (both sides) of the debate surrounding this film, I finally decided to watch it hours before the Oscars ceremony. It is a gut wrenching, sad yet triumphant story for a young boy whose only source of learning was informal, connective, but which enabled him (with luck and intuition) to win the jackpot on a reality game show.

He (the protagonist) learnt in ways that I wish were not such excruciating experiences, but the movie brings home (among other critical political and social dimensions), at least for me, the fact that it is far too critical for us to ignore the power of connective learning. Rather, opportunities exist at each moment, in every space, to capture and embrace this kind of learning – opportunities that we must recognize and encourage.

Kudos, team SM! And may you win the Oscars!