I think - About Education

There is no denying that most of what we teach our little ones in one academic year is forgotten before the next. Why is it so difficult to realize and address the fact that each one of us is unique? Not everyone gets excited in the Physics laboratory or jumps for joy at the sight of numbers. I thoroughly enjoyed the languages while my best friend was a born mathematician. We hardly bothered about our scores, but the system did. And how!

The world over, to some degree, the little heads are bogged down with subject combinations that the educationists decide are very important...right till the child reaches adolescence. Why can't the choices be offered earlier, maybe by the age of eleven. Agreed that it is important to help children assimilate some knowledge on all subjects. But is it necessary to thrust the theories in their faces and enforce calculations upon their backs; stuff that doesn't even make a pleasant sight in the text books. Come on...how many of us grown ups watch the 'Titanic' and think about Archimedes? How many of us hold a rose and view it for the 'calyx', 'corolla' and 'stamen'? How many of us look into our lover's eyes and think about the delicate retina and inverted image of ourselves on the 'inner eye'? Seriously people...WHAT ARE WE DOING TO THE CHILDREN?

Change has arrived, but very conveniently only where we want to see it. The system of education, sadly, is just getting more and more complex. Now you have the 'international' system that demands teachers to 'unlearn' all that Teacher's Training equipped them for and 'learn' complex examination methods and complex marking schemes. The scapegoats remain the children! Probably that's why we prefer calling them kids!

We are still reading Kipling's Jungle Book to them in drab and cold classrooms. We are still teaching them botany in laboratories. We continue to take them through world history with time lines as the focus instead of the 'cause and effect' rule that it follows. We force down graphs and pi values that don't even matter to them later on, as environmentalists or politicians. We hammer them with equations in chemistry instead of generating an awareness towards current affairs and the altest discoveries...oh! that's for quizzing!

There are institutions that are making an effort. But let's face it...the taut time table and rigid syllabus hold no promise. They are forcing them to revert to the same old monotony. 6 to 7 hours divided into 45 minute classes! While the teacher's retire to the faculty common rooms to catch up on gossip or a cup of coffee, the babies have to instantly shift from Napoleon to Newton to the laws of variables,when and as the bell rings! I am really not surprised at the definitions they have come up with, like MATH - Mentally-Affected-Teacher-Harassment! Speaks volumes, doesn't it? But then, teachers who dare to think differently are either questioned and churned out of the system. You either adhere or...

OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE. Instead of making school life great to be a part of, we find them dragging themselves under the weight of their satchels, unless there is some motivating 'extra curricular' activity planned. Lets face it, even our examinations are a farce. We are forcing them to adopt the 'temporary memorization' method to apply textual knowledge. Instead of looking into how well they are able to apply language while expressing thought, we design question papers that make them analyze the rules of grammar, something we are still groping with. Instead of testing them through 'apply and learn' projects, we make them pour out segments of 'marked and expected answers'. How dare they think differently! But didn't Einstein and Lincoln?

Why can't we look at the same time table with a new design? Maybe, instead of cramming the day with anything between six and nine subjects, spread it out to three-a-day. This way, the child will be able to focus, ask more questions, apply more and do complete justice to the effort made by the teacher.

Why can't we look at subject choices being made available by grade five and help the children identify their 'calling' much earlier?

Why can't the counselors employed be a part of the regular education forum and develop classes around the choice of vocations to be opted for, instead of waiting for the poor dyslexic to show up?

Why can't the fee structures of all schools be monitored instead of some of them getting as outrageous as they are?

Why can't the home work all be addressed in school itself? WHAT'S WITH THE HOME WORK TIME TABLE!

Why can't the little ones deliver projects term-wise instead of delivering the truth about recycling on paper?

Why can't the geography assessment be made on the field trips for the year?

Why...Why...Why...

WHY ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO DO AS WE SAY AND NOT AS WE DO? Would be fun, wouldn't it? Come on...let's give them a chance to live by and apply their lessons, instead of hitting right back with a WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION!