12:19 PM |
Author: kaushik
Frankly, had got bored with the whole blog thing. The world's still raving about it.
Anyways, Parry wrote this about education.
And that prompted me to write this (though not initially as a blog, but as a comment on Parry's blog, which then got too big for a comment). Here it is
Education policy as such has gone totally out of control in India.
I believe is the problem with not enjoying classes in schools are
1. Parental pressure
2. Bad teachers
And the biggest culprit behind these two is US, as a part of the society. Sad but true, our society stinks...it is a place where what the collective believes is correct
(was reading an article yesterday about Indians and sex, why is it so taboo. The author says that the society has not grown beyond culture. Earlier girls were 12-13 when they were married and boys a couple of years elder to them, which turned out to be exactly the time when the sexual juices begin to flow. Surely, the couple then had sex and explored their desires, but the whole concept of sex only after marriage gets mis-interpreted, as now marriages take place only after 22-24.Culture is hampering normal human growth leading to increased cases of vulgarity, rape, pre-marital pregnancy etc etc. The blame then is on the poor teenagers...)
Coming back to what I was telling, the only thing our society understands is Marks, which they believe lead to a stable job and income. The only number that evaluates your intelligence is your marks. Dhoni is a aberration for the society. He is immensely talented, our average kids are not. The pressure to score is so much that parents force their kids to rote, to get >90%. They do not allow the child to enjoy the process of studying. As you said, they do not allow you to visualize history, play mock 1857 wars with your friends, read NGC, watch pictures to understand geography etc.
And society is to blame for poor teachers. In india, teachers are paid pittance. All the uber rich trusts and education society that runs these schools, consider teacher to be a commodity, you lose one, you get another. They do not think of them in terms of investment, which in turn leads to poor quality of people coming as teachers. It is a profession by choice, but unfortunately. here it is a profession by circumstance. You cannot be a good teacher. if you do not enjoy teaching. The mess kids liked our classes because we Loved taking those classes. But now imagine that you are teaching mass transfer.I doubt how much enthusiasm you will transfer to the class. I can add, that this pathetic situation is due to lack of visionary leaders in the country, leaders who dream of making changes, people like raja ram mohan roy etc, but finally it is our society that runs through the fabric of the country, and ours is a society that does not respect teachers and the circle continues.
But who changes this? Can we take the bull by the horns and change our regressive society, a society where the vanzara community stands behind the police officer who ordered the murder of an innocent(?) man, or a society which puts a case against hrithik and aish because they kissed in a movie, or a teacher who wants to ban star movies because it is bringing in the western culture. Are we free? Why is the western culture so popular amongst the young indians, why is that people who make decisions resent the western culture...and it is because our so called culture stifles freedom, gives some people control (parents over who their child should marry!), while the western culture is centered around freedom.
I was lucky to have been in a school were there were teachers who loved to teach (History and Geography especially), parents who were not demanding. I will probably be the same with my children, but do I have the courage and will power to change other people (people especially from rural areas where they have been taught our culture/society is the only thing good in the evil world, the hindu/muslim way of living as a society is the best, it has no loopholes?) I don't know.
Since, I have decided to blog, will just post some updated for reflecting back when I read this blog later
Cheers!
Kaushik
Anyways, Parry wrote this about education.
And that prompted me to write this (though not initially as a blog, but as a comment on Parry's blog, which then got too big for a comment). Here it is
Education policy as such has gone totally out of control in India.
I believe is the problem with not enjoying classes in schools are
1. Parental pressure
2. Bad teachers
And the biggest culprit behind these two is US, as a part of the society. Sad but true, our society stinks...it is a place where what the collective believes is correct
(was reading an article yesterday about Indians and sex, why is it so taboo. The author says that the society has not grown beyond culture. Earlier girls were 12-13 when they were married and boys a couple of years elder to them, which turned out to be exactly the time when the sexual juices begin to flow. Surely, the couple then had sex and explored their desires, but the whole concept of sex only after marriage gets mis-interpreted, as now marriages take place only after 22-24.Culture is hampering normal human growth leading to increased cases of vulgarity, rape, pre-marital pregnancy etc etc. The blame then is on the poor teenagers...)
Coming back to what I was telling, the only thing our society understands is Marks, which they believe lead to a stable job and income. The only number that evaluates your intelligence is your marks. Dhoni is a aberration for the society. He is immensely talented, our average kids are not. The pressure to score is so much that parents force their kids to rote, to get >90%. They do not allow the child to enjoy the process of studying. As you said, they do not allow you to visualize history, play mock 1857 wars with your friends, read NGC, watch pictures to understand geography etc.
And society is to blame for poor teachers. In india, teachers are paid pittance. All the uber rich trusts and education society that runs these schools, consider teacher to be a commodity, you lose one, you get another. They do not think of them in terms of investment, which in turn leads to poor quality of people coming as teachers. It is a profession by choice, but unfortunately. here it is a profession by circumstance. You cannot be a good teacher. if you do not enjoy teaching. The mess kids liked our classes because we Loved taking those classes. But now imagine that you are teaching mass transfer.I doubt how much enthusiasm you will transfer to the class. I can add, that this pathetic situation is due to lack of visionary leaders in the country, leaders who dream of making changes, people like raja ram mohan roy etc, but finally it is our society that runs through the fabric of the country, and ours is a society that does not respect teachers and the circle continues.
But who changes this? Can we take the bull by the horns and change our regressive society, a society where the vanzara community stands behind the police officer who ordered the murder of an innocent(?) man, or a society which puts a case against hrithik and aish because they kissed in a movie, or a teacher who wants to ban star movies because it is bringing in the western culture. Are we free? Why is the western culture so popular amongst the young indians, why is that people who make decisions resent the western culture...and it is because our so called culture stifles freedom, gives some people control (parents over who their child should marry!), while the western culture is centered around freedom.
I was lucky to have been in a school were there were teachers who loved to teach (History and Geography especially), parents who were not demanding. I will probably be the same with my children, but do I have the courage and will power to change other people (people especially from rural areas where they have been taught our culture/society is the only thing good in the evil world, the hindu/muslim way of living as a society is the best, it has no loopholes?) I don't know.
Since, I have decided to blog, will just post some updated for reflecting back when I read this blog later
- Am flying to USA, to become a PhD, god knows what after that. Come August, I will be here
- Am done with my responsibilities as Institute Placement Nominee. Enjoyed it would be an understatement. An experience in learning that will stay with me forever ( and help in my jobs as well, I hope)
- Attended my cousin's engagement in April. Feel so sad that I will have to miss her marriage in September.
- Planning to attend another cousin's engagement in June. Feel so sad that I will have to miss her marriage also in September. (Ah! If , Air Deccan flew Chennai-Madison)
- Attended a slew of Valfi's (Valedictory functions)
- Went Trekking
- Sprained my ankle
- Visa interview on 24th may
- Paper submission deadline on Monday, and I am here blogging!
Cheers!
Kaushik
4 comments:
At last, a new blog!! Best of luck for ur visa interview.
If u don't know what to do after Ph.D, relax! trust me nobody ever does..
where are you going? which school i mean?
i'll try my luck a year early with a 3-year degree. you engg. guys have it all easy.
@sayan: University of Wisconsin - Madison!!
Had to do MTech at IIT to get in here....
engineers have it easy....
but for top US school, it has to be IIT engineers :)
hehe.....right said fred. i just wish they don't discriminate people with 3-year degrees. we study nearly 1/3rd more than the 4-year honors counterparts.hopefully, more and more grad schools are accepting the 3-years.