These days I have found myself caught up and forever been posed by the same conundrum, if we do have the best brains in the world, why don’t we produce more Aryabhattas, C. V Ramans and Raja Ravi Vermas? In this futuristic and propelled India today, why do we constantly come across copycats and mimics and not someone with a sincere original idea? Whether it is the sorry state of our over-hyped sciences and mediocre PhD programs or politics and our constant need to ape the west, what is it that we are overlooking???
So because I had been occupied with these thought I found it inevitably came about in whatever conversations I would conjure. And when you have friend with sane shoulders on their head you are bound to brew up a good argument, and that is exactly what I did. In our debate we were discussing about the whole system of education, one of us tried really hard to stick on to the other side and seemed more loyal than the others. As he was a firm believer and a successful student (academically) of the very same system, he sought it his duty and responsibility to support the system, full on. Where you have people like him (who at least seem to have the rational reason to support the system) you have people like my father (and other parents) who uphold everything about the Educational system of our country (unless a film like 3 Idiots comes along!!!). It may just be his patriotic obligation, who knows, but it sure does piss me off, when people just blindly believe that their ‘way’ is the best.
Now I would have been all talk without any sort of reference, but I was thrilled (actually exhilarated) when a survey made it to the front page of my internet Newspaper. This was the Times of India and it read “Indian students rank second last in global test ……..”
This was definitely not a proud moment (and mind you I am a true blue patriot) but I couldn’t help but feel good and think I told you so….all these years what I had really strong views about and all my opinions finally had some sort of statistical validation and a solid proof to back it. I could now shove the numbers and the article in the faces of those people who disregarded my opinion and doubted my loyalties.
My argument had and has always been our “ratta maro” attitude. I remember how throughout my schooling and even college the only “tried and tested” method to get good grades and thus be “good” academically was to bug the whole darn thing, without so much as understanding. And when it finally came to exams all you had to do is go and vomit it out neatly on your answer sheet, without applying the slightest bit of grey matter…. Word to word, just spill your guts out! Exam halls seemed like a Roman Feast, where people binged on words and spewed it out on the paper!!
In fact many of the teachers expected it out of us. Some notoriously known for rewarding marks for just that quality, ‘whoever wrote what I dictated- shall be worthy of a full score’.
In today’s day with all the law about plagiarism and copy right infringement one can’t help but wonder, are we encouraging that very behaviour that in our grown up world is a felony and looked down upon. When it is prevalent at such a rudimentary level how are we to get rid of it when the person has learnt to work with it for a good 20-25 years. Are we somewhere crippling the ability for a human being to think reason and understand matters for him/herself?
The answer is a big fat YES! Taking the easier way out (where you don’t analyse, understand and reason the material you are studying or reading) is definitely making our younger generation and hence the future more handicapped. Where we should encourage people to ask questions, think out of the box, understand and co- relate subjects, all we do is ask them to sit and mug. Now that is where the problem lies, right at that level. No wonder we are turning into a tuition going, mugging lot who are just interested in having a clean neat report card. Those are the very people who end up as nodding dolls at the work place with a fat salary to say yes/ no without applying their brains.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to say every one of us is just a brain dead academic, there are quite a few, who manage to hold up the mark and get recognized for their genius and idea, but believe me it is a dying lot!
Why just look at our education system, the best examples are at homes and our flamboyant ceremonies. From a basic thing as putting Rangoli in the morning to performing pooja on special occasions, we are expected to just do it, without asking questions or knowing why?? (I remember how for every occasion I have been constantly muffled in fear of weather I may irritate the poojari with my annoying questions.)There is our herd mentality! From the traditional Shruti and Smriti (of which I have very high regard), to today’s blame game of ‘teacher told me, or my mother told me’, we have conveniently included and inculcated the route learning pattern into our everyday lives.
Don’t you think once you understand the reason behind it, you automatically tend to appreciate it even more????!!!!
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