In School :
Teacher : What is Newton's third law ?
Me : Mam, A bird flies by use of its wings. The wings of a bird push air downwards. Since forces result from mutual interactions, the air must also be pushing the bird upwards & In a rocket, burning fuel creates a push on the front of the rocket pushing it forward. This creates an equal and opposite push on the exhaust gas backwards…
Teacher : Stop it! I want definition. Definition in your textbook... Rai, you answer it !
Rai : “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction"
Teacher : Excellent Rai. Students, give him a big round of applause.
yes, that textbooks has caused me several times to be thrown out from the class.... but, was I too wrong in explaining it??? Where the exact problem lies? In me? or in our traditional educational system??
In school, children are “taught” to draw shapes like a “perfect” triangle. Everything is “properly” drawn. Whenever a child attempts to color something, the teacher screams in panic: “Do NOT color outside the lines!”. Today’s teaching techniques are taking the beauty out of learning. Diminishing creativity from our student’s mind is a serious problem with wide-reaching effects. Imagine, A normal classroom with cheerful faces. Students’ excitement to start school ignites the classroom. The teacher asks the students to draw a tree.Some students were talented, others were okay, and some students couldn’t give a visual figure of a tree. The teacher rates every student’s work. Some students get an A+, some get a D and others get a big fat F.
Those students who got A’s now believe they’re highly talented and artistic, but those who got an F... Well, they start to think they are losers and their works are rubbish. We learn that being “good” means sitting still and nodding yes, while being “bad” means attempting to do things differently.. Parents and teachers expect their students to score high in the exam, And yes the most disappointing thing regarding this exam marks that has happened to me and i think even many of you reading this can co-relate to me is my exam marks will actually determine how my parent or teacher will treat me further, comparing me to the students who have gained tons of "marks" in those "life determining exams" and making me feel like i am the most wrong doing person to not mug up those notes and text books line by line. Even they further insist me in doing that and i had to that too for satisfying them as they are my elders and i must obey them...!! At the end of the day i found myself at completely frustration towards my academic life... I did not like mugging up bookish lines, i didn't like those "syllabus" oriented studies-the same repeated lines again and again until you devour it completely to vomit as exactly they are on your copy. I wanted to explore knowledge my way, i don't know if i did anything wrong but this effort to exploration has always caused me several mental and physical agony from my childhood in academic field...
Next Part comes with my higher education experience... I was getting familiar with all the reservation system and of course about inner politics to continue my study. Another demon entered my way. In spite of having almost 75% marks i had to wait nearly 6 months till the last list of ELIGIBLE candidates came out and complete some INNER PROCEDURE to get an admission... And when i finally reached the registration office, with all my awe I met someone getting admitted at the same department with 45% marks as she had a QUOTA...
I mean come on what does this system want me to be? I need to stop questioning the world, to go with the flow, and that there’s only one right answer to each question. The “whys” you have always wanted to ask are never on the test, and they are omitted from the curriculum. Even at an university level they want me to meet 75% attendance but when i reach there the classes makes me uttered bored. Even sometimes I/We have to just sit and wait hours after hours, for someone to come and attain the class, sometimes they even don't come and its all about spending aimless time. And if i want to use my time in any good way and try to explain it they will make fun of me and i may get banned from examination for spending time in something that is "out of syllabus" and "not wasting time" just by sitting hours. The last time i remember i got applause in class was for mugging up a whole constitution!! Yes, i was "ordered" to do so as it would help my life future!!! To be honest till now i haven't found a place to utilize this mugged up matter!!
So whats the problem??? I am expected to be a creative, successful human by following a system that's actually chocking me mentally???!!!
Creativity isn’t a test to take, a skill to learn, or a program to develop. Creativity is seeing things in new ways, breaking barriers that stood in front of you for some time. Creativity is the art of hearing a song that has never been written or seeing a work of art on empty canvas. Its essence is in its freshness and the ability to make dreams come to life. But here we are not creating rather we are following some establishments blindly.
Does remembering the date when Alexander was born make any difference to you? LOL, NO... but that can cause a 7 year old child to stand up on the bench holding ears or receive a belt!!! And yes, We call this EDUCATION...
