What is the end of education? It makes you a better person. But now? Education is a means to make money or like in many
cases to get a prospective marriage proposal. Young minds are expected to get the degree and
see big bucks right away. Not their fault, because education is given to them
by people who want to see big bucks. It is not a service to the society, to
give back, that is in the minds of the people (mostly successful business men)
who run such institutions. This idea of “real success is if you make money” is
forced on everyone. One common goal for all. And the result every individual
learner is expected to act and talk and even look the same way.
It begins
from school, in the form of Uniform! The idea behind this uniform culture here
is so that the kids know that they are equals. But are they? Why hide the fact
from them? Why not teach them the truth for a change? That some are rich and
some are not so and that it is all fine as long as you
have a good heart.
My daughter
is allowed to wear hair clips or head bands only if those are black or
white. Why this lesson on discrimination
at a young age? It is decided that other
colors are not appropriate. May be so the kids will not be distracted from
studying and get attracted towards other beautiful things? How depressing! It
is like a scene in “the Village” when a hand plucks and crushes the beautiful
red flower (or yellow I don’t remember) that has bloomed that morning.
Every one of us is different and still every
one of us must respect each other. Isn’t this we should teach in schools to
make them be responsible grown –ups? Instead we deprive them of simple joys and
call that “discipline.”
“Pig tails and
other focus areas” an article by Reena Salil in the Hindu , Coimbatore edition
(July 6, Open Page ) discusses a similar issue. The “rule book” for girls is bulkier
than boys’. Too much “protection” is
what harms them more. Our culture is so that dependency is the only way for
growth of an individual, dependency on the parents or on the code of the
society. And so our kids stumble when it comes to making a decision or thinking
about doing something new, different from others. That is why the mass
production of doctors and engineers.
It continues to happen in colleges.
Individuality is killed here too. How is it possible to expect young adults to
behave the same way? Appropriate behavior is fine but the same behavior? If anyone
deviates a little then they are wrong and punished, to maintain order. All the
thinking is done for them already. Like a live studio audience they are
expected to laugh when they are shown a ‘laugh’ board. That is the condition here now. Choose
medicine or engineering, get grilled for four or five years, get a job that
pays well. The End? No! They leave the student-proofed school/college and enter
into the real world.
They learn their real lessons here, the hard way.
Nice article on education.Education we are having now serves no purpose in our life ,its modeled to meet the needs of industrialization .Below is a ted video by men Robinson on education.Very insightful and enlightening speech
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley
Below quote explains how education producing consumers to this world and this works like clockwork cycle which we have to broke at some point otherwise it will eat us.
Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society, Chomsky suggested. “When you trap people in a system of debt . they can’t afford the time to think.” Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique,” and, by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy.
Noam Chomsky
Thank you for sharing the ted talks video link Muthu! I am glad you are too against the current education system.
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