Well-read or Well-educated ?

Education : the process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
                                                                                                                                                -   Definition

But as most of us have seen it as a tool to get the marks required to get a job.!

Hardly anyone bothers to teach or learn in a way in which the concept is understood. While the teachers train the students on how to answer the 5 mark questions, the students often concentrate in referring previous years question papers.

The objective is one: Get as much marks as you can!

 

The problem doesn’t lie just in the style of teaching, but also in the content & relevancy. Let me recollect the “Subjects” that I had at school and how they helped me in my life:

Mathematics: This is a very broad subject. Though we do additions & multiplications almost every day, these are something we learnt in primary school.  And in High school?

Trigonometry:   Sin Θ, Cos Θ, Tan Θ - Never seen these after selling those books for second hand. Even my science group friends hardly use them in their careers.

Geometry:          There was always a big fight to buy new geometry box every year. But I mainly used those compass & dividers to drill a hole in the belt, clean up some dirt stuck in the keyholes, to remove candle wax etc., And we used those protractors to draw biology diagrams.!! However, I do use the scale these days, only to tear some paper.

Algebra:               I hated this subject while at school and my teacher helped me by requesting me to leave this question in choice, after I got an answer that “Father’s age is 30 and son’s age is 45”!!.

And not to forget - those A²  + B² + 2AB formulas. If you know someone who uses these formulas in life, please tell me. !@#%^*()

Actually, I learnt mathematics better by calculating the Run rate, Required run rate, Strike rate etc., in Cricket, and that really sharpened my calculating skills. Now I can calculate several things like scrap percentages, discounts etc., quickly, without using a calculator. Something to think about??

Alright, now science:

 

Physics:                The newton’s law, 4 stroke engine mechanism, Distance, time & speed, etc., were all interesting. The problem was that these are not being taught practically enough to be understood. The only physics involved in my life now, is when I use my DSLR camera - Focal length, aperture, Lenses etc.,
 
Chemistry:          The magnetic behaviours, different metals & their features were all interesting. But again, content was the problem. For ex: In 9^th / 10^th standard, there was a question in the exams – "Describe the formula used to make soap"

And again those CO2, NACL, H2SO4 etc., Oh no.. I don’t understand.. who told that it would help all of us in the future?

Irony is that the word “chemistry” is nowadays used more in dance reality shows, and other than that, I never heard it anywhere after school.

Biology:                Thankfully, I didn’t go till the stage of splitting it into Botany & zoology. The body parts, bones, muscles related topics were little interesting.

But if you ask a layman on what is biology, the answer will be “cutting a frog in a lab”.. This is just a reflection of the unorganized & meaningless syllabus. We all use biology in day-to-day life, but the topics from that biology book in School? Absolutely nothing! 

Coming to social studies / social science: 

Civics / Economics:          A chapter that all students must learn. It is about the constitution of India, the measurement of a country’s growth, key topics like inflation etc. Unless these classes are interactive, the students will only be snoring.

 Geography:                        I remember that we were asked to bring plain world maps and mark the places that the teacher tells. Last year when I searched the ‘cape of good hope’ in my GPS and reached the place, I was so glad that I achieved something, as I often marked that place incorrectly.

I’m sure there are many more people who use Google maps now to search countries / cities (only when they need to travel there!!)  That only means that the teaching was ineffective.

 History:                                This is a very miss-used subject.  I agree that one should definitely know about their history and origin, but there is no need to elaborate on any kings in particular. Most students find only Akbar & Asoka in their books which they simply mugg-up to get marks.

History subject is nothing but story-telling, and it is boring without any visual help. I myself learnt more about Akbar only after watching “Jodha Akbar’. Good period movies help in better history understanding.

The above are only based on my experience and it can differ from person to person. I’m now working as a management accounting consultant in ERP so it is very obvious that science wouldn’t have helped me at all.  But some of the topics don't help even the science students!! 

 

While here, I would like to touch up on one more issue:

Even now, it is widely regarded that only those students who scored less marks in 10^th standard will go into Accounts group / Art’s group. The only exceptions are those students who have a chartered accountant in their family or whose parents run a business. 

This view should change, and I feel that the basics of Accounts and commerce should be introduced much earlier. Mainly in India, 10^th Standard is considered to be a decision point where a student decides on what he/she is going to do in their entire life. So, it is necessary to highlight that there is another world that they can consider exploring – A world without weird formulas...LOL..!

Well, it is an ART indeed..!

But that doesn’t stop there. I have 5-6 years of time to revise all these subjects I listed above, as I will have to teach my daughter then. Poor thing..!

Well, let’s at least understand that the importance of these topics lie only in "mark-scoring"and give the kids a “Pressure-free” schooling, and hope that they "learn" what they are interested in & enjoy as they learn.

 I prefer to end with some famous one-liners…

I was born intelligent, but education ruined me..!!

-          Anonymous

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.!

-          Albert Einstein