Tuesday, June 20, 2006

hmmm

Everything is going towards the wrong direction be it career prospects for students, reservations, politics, or something as fundamental to human existence as education.

Something my dad told me when I was very young got etched on my brain (which is gonna be passed on to my next generations as well J ) -- If you study to remember, you will forget, but, If you study to understand alongwith the curiosity to know, you will remember.

Education if attained in the manner it is supposed to, could free the individual … heard of “The educated are free”. Learning, knowledge gives one an immense sense of power that no one ever can take away from you. But beware a mind could store a million facts and still remain uneducated. ‘The purpose of education is to replace empty minds with open ones’ they say and how true!

We are shut up in schools and colleges for fifteen years (minimum), and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education. The onus is on our shoulders how we figure out what to do with it.

Classrooms simply focus on the best child in class and not bringing out the best in every child – the brutal mistake. Ruins the fun of knowledge gaining in itself.

We are led by a simple funda : hard work brings reward, so we pursue higher education because it brings success. If the pursuit of scientific-technical disciplines ensures success, so be it - is the argument. Profession is hardly a matter of likes/dislikes rather it is the return on investment that maters. Well, in a culture where success is measured by one’s material possessions, and where personal fulfillment often takes the back seat, one is likely to pursue the type of education that assures the greatest return on the investment.

The phenomenal growth in the Information Technology sector, also gave rise to the demand for MBAs. Every other person was an MBA whether they had any vocation or not. The motivation for a doctor in his/her career path , in the healing powers of medicine, is a lot lesser than the affluence and prestige the profession brings along with it. An e.g. that I strongly quote in this regard is the refusal of the doctors to look into the condition of a patient who breathed his last during the anti-reservation strikes. Having said this, I m not in any way ignoring the frustrations behind the meritorious doctors, whose merit was at stake but the life of a fellow human being lost in bargain was not really worth it, or have we lost all sense of value?

Education is gained by struggling to live, it is to be able to respect point of views starkly different from our own, most importantly to listen, to be patient and to spread love. Every day teaches you something, every person has something to tell, to teach. The fundamentals are lost somewhere in the race against each other. A human is lot better equipped when he works together we seem to forget.

Well the competition is killing but then worse still is when teenagers commit suicide because heir lifestyle is not as extravagant as their mates are. What are they thinking when they do such things. Too much of emphasis on how fashionable they are, how they speak, their lingo, their style statements all scream for their poor frame of minds. (ok I m cribbing now :P)

Well I have always believed that the Vedic Literature is all-encompassing and has solutions for everything. One such solution that I see is revival of the “GURUKUL” tradition of schooling. The ideal solution would be picking the ideologies of the tradition and implementing using the technologies and facilities available now. Knowledge should be free to be able to avail all.

For an intro - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurukul

http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2002/2mar02/tradit2.shtml

Teaching as a profession has lost all its value, the importance attached to an individual imparting knowledge is lost and down in the dumps. The only people who end up as teachers are those who haven’t been able to make a mark anywhere else. There are a few gems of teachers still left…if only the right people helped in shaping the country for the future there would be better students. And yes most importantly, if you read through all of this ..thank your teacher J

P.S: another imp issue is leadership. There are always too many people talking at the same time in this country. Leadership is not magnetic personality—that can just as well be a slick tongue. It is not "making friends” and “influencing people"—that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Leadership is action oriented towards service – a matter of the heart and mind.

Lack of proper leaders is what is driving the nations youth to better pastures (what normal mortals call BRAINDRAIN)

Now you know what the next post is gonna b :D

I end it just like I started (very pessimistic I must say :P) everything is going in the wrong direction…. But I will try and do my bit to improve the current state of affairsJ

2 comments:

Siddhesh said...

WOW!! Almost the entire post with "that" spelt as "that" and not "tat" :P

Nice post :) Could do with a title better than "hmm" though ;)

Siddhesh said...

While your beginning and end were pessimistic, your post wasn't. I mod you +5 Insightful :)

But in the end it's easy to blame the system. First thing to do is look into ourselves, our own families. I know we will do it in our family; give our children more options, help them learn about life rather than just "education for money". But there are millions of other families too, most of whom don't care about anything other than money and doctor/engineer children. And ofcourse, toppers.