We don't need no EDUCATION!!!

Not my usual "posting" time, but then it is a weekend and thus, new rules :). Thing is, "Dead Poets' Society" aired on Star Movies in the afternoon and I ended up speculating how much the current education system in India (not to sound too *blah*, but our education system!!) is similar to that shown in the movie (Hell-ton Academy, as the students call it... :)). Seriously, on a totally related note, everyone must watch this movie at least once, it is an awesomely inspiring movie.


Anyway, let me paint you a word picture of what happens in our education system. Classes 1-7, you are taught to learn things (literally everything) by heart. You are taught to follow text books, never question new things (at least some of the teachers I had/have did that, although it was just because they were not so good at answering questions...). You are taught to remember things which you might end up never, ever using in your future and even if you do, you'll end up finding that, you did not need to remember it at all. (This post also draws from "Surely, You're joking, Mr. Feynman", Dick Feynman, my most favorite physicist...). Next, class 7-10, you are taught that marks are the things that are the most important things you could pursue. And that is not the worst part, the worst part is that people manage to believe it up until later in their lives and some never grow up. Anyway, the picture is quite changing and now, what was a priority of our generation during our 10+2, is now right since the 1st grade. Today, you find schools which apparently give you "IIT Foundation" right from the 1st standard.


Anyway, after everyone leaves the 10th std with flying colors, all start thinking 'all right, now what, IIT, AIEEE, EAMCET??' Seriously, same questions all the time and some of us didn't even know what other options they have. Anyway, here, you are taught that life always comes with four options and as long as you manage to get the right answer by hook or crook, it doesn't matter whether you know about it (like Shakespeare says: All's well that ends well or rather, ends justify the means, which is pretty much a flawed argument...). One more thing is, when you get a good percentage in your 10th standard, you are tagged to the IIT sections and you end up having nightmares about what your life is gonna be. Of course, this was the decision (of taking IIT as the optional in Intermediate) that changed my life a lot; for good or bad, is yet to be seen.


Then comes Engineering (I'm just taking up my own case...). You just care about not having any backlogs and care about percentages. And end up being just as confused as you ever were. Now, that was the picture of the current education system, and what is missing?? Go ahead and read the rest...


Where is the originality? Ever heard of a different and more profound (from other ones...) definition of the Newton's Laws? Or a new perception of Frost or Kipling in the English text book?? Or a different view of the Covalent Bond??? Never are you gonna come across these things, not in our education system, at least. And you know why that is? People (esp. parents) prefer looking at straight 'A's in a report card rather than come to know that their ward is doing something new and you know what get straight 'A's? Reproducing what is given in your texts or notes as it is, pathetic!!


Then comes the question of what you need to remember. Do you really think you need to remember the Periodic Table back and forth? Or the values of Sines and Cosines of odd values (any values, at that...)? Or the height of Mt.Everest, length of Nile?? I'll tell you what the thing is: You don't need to remember these things. And why? Because you can always look up the things you need for your work (no, it is not cheating...). There's this story in the book I mentioned earlier by Mr Feynman: Map of a Cat (or, something like that...) which I'd urge you to read if you ever happen to lay your hands on that book. Anyway, the point of education is not to improve your memory, it is indeed the exact opposite: don't remember things when you can get to them by using your mind. I have this nice analogy to this: Your memory is like the RAM of your computer and your brain obviously is the CPU. All I'm saying is that, when you can process data you already have to get what you want, why waste your memory? Anyway, education is not about testing about how much you can remember; it is about how much you can perceive: Education is perception.


Then there is this thing about judging people by their grades. How can you know about everyone by just a number? This is especially for teachers (none of whom, I'm sure, is reading this...). Grades do not show what kind of person you are. No more comments about this, though. I can't say much about it :).


Then there is the pressure. Especially from parents (your peers are in as much water as you are, right? :P). Get good marks, get a good Software job, get a 5 digit salary, HELL!! It doesn't matter what we want. It doesn't matter even if the thing they want you to do is something you hate. Like Keating says to Neil in Dead Poets' Society: 'You are just playing the role of a dutiful son'. Neil is so much the representation of what we face in our lives from our parents (not since, we grew up, in my case, thankfully...).


I'm kinda done with this system and feel like screaming out the Pink Floyd lyrics in my classes:

We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom...

So, let's all do this!! And try to do this and change our system for ever and hoping the coming generations not have to salvage any of this fury.

One more thing from Dead Poets' Society: CARPE DIEM!! (Seize the day!!). Stop following your precursors and let icons be bygones...

CARPE DIEM!!!!