Education and learning

Have you, as a parent, ever stopped to ponder, what it is you are looking for in an education when you send your child off to school? There is no other aspect of our lives in which we have become more mechanical and laid back than education. A couple of decades ago, education, which went hand in hand with learning, was a very individual need. Education was based on family values, family and individual aspirations etc. I remember getting cent percent in Math in my board exams in the 11^th grade (at that time boards were in the 11^th as there was no 12^th grade). Based on my results I was encouraged to apply for a Commerce degree in any of the good colleges in my city as it would have been a comfortable walk-through. But, I chose to do a degree in History as that was where my leanings lay. At that time, my marks or percentages did not dictate what I did in life. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. The individual’s choice does not matter. And therein lies the problem. With education being so expensive, it is such a waste to spend so much time and money on doing something that one did not want to do in the first place. No longer is it what you want out of an education. But what education can get out of you? The confusion between the subject and the object is the reason why education is such a debated topic today. And to add insult to injury, the people involved, primarily the student and the parent has little or no say in the matter.

Another one on recession!!

At the cost of sounding boring and repetitive, I will say that this recession thing seems to have got the better of us. Even me. Now one would wonder why me. I bored housewife, homeschooling her three children, bearing the brunt of her husband's joblessness, and watching her dog grow old. Well, it has hit me too. Why? I have been forced to reduce my jaunts at the supermarket to once a week where earlier I would go there when the fancy took me and when I was bored. I would walk the aisles of the supermarket as one would walk a botanical garden. But, I cannot do that any more.

I am forced to cook more often, something I absolutely detest and have had a dislike for since god knows when.

But look at the brighter side. I finally have something in common with Bill Gates! Now, now. Let's not get into semantics. We both are victims of recession!

Honestly, I hate the word victim. It reeks of losing, giving up before putting up a fight etc., etc.

My husband does not feel that recession has hit him. Reason? We were constantly in a state of recess.

The recession must have come as a breather for all those who have been struggling to make it in life but did not. After having spent all their lives convincing the world it was 'destiny' and abusing poor Destiny for all the ills in their lives, Destiny found a breather when they found a new 'reason'. Recession. We can rattle off all the statistics we pick off the dailies and the news channels to convince ourselves that we are not alone. But, are we really not alone? I think we are. Because we human beings all react differently to the same word. What is 'being broke' for you may not be the same for me.

The objective of this post is not to sound morose but think aloud. Sorry for using you to bounce it off!

Dress Code in Colleges

What is it with people who have suddenly taken to moral policing? Suddenly we want to control…….others, of course! So much so that even our educational institutions are giving more importance to discipline and dress code rather than imparting an education. Today, the so called educationists have taken over the role of the parents too. And what is more surprising is that parents do not seem to mind it. Don’t they realize that by doing so their own children are going to be brought up with someone else’s moral values and ethics? Are they really alright with that? I am not. In any case I think the schools and colleges should concentrate on what they are being paid for, which is educating our young and not dilute this with things that are the domain of parents.

A cousin of mine went to an Ivy League University to do his Masters in Business Administration. Since he had some work experience prior to joining this course, he was offered to give a guest lecture to the junior students. I remember him recounting to me his first experience as a lecturer. When he entered the class he was shocked to see students sitting with their feet up on the desks, sipping coffee and biting into sandwiches. There were hardly half a dozen students and he was expected to lecture them. This is back in the 70s when I was a high school student myself. Of course, my first reaction was envy. Why could we not have colleges like this in India? But I also wondered how much would a student learn this way because I was conditioned to believe that one has to pay attention to every word uttered by the teacher, there has to be a certain decorum maintained in class, not only out of respect for your teacher, but also because it helps one concentrate. But the cousin told me that not everyone can get into a college of such repute and the students who get in are there because they have worked to get there and want to be there. And if they want to do well and pass out with good grades, it is up to them to work for it. It is not the job of the tutor to motivate them. They have to motivate themselves. Also, grasping and learning has nothing to do with dress, posture or decorum.

So, coming back to all this hullabaloo about dress etc. in colleges over here, I think the educators need to do a rethink and find out if they are implementing all these codes because it makes a difference to the score cards of the students or are they taking their authority too far. On one hand our children should know what they want to become in life before they hit high school. On the other hand they are not free to choose what to wear well into adulthood! A irony of sorts, I would say.