This is a kind of age old cliché that we have been hearing from our parents, but today I feel that the schools today are smarter than when I was doing my seniors. In today’s world to feel confident and superior we just have to complain or make derogatory remarks about the current educational system. Those who are listening will feel that you actually know a lot and are commenting to improve the situation. (Much the same way as all these TV News channel works)
Often you hear parents shouting “These kids today seem to enjoy school and I do not know what they teach there. They pass college and then only start to read and speak. But during my days we had to read the Tale of two cities around 250 times just for our fourth standard”. If I were to take Tale of Tow cities as a base line I wouldn’t mind these comments.
To research on this issue I went around finding facts, which is talking with my neighbours. I found the main evidence that they say is these II-JEE and CAT examinations and their questions.
Remember CAT exams and the only thing that comes to my mind is to sharpen our brains and more importantly sharpen those Natraj 2HB pencils. I wonder how I too was in this race sitting in my college canteen trying to solve one of these questions which may go like this:
“Ashok wanted to redo his bathroom in pink wallpaper and green bath tubs. So he invited Shankar over for help. If Ashok’s bathroom is eight feet by seven feet and has a ten foot ceiling and each roll of wallpaper is thirty inches and you have only 7 feet of sticker and 200 ml of glue, how long will it take for shankar to leave you with a half-finished bath room?”
I have to be sympathetic to these students who appear for CAT exams today much on the tight schedule that they have for preparation. I have my own doubts as to whether any single question in the whole of the CAT paper tries to test someone’s intelligence which one may need to survive in the real world. These papers are set by an elite panel of educationalists sitting around a table for 7 years and design a test paper for CAT. No wonder do the oldies shout and the average students who come out of IIM do know nothing about the real world such as which side of the bike is the kick starter on. Some of them are even worse than this; they can’t comprehend the existence of a bike.
The reason for this level of ignorance in real world things is that we are all taught to learn all the crap in school to get into a college and then to a high paying job so that we can write all our money to the banks which let us buy a house with a covered car park in some remote part of the city.
That’s why I feel that kids today have to become smarter and try not to work their brain cells on questions such as how long will Train A take to over take Train B if they both started from opposite direction 50 KMS apart and traveling at the speed of internet. By scoring less in these exams they let their older generation feel proud about education while the students can live a happy life where failure meets elder’s requirements.
My other worry is that if all students start going to college and thereby graduating themselves as engineers may dilute the degree program. I presume that we are not far away when an engineering degree would be treated much the same way as a gift coupon available with the super market cashiers. (NOTE: It’s for this reason that I choose to fail in all these exams.)
The final worry for me is that schools today teach a lot that I am unable to comprehend. Take for instance trigonometry, I feel that I am incapable of answering some of those questions such as how long will the shadow of a light pole which is at 45 degree angle to a light house 50 meters away in the east while the sun is at 15 degree from the horizon. I don’t want to expose my illiteracy in trigonometry but this question is currently being taught to a second standard child. Normally it took a child around 10 years to know that their father also failed in trigonometry but now with the invention of the decade named internet it takes only 2 emails and 6 scraps in Orkut.
In my days we were told a lot of junk information which we never questioned. For instance, if our history teacher said that the battle of Plassey was never fought in India we would accept it without reasoning while today my kid questions me as to why Europe and Asia though not separated are called as 2 continents. My answer (Which is purely a guess) is that the French and English didn’t want to be in the same continent as the Czech republics.
I guess this is enough about the education of today; I am very allergic to studies. More over I have to run to my home to finish my son’s mathematic home work in advanced calculus.
Note: He is just 4 years old and invests in shares during lunch time.
Often you hear parents shouting “These kids today seem to enjoy school and I do not know what they teach there. They pass college and then only start to read and speak. But during my days we had to read the Tale of two cities around 250 times just for our fourth standard”. If I were to take Tale of Tow cities as a base line I wouldn’t mind these comments.
To research on this issue I went around finding facts, which is talking with my neighbours. I found the main evidence that they say is these II-JEE and CAT examinations and their questions.
Remember CAT exams and the only thing that comes to my mind is to sharpen our brains and more importantly sharpen those Natraj 2HB pencils. I wonder how I too was in this race sitting in my college canteen trying to solve one of these questions which may go like this:
“Ashok wanted to redo his bathroom in pink wallpaper and green bath tubs. So he invited Shankar over for help. If Ashok’s bathroom is eight feet by seven feet and has a ten foot ceiling and each roll of wallpaper is thirty inches and you have only 7 feet of sticker and 200 ml of glue, how long will it take for shankar to leave you with a half-finished bath room?”
I have to be sympathetic to these students who appear for CAT exams today much on the tight schedule that they have for preparation. I have my own doubts as to whether any single question in the whole of the CAT paper tries to test someone’s intelligence which one may need to survive in the real world. These papers are set by an elite panel of educationalists sitting around a table for 7 years and design a test paper for CAT. No wonder do the oldies shout and the average students who come out of IIM do know nothing about the real world such as which side of the bike is the kick starter on. Some of them are even worse than this; they can’t comprehend the existence of a bike.
The reason for this level of ignorance in real world things is that we are all taught to learn all the crap in school to get into a college and then to a high paying job so that we can write all our money to the banks which let us buy a house with a covered car park in some remote part of the city.
That’s why I feel that kids today have to become smarter and try not to work their brain cells on questions such as how long will Train A take to over take Train B if they both started from opposite direction 50 KMS apart and traveling at the speed of internet. By scoring less in these exams they let their older generation feel proud about education while the students can live a happy life where failure meets elder’s requirements.
My other worry is that if all students start going to college and thereby graduating themselves as engineers may dilute the degree program. I presume that we are not far away when an engineering degree would be treated much the same way as a gift coupon available with the super market cashiers. (NOTE: It’s for this reason that I choose to fail in all these exams.)
The final worry for me is that schools today teach a lot that I am unable to comprehend. Take for instance trigonometry, I feel that I am incapable of answering some of those questions such as how long will the shadow of a light pole which is at 45 degree angle to a light house 50 meters away in the east while the sun is at 15 degree from the horizon. I don’t want to expose my illiteracy in trigonometry but this question is currently being taught to a second standard child. Normally it took a child around 10 years to know that their father also failed in trigonometry but now with the invention of the decade named internet it takes only 2 emails and 6 scraps in Orkut.
In my days we were told a lot of junk information which we never questioned. For instance, if our history teacher said that the battle of Plassey was never fought in India we would accept it without reasoning while today my kid questions me as to why Europe and Asia though not separated are called as 2 continents. My answer (Which is purely a guess) is that the French and English didn’t want to be in the same continent as the Czech republics.
I guess this is enough about the education of today; I am very allergic to studies. More over I have to run to my home to finish my son’s mathematic home work in advanced calculus.
Note: He is just 4 years old and invests in shares during lunch time.
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