I think what I am writing today is to do with the fact that the ongoing end-term exams have just taken my attention back to these thoughts that I have always had. What do these educational institutions teach us? To excel at what we do and be the best at it by learning something new everyday and face new challenges? I believe that that is what they are supposed to teach us but do they get even close? Let me tell you what I think they teach: how to try and somehow get good grades so that you can get a good job where you can again try and get good results so that you may become a success story. But where are we learning the art of doing things? Where are we gaining anything or getting any kind of knowledge? The system is flawed. It can find ways of screwing you each time, to ensure no matter what you do, you won't feel like you KNOW something and when you end up in that examination hall, you will end up trying to get some sort of a peek into the other's answer-sheet, unless of course you have really strong principles to stop you from doing so, which I might add is a rarity. But the question is Why? Its because there is an incentive to cheat. If you do not, you will end up scoring less resulting into a lower grade and hence the whole cycle. Where in the whole process was the learning? Well you might very well argue there are those who still go for the learning and can always extract it from the system, but the truth remains that the system is not designed to do what it should be doing. If it were, it would encourage innovations, learning, incentivise not the quest for grades but the quest for knowledge. What it does instead is give you a few years of a somewhat forced education process which comes with a little learning and a lot of frustration. Like they say the corporate world is full of competitiveness and stress, so the only good thing the system seems to be doing is getting you used to the frustration and the stress probably and in turn making the adaptation process a little more easier. Apart from that the contribution to what it is ideally supposed to do: Zilch.
Why can't there be a change in the system such that there is no incentive to cheat or step over the other somehow and be better than him instead of being better than your own benchmarks each time? Is the system not capable of devising means of instilling principles and values and the hunger for learning in people rather than the hunger for grades and success? Weren't we all mighty impressed by the dialogue in 3 Idiots that said " don't chase success, chase excellence, success shall follow". But is it enough to just be impressed by it or actually try and see what it feels like to actually do what it says? Well, there is a lot more to say and write, but for now I think I will get back to going through the motions of another exam, yet another futile process of what i call "the pursuit of crappiness".
Why can't there be a change in the system such that there is no incentive to cheat or step over the other somehow and be better than him instead of being better than your own benchmarks each time? Is the system not capable of devising means of instilling principles and values and the hunger for learning in people rather than the hunger for grades and success? Weren't we all mighty impressed by the dialogue in 3 Idiots that said " don't chase success, chase excellence, success shall follow". But is it enough to just be impressed by it or actually try and see what it feels like to actually do what it says? Well, there is a lot more to say and write, but for now I think I will get back to going through the motions of another exam, yet another futile process of what i call "the pursuit of crappiness".
