THE WEAKEST LINK- abt education

i think we all have experianced a phenomenon in high school that usually, since teachers try to get the lesson across to everybody, even the weakest student, the bright ones usually get bored, feel left out and in extreme conditions try to gain attention by resorting to violent acts. have you even felt that the presence of mediocre students in a class hamper the class development, especially at the cost of those who are brighter and smarter. there was recently a legislation in the united states of america addressing the teachers that they will have to ensure that even the weakest students in a class understand the topic at hand and every resource possible must be employed for the same. it is true that in education, like in everything else, the weakest link plays a huge part. many a times, this causes the smarter kids attention to be dverted. on top of that, it also puts tremendous stress on the weaker students to perform, for all the efforts are being taken for them. we especially see this in India, where in the life of someone who might not be as good academically is made hell by people around them. i mean even for a second it isnt considered if these students actually are interestde in academics. they are also looked down upon to a certain extent. also, the smarter kinds, who have usually understood the topic, get distracted, and usually never take the academic path later on. they either sleep in class or just chatter away or basically create ruckus, feeling that they deserve attention.

while this may or may not change their future paths, it does ensure that all the latent potential in these kids remains just that; latent. i am not trying to say that this system is a monster and is killing intellect. many people will champion going according to the stringest factor rather than the weakest link, i.e, instead of designing a paper that an average student can attempt, design and prepare a curriculum with the assumption of an intelligent student, and not the average or dumbest student, so that the best minds get conditioned in what they were meant for. also, for the evangelists, it makes sense too, as the weaker students wont be pressurized to study extra hard, or to ignore their other interests for a depressing issue of studies. they wont have to wait to graduate high school so that they get enough head space to understand that they might be mediocre academically and might not be the fastest thinkers, but they might have other capabilities which are equally useful. also, Darwin'd principle, which is stated when there is no nice way to explain things. we live in a world where the fittest survive. period.

the current education system, isnt doing much good. we all can agree on that. in a curriculum designed for the average, too much emphasis is placed on understanding and remembering the facts, little emphasis on applying them, and no exphasis on creating your own ideas based on them. when we grow up, we realize that creativity is everything. and remembering is a task a PC can do better than you, so why the hell will anyone bother. also, the people we call good students are basically just dedicated students. it doesnt take brains to ace examinations, for they are not lookign for how much brains you have. no, they designed this exam so that average students could sit it, average being someone who can understand and remember but not apply and create. in such a system, the very weak students get pressurized and the very strong wasted. all that remains is the average.

then again, these are children. shouldnt any educational system, especially one that is going to be judgemental, be executed after they cross a certain age???? for at least in the beginning, the position of equivalence must be there as kids dont know what their true talents are that early. one thing i am extremely sure about though, a society that judges children by their marksheets must collectively be put in an asylum, under the therapy for terminally dumb.

the tone of this topic will offend some people. most people dabble in philosophy thinking that it is just a mental exercise for the wordsmiths. but it is actually the nervous system of the world we live in. your opinions are invited. my sole purpose, as always, is to incite thought, and ask ourselves questions we rarely do. enjoy.

Posts on post V-day

All right..so it’s the 16th..more importantly I am at home on a Friday afternoon while the rest of you are at college grinding your teeth away at the endless hours of classes…ah I love life…and on that note, I wanted to start off on the event that left us all perplexed (me, at least) and warped..valentine’s day! And to all you happily committed, lost in love, blissfully unaware of anything else, get out! This isn’t for you…this is for the rest of us single ones who go by the belief that v-day sucks (well, as long as you’re single at least =)..)
The good part about this time was that chennai wasn’t enveloped with candy canes and red heart balloons and love songs all over..the bad part was that there were couples glued to each other everywhere..and that NDTV gave tips on v-day shopping…( I mean come on!..NDTV?!!)..I thought they were smart!!..
So how many of you went to the beach? I didn’t…and I heard enough about it to thank myself for not having gone there in the first place. Odd, isn’t it? How the whole tradition seems like such a waste of time, money and effort? Funnily enough, only most of the people who are single seem to feel that way? What is it? Jealousy maybe. I remember v-day back in school..that was way way way back, when I got a teddy bear (yeah, I know) for v-day. It felt good. And the next year when I was single, the whole thing seemed like a waste of time. I mean, I agree with the whole thought on ‘I don’t need v-day to prove to someone that I love them’ and stuff like that, but the whole idea of spending that one day to make time special seems like a good idea. It might be immature, but think about it. We do it for mother’s day, father’s day, friendship day and all that. So why not this? Is it cool to think otherwise, go away from the mob? Or is it really that juvenile? What do you think?

THE PRINCE OF IRONY

"THE PRINCE OF IRONY" actually might be outdated in its topic as it relates to an instance that took place a few months ago, and in this dynamic world ( that stagnates more by the second), that will be considered outdated. But it is in relation to an instance that aroused the kind of reactions that make you really doubt and raise some questions. let me introduce myself, i am shruti bhutada. writer. and this is my take on this current event of the past. its ironic that there's philosphy in everything around us, despite the fact that it has consistently been scorned upon by the so called practical people..... read on. if it arouses thought, my purpose has been more than achieved.

THE PRINCE OF IRONY

The whole ‘Prince’ issue has apparently been rocking the country. But the only time I came to know about it was when one of my relatives asked me if I knew how prince was, rather than how I was doing. She hadn’t caught the evening news and he may hav shifted his crouched position during that time! Having stopped watching news channel due to the lack of news on them, I couldn’t answer her. For a moment I wondered if she was asking me if I had found my prince charming. But my ignorance soon ended as the news channel was switched on. Of course, I got the synopsis from our house maid. At that time, it seemed wonderful to me that so many people had come out to support for a life of a nobody. I mean hello, this wasn’t Aishwarya Rai, who was squirming in front of the camera because she had been hit by a bush and was battling for her life ( bad bush!). this was a little village kid, who was in actual mortal danger, and that too in a rural area. In a world where life is getting devalued by the minute, and people are being killed by just like dinosaurs ended their race, it was heartening to see that a nobody’s battle for life would light up so many a hearts on fire. While there were people who prayed for him, there was now hope that life, and its value was definitely not lost. It wasn’t about how powerful you were, or how famous you were, but simply about the fact that you were alive. During the who0le drama, where the lead actor did little more than squirm, innocently unaware, how life had literally turned into a stage for him; I am sure that millions, who till a day ago were fretting about who will be the new celebrity couple and if their daughter will get married to a better man than their neighbors daughter, will they pass out or score in an examination to be able to show their mark sheets to mentally blind people, were jolted back to the consciousness of what it was that really mattered. In the millions of prayers that came for Prince, I knew that there were prayers that had nothing to do with the boy in question. They were prayers that the people had made for themselves, prayers for the lives that they had ignored and lost, and that too without falling in a landmine.

But I should have known that I wasn’t seeing greatness in front of me but just another of life’s ironies. For all that reverence for life and how prince stood for what importance life still had, the media had very quickly forgotten everything else. For isn’t it ironic that while a million people keep tabs of and pray for that one kid trapped in a land mine, barely a few could even know that there were hundreds of people dying in the other part of the world? That there were kids, who did not have either princes luck or his celebrity, to save them when bombs of hatred ripped their innocent bodies for no reason at all. What were those people, who sat fasting in front of TV camera’s eating, when they saw blood dyed bodies of hundreds of innocent people, the sight of which would have killed hunger? If India felt all great and united as the Indian Army saved one boy from a landmine, where was this solidarity when on our own planet, there were hundreds being victimized by terror and millions who would soon become potential landmine makers? Isn’t it an irony that while a boys life earned sixty minutes on a television show, those of another hundred other boy’s couldn’t even garner a mere fifteen minutes? That while the politicians will go and hug Prince even before his mother gets that chance, they are running as away as they can from hugging another hundred mothers who just lost their sons?
I think I was wrong that people have understood and are praying for life, that they ever even cared about it. The whole Prince episode isn’t the triumph of life and all that it means, but it seems that its just a PR stunt, where life was just another model. Either ways, the only bright side is that one person did get his life back, even though a million others lost theirs in prayer.

shruti bhutada.