A Weight Problem

From Gulf News

Nothing to do with fat people, or people who have trouble losing weight.. Just an Article in the news (School Bags pose Weighty Problem) about schools starting and the age old problem coming up of how many books our kids take to school.

Never ceased to amaze me or make me wonder.. What do the kids carry to school.. For sure, all of us have gone to school at some point. We too have had our share of 8 classes, 8 subjects, textbooks, notebooks, the works.. But did we ever take 10 kilos of books to school.

People with large numbers of books were confined to be nerds, and I distinctly recall at my time, the idea was, can you survive with as few books as possible.. A feat that I managed to achieve in my 12th Std, where I used to take only three notebooks to school.. One for Accounts (for all the TB's and the P*L's / BS's) and two 400 page books for the other subjects.. The Notebooks split into Sections: Economics, Maths, Commerce.. and each section used accordingly.. Yes, a pain when studying as you had to go through multiple books, but come to think of it.. Just three Note books..

Where are all the cool swanky bags that used to be taken to school, the thinner the better.. We too had our textbooks, we too had our drawing books, but never to an extent of lugging in half your body weight to school on your back.. Where are the old school bags, made out of light tin, the small square ones..

A thought does remain, as to what are we trying to do with our kids.. Yes, competition is fierce, there is no mercy, but what good is a stunted intelligent kid, with his back half broken by the time he is 18.. It is now to a stage where not only does a kid need to study, but he also has to be in body building classes to not only carry the weight, but also learn posture.. Do we really expect them to study??

A big challenge no doubt, but something obviously gone wrong in the educational system.. We all graduated, we all did our MBA's, Medicines, Masters and the works.. The books were there, no doubt, however they were either in the library to come and read in, or at home, when we studied after school / college.

The schools were meant to go and listen to the teachers, who did the text book part and taught us from there... Not that we were to go there and read with the teachers for the first time..

Technology no doubt is changing a lot.. One sees in the Western world a change of having interactive classes, with no books, all on the net.. Or you bring in your IPAD's or your IBooks, the idea being to understand what is out there and then apply.. Where you still need books, schools provide locker concepts, where your books are put into the locker and you only carry what you need for a particular class. A lot many schools, countries are following the same concept, however one sees it more on the Western way of Education, rather than the Asian.

No doubt there are two sides to a coin, that the reading / mugging concept helps us as it teaches us to concentrate / grasp, however it may be mugged. Proof is that Indians are every where in the world in the work force. But then, as one sees, the Indian may be smarter, but works harder, whereas the Westerner, who also studied the same, probably works smarter. It no doubt, boils down to Education, which both may have the same.. But it is also the concept and the process how each has come to learn with..

Some where, some how, it gives a feeling that learning to carry our heavy bags from our school days, is simply a reminder that no matter what, we should always slog our entire life.. Enjoyment is only when you retire, if you are alive to enjoy, that is....

Exams.. And the resulting Grades

Interesting Article..Grades take the heat out of Indian Exams in UAE. Thought provoking, mind boggling and eye opening. What was interesting was that children were not happy

What are we heading to? Is this a monster that we have created that our kids now do not wish to come out of? Or is this some thing that we want to ensure that it remains for ever and ever.

Why can we not accept a system that grades us rather than gives us points right upto decimals that tell us how good or bad we are? What difference does it make, if you find out that a group of people are rated as Excellent or Outstanding, rather than saying he is 99.95% Excellent, and he is only 99.10% Excellent.. For what? To rave and boast about it? For parents to show off their wards at parties? Has that 0.85% made that other person a genius?

It is unfortunate that we have imbibed ourselves to accept this as the only valid mechanism for our success. Parents have grown up this way, they want their kids to grow up the same, and these kids one day will do the same with their kids.. What is ironical is that a lot many go to Universities where they are graded. So what if all got an A++. Do we have to show ourselves off against the other to prove our superiority?

Why can we not think about the kids? The mad race for that extra decimal point, the sleepless nights and the pressure that parents put on their children and the pyschological and emotional blackmails that children go through to get that extra decimal which is higher than Jane Auntie's daughter. The smug face that a mother has when she finds out that her son got wee bit extra than the annoying pest next door.. For What? For the Parents?

We have made our Kids into demons who measure every step of their lives as points. Even in an Average rating, there are high Averagers and Low Averagers!! Does any one really care? Average is Average.. Excellent is Excellent. Period and let us keep it at that.

Kids today are smart enough to realize this and it is a bold step that the Educational institutions are taking to remove a marking system and replace this with grades. Life is not about decimal points and 93.26 % vs 93.28%.. It is whether you have understood your concepts. It is how you perform overall. It is how you end up being as a person. The sooner the parents learn this, the faster they themselves might end up being better parents. If the parents do not support this move, unfortunately, what we will be doing is destroying our future that what it already is.