Competition Success Review

"Look how good Mr Sharma's son is doing.....You should learn something from him".If you have ever been a student you have probably heard this phrase.Only the names vary but the dialogue remains same.From early childhood we have been conditioned to compete with others and look upon others as adversaries rather than allies."Working hard is not enough,we need to cut others down in this fiercely competitive world if we want to succeed".This type of statements have also become common in today's time.Even premier institutes and teachers preach the philosophy of success at any cost...But is that success worth it...???

Well Here's a Story:

Dhruv had just completed his 9th standard and stepped into 10th standard.Being a crucial year,his parents had told him "Look son,you are our hope and you have to make us proud.We want to see you in the boards"(i.e among top ten rankers).They put him into coaching for the exam even before the vacations got over.He also studied hard to fulfill his parents expectations.He missed out all the cricket matches(that he loved),stopped going out with friends on get-togethers and gave up on everything he loved.Success at any cost was what was taught to him.He was even advised to demoralize other competitors to boost his chances of success.Gradually his friends found out what he was upto and stopped socializing with him.

Results came and he got what he had always wanted.He had topped the center and was among top 15 in the state....What a proud moment that was for his parents and for him too.......But wait .....just look what the stupid boy did......this boy,after seeing the results simply ran away from his home!!!!!Before fleeing, he met his only friend Raj ,and the conversation went as follows............
Raj:Why do you wanna run away??Look how successful your life is....You have topped center, your parents will buy you anything you want now,you have become an example for all the students in our school.......
Dhruv:Successful i am....but the price i have paid for it is too large....By competing with every one in the school i have lost all my friends,i have missed my cricket matches, get togethers picnic outings.For this one moment of joy, i have missed out on thousands or probably millions of little joys that i cant get back....Moreover i am fed up of the conditional love that my parents have to offer to me...We love you if you are successful...and dont if you are not......I am running away because i dont believe in "Success at the cost of Life....."

UNITED WE STAND, EDUCATED WE FALL!

Ever wondered why co-operation in exams is termed cheating.....???
We are never trained in team formation,rather any form of union is condemned and considered illegal.

By creating an atmosphere of low level stress and danger,we( students) are habituated to abandon trust in our peers and sometimes even ourselves.

This is also a reason why very few people follow their dreams.They fail because they are alone. Success is a team sport and we can observe it around us.Top businesses are made of top "teams" ,sports also has "teams", the rock bands are also "teams" and the list could be endless.

Instead of falling a prey to the ways of the system, i would rather rebel .I would rather, make my colleague a friend than a competitor,study together than study alone,form alliances than work alone.

Moreover different people are good at different things.How the "educationists" could overlook a simple logic that different people are gifted in different areas and if played by their strengths could do wonders,is beyond my reckoning.

I believe and will always believe...that "In Unity is Strength"........Do you?????

Portal to THE GENIUS within

When the teachers in my school and college classify students as 'Intelligent' and 'Dumb' ,I usually sigh.The reason being that i have always believed that there is a Genius within everyone,which is smothered with the implementation of "Education".

How is Everyone a Genius????

Once Einstein said "It is not that I am extraordinarily more intelligent but its just that i spend more time with problems".While we all know he was being modest ,there is some truth in his modesty.

While in school, in college or at work we have been trained to avoid mistakes and stay away from problems(and i am not talking about math problems ;>).The fear of a mistake cripples our mind to an extent that we lose all our capacity to learn from them.This has a very adverse on the minds of the young that remains till the old age.

Ever observed old people afraid to touch the latest piece of machinery or technology????While all the knowledge in the world(i dare say ,and i mean it) is discovered and inventions possible with the help of "experimentation", business and investment strategies,strategy in sports.... derived from simply "Experimentation",is it fair to teach us to avoid  Experimenting???

In life there will,many a times, be circumstances when all the books you have read will be of no help and a person adept to experimentation will not only survive but rule the roost.

Dont agree????Just tell me which book did Bill Gates,Steve Jobs,Warren Buffet,Richard Branson,Dhirubhai Ambani  etc read for success?

Genius is not a man who is learned but a man who is learning!!!!!!

Meritorious Failures-Surviving The Desert

It is possible to fill the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.The function of real education should be to prepare us for life and not transform us into a cramming machine.And what happens when Education ,like today's , fails to do so..................??????

Here's a true story:

Once two people got lost in the desert.One was a chemistry professor(with a Phd) , and the other ,a camel man.

While the professor was taking a sip from his water bottle,suddenly he stumbled and all the water from the bottle fell onto the ground.Their last reserve of water was exhausted.

Prof:How are we gonna survive without water!!!!That was the last bottle.

Camelman:Don't worry we will get the spilled water back into the bottle.

Prof:But that is impossible!!!!All the water will soon evaporate.

Camelman:Precisely!!!!

Saying so ,the camel man took out a transparent plastic foil and tore it up.Then he started digging a hole and put the bottle in the middle of the place where the water had spilled.After that he spread the transparent foil across the hole and put the stone in the middle so that the the foil dipped down in the bottle in the shape of a funnel.

Soon, small drops of water began to form on the underside of the foil.The sun heated the ground under the foil,so the moisture in the sand evaporated until enclosed air became so saturated that small drops of water deposited on the cooler foil and eventually filled the bottle.

        The professor with all his degrees and qualifications would not have been able to save himself had it not been for the camel man.We are trained to memorize facts but are never encouraged to apply it.We are taught Apollonian theorems and calculus and so on, most of which the we don't ever use in our entire lives or rather don't know how to............I wonder why so??????? 

 

Degrading Grades

Ranks,merits and grades are an intimate tool of the Education system in India.While evaluation of one's capacities is indispensable,the methods employed do more bad than good.

 1)Emotional Dependency:-

              By prizes,honors and disgraces the self esteem of the student becomes a toy in the hands of teachers,parents and everyone except himself.When a student doesnt perform in any examination, he gets a tag of "dumb" or "stupid" and his confidence dives.This low self esteem is to be held responsible for majority of the students suicides that we see today in our society.

2)Intellectual Dependency:-

               Parents often tell their children to seek counsel from rankers.The ones who are perceived to be more "intelligent" then them.They must wait for people better trained than them to make meaning of their lives.As a result they lose their ability to discover things for themselves. 

3)Fear of Failure:-

                  Criticism of failure incites within us a fear of failure.As a result we are afraid to experiment and always prefer to go with the masses.Each and every advancement,be it technological or social,is derived from experimentation and learning from mistakes.

 

By allowing this system to take control of our lives we are preventing our students to flourish fully and and hindering their progress and that of our nation.                                

 DM6HFTPTQBKW

Conspiracy called "Education"

Have you ever wondered why the Lectures are so boring??Or why we hate studying??

As children we are inquisitive from birth.Always asking questions and seeking answers.But as we grow old the quest for knowledge wears out and the energy within us extinguishes.The Colleges, schools and teachers hardly care about that and simply impose it upon us.

We as students want to know about everything around us but the educational institutions never care to ask if we want to know what they have to offer.And when we find that whatever we are taught is irrelevant to the world around us our mind loses its luster and everything begins to become boring.

One of the greatest folly of the system is that it assumes everybody to think about the same thing at the same time.Every human being is different and may want to learn different things at different times.Learning cannot take place at the convenience of the institution.

By preempting 50% of our total time,locking us in the classrooms,by grading us just as we grade vegetables, the colleges and schools steal our vitality and replace it with ugly mechanism intended to prevent free thinkers and produce slaves.

This system was purposefully designed to thwart the energy and restrict our thinking.When the british imposed the education system in India they did it with a clear purpose of churning out slaves.But unfortunately even after 63 years of independence our education ministers have been unable to bring necessary reforms in it.Unless we realize this and revolt ,this system will continue to govern our lives and block our prospects to live life fully.

      

Education-An Unfair Disadvantage

Most of your parents might have told you at some time "Study hard,get good grades & make us proud" just as my parents.This is because we have been made to believe that education is an inevitable thing and completely indispensable for the the development of an individual.Education , although necessary,does not bring complete development in a child.

As to how it is a disadvantage,here are some facts you might or might not be aware of :-

1) The education system in India is a descendant of the Education system during British                      Rule.This in turn is an adaptation of system during American Civil War which they used on            the slaves so that they may not rebel or revolt or question the authority.

2) The slaves had to learn the exact subjects that the masters wanted them to learn,they were           not given a choice.  

3) The learning was possible only at the time which the master preferred.

4) Their confidence was thwarted by judging them with exams and grades so that they may              never develop a liking for anything and fight back to learn. 

            These a just a few similarities from many that I have stated here .I will be writing more about this in the posts to come.In the meanwhile you may try to find a similarity between our current system and the system used on Slaves.