Of Monkeys and Parrots…..

Imagine that you are forced to participate in a race and you are told that you ‘must’ finish the race first. Despite all the efforts you put in, you perform much below the great expectations. Now you are humiliated and teased, and down with failure it feels like a nightmare. And it’s a nightmare come true for the students of the Indian education system.
It’s common to see parents pressurizing their wards to excel in their class, not only in studies but also in sports and other extracurricular activities. What they don’t seem to understand is that not everybody is a born politician or singer or scientist or wrestler. Everybody has got their own talent, and forcing them into other fields might kill their original talent.

The worst hit is the students of junior classes. Take this example: students of class 3 are made to (and not meant to) learn multiplication tables till 15. Ask them 2 X 15 and they will answer 30, but 15 X 2 is out of syllabus and its answer is not given in the book! This is the academic environment in which the students grow up!

Parents instigated by the education system push their children towards what they think as a better future, unaware that it might be like being pushed into a ditch! They slam their dreams on the child, irrespective of the dreams the child has. The child, growing up on these ‘great expectations’ and with the despicable education system, gets his dreams and vision suppressed to extinction. This is worse than child labor! They are born to live lives and not to be a medium of fulfilling dreams!

It seems that the education system is more of an institution that converts monkeys into parrots with parents’ consent and on public’s demand. This has to stop before all of them grow up to become mere calculators- all alike, contributing nothing to the development of our country.

I feel that monkeys are better than parrots, aren’t they?