Indian School Experience — a rant
“You forgot your homework? Did you forget to eat?” says every Indian teacher ever. It is one of the most common insults in a classroom of Indian pupils. I’ve always been aware of the stupidity around this illogical question. Evolutionarily speaking, of course, a human would ideally not forget to eat. Moreover, what life-nourishing benefit can a child get out of finishing homework when compared to eating?
Let’s encourage and appreciate honesty
When adults are prone to planning fallacy and present bias more often than we wish, how could we expect children to be an exception? So, when children really do fall into the planning fallacy, end up procrastinating and fail to complete a task or when present bias pushes a child to value winning in a video game more than preparing for the next week’s exam, we should empathise and encourage them to recognise and admit to the actual situation. Instead by penalising and punishing honest responses, we are teaching the next generation a wrong lesson.
Everything’s vague, nothing is defined
Two most important life lessons I wish schools warned about — real-life success isn’t the same for everyone (there is no one correct answer that gets you full marks) and solution for every problem isn’t available just 10 pages away. Additionally, schools with their rigid timetables give a false sense of hope to its pupil than most things if not all are predictable.
Demotions do happen more often
There is no laid out plan for everyone. Even if there is one, moving across a career ladder for instance isn’t as straightforward as graduating from Grade 1 to Grade 2 class. I wish schools gave us the courage to sit through elementary school even after high school if and when required.
