Tuesday, May 22, 2012

"Average" kids



This image was made by a cartoonist named Rakesh and I believe that through this image he wanted to portray the life of all those children who are average in schools and colleges and how education seems to be a burden on their shoulders. In this picture the kid looks scared and confused surrounded by various mathematical and science notations. I think that the modern education system creates divide among students, isolating the "average" group while praising the top students.  Besides the average student's low self esteem driven by the pressure and humiliation from friends and family for not getting 'A's', sometimes bigger problems arise, they lose their hidden talents and skills in this fight for success. As we all know admission in  most good colleges or to getting a good job depend on how many A's the student got during his studies in school or college respectively. This not only makes the life of students who have hard time getting A's difficult but in the struggle to pass in class or get A's, sometimes, many kids lose their hidden talents and skills for which either they could not manage time for or could never realize their hidden talents. I would like to support this from my personal experience, my parents being doctors from a good college in India always pressurized me to be at the top of my class, but in order to do so I could not spend much time on my music. Struggling to meet my parents expectations, I could never spend time on something I really loved and enjoyed. There are countless times when I gave up an opportunity to play on stage or practice because of this pressure. These kinds of situations are much more common in countries like China, India, etc.. I believe that if observed thoroughly, this image highlights one of the major problems which leads to loss of talent in kids. 

1 comment:

  1. I know what you're saying here Surya and I would agree. I see the education system as somewhat of a paradox. We are told that the schools we go to are "top notch" or "highly appraised", but they might only have a few excellent programs. Even still, when you go to college your profession of choice must be narrowed down immensely. This is the reason I believe the system we have is paradoxical. Education should be a uniquely formulated process that is tailored specifically to each student. We are suppressing out of the box thinking and forcing everyone to adhere to the same jello mold as the next person in line. Most of my education has depended on my ability to swallow and regurgitate random information. This apparently determines whether I actually know what I'm doing. Like Surya said, we all have our own little talents. Many of them I feel go undeveloped. This is likely due to the fact that our educational systems do not support our own unique talents in the slightest. They believe the same curriculum should be required of all students. Ultimately, it would seem that this kills individuality. I was formerly in the engineering undergraduate program and switched out for this reason. I did not want all of my interests to be drowned by the amount of technical work I would have to complete for my major.

    ReplyDelete