You learn more about oranges by tasting them than by reading an entire Wikipedia page about them. If you want to learn more about oranges, you need to taste them from different vendors, from different farms, and from different towns. You might have heard a lot about Nagpur oranges, but you can’t tell more about them, because you have not tasted how they taste. The more you experience, the better you can explain.
In the same way, if you want to learn about something, you need to feel it, experience it, and you need to get involved in it. All great scientists, economists, politicians, journalists, and writers have become great because of their experiences. You need to get immersed in it to create something about it.
This is the mistake the modern education system is making. The modern education system is forgetting the fact that you learn by doing rather than listening and speaking about it. Why are most students committing suicide in India? Why are most students aimless these days? Why are most students getting depressed because of the education system? In the modern education system, they are not learning by doing things and experiencing them. Instead, they are getting pressure from expectations without being part of the right process. And I don’t think it’s their mistake. It is our responsibility to make things right.
From the beginning of the educational journey of children, they get introduced to mathematics. Our education teaches them mathematics in a theoretical way. Students learn equations and formulas without understanding their real-world applications. Our education system teaches kids about magnets, but they rarely get guidance on creating simpler electromagnets to pick up paper clips. When it comes to magnet fields, it is nothing for but just a diagram in the book rather than a force they can control and use.
You would be surprised how fast you would learn about Algebra and calculus if you tried to build a rocket. It wouldn’t take 4-5 years to get a good grip on it, but it would take only 4-5 weeks to understand how it works.
When we take examples of any classroom, our teachers only appreciate students who are getting good grades. Appreciation is a good thing we do for them. But, as a society and nation, it’s necessary for us all to also appreciate the students who are not doing well in their studies because they are focused on something different, rather than studies. But our education system is only designed for academic studies. The irony is, our students spend more than 15 years reading and writing, but they can’t master even how to read better and how to write better. That’s why, in the end, they are becoming depressed with our education system.
It’s not good to completely blame the education system for what’s happening to this country and the new generation. It is designed to develop minds. And it has created highly intellectual people who did good for humanity. But, it is also necessary to think about the masses, not only about the people who are getting good grades. We need to find better ways for students who are feeling discouraged by not performing well in their studies.
Technology has created massive opportunities in this era. We can use tech to find better ways. Because in this technology era, we are open to connecting with anyone, we are open to discussing our problems and solutions. We have access to all the information in the world just at our fingertips. I believe it’s time we all need to be active as a think tank and start working on creating a better environment where students will never feel depressed, and they will get encouragement and the capability to keep growing.
