CAN A FISH CLIMB A TREE?

This article is an inspiration of the video, “He just sued the school system”, made by Richard Williams, an American poet, rapper and a spoken word artist.

Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” What are we doing today? We kill the creativity and individuality of these little kids and we are being intellectually abusive to them.

Are we really taking our students towards the future? Let’s compare our modern day smartphone with a telephone used before 50 years , you see a change, right? Let’s compare our modern day bikes with the vehicles used before 50 years, you see a change, right? Now compare our modern day teaching methods with the methods used before 50 years, do you find any big difference!!!!!!

We train students to work in multi-national companies. India is the largest producer of engineers in the world. But the fact is, we are just producing degree holders and not real professionals. Today the world has progressed a lot. We need people who can think creatively, innovatively, critically and independently.

Every scientist will tell you that no two brains of the students are the same. For example, if a doctor prescribes the exact same medicine to all his patients, what will be condition of the patients? It will be pathetic right! This is what happens in our system. One teacher stands in front of 20-30 students, each one having different strengths, different needs, different talents, different dreams and teaches the same concept using the same method for all and expects same kind of result from all the students. Is it fair???????????????

Are the teachers only to be blamed for this entire mess up? They (we) work in a system without many options or rights. Curriculums are created by policy makers. Most of which have never taught a day in their (students) life.  An appropriate example would be the ‘Standardised Test ‘ that we follow. Here, bubbling in a multiple choice question paper determines the success of a student. How mean is it!!!

Take the words of Fredrick J Kelly, the founder of this standardised testing. He said, “These tests are too crude to be used and should be abandoned.” Definitely Math and Science are important but no more than Art and Dance. Let’s give equal importance and opportunities for all the talents.

I know it sounds like a dream to bring all these changes, but countries like Finland are already making wonders with their system. They concentrate on collaboration instead of competition.

In our country, today students may be only 20 percentage of our population but they are 100 percentage of future India. So, let’s listen to their dreams. Let’s create a world where fishes are no longer forced to climb trees.  It’s a responsibility that lies in our shoulders. I strongly believe we all can make this happen as a team, because for all of us ,

“Teaching is not just our profession, it’s our passion”