| Have you seen a comedian at work? Or a | | | | use models, audio - visuals and also revise these |
| musician at his instrument? Or a sportsman at his | | | | concepts just before tests or exams. The result, |
| game? Is there anything common among them? | | | | however novel the method of explaining the |
| You will be surprised to know what is common | | | | concepts, is what is happening in our classrooms; |
| among them. They do not focus on the outcome, | | | | students easily pickup intricacies of non |
| but put their whole being into what they do. And | | | | academics, but not the details of academics. This |
| what about their education? For all you know, | | | | is mainly because the teacher pushes the |
| they might have had difficulty in clearing their | | | | students towards the concepts, which is like |
| levels. So, does this make them substandard? No, | | | | making the proverbial horse to drink. It is easier |
| never. | | | | to push the horse towards the water than to |
| Why is it that more and more students are | | | | force it to drink. This then is the great fallacy of |
| becoming substandard? Is the education system | | | | education as it is now. |
| at fault? Is the infrastructure inadequate? Is the | | | | Can this be reversed? How? It is really very |
| manpower inadequate in quality? In quantity? | | | | simple. The horse will drink only if it is thirsty. |
| Even in schools having the best infrastructure with | | | | Similarly, the students will pickup the intricacies of |
| adequate quantity of quality manpower, you will | | | | academics only if s/he can acquire the thirst for |
| find many students effortlessly picking up the | | | | academics. Now, this is where the teacher's talent, |
| intricacies of an instrument or a sport, but not the | | | | resourcefulness and skill come into play. The |
| intricacies of academics. | | | | teacher, instead of pushing the students to pick |
| Does this give a clue to what ails education | | | | up new concepts by encouraging rote learning, |
| today? Does this not indicate that children view | | | | punishing poor learners, or rewarding quick |
| education as unpalatable and an unavoidable pain | | | | learners etc, should lead the students towards the |
| which should be lessened by diverting to non | | | | concepts. This however requires a reversal of |
| academics? Is education an unavoidable bore | | | | roles. The teacher is presently taking responsibility |
| because of content or wrong technique of | | | | for teaching the students all the time. Now, the |
| handling academics? The contents are not of our | | | | teacher has to give the responsibility for learning |
| choosing, because the knowledge accumulated by | | | | to the students. This will release major chunk of |
| civilization has to be passed on to younger | | | | time and energy of the teacher for facilitating |
| generations. Hence the problem lies with the way | | | | student learning. At the same time, the student |
| academics is handled. | | | | will gain confidence in what s/he has learnt and will |
| And how is this done at present? The teacher | | | | automatically build the thirst for knowledge in |
| shows the concepts and then forces the class to | | | | himself/herself. S/he will then become as |
| practice these for sufficient time till s/he feels the | | | | proficient in academics as in non academics and |
| class has enough practice. A good teacher will also | | | | that too, painlessly. |