Our schools are a whopping success!

And that's not just our schools. But all schools. It inculcates in us the constant craving for reaching heights that they have set. Of going against odds to succeed in tests that they deliver. But above everything, it has succeeded in breeding this fear of failure. The embarrassment of not achieving. To strive to reach a level from where you can look down at heads hung in shame at their inabilities.


Failure has become a nightmare. And it all dawned with a simple craving to learn how to skateboard. The skateboard's here. There's a decently cemented path outside the house. Shoes, check. Unfortunately no safety gear. But a bruise or two is ok. What is not ok is that I cannot afford to fall. Oh the humiliation of falling on your ass when you try learning something that doesn't come easy to anyone at all. Whoever taught you to ride a cycle that's got just two wheels.


That was your Dad. Thankfully he is a good teacher. He doesn't grade you with a D- that gets worse every time you fall. Imagine an F from your Dad for not cycling properly. 


Schools on the other hand are not so benevolent. You make a mistake and you are gonna carry that burden through your life. Meticulously recorded into scriptures that you will have to show the world and get their witness certificate from. 


Here, Dad. I failed. Hope it makes you feel nice. It sure doesn't make me feel nice having failed. I feel worse that I have to show you the record of my failure. And to get your name on it, in a way taking responsibility for it (your son after all?) -- hand me a nice long knife instead.


By the end of it, you have sleepless nights. You are unnaturally tense going through badly printed (and awfully written) textbooks that are supposed to make you a winner. A winner of what?


If there is one thing famous people have taught you, it is that they were pretty awful at winning in all the regular stuff. When you think about it, it makes an awful lot of sense. Schools and other educational forms are so designed so you do well in existing fields. But those who become famous, rarely does so in fields that are already established. Changing the world starts with discontent towards the existing.


So what needs to go? 


Grading must go. It hasn't served anyone. In the end we are all herded into a collective. The 10th standard topper is as lost as the 12th standard gold medal holder or the 7th ranked nobody.


And what should come in?


Passionate teachers and an open-minded view of what can be called talent. These two cannot exist without each other. Passionate teachers are the ones who will know that in front of you are kids who are growing up. That they all have eyes dreaming of a future where they are happy doing whatever. It is up to them to make sure that they grow to realise whatever their dreams might be. To spot what they have a knack of doing. Or just to help them along the way. The success of this will probably far outweigh the failures of the current system.


I agree the cold realities of the world will strike them at some point. But it is nothing that cannot be dealt with. Think about it, you are dealing with them right now. Did your schooling help in any way?