"The Secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, An American Essayist, Lecturer and Poet
One of the reasons I chose teaching as my profession was the pleasure it gives me to interact with young inquisitive minds, some sharp and some not so sharp. Often I find myself sitting in the middle of the students with a textbook ignored, lying open next to me while I am lost in a world where many eyes look up to me with questions waiting to be answered. Silly questions, innocent questions, thoughtful questions, funny questions and more questions. And I find myself unable to go with the lesson plan because I cannot help but feel responsible to provide them the answers they are looking for. And like it happens with pupils of this age, most of them revolve around the big question, What next?
These days I find every student with too many options in his head to consider after +2, graduation and sometimes even after that. And they want all their answers there and then, which is where the problem starts. This post is not against any career counselor since I am myself one of them, but is against the unwritten rule which has been carved in the young minds since past few years that they need to have their career chalked out in front of them even before they understand the meaning of the words like SCIENCE, COMMERCE and ARTS. Sure teachers in schools shoulder the responsibility of explaining it to their pupils but the question is that how many of them succeed? My question is how do you expect to know what they want to be in future at a tender age when they are not even able to decipher or analyse the scope their chosen streams and the opportunities it provides?
Let me cite an example. A young student of not more than 17, just out of high school asked me if M.B.A is the right choice for him and I was stunned. Management these days is loosing its value and so are other professional courses because the students before time are forced or compelled by the peer groups to decide upon a career and start working for it. Little do they realize that the selection of a professional course should be done thoughtfully, with logical and rational reasons behind it and one must make the choice after due consideration to areas of interest, personal skills and subject matter of the course. This is where the education system fails because it induces the mind to follow and not think !!
My point is simple! All I am asking is, if the student needs time to decide on what to do in future, he should get it. Like I say, 'A safe decision which leaves your options open is always better than a wrong decision which closes all doors." Let us provide them the time, share with them the experiences, our anxieties and fears, mistakes too, tell them stories, and then let them be the judge. There is nothing wrong in not knowing NOW what you want to do in future. Education should make us think and make decisions rather than make us take decisions and then think for a life time.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, An American Essayist, Lecturer and Poet
One of the reasons I chose teaching as my profession was the pleasure it gives me to interact with young inquisitive minds, some sharp and some not so sharp. Often I find myself sitting in the middle of the students with a textbook ignored, lying open next to me while I am lost in a world where many eyes look up to me with questions waiting to be answered. Silly questions, innocent questions, thoughtful questions, funny questions and more questions. And I find myself unable to go with the lesson plan because I cannot help but feel responsible to provide them the answers they are looking for. And like it happens with pupils of this age, most of them revolve around the big question, What next?
These days I find every student with too many options in his head to consider after +2, graduation and sometimes even after that. And they want all their answers there and then, which is where the problem starts. This post is not against any career counselor since I am myself one of them, but is against the unwritten rule which has been carved in the young minds since past few years that they need to have their career chalked out in front of them even before they understand the meaning of the words like SCIENCE, COMMERCE and ARTS. Sure teachers in schools shoulder the responsibility of explaining it to their pupils but the question is that how many of them succeed? My question is how do you expect to know what they want to be in future at a tender age when they are not even able to decipher or analyse the scope their chosen streams and the opportunities it provides?
Let me cite an example. A young student of not more than 17, just out of high school asked me if M.B.A is the right choice for him and I was stunned. Management these days is loosing its value and so are other professional courses because the students before time are forced or compelled by the peer groups to decide upon a career and start working for it. Little do they realize that the selection of a professional course should be done thoughtfully, with logical and rational reasons behind it and one must make the choice after due consideration to areas of interest, personal skills and subject matter of the course. This is where the education system fails because it induces the mind to follow and not think !!
My point is simple! All I am asking is, if the student needs time to decide on what to do in future, he should get it. Like I say, 'A safe decision which leaves your options open is always better than a wrong decision which closes all doors." Let us provide them the time, share with them the experiences, our anxieties and fears, mistakes too, tell them stories, and then let them be the judge. There is nothing wrong in not knowing NOW what you want to do in future. Education should make us think and make decisions rather than make us take decisions and then think for a life time.
