Hedge-ucation

A plus B the whole square=my life in mire

It was those days when I wore half-trousers to school. There was this boy in class whose dad worked in Dubai. He bought Staedtler pencils to class and was naturally the centre of attraction of all my male and female (damn him) classmates alike. I used to draw better than him but he drew with a STAEDTLER. Hence, he was cool.
  
'Papa, I don't want Natraj; even I want Staedtler,' I used to complain my dad.


'See, you draw better than him with Natraj why do you want a Staedtler, then?' he used to encourage me.


Encouragement turned into compulsion. Compulsion to draw circuit diagrams. I am being forced by my parents to get into engineering even though I want to do Arts. And by engineering, they want only IIT; not any other college.


'But I can do very well at Arts than Engineering,' I feebly mumbled once, after mustering all my courage.


That argument was not received well. They thought I was going to abandon them and go live in Somalia. Or something of that sorts. It almost triggered the tear ducts of my mom. And mom and dad put up a one-hour long partnership of explaining me how engineering leads to a better future and a comfortable lifestyle. 'You see Gautham anna. He completed his B.Tech with good grades at IIT and now he's in California earning 3 lakhs per month. Don't you also want to become like that?' they ask me.


Somehow the Natraj-Staedtler logic (or logic itself) doesn't work with my parents now. And I think I am resigned to my fate of drawing circuit diagrams for the rest of my life.


Oh crap! I have my JEE within a week and I am rambling something and all. But what else can I do? What a life I have, SirJEE. 


Pity me,
Random lower-middle class boy.


There are so many of such random-lower middle class boys and girls in our country today, who don't have the freedom to choose what they want to learn. After a point, they are put inside a line of fire and are told to do things that will "help" them have a better future. It's like answering a 'choose the best one' with only one option available. And that one need not necessarily be the best one.

The system puts pressure on the parents and they in turn, inevitably put pressure on their hapless kids, who Alt+F4 their dreams of playing cricket to get into computer engineering. I keep using the 'engineering example' because it is the most sought after course in today's scenario that has created an OCD of sorts among the parents. Even those who belong to the 'higher' middle class, who can afford to take the 'risk' of spending on their wards' desired stream of education, suggest their kids to 'Get a B.Tech degree that will ensure you a job and you can always pursue your interests later.' B.Tech is almost equivalent to LIC policy these days.

Honestly speaking, forcing the child to do something isn't LIC; it's RIP. Once in a month, we find some student jumping off from the terrace or hanging from the hostel-room fan of the most prestigious institution of our country, IIT. Parents think that all the trouble gets over when the kid is somehow gets placed in a good engineering college. But the actual trouble starts there. Even the 'once-upon-a-time' class toppers at school  find it hard to survive the stress levels that arise out of the breakneck competition at IIT. Think about the fate of the average ones, then. Of course, the writer never even tried for getting into IIT and he knows he's in no position to pass a remark about these issues; he's just rehashing what the 'people involved' has said about it.

The problem with the existing system is that instead of encouraging creativity; it stifles it among the students by putting up a hedge and asking them to circle within that confined space. Parents, especially those of the lower-middle class, are afraid to go beyond this hedge. They  are too concerned about their son's/daughter's future to let them design it on their own.

So, how do we change the situation?

Well, there is no absolute solution to this problem but there is a gradual change as the present generation has grown very stubborn about their careers. The parents too must support them in their decision. And the system should be designed in such a way that it should let the students explore their own ways instead of laying a narrowed path.

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, let the children in the future be 'free' of 'compulsion' to do something which they don't want to; so that it gives a new and absolute meaning to the Act. And to the lives of these children.