The E-System (Education, not Ecology)

Teaching is a highly respected profession, if not too highly paid, at least here in India. But slowly, as scoring higher grades becomes a highly commercialised process, teachers are losing their respect, but earning more.

Not that it bothers them. Or the students for that matter. Everyone wants to gain something in this process. Students dole out large amounts of cash (I mean their parents), attend lectures at the other end of town in over-crowded classrooms for 6-7 hours at a stretch, and cope up with their homework while studying for tests at the same time. Sounds unbelievable, but it happened to me.

And now I'm so disheartened with this entire system that I don't feel like opening my books. Or maybe I'm just plain lazy (which I never was).



Sigmund Freud's Role in a six year-old's Punishment

I suddenly remembered an incident this morning. Can't figure out how it popped into my mind, because I wasn't thinking about the past.

This happened when I was six years old, in first grade. My usual teacher hadn't turned up that day in school, so the teacher next-door popped in and said,"Write down all the difficult spellings from the first five chapters of your textbook. Write each word thrice."
She then disappeared for a half-hour. She took a tour of our classroom when she came back.

She stopped near my desk, peered into my notebook and asked,"Are these the only words you find difficult to spell?"

There were only six words in my book.

"Yes", I replied.

That simple, innocent word angered her.

She sent me to sit on the dirty floor, muttering phrases like 'thinks she's too smart' and 'children these days are a real terror' and 'disobedient child'.

I was puzzled. Why should I have been reprimanded for answering honestly? If she doubted my honesty, she could have always tossed a couple of words at me to spell. But she didn't.

I didn't realise back then that I had pricked her ego, a Freudian concept that would that will never let go of anyone.