The Change

The Change 

Everyone around this globe has different mindset so they have different opinions, ideas, point of views, perspectives, thoughts etc…Everyone wants to shape the world according to his ideas and wants to have a perfect life. I too want to change something in this world; that is none other than our own educational system because even great scientists and inventors like Edison and Einstein too hated their educational system. But to change something in this world first of all we need to change ourselves.

“When we change, the world changes. The key to all changes is in our inner transformation-a change of our hearts and minds. This is human revolution. We all have the power to change. When we realize this truth, we can bring forth that power anywhere, anytime, and in any situation.                                                                                                                                                        --Daisaku Ikeda

Everybody in this world has different and diverse thoughts so they have their own point of views, ways of looking at world etc… They want to live the life according to their mindset, they want to have the life style they imagine, and they want the world to be according to their thoughts. So everyone dreams of changing the world.

Talking about my opinion, I would appreciate a change where the education and knowledge of a person is prioritized more than so called grades. I would actually appreciate a world where knowledge of a person is given more preference then his marks, and where a person is judged on his skills rather than merely grades. It is because grades don’t define our potential, skills, knowledge, talent etc…Our grades are provided to us by examination system and our so called poor examination system just tests our memory, so our grades are just defining our memory power. The early life of great inventor Thomas Elva Edison is the perfect example of this, because his school regarded him a mentally retarded boy when he couldn’t memorize an answer, couldn’t get good grades and frequently questioned about different topics. His school judged him upon his grades but later on he proved to this world what he really was & what he really was able to do.

“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning”

                                                                                      --Chuck Grassley

In fact I want to bring few reforms to make our education system better than it is; the root cause of the whole problem is our educational system because the aim of our educational system is to manufacture robots rather than leaders who can change the world. Our educational system just feeds the crap information in the minds of the young like the code is fed in a program of robot. Then, those young people are told to remember and cram that crap every day. They aren’t taught to understand that but they are just taught to cram that crap for few exam days.

“If you study to remember, you will forget, but if you study to understand, you will remember”                                                                                                                                                                                                --Anonymous

Our education system just focuses on rote learning of the historical theories of physics and chemical formulas of chemistry and in cramming these facts; we have lost our intelligence, power of thinking and our character which are thus, the prime purposes of education. As the Martin Luther King JR. said “Intelligence plus character-that is the true goal of education”. Students are just taught to surf internet for every single thing at which they are stuck up, they can’t even crack the simple riddles and it’s because they have forgotten, how to think? As Henry Ford said: “Thinking is the hardest work anyone can do- which is probably the reason why we have so few thinkers”. Even Albert Einstein said “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of mind to think”

Today’s educational institutions are no less than a factory where robots are manufactured who are just taught to earn money and die; they are just taught a cyclic mode of life which involves waking up early in morning, rushing to respective institution ,returning with a tired mind and then sleeping. Learners aren’t taught the moral values, ethics of life, discipline of life. Their skills aren’t polished and their talent isn’t valued. They aren’t taught the difference between a leader and a boss. So they develop the qualities of a boss and an employ rather than developing the qualities of a leader. This world needs leaders and not the ugly bosses or employees but our educational systems have mastered the art of manufacturing robots/bosses/employees.

Moreover, our educational system mainly relies on conducting exams for promoting the students to next grade and in doing this also our educational system has failed because our educational system hasn’t realized yet that every student has different skills, different mindset, diverse thinking power, different creative ideas and opinions so how can our educational system expect the same answer from every single student? Why every single student is given the same question paper consisting of numerical and problems of Physics/Chemistry/Mathematics and theories of Biology. Why every student is judged from that single sheet of paper, why every student has to pass the same test, why aren’t they judged for their skills and abilities?

Today’s situation of educational institutions is so analogous to a historical fable in which for the fair selection of a job, each animal (i.e. Elephant ,monkey, eagle,fish,dog,penguin and seal) who applies for the job is required to pass the same exam that is climbing the tree. Now the question is that how can you even expect from the fish or elephant to climb a tree? There is no logic in it. 

For this historical fable Albert Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”. Same is the case with our educational system every student is required to pass the same exam ,while every student has different abilities, different set of skills then how can one student compete with another. If someone is a good athlete and the other is good at making portraits then how they can bring an A+ in chemistry or physics.

Even Albert Einstein hated the education he received because right from that time the rote learning is emphasized, passing exams has been the sole purpose of education, inquisitive spirit is curbed, talent and skills are curbed, no individual is given attention, music and art is considered a nuisance, and undue emphasis is given to syllabus. In his words “One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year”.

As an individual we can bring the change we want by simply doing what we are good at. We can simply change the whole system by changing ourselves, if someone is good in athletics so he should focus more on his athletic activities then science subjects to prove the world what he is capable of, similarly, if someone is good in physics so he should pay more focus on physics then biology etc…

As mentioned already when Edison was suspended from school than he didn’t quit his studies he kept on doing what he was good at, he started experimenting with filaments of different elements utilizing the techniques of electronics and rest is history…After failing a 1000 times he invented filament bulb, he revolutionized the world. So if he can do that without even going to school then why can’t we?

As an individual we too can accomplish our goals by changing ourselves and when we will change the whole system will change. In words of Austin O’Malley “You can’t change the world, but you can change the facts. When you change the facts, you change the points of views. If you change the points of views, you may change a vote. When you change a vote, you may change the world.”

Coming to the conclusion, each of us has got different perspectives about how we look at the world, what we want to achieve in this world and what we want to change in this world. Everyone of us gets different ideas and thoughts whenever we hear of the phrase “change I want to make” but whenever I hear this aforementioned phrase the only thing that comes to my mind is, changing our educational system and changing ourselves.