Unboxing the boxed education

The current social system is such that the children and youth of today’s generation are not fully aware of their potential. Knowledge and skill development is so structured that those who think differently are left out.

To site one example, in Singapore, a picture of a chick was given and a question asked “If the mother hen does not sit to hatch the egg what should you do?”. The expected answer was “Put it into incubator”. One child answered “Put the rooster(male hen) on it !”. Logically it is right…if the mother does not take care, ask the father ! The child had thought in its own way. But was awarded zero marks!

Instead of the child being told that it is good that it thought differently. But in real life it is different.

Instead the child has been told that it has been awarded zero which is a mark of a failure !

Due to the structured format, thinking innovatively or out of box thinking as it is popularly called is becoming rare. And so is the application of common sense. People tend use book sense rather than common sense !

The most sad part is that children are by nature out of box thinkers. By forcing them into structured thinking and rating them for that, we tend to impose a fixed thought process in the child’s mind

And ironically, the “Corporate” world wants innovative or out of box thinkers…our society spends effort to make child fit into a system when it wants to make its own. And then when it gets habituated to fit into the system, it asks them to think out of the system i.e. innovate or out of box solutions !

Often our society seem to complaint that the present generation of children and youth have behavioral problems. But how many of us have looked at the world from the child’s point of view?

Today’s world is not just industrialised but also automated to such an extent that often we fail to understand that the children are first human beings before being students. As a society, how often do we spare time to listen to child’s thought on its life experiences…listen them out and then give our opinion and thoughts…

The system brands them as useful or not only by their performance in select fields. If they do not outperform in those areas, they end up feeling unwanted in the society.

Some children in their youth end up getting depressed and have suicidal thoughts and some go astray and become destructive. This is not a healthy sign and unfortunately it is on the rise.