Except
for a few, education systems around the world can be held responsible for the
creation of depressed, lonely and mentally upset individuals who in turn leave
no stone unturned in making this world a living hell. Along with educationists,
teachers are equally responsible for creating those grey clouds on the happy
blue skies of our world—which otherwise would have been a cradle of happiness
for humanity.
Our
education systems are very ill-balanced. They only believe in creating
grade-scoring machines—individuals who waste their positive and healthy
energies in negative competition of surpassing their schoolmates and proving
them inferior. This so-called challenging atmosphere in schools germinates
among the young minds strong feelings of jealously, which is probably the
undisputed monarch of all negative emotions.
Our
education systems create success maniacs whose minds dominate the idea of
winning even at the cost of all healthy and positive emotions. The irony is that
educationists and teachers are proud of this sick mindset. Have we ever thought
of the terrible consequences of success maniac mentality? Probably not. When a
child, stuffed with one idea of winning at all costs and winning and nothing
but winning becomes his or her creed, the only option that he or she can fight
for, gets setbacks in practical life, an inevitable reality, he finds himself
or herself not fully equipped to handle the situation. The result is a
depressed, lonely, dejected and mentally unbalanced person, extremely
vulnerable to falling into the ill-smelling abyss of life where we find all
sorts of poisonous elements like terrorism, disruption, misery, melancholy and
disorder. Almost not a single education system practically believes in teaching
students how to lose gracefully; how to be unsuccessful and composed at the
same time; how to hug failures and get sweetness from its bitter kisses; how to
be happy and have healthy relationships; and how to face rejections in life
gracefully. Are these education systems doing justice, as they should have
done, to the lives of young people? It has been witnessed that top scoring
children at school are sometimes the unhappiest adults and this is really
tragic as well as thought provoking.
Another
problem with education systems is that they lack farsightedness. And this is a
massive problem. Our education systems do not teach young people how to become
a useful citizen of this world. Building the character of young people, teaching
them how to be happy in life; how to keep positive attitudes, even when the
skies are overcast with the clouds of disappointment; how to control and handle
money; how to have great and fruitful relationships with others; and above all,
how to be emotionally intelligent—these are those neglected virtues that do not
find any place in our curriculums and unfortunately, they cannot sit properly
and comprehensively in the lives of individuals when they grow up. What is the
result of this massacre of these exceptional skills? Simple. We see terrorists,
robbers, burglars, thieves, corrupt politicians, gang-rapists, greedy bankers,
depressed shooters and murderers. There is a never ending list of such people
as mentioned above, but all of them were once innocent young children, not evil
souls destined to damnation. Who is responsible for their destruction? A
question that needs serious thoughts. Education is far more than producing grade-scoring
machines and merely following the national curriculum. It would not be a bad
idea to re-think, re-design and re-create the curriculums for the optimum
efficiency of preparing the future generations.
School
children are like soft wax, delicate buds and young saplings. The way education
systems mould them in their tender years, will determine the future product. Therefore,
creating the brightest future of our world by sowing the seeds of humanity in
the minds of the youth is not a simple ask, but a huge responsibility. If a
child learns his lessons; learns how to face failures and successes; how to be
happy; how to be emotionally intelligent; how to bear the slaps of harsh
realities of life and overcome them gracefully; and how to be a useful member
of the society, educationists and teachers are doing their job with great
responsibility.
