Useful? I don't think so..

When I got into college, I expected to be under a system of education that would challenge me not just academically, but mentally as well.. It's not fair to say that I was not challenged at all, but I have to say that I found the system boring, mundane and containing very very little practical value. It's not that WCC taught things this way. Almost every college here looked at academics with a very text book view and even though we are an autonomous college, we still have to adhere to basic rules and I guess wide variations would not be appreciated.

I imagined a system that would teach me HOW to learn, not WHAT to learn... With each passing hour, another subject, another teacher, I soon learnt that challenge is not something I should hope for here. I guess it is my fault and I could have easily challenged myself as an individual, to go that extra mile. And don't get me wrong. I'm not just blaming the college. But as a teenager whose main aim in life is to enjoy oneself, issues like this were secondary...

And thinking about it, we leant so much of theory. I could tell you the 21 points for the essay on schizophrenia, the four components of persuasion, father of the various kinds of psychology or the sub tests of the bhatia's intelligence test... I could rattle off stages of prenatal development, all about mendel's theory, do any normal distribution sum, teach my friends about probabilty and all that stuff... I was sure I could recall pretty much most of whatever the text books said. I even knew where on a page the answer could be found and by the end of the semester, I could sometimes even tell you on which page the answer could be found if it was a so-called "important" question.

But now that I have finished my under graduate studies, I often wonder about my future plans in terms of studies and in terms of life.. Most often, I just draw a huge blank.. And of course, though I may still need to know the symptoms of schizophrenia, and knowing about Skinner's experiments may make it easier for me in some way, I cant help wondering how much more it would have helped us if we were taught how to learn, how to have the thirst for knowledge, how to question everything and not blindly accept what we are taught and how to learn for ourselves instead of depending on others..

When I mentioned this thought, a friend told me that I was living in a fantasy world if I thought we could ever study under such a system and said that most of us would not survive under such a system. All I could think was that for one, such a system is meant to help us survive better eventually, and secondly that I am in no way saying that it will be easy and a lazy person like me will have to slog to do well under that system. At the risk of sounding vain, I have to say that I did extremely well in my under graduate studies for someone who put in less than 10% effort. And under a more challenging system , I probably would not have done as well, But I would be more independent, more confident and hopefully wiser..

I may be living in my fantasy world hoping that I find such a system, if not for me, at least for my children (Do I sound like I'm trying to copy Martin Luther King or something?)... But let me dream, for that is all I have!!! My dreams!!! They are only mine... and they are free...