why are schools teaching our children stuff they will never use? Are dates in History so important? Battle of Panipat? Uprising? Shivaji's birth - I mean who give a FF? The biggest lake in Kashmir is blah blah and the festivals of Baisakhi is celebrated on ... STOP! Teachers - leave those kids alone.
have any of the above ever helped anyone make a career decision? Except for Ross maybe! What are we doing to our kids minds? Whatever happened to school is a place to learn social skills and to make friends and by the by to learn math and how the earth works and that History is a one sided account of how the winners whipped the losers arses?
I say we need to make some decisions for our kids. We may be few and far between but I think we owe it to them.
I made one yesterday. When teaching Abigail geography - I shut the book on Kashmir and its geographical features and festivals, and showed her the globe instead and we figured out where Russia is, which places are in Europe and that India is actually bigger than Australia!!
Marks? Marks are for parents who need to benchmark their kids progress. Not me. How about you??
I soooo hear you on this!
ReplyDeleteI was in Pune a while back and speaking to some friends who are now parents and they were all frazzled because it was interview season - yeah, that dreaded time... And I asked them why they would not consider the other less frenetic/competitive/cookie cutter-type and possibly better options that seem to be cropping up all around (Aman Setu, Vidya Valley etc.) and the general perception seems to be that kids that school in these alternative type schools are left behind, which, IMHO, could not be more untrue! They just learn differently! And they LEARN to LEARN more than learn by rote. Whats wrong with that, I ask! And these kids probably retain their sense of curiosity a lot longer than they would were they to attend the mainstream factories.
I can't wait until Amani starts out in a Waldorf-style school in September, and I am so glad because it is ZERO academics. She is going to be up to her neck in mud, cupcake/banana loaf dough, water, rabbits, plants, paints, puppets and friends! :o)
I studied in a similarly-styled school (look up Rishi Valley) and I completely see what you are saying.
Woohooo... Well said... Even the civics we study is yhe ouddated norms on 1956 !!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe engineering we study is from the same era too!!!