Beguile, but why?

 Actually today I was going to continue my loud thinking on memory. I got to read a dissertation on the Great Wapp University, however, which disturbed me a lot. Hence this blog.

The long wapp message would beguile most all. This hunch of mine was proved right by the spontaneous overflow of the powerful (or power-fool) responses. What was said in this write up that got such congratulatory ooh's and aah's?  

Apparently, a teenager, in a road side shoppie with even  its name wrongly spelt, could unravel the problem in a Blackberry phone, a skill rather rare then. Wonderful so far! Such a young guy should indeed be encouraged, though one does guess that such fancy mobiles would be abundantly available in the black market even then, and the kid must have tinkered with such fancy gadgets in his kind/line of business in multiple ways, including selling, and substituting, the original parts.

Sadly such a parallel economy is the reality. Why, people prefer the Chinese goods, despite all sorts of jokes. True, such kids must be encouraged, must, in fact, be made to join the mainstream education. Absolutely necessary! True, every child, meritorious or otherwise, should have an opportunity to develop the EQ, the SQ, and whatever could be the latest, the 'in', "Q", nor to forget the ubiquitous soft skills. Undoubtedly! So far, so good!

What I found rather wonky was the glorification of the "jugaad". The buck did not stop there. Next, there was a pious attack on the meritorious children of the middle class. True, merit must be critiqued. So, too, must be such jugaad! As it is, most all have lost faith in mainstream education, especially given the pandemic . Students do not feel the need to attend lectures even online, delivered directly in to their living rooms. Even when a sincere teacher tries to make it a kind of additional input that goes beyond whatever is available on the internet, students are so blase with what the mcq would be like that they pity you that you are actually bothering to make studies profound!

Given such mix-up's, glorifications of jugaad's, while conveniently forgetting that the kid would have had ample encounters of the Blackberry variety on the black market, is downright dangerous.

Wish I could ask certain basic questions. Would such critics send their own children to such shops cum road side schools that would teach their children the great life skills? No way! Their own children must attend the best schools, biggest universities, preferably abroad. Would they be happy if their child was a drop out?

 And, oh, yes, actually, for every one success story of a drop out, there are hundreds of terrible tragedies that never ever even get explored, forget mentioned. Look at Vinod Kambli, for instance. True, he had apparent temper issues which sure are/even then were manageable with kind advice, some behaviour management treatment/therapies. Similarly, it is not as if behind the successfully, carefully crafted brand(ed) icon, there are not any temper tantrums. Kohli, for example, is precisely praised for these! Given such realities, why praise a Sachin as a drop out achiever, and worse still, why mockingly dismiss the "meritorious" as a dreadful drudge?!?

A parallel would be (p)raising to the skies the gangster in phillums, laughing all along at the good guy reduced to a caricature! Surely, mere survival instinct based jugaad's cannot be (p)raised sky high, and surely not as education, moreover, of the life variety. Try, however, raising such an alternative idea about their pet peeves, and, voila, you have raised/roused a proper beehive. There would be a group baying for your blood. Well, their kind of democracy allows only their opinions as valid, you see! 

Sure, education needs constant overhauls. Sure, like Germany, for instance, after compulsory education till the eighth standard (because the necessary conceptual base would emerge then, and thus), students could branch out in to skills of their choices. These very people cry hoarse that under the guise of skills, lower class children are being pushed out of formal education. I would not like to even get  in to the casteism that would immediately be implied.

 I would, however, like to point out that education cannot be focussing on the latest technology/trend in the market/business because these would constantly shift. Education has to create an intellectual capacity, or rather, a mindset, the favourite word these days, that enables you to build, to address the base underlying the fleeting superstructures that current technologies/businesses, by definition, temporarily, build.

We ignore such praised platitudes (without much, forget, thorough, thought) at our own peril because , in the entire process, undoubtedly, the whole field of education, and indirectly society, gets so much more murkier that "cry, my beloved country" remains the only try!

Pratima@intellectual hypocrisy gets one five high's/while the real issue shrinks and d(r)ies!