Inquisitive learning - (The Rising Nepal)

Every year it is the same thing. The teachers do their jobs, teach, and the students do theirs, learn. Every final exam the students study and give their exams and some, unluckily, sediment of the same class while others float to the next standard. Are those left behind really dumb or is it just that they can't seem to memorize like others? Is it that they don't know much or is it because they can't seem to hold on to information for long?

Ask me and I'd say that neither are they dumb nor are they unintelligent. I'd say the teaching system is too narrow-minded. Ask me what is wrong and I'd say a whole lot, but for starters I'd stick with the teaching part.

As a student I go to my campus, sit through lectures, sometimes understanding and at other times copying without knowing what is being talked about. I hope to read the note later and clarify, but I end up putting the note in my bag. So there it stays until the next lecture where more gibberish (to me) information is added. Finally the exams come and I look at all the gibberish in my copy. My search for intelligible notes leads me into such a frenzy that in the end I sit at my table cursing myself, cursing my copy, cursing the lecture, cursing the lecturer and cursing everyone and everything that enters my volatile mind. This would probably be my fault but I know I've done better. I've given my exams and passed with flying colors because I studied. I passed not because I understood and memorized, but because I memorized and understood.

This leads one to think of the dilemma that, memorizing then understanding, and understanding then memorizing, offers. All of us should have understood and then memorized but it's the opposite for most of us. Not enough practical experience renders the theory incomprehensible to us. I'd say the teachers, instead of sprinting to finish the course in the limited teaching days (thanks to so many public holidays), should take a jog. Build up the speed in the slow slopes and look around to enjoy the scenery in the up-hills. What I mean to say is just that some topics are easy while some are hard. Take a sprint in the easy section, cover up for the lost time. As for the hard section, go slow. Let the students do some research of their own so that they grasp the topic more firmly. Let them understand and enjoy what a scientist had so carefully discovered or invented. Giving a student extra information is the basis for letting his inquisitive mind search for answers. 'Do not give a hungry man a fish, instead teach him to fish' say wise men, and I say 'mould not the students mind as you want it but help him mould it the way he wants it, by himself.'

But ironically all of us, be it children or educated philosophers all have been through this. We've experienced this and even though we've hated it we carried on with doing our duty. Dutifully we've done our part and the teachers have done theirs. We have not had the time to raise our voices because in the future we will probably become a part of the system. Some of us will probably be the teachers we so disliked and, without realising it, we will be a part of the system. A system that treats us like zombies, gives us a few facts to digest hoping that some of us will probably snap out of the zombie phase and give a hand in maintaining the system.

But this is not something that is incurable. Every epidemic has a cure. The only thing it needs is time and understanding to cure. Let us no be what the system has planned for us. We have a cure and we must use it to rid our society of this hinderance. In this wild sprint to the finish the course in the allotted limited time do not spoon-feed the student all the answers but give him your guidance, support, help, and in time see for yourself the fruits of your labour being served to you in a silver platter by a truly educated person.