Education Today – Are we dependent on the Internet?

Just a few days ago, I was having a conversation with my sister in law regarding the evolution of education over the decades.

She mentioned that her son had a load of holiday homework to complete this month, one of them being watching the CD of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and answer some questions which the teacher had asked the students to note down.
Another one was a few sites the Math teacher had listed and students were asked to go to these sites and solve the problems online.

What stumped me was the extent of which our education system is reliant on the Internet.

Teachers, I believe, should be the first ones to encourage reading to students. Why not ask the students to get a copy of the book instead and answer the questions? Why not print out the math problems and hand these over to the students to answer? At least, this way, the teachers can check them… instead of having the kids answer them online where no one knows how much has been attempted or rather correctly attempted.

Internet has come into existence pretty much recently. Prior to which, students everywhere relied on books and encyclopedias to complete their projects and homework.

I clearly remember the hours and hours my friends and I used to spend at the school library noting down information from various books to complete that one assignment. How many students do we still find spending time in the library?

Projects done from the internet, pretty much are the work of a simple copy and paste resulting in mass production of the same assignment from a dozen students. It doesn’t allow the user to use his/ her brain to analyze, reconstruct and utilize the information at all. As soon as the computer is shut down, all the information is simply forgotten. The brain doesn’t register it at all.

Many homes still probably have a collection of encyclopedias adorning their bookshelves, but how many still use them?

Recently on an outing with my friends to a mall, I bought a pocket sized edition of the World Atlas containing the latest geographical and interesting facts of the world and countries from a famous stationery store. On my purchase, I was instantly ‘enlightened’ by one of my friends, that all this information was now readily available on the net… why did I spend on this book? Well, I happen to think that I am not going to carry a laptop/ GPS enabled phone every where I travel... Neither am I going to login in to a computer at every instance to increase my geographical knowledge. I just plain and simple think it’s a very interesting read!!
This also brings me to the idea of e books!!? Why?

While I am not at all against the use of Internet, I spend hours on it everyday like everyone checking my emails and spend a good time on social networking sites. I also happen to support the fact that it has opened a huge world of knowledge for everyone at the click of a few buttons… but lets not forget that it cannot take the place of the human brain. It should assist you to increase your IQ not take its place.

There was one very inspiring message by a lady in an old issue of Femina, I was reading yesterday… it says that so many people spend so much time on Farmville, growing crops, tending to the animals, harvesting etc… if people were to spend even 10% of that time to plant just one sapling in or around their homes, our planet would be a lot greener. So simple and yet so true.

Coming back to the issue of education versus the Internet, well I think it’s just a never ending fight. Teachers, parents, students together need to evaluate and create a balance to ensure imagination and creativity are not replaced by Google.

After all, Google doesn’t have an answer to all your questions. Life does!

Women’s equality - Reality or farce

8^th March, International Women’s Day… celebrated with much gusto and pomp. A variety of discounts and offers were provided by various stores, salons and restaurants to celebrate this day. But was it really to celebrate or to hike business? Well, every business is run for a profit so what’s the harm? None, but what does the true meaning of a Women’s Day hold -  respect to the fairer sex or just another day in the list of international days being held across the year?

In India, on one hand we pray to our numerous goddesses with much fervor and on the other hand treat the same mortal being with oppression and discrimination.

Take the most recent case (which incidentally occurred on Mar 8 too) of Nidhi Gupta. A well educated, qualified, urban woman shocked the nation by throwing her two children and herself from the 19^th floor of their high rise apartment. Why? Because she was being mentally and emotionally tortured by her in laws? Some might say, the media reports all the juicy news to gain publicity… Agreed but if that was the case, why did the husband and the rest of the family need to flee? With the exception of the husband and sister in law, why aren’t the rest of them still found and questioned by the police yet?

Coming back to the incident, I was taken aback when I read the morning papers, the first thought that came to my mind, was how could a mother have a heart to kill her own children? And then came the thought, under what stress must she be in to be able to take such a step?

Since that day, I have been following the developments in the newspaper. Just today, her father has admitted that they were aware of her unhappy marriage but brushed aside her usual talks owing it to typical marital problems. Had they been more attentive to her issues, maybe she’d be alive today.

Why wasn’t she taken seriously? Is it because married Indian women are expected to bear all kinds of mental, emotional and physical torture to ensure their marriage stays intact, or for the security of their children?

Why do well educated women still believe they need their man to provide for them and their kids?

And then a statement by the head of the community that she belongs to – this is a community matter and we will try to resole it within the community.

What community matter? This isn’t surely a community matter… this is a national matter.

What comes to my mind at this point is that, dowry harassment, ill treatment by in laws used to be thought as a social evil within the illiterate, backward or rural class. But slowly, we are being made to realize that this also prevails in the urban, upper class society.

I would think if she was educated and modern, shouldn’t she have just walked out of the marriage with her two kids in tow? Then again, being the essential Indian woman that she was, she refused to let her parents get involved or raise her voice to the injustice being done to her.

This incident raises a thousand questions but no answer.

Why are we Indian women expected to bear the brunt? Why are daughter in laws expected to please their families all their lives with hardly anyone bothering to worry about their well being?

Why do we have to put our husband’s family first?

Why do we keep up with an unhappy marriage and are hesitant to involve or go back to our parents if we cannot bear the torture?

Why can’t we independently take a decision? Whether it is for the house, for the kids, for the family or for the family finances?

I do agree that not all households have this issue. There are some families where daughters and daughters in law are treated with equal respect and admiration. But deep down, what is expected of a daughter in law is never expected of a daughter.

Nidhi’s sister perhaps sums it up completely saying ‘Because she was well-behaved and never complained, trying to deal with all her problems herself, her in-laws took her for granted. They thought she would never retaliate.”

This sadly is the case of most Indian women. We have been brought up that way. Suffer in silence.