The Moral decay of Education
There was a time, when Education was synonymous to, Honesty, Integrity, Dedication and Earnestness [HIDE]. Today, Education is synonymous to, Fees, Admission Frauds, Donation, Capitation, Malpractices, Backdoor, etc.
Today, the system is so Money based that no deserving, aspiring and focused candidate can get into the system, called Education delivered by premier institutions.
And, what do you we have as end result? scores of grads, wanting to get all their investments back. So, they adopt mannerism that puts money and fleecing methodologies as pivotal agenda on their journey to the top.
Once Teachers were regarded as Pillars and Guardians of Learning
There was a time when teachers commanded the highest honors in Society. Students regarded their teachers with dignity and honor. The impact of teachers were in direct correlation to the success of his/her pupil.
The once great British system of learning was based on the Biblical proverbs, that “to spare the rod, was to spoil the Child”, “it is better to give the rod of correction to the child than to see me heading to the Gallows”, and “Children are inherently foolish, but the rod of collection shall drive folly away from them”.
But today, if a teacher happens to touch a student with parental care, the student calls the Police on the teacher, more so, the disheartening part would be that the School, which ought to stand for the teacher, would be the one who would facilitate the call. Hard to believe, but this is the everyday norm.
The much important question to ask here would be, at the end of the day, what sort of students are these Schools producing?
You don’t have to look around to know the answer. Gang violence has become a common culture of schools. Bullying and Harassment are part of the day.
Meeker students fear even to use washrooms so much so that one study has revealed that students between the ages of 10 and 15, suffer from weak kidneys.
Parents fear if their wards would return alive from school safely. School shooting and mass murders which were never heard prior to 1970s, is now a common culture.
We are no theologians, but there is an old proverbial verse which goes something like this, “train the child in the way it has to grow up, and when it has grown up, it will never depart from the path shown”.
Today, the major challenges that the society is facing can be largely attributed to the lackadaisical approach of today’s educators and policy makers, who had twisted and turned the system to suit a few and destroy the many.
The truth is in the pudding. Just look at the SAT, scores for Math. US schools, most of the times did not reach the set expectations. The overall Math, abilities of students were no where in comparison to the Math abilities of Asian, students.
Moral Decay
Do you know, teenage pregnancy has become a norm today. Alarmingly disdainful, but don’t blame the teens. The educational system, under the name of sex education is issuing Condoms and expects them to keep them in their pencil boxes.
There was this question on an online magazine called Quora, the question was, “What was the most embarrassing moment in you life?”.
A mother narrates her experience in the following manner.
“It was Monday afternoon, and I had to request for half day leave, due to a severe migraine. On my way, I knew, My daughter would return home hungry, and I stopped by the usual bakery, and bought her favorite Chicken patties. I hurried back home, so I could put the patties in a hot pack, to ensure they stayed hot and crispy.
I reached out for the keys and tried to unlock the door. But the door was already opened. Well, I was under the impression that it was my sister, who at times shares the room with her boy friend. That was no big deal to me. Entering in, I wanted to grab something I could slip on after a hot shower.
I usually take hot showers during Migraines, since it provided a soothing effect. With this in mind, I rushed upstairs, entered my room, it was dark, not sure why all the blinds were down, I reached out to switch the lights on, and I heard, no, no,wait. I thought it was my sister and her boyfriend, no big deal, they are old enough and I am old enough to take my eyes and pass, and without a second thought, the lights went on.
What I saw almost had my heart in my mouth. My 14 year old girl is having intercourse with a man who should be at least 35. I gathered sufficient pulse to yell, the man rushed out, pulling his shorts and leaving his wallet behind.
I confronted my daughter and realized that she knew the man from one of those Dominoes pizza outlet, where he cleaned tables and picked the trash. I just didn’t know what to do, being a single mother and with a hope that one day my daughter would graduate well to enter a Medical school and support me in life, all seemed now to lost forever. The shock was so severe, that depression set in me, and still fighting to come to terms.”
A Justification for everything, a Pill for every ill
Now, all the so called behavioral researchers would immediately put the foot in their mouth and start off right way, claiming that this would be the very reason that they advice issuing condoms to teens, so that teenage pregnancy and Sexually transmitted diseases can be kept at bay. But the question to ask here would be, are we trying to prevent the problem or find cures to the problem?
A child who was supposed to stay in the path of learning, acquire training in life about good Moral values, encouraged to hold guided vision of higher achievements and accomplishments, is now deliberately on a path that would yield nothing but of disastrous consequences.
Who should be blamed? Should not the School system, which vouches with integrity, honesty and higher calling of the self, be held responsible for the Child’s derailed moral values? Can condoms save her from Condemnation?
A great man once said, life is all about choices. The choices have the power to either may your life into a life of interesting events and experiences or on the contrary, turn it into a mess of everyday struggle. Watch and Pick your choices, for you will ought to live with them.
Common Sense is not that Common
Mark Twain, in responding to a question, as to what one thing that he would like for the Educational system of the day to incorporate and teach, he said, “Common Sense”.
The present Education system places test taking as the only means of judging a candidate’s potentials. In fact, these grades and GPA, will ultimately determine to which College or University, the student will enroll.
But, what about Common Sense? are we to assume that Reading and Test taking will deliver that sense?
Story time
Some time ago, a University bus carrying grads was seen headed for a day out, deep into the nearby Country side. After all the organizers felt that grads should at least know the conditions that the villages live in and how naive and illiterate they are.
After hours of travel, the Bus had to pass under a century old Bridge. As it was passing through, the Bus, because of its height, gets stuck midway.
When many attempts on the part of the driver and his assistants along with the grads to move the Bus through was meted with failure, finally it was decided that they would call for Help.
So Help arrived in form of Structural Engineers, Design Engineers, Automobile Engineers, and so on and so forth. By this time, the country folks in the villages nearby gather around the scenic spot with snacks and soda pops to feast on the delightful sights, where the educated are trying to do something interesting.
As time passed by so did the excitement grew. With most people trying to figure out what these so called Elite erudite scholars were trying to achieve.
With curiosity driving in, one shepherd boy ventures out, goes up to an Engineer and questions him, “Sir, we are seeing that you educated have all gathered around this Bus, and trying to do something, but we just do not know what you people are trying to do with this bus, could you tell us what are you trying to achieve?”
The question was straight and direct, and then the Engineer replied, “you see boy, we are from the best universities, we are well educated than you guys out there, we are the cream of the crop, and we are here to help”.
He continued, Help out the bus to go through this Bridge, apparently because of the Bus’s height has not been possible yet. So we are now trying to break the Bridge, which you guys consider vintage and a landmark, but is causing more trouble to us.
The boy hears the story from the Engineer and scoffed and then laughed and then shrugged and then spewed his naive wisdom. ” Oh, good sir, why all this trouble, when you could have simply, deflated the tires and push the bus across, instead of plotting to remove the bridge”.
The answer hit the Engineer hard and those around even harder and more so the Educated seated inside the bus. Why couldn’t they think in the manner that the shepherd thought?
Reason is simple, the system always teaches inventions and stories about inventors and not how each and every student have in them the potential to invent, the ability to create and to start promising industries.
In the interest of time and the amount of Money spent in writing this article, we wish to conclude with the following piece of information which we thought should be the attitude that every individual should cultivate and nurture.
The field of Millionaire Master Class Institution, defines Success as follows, “if you do what 99% of the times conventional wisdom dictates, then you will stay where 99% of the people stay in life, that is rock bottom. In order to rise up, you should brave the odds, fight the disappointments, push forward with definiteness of purpose, even whilst all those who once started off with you have deserted you, with perseverance you shall live to enjoy the success reversed only for the top 1%”.
