My wife told me yesterday that one of her juniors decided to end her life because she could not get a good rank in the All India PG entrance exam for medicine. Whatever I had written earlier in http://deeplyrandom.blogspot.com/2007/12/is-good-academic-record-over-rated.html seems worth repeating.
Apparently this girl was a rank holder in SSLC. I am assuming she was under fair bit of peer pressure. But come on, a failure in an exam, that is reason enough to end a human life ? I simply cannot understand this. Such a waste of talent . All for what, a good rank , good marks ? What will that get you in life ?
And why bother so much ? Marks and ranks are in no way a measure of your intelligence or abilities anyway . Any idiot can score great marks. From my personal experience, I can tell you that it requires no special skill.
I feel so frustrated when I hear news like these. When will our academic system ever get out of this mode of marks and ranks ? I really fear for the future of the next generation. I hope I am a good enough parent never to let these pressures get to my daughter.
Time will tell, I guess.
Showing posts with label academics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label academics. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Friday, December 14, 2007
Is a good academic record over-rated ?
Right from a young age all I have heard ( as has any other kid) from all teachers is that unless you score very good marks , you will not make it good in life . Of course I believed sincerely till I passed out of college. Now I am not so sure.
For me academics is over-rated. Some of my friends who know me and my background would probably raise an eyebrow at that :). From whatever I have seen, people who do exceptionally well in life are the ones who can interact with people well and are mentally tough. I am not trying to imply that top rankers turn out to be losers. Just that more often than not you will find that they are not the most succesful ones in their careers.
Could be due to a variety of reasons. Maybe they are too narrowly focussed . They have rarely come face to face with failure or never been down in the dumps like the average run of the mill student.
When I passed out of School, Father Edakkara ( who was one of my fav. teachers) made this comment to our outgoing batch of students "It is nice to have a 100 rupee note in your pocket , but to stop by the road-side and drink a cup of tea or to take a bus home you will need one and two rupee coins. The relationships that you build, the way you treat others , all these are the loose change you will need later in your life"
Sound advice, I must say.
For me academics is over-rated. Some of my friends who know me and my background would probably raise an eyebrow at that :). From whatever I have seen, people who do exceptionally well in life are the ones who can interact with people well and are mentally tough. I am not trying to imply that top rankers turn out to be losers. Just that more often than not you will find that they are not the most succesful ones in their careers.
Could be due to a variety of reasons. Maybe they are too narrowly focussed . They have rarely come face to face with failure or never been down in the dumps like the average run of the mill student.
When I passed out of School, Father Edakkara ( who was one of my fav. teachers) made this comment to our outgoing batch of students "It is nice to have a 100 rupee note in your pocket , but to stop by the road-side and drink a cup of tea or to take a bus home you will need one and two rupee coins. The relationships that you build, the way you treat others , all these are the loose change you will need later in your life"
Sound advice, I must say.
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