Happy To Be Mediocre

(11 May ’14)

“Could do better. (CDB)” Don’t know why teachers don’t make rubber stamps of this sentence. I’ve been a CDB through every term of school and all of my life. Comparing notes with others, it seems everyone I know had this written on their report cards at some time or other.

In our time we had a few bright students, a large number of mediocre (CDB) ones and a handful of budhhoos. Marks indicated that you’d done well in a particular exam; they weren’t an indicator of what the future held for you. If you did consistently well over the years, without a CDB on your report card, you were labelled bhayankar hooshaar. Many of the CDBs did well enough in business to employ the bright lot. (Think Dhirubhai.)

I read about one student who killed herself because she wanted half an hour more to finish her math paper. Since the higher math/physics forced on me in school still gives me nightmares, I understood her woe. This particular exam was her third attempt. I didn’t see how half an hour extra would have helped her. If she hadn’t cleared it, would she have asked for an hour extra in her fourth attempt? Would that have made her good at the subject? (If stretching timings were to make a person good at something, I’d be a genius of sorts by now).

That girl, with aptitude and IQ possibly close to mine, should have dropped math and taken another, vocational subject. Parents/teachers who know exactly where to get subsidized petrol, cheap rations or some government freebie/scheme, are happily ignorant of whether/what vocational subjects are offered.  

‘The system’ caters for all categories of students. It’s up to us to make use of the facilities. If they (facilities, not students) aren’t available, we need to fight to get them. Like we fight for undeserved promotions and non-merit reservations.

         The law allows for provision of infrastructure and specially trained teachers for students with special needs. Like above, how about we fight to enforce this law?  

We should be asking not to lower the standard of any institution, but to provide the staff and equipment to allow ‘special’ students to deal with the standard.

         Earlier, children who were smarter, more intelligent, more talented, were clubbed together. CDBs like me were put in a different section so the teachers could concentrate on pulling them up. Those lagging behind needed more patience, extra attention, and thus they were put together, too. That way, by not mixing up all talents, children were better graded/guided, and they flourished with whatever capability they had. Along the way, lateral shifting happened, too. Those who couldn’t cope were kept back until they did. Was all old-fashioned stuff bad? Like learning spellings through dictation and tables through rote? I wonder.

Take sports. Every sport has a different requirement. Some need endurance, some bursts of speed or flexibility, others co-ordination. Can everyone run at similar speeds? Play the same games? Unless one competes with superior talent, one can’t improve. This is true of studies, too.

If a person isn’t good in sports he doesn’t moan but carries on with something else; if a person isn’t good in studies, instead of considering it to be the end of the world, why not try another route to earning a living?

If I had taken and survived medical/ engineering/ military courses, I’d have been a lousy doctor/ engineer/ soldier. (Possibly, my teachers would have nervously broken down.) I have neither the temperament, seriousness nor the stamina those professions call for. I believe bright young adults who can become neurosurgeons/ architects/ composers need to be identified and nurtured. If there are NGOs working in the field of gifted children, they need more publicity. The gifted are the leaders of the future. The respect one gets in society is directly proportional to the level of skills a profession calls for, the quality of training required and the length of experience required to practice it competently.

CDBs like me can still excel at tasks mediocre but essential, like carpentry, plumbing, drawing blood (talking of medical laboratories here), repairing scooters, fixing fans, driving buses, and writing columns.

CDBs currently in the midst of entrance exams/ results should take comfort in the fact that they, like me again, have more than half the world for company. Happy are the medium talented, for they’re the ones who actually run this planet.

Good luck to those awaiting results of Boards and Entrance Exams.

(Feedback at sheelajaywant@yahoo.co.in)

Following One’s Dreams.

(24 Jan ’11)

To quote a friend: after reading an article about CAT toppers and their perfect 100…. “paison ke liye itni padhai?” So much studies just for the money? In other words, peace of mind for sale.

But honestly, for a combination of respectability, job-satisfaction and money, one has to study.

A colleague in her early twenties, who has done her Masters in Hospital Administration, a five year course after the XII standard, said this about the doctors: they’re so lucky. When they have their own practice, they are their own bosses. I had to point out to her: to reach there, they slog, slog, slogged for many tough years. They survived competition, stressful exams and long hours at texts. They gave up short term pleasures, outings, parties for long term goals, degrees.

I don’t believe that all humans are equal. There are tall and short people, intelligent and stupid ones, leaders, followers, whiners, achievers. There has to be a method of sifting the inherent talent (could be entrance exams or some other method) and then coaching and honing it to excellence. We certainly need schools for the gifted. It is they who will take us forward. If we educate everyone on the same platform, we dilute ability and in the long run, we dumb down society. I’ve said this before: just

We have MBA institutions and MMS courses sprouting all over the place. If we don’t have technology, industry, what on earth are these people going to manage or administer? Most often, they end up being glorified clerks, doing nothing really interesting, punching in data, churning out graphs and reports, analyzing them… and drawing a salary from and reporting to a business tycoon who’s barely cleared school-level boards. And the tycoon’s sons. When I say technology, it doesn’t mean high end stuff either: tailoring, carpentry, electronics, masonry, etc need to be professionalized, too. For example, everyone can’t be a neuro surgeon; one could aspire to be an excellent physiotherapist or nurse’s aide or pharmacist’s helper. Or hair stylist. We have schools for all of these. We need more. Importantly, we need to take pride in the ‘lesser’ professions. Then there won’t be the need to feel: paison ke liye itni padhai, because hairdressers can and do earn as much as if not more, at times, than MBAs. The need to sell one’s soul, time and youth just to gather more and more fixed deposits will not be felt.

One industry which has boomed thanks to good training is Hospitality. The other, though not as formally organized, are the call centres. Both have also achieved a fair degree of respectability, without getting too involved in books and exams. So many have reason in those fields, picking up finance and systems along the way.

I’ve heard people say: things are different abroad.

No. Not even in the lands of opportunity (USA, Oz, NZ, Canada) do all parents allow their children to follow their juvenile dreams. Certain strata of all skins (yellow, black, white, brown) want their kids to go to the best schools, colleges, and become … what else? Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Diplomats, Bankers. Rare is the mom who’ll say: Stand up comedian? Go ahead, son. He may still be the best and make a lot of money, too, but she’s going to aspire differently. The difference lies here: the reason they join the courses is not primarily to hoard currency. For example, my friend’s son did chemical engineering, then medicine, and intends to do not clinical practice but research. And teach. No great money there, but he’s ‘following his dream’ within the framework of what’s acceptable in his society.

Sports, graphic designers, mehndi-walis, radiology-technicians, phlebotomists, housekeepers, mechanics, all play their role. Fighter pilots can’t survive without the guy who folds the parachute and tucks it under the ejection seat. Tycoons of business depend on the security guards so they can sleep well at night in their silken sheets. The superiority of one over the other exists. It’s the level of skill required to do a job and execute it expertly that marks the divide. It’s for that expertise that the ‘padhai’ is required. The money is never the goal, never should be. That’s when one can say one is ‘following one’s dreams’.

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