DON’T TELL ME WHAT STREAM I SHOULD CHOOSE
By Neel Anil Panicker
‘Wake up Madam and read the writing on the wall?’
Naman’s mother couldn’t believe what she was hearing?
Crossing her arms and cocking her head to one side, she retorted at her son’s class teacher, “Are you telling me that since my son has scored only 88 per cent marks in Maths you are depriving him from enrolling for the Science Stream, and instead offering him Humanities which according to you is what’s good for ‘Failed Mathematicians’, your words, not mine?”
‘Listen, Mrs Poonam, all I’m saying is that as your son is not so good in Mathematics…’
“No, you listen to me madam; you who consider yourself a teacher and profess to care about the interest of students, let me tell you that interest in a subject and not relatively lower marks in a examination system that stresses on learning by rote must be the basis of deciding what Stream and thereby Subject a child should study or not.
The day you and the entire eco system of schools, admissions, and the entire coaching industry driven educational system with their overemphasis on marks wakes up to this realization will be the day when the true purpose and benefit of learning be realised.”
#neelanilpanicker #sixsentencestories #realisticfiction
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Cue word this week is: WAKE.
neelwritesblog 
What a disservice we do to our children, trying to put them in one box or another, to conform to standardized testing. From the time my son entered 7th grade, the teachers were teaching toward the GEPA (Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment). What happened to growth, expanding the mind, and individualism. I am an educator who had the best time teaching pre-school, where individuals are celebrated. Too bad it stops when they enter Kindergarten. Very realistic fiction. I’m glad the parent shared her opinion.
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Our skewed society and its misplaced expectations are responsible for this mess.
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Amen, amen! Bravo to a great statement on the state of “education” s we know it, forcing people into boxes they never wanted to be in, and depriving them of following the direction of their hearts. If you love something enough, you will learn to do it well, if you detest it you will spend your life defeated and depressed. Education is greatly in need of reform and redirection, and also to emphasize that some people love trades like woodworking or mechanics, not everyone will do best by being pushed through college for a degree. Your story was a great way to illustrate the situation, well done!
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