Ours not to reason why..

We, as a nation, are slowly but surely forgetting how to think. We are so bothered about finding the right answers and remembering the magic formulae, that we have forgotten how to reason and apply what we know to new situations. Schools and classrooms should be intellectually challenging spaces where students feel empowered to try things, even *shudder* if their answers are wrong. The unfortunate reality is that the intellectual environment of the classroom can only reflect the subject matter expertise and attitude of the teacher. Unfortunate because most children in India are not privileged enough to attend schools where the teachers have any training let alone subject expertise. Teachers are then only able to create environments and assessments which are products of their own limited knowledge and experience.

Take, for instance, a class on plant life taught to forty first-graders. The teacher decided to begin the lesson by asking the children to name some living things. Her intention in doing this was, no doubt, to elicit the concept that plants are living things from the children. For the most part, children volunteered conventional answers that the teacher had anticipated; one child volunteered animals, another said plants and a third said humans. All of these conventional answers were met with nods of approval. Eventually, a brave little soul with the twinkliest (yes, I am aware that that's not a word but it perfectly expresses the point) eyes in the world said, "policeman is a living thing." To which the teacher responded in the most sarcastic tone she could muster, "Policeman is a living thing for you? Who has a correct answer." She completely glossed over the, "policeman" statement, heard one or two more answers and, satisfied that the children had read her mind and given her the answers she wanted to hear, she moved on. Later, I was told that she was so surprised that a child would say that a policeman is a living thing that she did not know how to react.

There are several problems with this situation. First, factually, the child was right. A policeman, against all evidence to the contrary provided by some in the force in this country, is a living thing. Second, it is profoundly problematic that the teacher who had planned to discuss, "plants are living things" found it such a stretch to include, "policemen are living things" in her discussion. Third, those children received a short but unmistakable lesson about the value of preferred "right" answers over logically and factually correct answers. And finally, as a teacher, she is missing out on the best part of teaching young children: kids really do say the darndest things.

Please do not get the impression that I blame the teachers or that I think that all teachers are similar. I don't! I do, however, realize that teachers who teach in this manenr are products of the same problem that they are perpetuating and I am intimately familiar with the constraints that they face. I even realize that many of them are doing the very best they can. I do blame the system, though. Teachers are so underpaid that teaching is not seen as a viable career choice by many who have an appropriate amount of education or training. So we end up putting our least prepared in the most crucial and challenging positions of all, not realizing that the ramifications of their work will be visible long after the last computer program crashes. It is criminal maldistribution of our already draining human resources.