Years after I had finished my school education, I am reading many history and social science books. Now while reading I am coming across the glaring flaws in the schooling I had. I can explain you by taking one example.
We used to have a question in Malayalam language paper to explain the context of a piece of poem given. Most common lines were as follows
"മാറ്റുവിൻ ചട്ടങ്ങളെ സ്വയമല്ലെങ്കിൽ
മാറ്റുമതുകളീ നിങ്ങളെ താൻ"
which translates to "Change the rules yourself otherwise
they will remove you itself"
This was the lines of the revolutionary poet Kumaranasan, who fought against the social injustices like caste system and untouchability prevalent at that time. Now I can understand the meaning of the lines and relate it to the world outside. I can see the instances where the old unchanging rules led to the destruction of the community itself. I can see why the rules are to be changed. I see the evils that blind following of rules have done to our society.
But as a child, I was not able to comprehend the context or couldn't understand what the poet meant. The only rules I know that time was such as "Don't talk in the class", "Complete your homework" etc. Nor I could get answer to the question why we should change the rules. For me changing rules meant only catastrophe in form of beatings!! Obviously I didn't had an idea how the rules can remove a person.
Had the teacher explained us the social revolution, that took place in our land, I could have made sense of this whole ritual of writing the answer for the exam. How powerfully the language classes could have been used to teach about the society. The teachers had many ways to escape - either to explain properly, or to frighten those who question, or to skip the portion or even to politely admit the helplessness. We as students read many guides, which wrote so much neither we nor they understood. We had only two ways either to by heart it and reproduce in the exam paper or to fill the answer space with the same lines in the questions in different ways - simplified, complicated, in passive and active voices. The end of the story.
The result is a generation unsympathetic with the social problems outside, also uninterested in the literature and arts.
Now I am sympathising with myself!! Nostalgia!!
