On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 2:20 PM, Biju Chacko <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 10:15 AM, Deepa Mohan <[email protected]> wrote: > > Yes, I realize that there must be many people who have not attended > > university on this list; > I am from India and I didn't go to college - more accurately I went to 3 semesters out of 8 in a B. Tech. program and never went back. I didn't believe there was anything being taught there that I felt like learning. Yes, I was product of the same system that believed then, around 1982, that an engineering degree or one in medicine was critical. I lecture today in over 25 colleges a year - and I disagree with SS in that I don't see this Engineering - Medicine craze any more. The best and brightest today aren't at IITs or RECs - those are still lower-middle class small-town dream destinations largely disconnected from mainstream reality. The urban bright young masses are more likely to be doing a meaningless degree at a college like HR or KC in Bombay, Nizam's in Hyd or Ethiraj in Chennai - and eager to get into a meaningless MBA and then get a job. This group far, far outnumbers the Engineers and Doctors. And rightfully so. And being a victim of not having been born a SC / ST / Backward class or whatever (by virtue of being a Tam Brahm) while I was growing up, I am sensitive to the fact that the urban masses don't quite face this issue any more - again perhaps SS lives a little in the past- or perhaps in rural India. The scene in the cities is far more egalitarian today than it was 30 years ago. Yes, there is some legislation for reservation in govt-funded institutions, but thankfully those are a minority now - and anyway caste certificates are freely forge-able and available on demand: the appropriate way to disrupt the system. There certainly isn't a college system that worked then - and there isn't now. The experience before that, in retrospect, was equally meaningless. I studied in average schools - Kendriya Vidyalayas - or government-subsidised low-end schools for the non-Indians on this list - and while reminiscing with alumni recently, we agreed unanimously that we had crap textbooks, crap teachers, crap facilities and still turned out ok. Perhaps the only thing of value then was the per group we grew up with in and outside school - including the K-Circle and YOCs experience in Hyderabad that in retrospect shaped me more deeply than any subject in class did. All of this is consistent with this thesis that deeply resonated with me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nurture_Assumption . Have since tried to focus less on the school or the education system for my son - I believe it makes little difference whether you go through SSC / ISC / ICSE / IGCSE / IB or whatever school system or even no school system. I believe it makes very little difference whether you go to a school with crap teachers or mediocre ones or even very good ones or even don't go to school - the best that the best teachers can do is to let you enjoy your time - without really impacting your future or life in any meaningful way (no Dead Poet's Societies happening here). But I do believe it makes a huge difference who your peer group is while you're at school-going age - especially secondary and high school. And for the last few years I've been seeing if I can design / select / shape / influence the peer group that surrounds my 12-year old son. How can he have a set of people his age around him who can inspire him to greatness, yet keep his feet firmly on the ground, yet allow him a normal life, yet allow him to shine, yet allow him to grow into a confident person and yet allow him to find his niche and yet allow him to learn to be curious and yet... It's a problem that's quite Heisenbergian in its dynamics and complexity. Don't think I've succeeded yet - but it's a lot of fun trying! My $0.02 Mahesh
