What kind of basic education would I choose for my daughter? May 9, 2009

I recently watched the documentary -” Two Million Minutes”. The time between the moment a student enters ninth grade to when they graduate out of twelfth grade is about two million minutes. The documentary compares how a a few students in India, China and U.S spend these “two million minutes”.

While the documentary doesn’t make any conclusions at the end, it  seems to drive home a message that students in India and China are spending their time more fruitfully. It seems to say that compared to Americans, Indian and Chinese students seem to be  more serious about careers in math and science and are hence better off. It seems to conclude that America is not doing enough to compete with the rest of the world in the areas of math and science.

Ok, I agree that given what I know about education in USA,  the country can do better in preparing it’s students for math and science careers. But given what I know about education in India, I strongly feel that there is absolutely no need to put the Indian education system on a pedestal and say that it is better than the US education system. How much time the students spend on academics and whether they chose a career in math and science is not the only measure of a successful education system. An education system should be measured with many more outcomes – how well-rounded the students are, whether they are able to critically think about issues and make decisions, whether they are able to problem solve, able to think out of the box, whether they are confident, compassionate, responsible and so on.

First of all, I would like to note that I’m very passionate about developments in both India and America. I am a first generation Indian American who lives in America currently and who has plans of living in India in the future. I received an engineering degree in India and after a Masters and a ten year career in the engineering field, changed my career to one in Education after getting a Masters degree in this field. While my daughter is currently getting a K-12 US education, she will in all probability continue her education in India in the future. Given this background , I would like to think of my opinions on both these education systems to be quite objective.

Given what I know about both US and Indian K-12 education systems, if I was given a free choice without any other constraints to choose between these two systems for my daughter, I would any day go for the US education system. Following are the reasons why:

Firstly, I feel that my daughter will have a better environment in the US to explore her interests and pursue a career inline with her interests. She will have an opportunity to explore many options other than math and science – humanities, arts, sports and what not. She will even get opportunities to be competent in more than one field. I know that in India, unless parents work hard to swim against the tide, the society and the environment will put enormous pressure on the children to pursue a career in science and math even if the children are not interested in these careers.

I feel that even if my daughter decides to pursue a career in math/science after doing K-12 education in America, it will be out of her own interest. There is a huge difference in outcomes when someone pursues a career out of passion as opposed to when someone pursues a career because she was pressured to do so. Research studies have shown that people perform at their peak when they are pursuing something out of their own interest.

And secondly, there is the question of how well-rounded my daughter will be if she does K-12 in the U.S. My daughter will grow up in an environment where creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork etc are encouraged in a non-competitive environment. Research studies have shown that these skills are critical to success as an individual. I also feel that these skills are critical for a successful democratic process in a country. There is a reason why the American democracy is as sophisticated as it is today. If the Indian democracy has to reach this level of sophistication, it is crucial to instill these skills in it’s citizens. Research studies have also shown that a non-competitive environment is crucial for developing competencies at their best. The K-12 education environment in India is extremely competitive which puts a lot of pressure on the children to be the best, which in turn could bring-down their performance.

Apart from these academic skills, I also feel that my daughter would have a much better chance of growing up to be a social-minded, compassionate, confident and responsible individual if she completed her education in USA.

While the documentary “Two million minutes” has made a good attempt to bolster the importance of math and science education in K-12 schools in America, people should not confuse this attempt to mean that the Indian education system is better than US or that US education system is inferior to Indian and Chinese education systems in all respects. All these education systems have a long way to go and success cannot be measured on one dimension alone.

Any thoughts?

"Taare Zameen Par" – an educational movie for parents April 13, 2009

“Taare Zameen Par” (meaning Stars on Earth) is an Indian movie which tells the story of a dyslexic boy who grows up to be eight years old without anyone around him recognizing that he is dyslexic. The boy shows above average intelligence in every other area except in the written language. And because the school system relies on the written language to test the child’s level of intelligence in every other discipline, the boy is not able to show his progress in any other subject area as well. The movie portrays the pathetic state of the Indian education system which compounds the boy’s problems by constantly criticizing his inability to do well at school. As a result of this he also suffers from very low self-esteem. Luckily he encounters a new teacher in his school who recognizes his disability and offers him special therapy and training to help him learn how to read and write. Once he catches up on his reading and writing skills, he blends easily into his academic curriculum.

The movie tells the story of millions of dyslexic people all over the world, It is estimated that in U.S alone, about three to ten percent of the school-aged children are dyslexic. While there doesn’t seem to be any official figure on the number of dyslexic children in India, I would assume that the percentages are something similar to U.S – which puts the number of dyslexic children in India in the order of many millions.
The problem of dyslexia results from differences in how the brain processes written and spoken language. Some of the difficulties that result from dyslexia are – confusion with before/after,right/left, difficulty with spelling and reading, difficulty with handwriting, difficulty in organization skills and so on. While there is no cure for dyslexia, dyslexic children/adults can be treated by giving specialized phonics instruction which can mitigate the reading deficits. Access to written material in a variety of other formats (eg: audio) and fonts can also help dyslexic children learn better.
It is also important to note that dyslexic children can be integrated into mainstream classrooms quite easily if dyslexia is detected early enough and treated. Because most schools impart education and test children in the written language, it is mandatorily required to have all children learn to process written language – which is exactly what a dyslexic child cannot do. But once the dyslexic children are trained in special ways to process written language, they can integrate easily into mainstream classrooms.

During my school years, growing up in India, there was very little awareness about dyslexia and other learning disabilities. With large class sizes in every classroom and a teacher training program that didn’t address how to recognize learning disabilities in children, many children who were dyslexic often fell through the cracks of the school system. The Indian educational system is very competitive with children who secure good grades in the examinations are often encouraged by everyone around them and are labelled as gifted. Other children who score average grades in the exams, while not valued by the society as up to the same level as the so called “gifted children”, often make it through the education system and if lucky eventually find their “calling” in life and pursue their passion quite successfully. It is the children who score below average in the examinations who have a tough time in the Indian society. Often criticized by the society for not being “intelligent” because they don’t score well in academic subjects, many of them suffer from very low self-esteem. What is even worse is that many of them may be suffering from a learning disability conditions like dyslexia which, if detected, can be treated – but no one may have detected this condition in them.
Worse still is the state of many families of dyslexic children in India who not only are unaware of this learning disability but are also not able to share their child’s learning problems publicly due to the fear of their child being labeled by the society as “mentally retarded”. Dyslexia is not a condition of mental retardation. From what I’ve observed in the U.S, adults talk freely about their and their children’s problems related to dyslexia or other learning disabilities. Because they are able to share their problems with others, they are also able to access support groups and special help to address the problem. In addition, the public education system in the U.S has provisions in place to train teachers to recognize these kinds of problems in children and offer dyslexic children special help to treat the conditions. Hence I feel that the dyslexic children in U.S have a much better chance of doing well in life than children in India.

I came across an article in Washington Post which talked about how the movie “Taare Zameen Par” drastically raised the awareness about dyslexia in India. After seeing the movie, many families and parents of dyslexic children, came out of their shell and were able to share their stories in the public and were also able to get help for their children.
One wonders what it will take to have all children in this world with learning disabilities learn at the same pace as a normal child. The choice of most educational systems in the world to educate and test children is written language. What if children were taught and tested orally? What if they were taught through music or through visual aids? What if all teachers in this world were trained to recognize these disabilities in children? What if appropriate remedial action was taken for all these children on time? What if the world thought of every child born into this world as equally capable? What if the whole world recognized that it is mainly through the child’s experiences during her childhood that she develops her intelligences. What if every child’s caregiver (eg: family, teachers etc) recognized that it is largely up to them to have their children grow up to be responsible citizens of this world? What if… What if….
Whenever I watch movies such as “Taare Zameen Par”, my thought train is endless….

Towards better education March 23, 2008

A question, I’m sure many of us have asked ourselves is “Should children’s education be merely about imparting knowledge or should the children be taught essential skills including how to acquire knowledge?”.
During the 20th century, it was common practice for schools (at least in India) to follow a didactic method of teaching, which usually meant that the children were expected to sit in a classroom listening to teachers. They were expected to absorb the information/knowledge that the teacher taught and reproduce them in the exams. The exams mainly tested the students on how well they had “accumulated” the knowledge imparted by the teachers and the textbooks. Even my own schooling during the 20th century was this way.
But as I entered the workplace of the 21st century, I found myself lacking many skills that were needed to succeed in the workplace. I needed to think critically about issues, solve problems creatively, articulate my thoughts well and so on. Luckily my parents had taught me how to persevere. This allowed me to work hard and learn the skills that were needed to succeed in the workplace. But I’ve always wondered, what if I had an opportunity to acquire these skills during my school years instead of later on during my work life. Isn’t it one of the jobs of the schools to prepare children to be successful in the work place?
A couple of other important things that I wish that my schooling had taught me are life skills and how to respond to societal issues. My schooling absolutely didn’t prepare me to strike a good work-life balance. All that was important during my schooling years was passing exams which gave me the notion that doing well in the exams was the only thing needed to do well in life. Likewise, my schooling didn’t help me understand the issues in the society around me and how I can play a positive role in solving these issues. I feel that there was an excessive focus on “me” and my personal benefit.
This brings us to the question whether the schools today are addressing these issues? With the advent of new-age technologies, it is easy to search for new information/knowledge at the wink of an eye. Hence, a person who has merely accumulated information/knowledge in the schools is pretty much obsolete. Children need to be taught higher order skills as mentioned in the previous paragraphs. Similarly, with the modern day stresses, attaining a decent work-life balance is one of the most important things, as is caring for the society and the environment. Even with the ever increasing awareness of all these issues, why is rote learning so prevalent in schools (at least in India)? Why are only a handful of schools paying importance to the higher order skills that need to be taught? Why are we not learning from the wide range of issues that we face today as a society and seeking to educating our children to face these issues in a meaningful way? What will it take to break this cycle of ignorance on our part?