Being schooled from 1995-2005: What did I miss?

I remember being clueless as to why am I even reading about Shivaji  Maharaj, The Mughuls, Lord Mountbatten and some other prominent names.  For us students it was just about mugging up their stories from all the chapters and scoring marks. We were given a set of important questions and the corresponding answers. The important sentences were marked in the textbooks. We just had to make sure that we memorise it thoroughly as it is and put it down on the paper. That was it. We didn’t know the purpose. We didn’t think about the purpose. We were kids! We were never supposed to think but only follow instructions. None of the parents even questioned this kind of study or education pattern. For most parents the aim was to put their children through school and college which many of them couldn’t get it for themselves. They just knew that their kids had to score the best marks to get admission for further studies. 10 years of schooling and (not to forget) 3 Montessori years, just to make memorizing a practice to score marks.

As years went on after my formal education then I started to think – What did I miss? I missed the learnings behind every story in each chapter. I missed to check the details and analyse about what could have been done to avoid the losses we had in history. I missed to think about what can be done to avoid any such losses in the future and do things in a better way. I missed the message history wanted to convey. I missed practicing and developing my own ability to think.

I would not say that by the time I realized it was too late. But I did miss the train at the right time.

I wish somebody had asked me that what would have I done if I had been in place of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose or Mahatma Gandhi or Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Would I have done something different? Or if I concur with the decisions that were made back then. I am aware that asking me these questions would not have changed the history but atleast it would have made me to start thinking. It would have made our generation to start thinking, analysing and having our own perception since the right phase.

-Wrote by Amruta

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