The Indian Education System's Fallacies

The other day, I was told I was "Rude and Brash for an Indian". It's not something I'm ashamed of to be honest; I perceive being assertive and direct as an asset, one that I must thank my dad for. It's the desire to understand and the freedom to question that has brought me where I am - there is no turning back for me. Alas, the Indian education system fosters subservience and discourages the curious mind. How some of us deviated from the norm and became out-spoken then is anyone's guess.

And even if rigid teaching ways are changed, experts say the rigidity of Indian households will continue. “When we are raising our children,” said Sam Pitroda, a Chicago-based entrepreneur who is chairman of the Knowledge Commission and was an adviser to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s, “we constantly tell them: ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that. Stand here, stand there.’ It creates a feeling that if there is a boundary, you don’t cross it. You create boxes around people when we need people thinking outside the box.”

That was an excerpt from the article I read on NYTimes. The lesson for me is to not set boundaries for myself or for those under my tutelage (you have my sympathies already). Encouraging independent thought (like my father did) and letting individuals discover who they are can only be a positive thing for society.