Learning to Love-Hate School

One of the many issues on which I waver every now and then is the K-12 educational system in this country. In the past, I have always maintained that it is an excellent system that generally encourages students to develop a love for learning more so than in Asia. Of course, having grown up in India, my experiences are limited to that country. There, the pressure to memorize core knowledge is so strong that loving learning is actually looked upon as a negative among school age children. The last time I was there, I actually had a cousin tell me that she was genuinely worried because her daughter loved going to school. She wasn't joking. I myself have often heard "you're going to school to learn, not have fun." The prevailing wisdom is that if you're enjoying it, you're probably not working as hard as you should be. In the U.S., students are encouraged to explore and learn creatively with entertaining and interesting exercises such that my kids all enjoyed going to school. Given that, I was never surprised that US students did not fare well in international tests. Those tests favor the regurgitation of acquired knowledge. I have always maintained that the U.S. continues to excel on the world stage despite the apparently "broken" educational system is that when it matters (when appropriately incentivized), U.S.-educated people are able to learn what is needed to get the job done. On the other hand, those educated in Asia are not in as good of a position to improvise and go beyond their memorized knowledge. Of course, the immigrant melting pot has something to do with it, but no one has been able to adequately explain why, if the educational system is so bad and our kids are so poorly educated in math and science, why some of the best engineers and greatest scientists in the world are Americans. One fascinating theory which makes a lot of sense to me is the "Soft America-Hard America" theory which I'll cover in more detail in a future post if I remember ( or someone reminds me).

Now that my son is approaching high school age, I find myself constantly worried about whether he is learning enough. Suddenly I'm not so sure of my theories that things will "work out in the end" and he will learn what he needs to learn when the time comes. Amazing how perspectives can change so much as you move through life.

The Fringe Freaks

It is well known that when we have limited information about a target, we use that information to form our perceptions of the target. Since the perceptions were based on limited information, we end up with potentially wildly incorrect perceptions. A simpler example of this is when we stereotype people based on a small amount of information. If the stereotype is based on a large amount of information, it can be fairly accurate. If not, it can be grossly inaccurate. Always, a stereotype is a generalization that obviously does not apply to everyone in the group.

So, why am I talking about this? Well, I was aghast at the ridiculous reaction of some people in India to the infamous Richard Gere - Shilpa Shetty kiss. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can view the 1-minute video of the kiss on YouTube here. Richard was in India on a charitable mission on AIDS prevention and was being honored by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty when he was overcome with emotion and gave her a hug and kiss on stage. Okay, so maybe he went a little bit overboard for being on stage. I'm not so sure I would have been completely under control if I was standing next to that lady. But that's beside the point. Some nutcases went completely batty over this apparent insult to all of India or a slap in the face of chastity in the country or some such thing. There were protests, effigies burned (the usual) and then some publicity-seeking, grandstanding, sanctimonious lawyer filed a lawsuit. A supportive judge was so offended by the video that he issued a waarant for the arrest of both Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty for public indecency or something like that. Of course, the press in India and around the world are having a field day (it even made the newspaper in Duluth, Minnesota).

Of course, as usual, it is just a small group of fringe freaks who are getting all the attention from a story-hungry press corps. But, as the story wends its way around the world, people with limited information about India (which would be most of the world), quite understandably start to form impressions of the country based on these weird stories they hear. Of course it is not reasonable or fair, but it happens. And, they probably go around telling others what they know about India. Believe it or not, I have actually had people (educated people) come to me and ask if we eat chilled monkey brains regularly in India after they watched the Indiana Jones movie (Temple of Doom). Oh well, if you have to ask, let me tell you, they're delicious!