I recently read an article by Sagarika Ghose in HT abt the movie 3 Idiots and the current education system. The author very rightly observes that the movie, though a wonderful watch, is not meant to be taken seriously. I quote from the article "And, of course, we are not meant to take 3 Idiots too seriously, as it is after all just about having an escapist laugh and not thinking too much. After all, if you think too much you may discover that 3 Idiots is a dangerous, preachy and sanctimonious film that disdains all forms of hard work; that subliminally condemns studying as a pathetic exercise in rote learning and scorns the sadhna of higher education."
The current higher educational system may hv its shortcomings. No system/individual is ideal and scope of improvement is certainly there. However, what the movie does is simply elaborate them (in a comical way) without suggesting ne solutions. Its very easy to criticize a system/an individual; however, the problem as is shown in the movie, is more or less known to most whom 3 Idiots team would include in their target audiences. What is needed is not just criticism but also a solution to it and "3 Idiots" surely fails there. Surely the inspirational speech by Baba Ranchoddas is no good for those who study just for marks. Everyone hears such speeches almost daily !!! Even the simple solutions, for eg, hving more open book exams (wherein students are allowed to take books/notes etc inside the exam hall) instead of closed books were lacking in the movie.
Also, I personally feel that if we do some introspection, we would realize that more than the system, its our attitude thats the problem. May be, the educational system rewards those who don't understand the subject and do rote learning, but surely, it does not punish those who comprehend the subjects and study for knowledge... (this is shown in the movie too when Rancho secures top rank with Silencer around, though there is a diff b/w real and reel life; however i made the above comment on the basis of my personal experience during college life)... so, surely, like many other things, it depends on the individual whether he wants to study for marks or for knowledge .... the current system leaves that choice to the individual concerned .... probably, the problem is we want ppl who do rote learning to get lesser marks, and not strive for excellence (study for knowledge) ourselves ... and therefore, we tend to blame the system ...
also, the following 2 excerpts from the article are truly food for the thinking mind:
also, the following 2 excerpts from the article are truly food for the thinking mind:
1) "caution has to be exercised that urban middle class children are not pampered into thinking that anything that causes ‘stress’ is evil and should be attacked and, worse, not be even attempted." Personally, I feel that upto some extent, stress does improve performance, and if some1 is over stressing himself i believe its the prob with the person concerned ... its like abusing a catalyst to performance, surely if u overdose a medicine, it does more harm than good ... also, there is no clear cut demarcation where stress ceases to be a catalyst to performance...it depends on the individual
2) Encouraging students to abuse their teachers, hate their books, throw metaphorical tomatoes at all centres of excellence is to encourage an illiterate lumpen rage against anything that isn’t dumbed down to the shocking level of intellectual nothingness
well, i ceratinly dont mean that the system is ideal ... but what i want to say is its always introspection that helps ... sometimes, i feel that the easiest thing in the world is to blame the system / others for one's failure .. but one must remember tht the same system has produced geniuses, so, it cannot be 100% wrong either .. and surely its not ideal ...
P.S. For complete article, please click here
P.S. For complete article, please click here
