Height of a building

Sukumar tweeted about this article today which made me think if we our thought process was suppressed in our school system or not. Here are my experiences...

All through my education from my 4th standard until my PG I never did home work. Never means really never. I never believed in writing the same stuff from one book (we used to call classwork notebook) to another book (homework book) interesting. The net effect is, my favorite class teacher, Miss Dora Raj (who used to teach Maths, Science, Social, English, Moral Science, GK) used to make me kneel down in the front of the class. My school's HM (we used to call her Big Sister), used to have a break room next to our class. She used to pass through the corridor every single day at 9 AM and she saw me and Naveed(who is my best kneeldown mate). Both my class teacher and my HM never found it strange how one student will never do homework every single day. I find it very odd. Or rather they accepted that as part of the scenary of the corridor :-) .

Next comes exams - I never read anything by heart. I used to write all original answers after understanding the concept. My fav teacher, Miss Dora Raj, when she found that a new student who joined her class (in 4th class), doesnt repeat exactly what she wrote on the blackboard in exams, was very thrilled. She used to encourage me and highlight that fact in front of every one even in school assembly. For a 8 year old kid, it must be a real motivator. I am proud and priveleged to have such a teacher.

But later in all my education, I found that my B.Sc Chemistry lab instructors encouraged us to do things different. We (Sameer, Satish and I) in our final year, changed all experiments which doesnt produce results with the ones that produce results. The older experiments were followed even though obsolete since 1970s. So glad that we had some practical instructors for chemistry practicals.

It also made me think if we as humans by nature try to influence other's ideas or principles. My son who is just 6 months old ofter tries to do things that i dont know. But sometimes I feel uncomfortable and anxious if it would hurt him. After reading the above article about Niel Bohr, I feel ashamed. I will try to change myself and encourage him do things that he finds amusing as long as it is safe - logically not as per my experience.