UNFITS OF MISFITS?

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish

by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life

believing that it is stupid.”

– Albert Einstein

When I was a student in school and college, I was as anxious of my exams as any other kid was. All students have the anxiety about their exams – maybe, some have it more and some have it less; but, all of them have it… because, all of us had.

Today, after spending more than four decades in the teaching field – ‘coaching’ to be precise - I feel, I am an odd-man-out in this field. I say this, because, even though we teachers were very worried about our exams – at times dreadful – we, now, fail to understand the stress we all induce on young minds simply because we adopt the same approach which our own teachers had adopted: make them work for marks… and more marks!

Marks are definitely necessary for getting admissions into the right courses and institutes. But, to take this to extreme level – and condemn the child as useless, or unfit etc., is very, very damaging to the child…

Child can be, definitely, a ‘misfit’… but, not an ‘unfit’!

Now, if we adults – parents, teachers and principals included – look back at our own story, most of us will, definitely, realize as to how ‘misfits’ we were. Many of us did not have our hearts in our subjects, and who were responsible for this?

The whole idea of asking this question – ‘Who were responsible for we being misfits? – Yes, the whole idea behind asking this question is to act responsibly, now. The day I realised, that I hadn’t taken the ‘Commerce’ stream with my eyes open, and, the day my eyes really opened to what I wanted to do in life, the responsibility just came about… all blame-game ended. No one had to remind me, nag me, and make me work hard with threats. “Why the fuss? It’s my life, my success… and, therefore, it’s my business” This assertion, too, just came about in me.

Young kids need to be sensitized early on this… It’s their life, their success and, therefore, it’s their business. Even very little kids are wise enough to understand this truth… If you keep reminding yourself, “It’s my life, my success and, therefore, my business,” you can bring down not only your own anxiety about exams and future, you can bring down the anxiety of your parents and teachers, too…

Life is greater than all exams in life… Yes, all exams are a constant preparation for Life…

So, through this long-drawn preparation, let all of us – students, teachers and parents all – learn to discover who we really are – a fish enjoying swimming in water or a fish stressing out trying to climb a tree…

That’s all, I think, the success in our exams and life are all about.

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Getty Images