Hello, parents, teachers and all my dear friends. I’m Varun Shrivastava and I’m a Software Developer. I sell my time and code to earn money which does not include anything that I learned in school or college. And this article is going to be just about that. I had a problem with our education system from the very beginning, I use to think, it is useless and must be banned and now I have a proof that I was right. Schools in India are doing no good to students rather teaching them how to do ‘ratta-fication’ to pass the examination. Did you read my other article How students are just like machine parts on the assembly line? All those things are actually true.
This article is going to be an insight into the real world. At least, the world that I live in. Where money plays an important role and no matter how many times you will say that money is secondary, I’ll keep on saying – bullshit. Yeah, money is the primary requirement in today’s world and if you will see what’s happening around, you will understand what I’m trying to point out here. That is the reason I think Money must be given high priority from the very beginning of a student’s life and our schools must take actions to teach students how they can earn money or the importance of money rather than teaching them mental mathematics. I swear our mobiles are going to be there with us all the time in the future. So, relax and focus on your ideas and passion which can help you in getting some early bucks in your pocket. Just remember – Financial Freedom must be our Primary Goal.
Table of Contents
Schools are turning you into a trained machines
If you are a student reading this, then I must tell you, I have been there where you are right now. I have studied the same things that you are studying right now. I had almost the same experience that you are experiencing right now. So, if you are totally satisfied with your lifestyle and believes in everything that your parents and teachers have been telling you over the years then stop reading it this moment. This is probably not for you. If you are someone who constantly questions the education system of our country and cannot find answers as to why are you learning formulas (a+b)2 then I must tell you, you and I are on the same path.
From the point where I’m right now, I can clearly see that school teaching has not taught me anything of value that I use in day to day work. As I told you I’m a software developer and I picked Physical Education as my elective subject in 10th. You see, there is no relation between these two. The job that I’m doing today has nothing to do with what I was taught in the school. I still can’t remember when did I last calculated the gravitational field of the moon with respect to earth. I mean what difference it is going to make if I have no interest towards it. This is a paradox made by the big guys that use our knowledge and creativity for their use.
Let’s see what school teaches us
Discipline
Our school teaches us to be in discipline. Let’s see what does discipline means,
Discipline is a practice of training you to obey rules or a code of behaviour. If you question the very basic aspect of the whole discipline thing you will start to realise the true motive behind it.
Which rules are we obeying?
Who made these rules?
Why were these rules made?
Why I’m being punished if I try to break these rules?
Why are they trying to trap us in this early age?
Who are they?
What do they want from us? ?
You are sure to reach the point, a point which Yogis call ‘Realization’. You will realise that the world was not the same like it is today. It was very different. The world was a free place back then. The World we see today is very well designed by some people to trap us and make use of our special abilities for their benefits, I call them BIG GUYS(BG).
So, the very first thing schools teach you is a lie. They are not making you a better person rather they are making you a good slave.
Competition
It is a good thing if taught in the right way but our school teaches us to compete with others instead of competing with your own self. This is where the problem starts to rise. When you start competing with others, you start to look people as above or below you. As soon as you develop that attitude, you start to put your happiness on the outcome of some event which is never in your control. If the outcome is not favourable you become sad and depress. This is the reason why India (Bharat) has the highest suicide rates among the students less than 18 years of age. Look at the stats below,
You know what, this is all because of the competition. Every year 12,90,028 students apply for JEE (main) and out of which only 1,19,575 ?students are shortlisted for JEE (Advance). What about the rest? Well, they are left with the option of NIT. But again there are only 18K seats for NITs so the number of students who got nothing remains high up at 11,52,453. What are they going to do next? You know the story, they will join private engineering institute which is there just to provide you with a degree, eat your parent’s hard earned money and nothing more. Don’t you think it’s better to find your own way from here, instead of taking an admission into private institute just so that you will get a sleek chance of getting a job after 4 years (sometimes five)? It’s so unreal and yet everyone is doing the same. The system embeds the fear into the student’s mind. No worries the suicide rate will keep on going up if this trend continues.
Need for a healthy competition
If the schools of today would focus teaching students to work collaboratively to achieve a goal instead of competing against each other. They will have less tension, better results, more productivity and knowledge. Only by changing the focus from competition to collaboration they will learn to compete with themselves. They will try to come up with ideas to solve some of the most difficult problems of today’s world. They no longer be doing mental mathematics because they will learn to use calculators and google to mine information whenever they need and how often they need.
Who doesn’t want to be a part of such a school which encourages students to bring their own laptops and iPads to use their creativity to find answers to given problems? The problems which are new to them and for which there are no rules of conduct or formulas to derive answers. I’m pretty sure that they will come up with their own formulas and some of those formulas will be more efficient with what we have been teaching.
Indian Education system needs huge improvements and if I get a chance which I will, I’m going to change the entire flow. Healthy competition is a team collaboration to achieve a goal. It is not just the problem of Indian Schools but many other countries has the same fucked up system
Creativity
I almost laughed at this one. Either they don’t know the meaning of creativity or they have learned it the wrong way and now they are trying to impose the same to the young generation. Imposing something is not creativity. Creative thinking is not doing something different rather doing something useful?with efficiency to find solutions of existent problems. Schools are not teaching us to become creative, they are unloading the same sets of books, same sets of knowledge by which our ancestors solved the problems. They are not understanding the fact that the problems that were there about 50 years ago have been changed now. We don’t have the same problems anymore. The schools which were built around those times was to solve the problems of that era. These are not at all feasible in today’s world. The world has evolved. It has evolved to be entirely different today. The problems are not the same, problems have changed. We must change our way to look at these problems and only then we can call ourselves creative.
The problem is that everyone is trying to solve the problem in the same way other people have already tried and solved. This is not a creative thinking. Creative thinking is approaching the same problem with a different mindset, from a different angle. Only when you have this type of approach then only the problems will excite you. If problems and hurdles excite your core then you can proudly call yourself a creative person. Being creative is not an inbuilt mechanism, you just have to change your perception to solve an existing problem efficiently. That is all you have to do in order to become creative. Creative people are not someone who does things in the different way (kuch bhi alag karna is not creative), creative people are those who thinks differently by changing their perception of the problem to find answers. This is what makes you a good learner. A curious mind and a creative approach are all that you need to achieve anything in this world.
Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature.
I was watching Sandeep Maheshwari’s seminar in which he gave a beautiful example of a guy who made millions just by being creative. If you remember earlier we did not have bags with wheels rather we had to carry heavy bags ourselves. Those were the days where Coolie business was at the peak 😀 A common man, just a guy like you and me saw this problem. Where there were millions of people lifting heavy weights all the time, this guy saw that it was a problem. The entire population was busy doing the same thing again and again inspite facing the same problem, only this guy thought about it and understood that it is indeed a problem, How cool it will be if I won’t have to lift those heavy weights anymore. What did he?
He fixed those small wheels at the bottom of the bags and became a millionaire. This is a perfect example of the creative mindset. Instead of doing the same thing, again and again, try to find the problem and then it’s efficient solution. There are millions of opportunities in this world and new ones are popping every other second. You just have to change your perception to actually see it.
Teach how to earn money
Why did I emphasise on this topic of teaching students how to earn money? Because of the three things that school teaches us wrong that I mentioned above. If the school will actually teach what they claim they are preparing us for – “to become a useful resource of our country”, they will fail miserably. Because their current system is not meant for that. The entire system will break. That is why they continue to teach us what they think will make us a useful resource.
If they are making useful resources then why there are people who are still jobless? why there are people who are lacking appropriate skills? This is because schools are not fulfilling their duties. Getting an A in an examination does not define your creativity it only defines your skills to memorise something faster and better than others which will just go once you have given the exam. And in today’s world where we carry 2TB in our pockets, I really don’t seem to see a point in ‘ratta-fication’. The system needs a massive change.
If we cut the crap and come straight to the point of teaching students how to earn money then undoubtedly we will be implementing all the above teachings in the way we should. You see, earning money in a way that it will give you financial freedom takes a lot. It will require discipline within yourself, competition with your own self to achieve excellence combined with the utter creativity. Money is one thing that doesn’t come easily to people. This is just because there are a few people who has all the three qualities.
Infact, Many of the richest people in the world didn’t even go to school. Just to name a few, Bill Gates is a dropout, Mark Zuckerberg is a dropout, The Great Steve Jobs was a dropout, Sandeep Maheshwari is a dropout, Varun Agarwal is a dropout and the list will go on and on. This makes it pretty clear that earning money and becoming a useful resource has nothing to do with our schooling. Then why do we pay loads of money and our freedom to learn the things which are already there in the books? Wake up! This is your time to change this world. Start questioning everything around you in search of a betterment. Bend the rules to make something amazing.
I know schools will never teach you to earn money because they simply don’t know. Atleast, they can provide a medium through which they can enhance the three most important factors required to become rich and earn money. They can teach you to be disciplined by replacing all the hard rules with custom rules created by the individual for themselves. They can start guiding us in the right direction instead of driving us. Let students take a wrong decision if they want to try it out. You never know what is there on the other side, do you? ??If they fail, they have gained more experience, if they pass, they will create history. Atleast let them try what they want.
Need of a new System
I have an idea of a perfect system which has the potential to solve such problems. A system which will be at the core of the school and will give students a chance to show their skills. I have a system in mind that will create a tunnel from school to straight to the world of reality. Direct passage of information that will provide students with the information of what is happening outside of their fake little circle. That way we will feed their brains with the information that is actually required. If they will keep themselves updated with the latest technologies and trend then their mind will become more curious to learn more and take it to a different level.
Today’s world is driven by execution of great ideas that was once thought to be impossible. How many of you know about the SpaceX success of Elon Musk project? How many of you know about a totally new and different mode of transportation called Hyperloop? Only if you can keep up the pace with the current world then only you can think of a better future. Learning things which were already done by great scientists more than a century ago is not going to give answers.
I’m not taking power. I’m catalyzing systemic change.
The system that I have in mind will create a completely new paradigm that has the potential to revolutionise the entire education system. If you think you would love to become a part of this system then fill the form below and I will give you something extra to think about.
What do you think the about the state of our education system? Do you think the schools are making progress in the future or everything feels the same way? It is a very important issue which needs to be addressed soon. Let me know your views on it. What do you think about teaching students about the ways of earning money?