We love the Avenger movies, we love Star Wars, we rant over the outlandish concepts of Inception or Back to the Future 😍. But how much do we love the Pythagoras theorem, General Relativity or the 2nd law of thermodynamics or how much we praise Newton, Tesla over Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg? I have been churning over these doubts for a while when it hit me hard. When we are stupidly in love with fiction, we were repelled by the pure science underneath it. We dream about travelling through space when we have a chance to actually be in a space ship. Science in movies YEY👍, Science in class NEY! 👎Where are we wrong? Why weren't we taught to love maths and science?
It
gets me when I find myself enjoying all those sci-fi movies but not the actual
science, that'd be physics, chemistry and maths. I have always been a mediocre
student. I have always thought, the creative side of my brain was more
functioning than the logical side and I will not ever be good in maths or
physics, which was more like maths to me.
I never showed interest in learning both. I scored less for those
subjects in school. I think my love for physics and maths was due to my love for science fiction👽 It was the movies and web series that took me into the world of science. I remember now, some part of my heart wanted to be an astronautical
engineer 👩🚀 but I kept it there because I was afraid of maths (or maybe I was lazy
enough to work it through). I actually like maths(as now
I say I have a crush on it). I like physics too more like astrophysics. Later on, I was able to nurture
my passion for science. I started to google stuff when I had some doubt and
learned a bit from here and there. Not like to the extend of equations and
stuff but the basic concepts made sense to me(thanks to my elementary education).
I'd like to quote Emily Levine👵 in one of her Ted Talks "I absolutely love science. I have this, 'not a
scientist myself' but an uncanny ability to understand everything about science
except the actual science, which is maths. But the most outlandish concepts
make sense to me." I felt like science is awesome but where did I miss
all this in school and college?
This can
happen reverse for people who love maths. I envy people who love maths. They
can get their hands on anything. Well, sometimes they struggle with language
subjects. The thing is, it took me this much time
to fall in love with science, that I regret. But I see many students, in high
school, still striving with science. In the end, they end up hating it. Here in
India, a child is put into school at the age of 5 or 6, from there starts the
never-ending rat race that continues until he/she is old. Can something be done?
I
guess it all comes down to the very question of 'What is wrong with the education system?'. We all doubt this right?
I
come from the most literate state in India, Kerala. In here, every child gets
his/her elementary education. Schooling is a lot better than other states in
India. But higher education is a mess. When elementary
education only helped us to understand the movies or the memes on the internet, higher education only helped us to get a degree which is bull crap in the end. We are not taught the basic things in school that we need in life. We are not taught what mental health is, sexual wellbeing is, how to tackle finance and banking and the list goes on. The
'real education' is still a myth🦄
"I'll tell you how I feel about school, Jerry: it's a waste of time. Bunch of people runnin' around bumpin' into each other, got a guy up front says, '2 + 2,' and the people in the back say, '4.' Then the bell rings and they give you a carton of milk and a piece of paper that says you can go take a dump or somethin'. I mean, it's not a place for smart people, Jerry. I know that's not a popular opinion, but that's my two cents on the issue."
- Rick, "Pilot"
The entire school system is stupid and is built upon rusted old systems. Schools have
become a place of competition. It is a fear-induced system, when it was meant
to be a place to nurture creativity and innovation. The problem is the method of teaching😑 I believe a teacher has an important role in a student's
life. A teacher must understand each of his students only then the teacher can
make him understand. A good teacher can help a student to figure out what he is
good at and navigate him to it. I wish that was the case. But we all were
frightened by our math teachers, right?
I
know this one person who acknowledged this situation, a man with passion in
heart, a teacher, who put up a startup. His name is Byju Raveendran who is the
founder of Byju's Learning App, that helped kids learn maths in a funny way and not just math. Their
tagline is "Come fall in love with learning". It is a slight relief
that online learning platforms like these are sprouting around the corner. But
it has only less impact on this substantial issue. The changes have to be done
from the core, the schools, the universities. When will they change?
Or
you can be your teacher too. Most of the famous scientists taught by themselves.
They were school and college dropouts. I think I can write a whole another blog
about learning by yourself. But that's for another time. All the things I said above only touched the tip of the iceberg. 🥶 I wish I could explain more.
Finally
what I wish to say is we all need to fall in love with science. It is
around us. It is us. As someone😜 said, "Bhoogolathinte
spandanam thanne kanakkilaanu" ( which means the vibration of
the universe itself is in Mathematics). The thing is, it is not too late. We can
still find our long lost love for science. Search for it inside or on Google!
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