While studying for my exams, Geography of India specifically, I started recollecting information I had learned in school that I still remember. The Mariana Trench for example is the deepest part in Pacific Ocean. The moment I read it, I assigned it to my memory. Few other things learnt in school that I can still recollect include Historical dates and events with information about the Ottoman Empire although I think my later reading bears a more strong hold in learning more about dynasties and empires.
Why I feel strongly about things learnt in childhood is the simple reason now being I have to make a choice about choosing a subject in my academics for extensive learning. I have been pondering increasingly about deciding between Public Administration and Geography. I haven't exclusively studied Geography and only wonder if it will sustain my interest unlike other subjects like Sociology. So I have taken to dedicating all my attention to Geography and I daresay I enjoy reading it. Perhaps, it will give my grey cells the much needed boost that seemingly drab subjects like public administration bring forth. I miss devouring and practically eating off the facts and figures that I so loved as a child. Then, it was always about reading new information about the world in the geographical and historical pursuits of nature. I really lament losing that spark. Of course, as we grow up our mind starts occupying itself with things more lively than dead subjects we were introduced to in the hopes of receiving an education. Often, regardless of its worth we find ourselves relentlessly pursuing things with far lesser hold on our being than is deemed necessary. From my Architecture school discussions among peers, I recollect wide arguments about learning the History of Architecture. It was questioned so passionately that merely the choice of learning what students thought was worth in this new age took precedent over other aspects of the discussion. Many thought it unnecessary then. It was a burden to the already exhaustive and varied nature of the academic coursework and thought of more suitably as a subject belonging to the Arts than Science which students felt they ought to learn. I suppose it has been a long debate for time immemorial when we give precedence to more liberal sciences than creative persuasions. Just another of those Chicken or Egg dilemmas.
Aside from relearning, something that I have begun to appreciate and enjoy, I realise that over time we lose basic instincts taught to us in childhood. Then, we associate and relearn about them in a different fashion that more or less, confines our age. One of the prominent examples is Mathematics. Do you remember cringing at solving examples that involved simple interest, speed-distance train problems, calculating volume and density not to forget geometry theorems? I certainly recollect rolling my eyes each time my Math test results determined the fall of my percentage and rank in class. Always hovering between the second and third spot, never making it to the top although my teachers loved to exclaim about the consistent toppers of the class, the first five students who always hogged the class limelight. I cringe at that memory now. There was always someone better at sciences and maths, the competition at scoring 96 and 98 in sciences, the immense humiliation at retaining the same spot, never gaining more than the satisfaction of seeing our peers compete so crazily with each other. No wonder our education system churns out such decisively idiotic ranking system that only inflates a kid's child ego, doing more harm for the rest of their lives than failure ever could. It's therefore not very surprising to see very few remnants of things learned in childhood, school appropriately, finding much existence in an adult's life. Art was very enjoyable during my school days. I loved the Music classes, the drawing session experimentation with different colour mediums, and the hullabaloo of the language classes as well.
The most significant thing that I have retained from my childhood is the ability to forgive myself for mistakes. I have berated myself as a kid for failing to accomplish perfection, the 100/100 score in Maths, and even being less than my fiercest competitors who were my friends. In that age, all we can think about is pleasing the teachers, being the star of school sessions, something we won't give much thought to now since we consider competing as a rat-race in our grown up world. It is all the more a concern to look back and reassess the crucial difference our learning methods can impact our current systems of imparting knowledge. I ardently hope, we let our old mechanisms to retire and seek out to bring the simplicity of childhood without pressure systems to ruin their world that our economic sensibilities could never recreate nor bring back. Memories are precious, more so when they create happy people.
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