Education

It hit me recently. I'm 28 and I have  something like 5 years of work experience. Considering I remember pretty much as many major things and events from the third year of my life, as I do from the year before last, and I could walk way before the first set of memories, I could have made myself useful long back. So what was I doing for 20 years or more than two thirds of my life ?

Getting educated, that's what. Initially coming to par with the cumulative learning of mankind since the stone age, later being brought uptodate with the cumulative learning of humanity in a specific field 'of my choice'.

I don't know about you, but I feel cheated. The human body physically peaks at like 21. What was I doing ? Had just finished my first round of education. Life had pretty much passed me by while I was being 'educated' in my protected little shell. And the regret is in spite of the feeling that I got pretty much everything I could, intellectually, out of the system. I know plenty who aren't as lucky.

To bring some balance to the paradigm, let me clarify, I really value the world view and understanding I have as a result of education.

Somehow I think the education system has been designed with a hundred year life span in mind. Most of us lead a useful life probably till sixty five. There are always exceptions, but that is a different discussion.

Working with the same percentage, the education needs to be crunched into 12 years, instead of 18. Masters of course may take a year and a half, when appropriate. The rubber needs to meet the road a lot earlier in life.
Innocence is overrated. We need to make the learning curve steeper. And trim the fat from the syllabus. Every thing superfluous needs to be on a 'want to know' basis, to be learnt on your own time, if that's what you'd rather be doing.

I appreciate the American model in this respect. There is a concept of a summer job, where one does a little work, makes a little money. Any one with an entrepreneurial mind set is likely to find their inspiration early in life when the price of failure is practically nil. Young people get a lot more time and perspective to allow them to decide what their calling in life is. That is why American universities produce fewer drones by percentage (excluding the indian population of choose) than Indian universities.We typically keep running down the path of least resistance, the lucky ones till they die, the unlucky ones, till they hit a wall.

Incidentally indians spend their summers playing cricket, reading or doing their summer homework, depending on what combination of parental and educational setup they're in.

And while we're at it making lives more productive, we should pull in the driving age limit as well. There is a test for the license, not like marriage where coming to a certain age automatically makes you eligible to get married.  So if a 10 year old boy can drive better than a 40 year woman, he should be allowed to. They do it anyway. I think the only logic behind the 18 year rule is that it eliminates the section from the rule book, about what to do when a kid breaks a traffic rule.

What say ?