Classroom Conflicts!

“Is NaCl ionic or covalent?” Ionic” screamed a bunch of students.” What hybridized state is Methane?” Another flurry of answers. “How do you measure the moment of inertia of a thin circular disc?” “How do you measure the coefficient of viscosity by Poiseuille’s method?”
Oh god! What more? Ionic or sp3 hybridization, why should I care?
In fact, I have to. I have to care, I should know how to calculate the moment of inertia of a disc and I should learn Poiseuille’s method. All for one simple five letter word called “MARKS”. It sounds rather crazy and funny, but at the end of our schooling, this is the one that ‘pays’.
I usually crack when I see my classmates begging and bargaining for 2 or 3 marks. After a full session of bordering on irritation, compulsion and finally frustration, the teacher gives in and awards a few marks. Oh man, what a life? Being surrounded by a plethora of geniuses is indeed difficult.
For instance, take my example. I am a good student. I am surrounded by students who have been gifted with better intellect, which they make full use of. I enjoy leading my life the way I like it, like sleeping, eating, reading and of course, writing. Studying??? I’m not quite sure. Being buried in books day and night revising and re-revising all the portions is not my idea of studying. And if that is what it takes to be a good student, no thank you, I would prefer the way I am.
Towards the end of the day at school, when I am practically dozing off, an interruption in the form of a doubt can really get on my nerves. Oh great¡ here I am, hardly able to understand what the teacher is saying and on the other hand, this person has some doubts to ask. Are these people called geniuses or am I a fool?
I do accept that there are many intelligent people who are just as much fun as the other average students but somehow they don’t fit into my idea of fun loving people. There is another extreme where the student keeps studying 24 hours and lives in the anticipation of joining IIT. No time for leisure, no time for gossip or fun? How can one live like that? It is true that most of the time the student is pressurized by the parents who are successful doctors or engineers and expect their children to end up that way. But the trend just doesn’t end there. Parents who have not been all that successful too, put pressure on their off-springs to emulate some other fellow student/s who top the school or class with scant regards for an individual’s inherent intellect, ability or skill. Can they not realize that it won’t take a second for the ward to ask them the question – “Why didn’t you do so?” Life can be so miserable.
In a recent speech delivered to parents, teachers and educationists, Mr.Azim Premji urged them to encourage and develop the students’ natural skills and abilities rather than making them “memory machines” which curbs their thought process and flowering of latent talent. ‘When some one does some thing that he really enjoys and is sincere about it, success will fall in place’, he contends.
Isn’t that absolutely true???Anyhow, I am here today, airing these views but who knows in two years time I might be running back and forth with my marks for a seat in a “good engineering college”!