First off, I'd like to say that my grasp of Hindi isn't all that great. What you see before you was written by someone who has only a very rough idea of what our Prime Minister was talking about.
In his speech, Modi says that we need more of our students to want to become teachers. Now there's something worth thinking about a bit. If I went to school right now and asked my classmates what they want to be when they grow up, they'll say 'doctor' or 'lawyer' or 'engineer'. What makes these professions any better than teaching? Better salaries? I don't think so. Your average 9th grader isn't particularly interested in what his yearly earnings will be. I think the problem lies in how we look at the profession. An engineer or doctor is someone you respect because you've been told that they're very smart people. A teacher is someone you gave lip service to for fear of getting bad grades. Who wants to be a person like that? Absolutely no one, that's who.
Prime Minister Sahib also discussed another very important issue - toilets (Now we know why our country is going to the bogs). We need decent toilet facilities for girls. Those of us who lead our lives of privilege studying in private schools won't have faced these issues, but government schools have poor if not non-existent toilet facilities for girls. Keeping toilets clean is another problem - and this is faced by all students. The toilets at my own school look like a floor mat on a rainy day after school. The way to fix this would be to have the students clean the toilets themselves. If they know that they will have to clean up their own mess, they won't make the mess as big, right? And hey, it builds character too!
Modi also feels that technology is an amazing teaching aid. Now here's an understandable sentiment. I mean, if we want to live without technology, we'd have to go back to living in caves and saying "Ook Ook" every time we talk. Even if we only eschewed electronic technology, we'd be going to the library to figure out anything at all.
Which brings us to the next issue - the so-called 'Google Guru'. In his speech, Mr. Chief Executive says that while Google Searches give you information, they do not give you knowledge. If I tried to explain why the two were different, I'd be walking on hallowed philosophical ground - not to mention setting a whole lot of dead philosophers rotating in their graves at speed - so I'll just explain why I disagree. I think that to have a complete understanding of something from Google, all you have to do is visit multiple links. But then again, being the "pancake generation", we just click the Wikipedia link and move on.
I'm not Modi's greatest supporter, but I'll give him this much - the man's got a point. He seems to know what he's doing. And thankfully, he isn't one of those chaps whose words "damn the ears of those who hear them".
In his speech, Modi says that we need more of our students to want to become teachers. Now there's something worth thinking about a bit. If I went to school right now and asked my classmates what they want to be when they grow up, they'll say 'doctor' or 'lawyer' or 'engineer'. What makes these professions any better than teaching? Better salaries? I don't think so. Your average 9th grader isn't particularly interested in what his yearly earnings will be. I think the problem lies in how we look at the profession. An engineer or doctor is someone you respect because you've been told that they're very smart people. A teacher is someone you gave lip service to for fear of getting bad grades. Who wants to be a person like that? Absolutely no one, that's who.
Prime Minister Sahib also discussed another very important issue - toilets (Now we know why our country is going to the bogs). We need decent toilet facilities for girls. Those of us who lead our lives of privilege studying in private schools won't have faced these issues, but government schools have poor if not non-existent toilet facilities for girls. Keeping toilets clean is another problem - and this is faced by all students. The toilets at my own school look like a floor mat on a rainy day after school. The way to fix this would be to have the students clean the toilets themselves. If they know that they will have to clean up their own mess, they won't make the mess as big, right? And hey, it builds character too!
Modi also feels that technology is an amazing teaching aid. Now here's an understandable sentiment. I mean, if we want to live without technology, we'd have to go back to living in caves and saying "Ook Ook" every time we talk. Even if we only eschewed electronic technology, we'd be going to the library to figure out anything at all.
Which brings us to the next issue - the so-called 'Google Guru'. In his speech, Mr. Chief Executive says that while Google Searches give you information, they do not give you knowledge. If I tried to explain why the two were different, I'd be walking on hallowed philosophical ground - not to mention setting a whole lot of dead philosophers rotating in their graves at speed - so I'll just explain why I disagree. I think that to have a complete understanding of something from Google, all you have to do is visit multiple links. But then again, being the "pancake generation", we just click the Wikipedia link and move on.
I'm not Modi's greatest supporter, but I'll give him this much - the man's got a point. He seems to know what he's doing. And thankfully, he isn't one of those chaps whose words "damn the ears of those who hear them".
Why thank you. But honestly, I'm not entirely sure I will stick to topics of value. I'm really only writing about whatever grabs my fancy.
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