7th Grade and Super – Rote Learning

I was entering the dangerous years. I was becoming a teenager. There was uncertainty written all over my face.

I observed that most of the students were focused on standing first in class, rather than learning. My performance in class was largely determined by how much information, I could put into my head. I could memorize really well. So I joined the race and became really good at it.

I was stupid. Only I knew that!

I barely understood most of the things I memorized. But that was alright, because understanding the subject did not get you marks at school. If you were really good at picking up information from one book and putting it on another sheet of paper, you would do really well at school. I managed to become one of the best students in class, by memorizing several text books and not understanding most of what I learnt.

There was a hole in the education system. It judged students not based on their understanding capacity but on their capability to memorize.

Do Grades determine everything?

I kept my grades up at school. Thus I was able to end the year on a high. But in whose eyes had I done well?

I scored really well in the exams. I always came in the first four ranks of the class. But I was learning nothing. I was learning zilch. I remembered nothing a few days after the exam.

But everyday I came to school, I was told, ‘Abhishek you are a good student.’

So confusing.

Let us learn together

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