Since 3rd September 2024, I’ve been learning Tibetan, and it’s been over a week now. I’m getting confused by similar words like ‘ང’ (Nga) and ‘ད’ (Da). I’ve also realized something about myself: language has always been difficult for me. Even before this class, I was confused by the three Hindi letters ‘स’, ‘श’, and ‘ष’. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I even failed my Hindi exam.
Now at 23 years of age, I still struggle with these words. Today, after a one-hour group meditation at Dhamma Sikhara in Dharamshala, I had a personal realization. In my childhood, teachers thought I was stupid and uninterested in studying, and they punished me for it. They believed that if 50 students understood their teaching methods and 10 did not, the fault lay with the students, not the method. They never analyzed their teaching; instead, all the blame went to those who couldn’t keep up.
When I was in 9th grade, I decided to study to impress a girl in my class who was answering the teachers’ questions. But I still couldn’t understand the teachers’ methods, so I asked a friend to teach me. His way of explaining helped me grasp what was actually going on. I still remember the question, though not the solution: ‘A ball is dropped from a height. Calculate the velocity at different points.’ That’s when I really started studying.
I truly began to understand how to study when I learned from a friend’s sister, who had spent 1-2 years preparing for NEET in Kota. (Kota is like the Silicon Valley of India for education, where students from all over come to prepare for NEET and JEE, India’s two biggest exams.) Her methods made sense to me, and she shared how different teachers taught her. This made science easier, though exams were still hard for me due to language issues and habits like struggling to tell time on an analog clock or quickly figuring out directions. For example, I have to think about which hand I write with before I can tell right from left.
School from 1st to 9th grade was really hard for me, but it got better from 9th to 12th (Discovery of Logic/Art). Taking notes was always difficult because I couldn’t process writing and listening at the same time. My parents thought I was stupid and couldn’t achieve anything in life. A lot of people, including my teachers, viewed weak students as bad or naughty, and they often punished us. They focused on the intelligent students, forgetting that every child is unique. Punishing and scolding, calling stupid or saying u couldn’t do anything in life, left lasting marks.
Possible solution’s | Edu System
But these are problems faced by many children around the world. So, what’s the solution to this education system? In my opinion, there are a few solutions or ideas that need to be tested and implemented in classrooms:
The Pomodoro Technique (Limited Focus):
Nowadays, with so many distractions and continuous classes, children tend to lose their peace of mind, which directly affects their focus. Taking breaks is important for maintaining focus, and one effective time management technique is the Pomodoro method, named after the Italian word for tomato. I first experienced this during a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat in Kushinagar, where we were allowed to take 5-minute breaks whenever we lost focus or peace of mind. Essentially, long school days—6-7 hours with just a 30-minute lunch break—don’t allow children to focus on everything. Instead, school hours could be extended to 9-10 hours, but with frequent short breaks, rather than wasting 60 minutes on things like prayers, uniform checks, and hair inspections.
During these longer breaks, teachers should analyze their students’ progress rather than just checking homework and punishing them. They need to find effective teaching methods that cater to different kinds of learners.
Lecture or Interaction (Students as Teachers):
I believe that interaction-based classes, where students act as teachers, are the best way to learn. If someone understands a concept clearly, teaching it to others is a great way to test that understanding. This also helps students analyze their own learning and improve. Sometimes, students don’t grasp the teacher’s method, but they might understand the way another student explains it. For example, when my friend taught me how to solve a ball-related problem, I understood it better than when the teacher explained it.
When I was in school, I didn’t understand the teacher’s acronym for memorizing the periodic table, but when I created a funny one for myself, it became much easier to remember. I think this could apply to other students as well. Just like my teacher once created an acronym to help himself learn, today’s students need to find modern and trendy ways that are familiar to them. I experienced this in my Tibetan learning class, where students interact with one another—like first-year students interacting with second-year students. That really helps. I interacted with another student, and I realized what I needed to improve. For example, today (16th September), Ela told me it’s okay and shared her experience of learning Hindi. She said it took her 7 months to learn Hindi, and how she wasn’t confident in speaking at first. Now, she’s fluent. She also gave me advice about how learning a language is like being a baby again.
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