We had our second computer practicals today and like before, the exam was really retarded.

First of all, the topics made no sense. One of the topics was Google Translate, and it is so easy to use. Forget about rocket scientist, you don't even have to be good with technology to be able to use it. Google has made it THAT easy.

The topics are written on a piece of paper and kept near the computer. So, the guy using the computer sees a piece of paper with "Google Translate" written on it and if he doesn't know how to begin, he's definitely going to google "Google Translate".


Voila! That's how easy Google has made it. The practical is redundant.

The second topic was using Google Earth, to locate your city. Again, if the person doesn't know how to use Google Earth, he'll just google it.


Click on it and you're half done.

Then you just have to do what any Indian is best at, choose the options that are free. And just enter the name of your city, anyone can figure it out. My classmates aren't geeks and even they could do this. (No screenshots because sadly, the web plugin for Google Earth doesn't work on Linux :( )

The third topic was using blogger and this one is, in my opinion, the second stupidest computer practical I have heard of.

Firstly, you have to log into blogger to start doing anything. Couple of reasons why that itself is a problem. We do it using the school's internet, which is being used by 10 other computers. So, out of around 15 people, only 10 can use the internet at once, that too very slowly.

Secondly, you have to log into google to use blogger. If you use your email-id, google asks you to verify your identity because it's a new login location. Of course, you can't verify because we're not allowed to carry our mobile phones with us. Or you could make a new google account, but wait, that requires you to verify using a mobile phone too. (Some accounts can log in without verification but those are accounts with low security and, uhm, not many know how to change the security.)

Thirdly, the practical itself is stupid. You're told to create a blog, and post something on it. Seriously, google has made blogger easy to understand, anyone can make a blog. But the posting part is what's stupid. It's a computer practical, not an English exam. The practical has almost nothing to do with blogs. A better practical would be to write an essay in Notepad.

And the last topic is, as far as I'm concerned, the stupidest. GeoGebra. We only have, like, 1 class of computer (practical) a month, which the teacher mostly uses for theory. All year, I think we've only had 3 or 4 practical classes. And, GeoGebra isn't something any average person can just figure out. So, most of us didn't know what to do. I just hovered over different tools and figured out their purpose and my practical was pretty easy, all things considered, but some people couldn't do it. It's not their fault, they simply didn't know how.

The teacher told us to study from the text book. For the practicals. Apparently, she doesn't know the difference between theory and practical. And since I didn't know much about GeoGebra, I had actually tried studying from the textbook. But here's the thing, the textbook English is really poor. It's really difficult to understand what you're supposed to, and there are no diagrams.

We also had to write the practicals. The board really doesn't know what practical means. I get it, you don't want to make things easy for the students, but, when have you ever been asked to write steps for using Google Translate? Or draw a diagram? A diagram, we had to draw a diagram for our computer practicals.

Not only are they teaching us stupid topics, they're asking us to present it in a retarded way.

I've been meaning to write about this for quite a while but somehow I always forgot.

Something most kids hide from their parents (other than the fact that they do drugs, drink, smoke etc) is their relationship with a person of the opposite sex (or same, that's a good sign)

Because, every kid knows, parents don't want their children to date, they just directly want them to get married. So, why is it that they think this way? Here's what I think:

1. Lack of trust:
They immediately assume we're going to pick  a guy/girl who's a bad influence, same with our friends. Or that the partner is going to turn their kid against them.


2. Studies:
Well, you're gonna be talking/chatting with your girlfriend/boyfriend a lot and they think you will lose focus and not do well in the exams. (Well, that might be true, but that's not an excuse)


3. Over-reaction:
It's in the news all the time. Some girl was raped/murdered/robbed by her boyfriend and that he was actually a con artist or something. Parents might be scared that this'll happen to their daughter, or their son will start doing this (for whatever reason...)


4. The future:
They're worried that you will end up wanting to marry him/her and naturally, they wouldn't want you to marry someone they don't know. But yeah, they expect you to marry a guy/girl who no one in your family knows.



5. Genuine concern:
Very few parents with this kind of approach. They're genuinely worried because they know high-school relationships hardly last and don't want you to waste time.

And this is from a different question.


I can ignore the "ever" instead of "every", it's a minor typo. But, there's a punctuation error after "angle". Teachers rage when we don't use periods (.) and commas (,) and then they do something like this.


And a common response when you point this mistake out is, "I'm not a student anymore." So, does that mean "i caan wrait lyk tis.," when I get a job or something?

Out of all the subjects that we have, languages have got to be the toughest. For other subjects, at least you can memorize the answers to get the grades. But, for languages, you can memorize the answers, but what about Grammar? Writing skill exercises?

That's going off-topic though. The main concern is, why are languages taught using lessons? I mean, it's fine for the first language (English) because, we have comprehension in the exams and so, we don't even have to learn the answers. So, naturally, the teacher doesn't waste time making us write answers or discuss them in detail either.

But, for the second and third language, we just have to memorize the answers. No comprehension in the exams.

I mean, what are lessons? Stories. Biographies. Letters. Factoids. Why must we memorize parts of stories? And if we write it in our own words,




Well...

We have this amazing subject called Personality Development. It is simply magnificent. Why? Because it's taught using books. Seriously though,


Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the teacher is inappropriate as well. She tries to inculcate good values into us students, but breaks the rules herself. And, we have a written exam based on this subject, of 50 marks.

A little something you should know about exams in India. Your grade/marks all depend on how good you are. . . at memorizing answers. If you write an answer in your own words, using your own intelligence, you have the illusion of being smart and a 0 in your test.

So, this exam was just the same. And some retards actually did memorize the answers. As always, I went into the examination hall with a Y.O.L.O attitude, ready to get a C on the test.

This is what our PD (Personality Development) book is like. We have the text first.


And then Q&A after the text.


And in a class of PD, all we do is, reading of the text, and completion of the exercises. How? The teacher dictates the answers. Even for exercises that say "What will you do if.." Seriously...


First of all, very few kids will actually do that. Most would just laugh along.


And second, even while dictating answers, the teacher can't use proper English.

Remember how I said you have to write every answer word to word in the exam? Well, guess what? The questions asked in the exam, don't exist in our textbook.


And if the teacher actually does want our opinion, how does she plan on marking the answers? I mean, it's my opinion, what right does she have to judge?

The way they teach every student to take up the same values, it's as if they want to mass produce one kind of student, that is, a dumb idiot who has not learned a single thing yet tops the exams because he has the ultimate power (and time) of memorizing.

Another interesting exam we have for our boards is P.T (Physical Training)

Now, you'd think we'd have some actual theory about health and fitness. But, no. Most of the syllabus is:

1. Measurements of fields of various sports.
2. Theory of sports, as in, roles and basic rules.
3. Instructions on executing yogasana (yoga techniques)

Like I said, we started our practicals recently and so far, I'm not impressed.

Science practicals were already a disappointment but, computer practicals were even worse.

First of all, I love computer practicals. Not because it's easy for me, but because I love seeing my technologically challenged classmates.

Well, this time, our syllabus for the practicals was blogging, Google translate and Google maps. Blogging is fine but the other 2 topics are useless as it is. Mostly because any idiot knows how to use it. All you have to do is type in words in a search box. And, Google is smart enough to correct spelling mistakes too, so... those topics are just meh.

Plus, for all topics, we had to use the internet. My school's internet is pretty similar to what I get at home and I can barely make do with that. But in school, the speed is divided over 20 - 30 computers. The original internet plan is around 500 Kb/s - 1 Mb/s but when it's divided into 25 computers, it's barely 20 Kb/s - 40 Kb/s.

That makes it tough to even log into blogger for the practicals. I'm not saying the school should spend thousands on internet but, at least conduct the practicals in groups of 5 or something.

Then, we started the practical. Well, some of us did. Others were just waiting for their stone age PC to run Internet Explorer, since they didn't have Firefox or Chrome. It wouldn't kill the teachers to install at least one good browser...not like it takes that long anyway.

So, we were given topics. What topics? Blog. Google map. Google translate.

Nothing else was told.

Then, we found out that we had to WRITE the practical exam. Now, writing for science practicals is fine, there are observations. But, what do you need to write for a computer practical exam? Then, she told us we had to write the steps. Steps for what exactly, I still don't know.

There was no real assignment. We just had to do what we can using our topic and write down steps of how we did it. She didn't even check what we had done. Just took our papers and pushed us out of the room.

If the practicals for the board exam are going to be the same, the board really is retarded. The whole point of having practicals, is to prove that we know how to do stuff. Why make the students write what they did when they can just show? I mean, we don't have to write the procedure for science practicals either.

And, Google map/translate is not a good topic for practical exams. Seriously. A 5 year old can use that nowadays. Maybe the teacher thinks we're just really REALLY bad at her subject which is really ironic because she doesn't even know what scratch is. (I can't use scratch that well either, but she has no idea what it is)

So, hats off to the school for finding such great teachers. And hats off to the board for making us write the procedure of our practical exam. And hats off to whoever thought Google map and Google translate was a good practical. (Kinda makes it tough for me to believe that Indians are considered to be good at computers)

We've read about this countless times in the newspapers or on the internet. But, I never believe it.

Well, there are times when some Americans really, really mess up their English. Not just the usual your and you're mess up, I'm talking about were and where. And, I've seen this from Americans and the English too. But, their spoken English is fluent.

Indians on the other hand, can't pronounce most words correctly. Our is mostly pronounced as a-v-er and five becomes fa-yu.

And, the newspaper articles clearly say "Indians speak English better than the British", it's not like they were talking about written English either.

Well, I can understand a few pronunciation errors. It's because of the accent, of course. But, a lot of Indians completely screw up their grammar as well.

Still, I can understand, it's not their first language. But, if you expect to work in an English medium school, you should be able to speak English.

The only teachers that can speak English properly are the English teachers. Everyone else is just not good enough. And, their struggle with the language is really obvious.

One time, I remember, the whole class was laughing because of the new computer teacher's English. I don't know if she was just acting like she didn't know why, but she started asking us questions like "Why you're laughing?" well, that made us laugh even more.

Then, we've had math teachers who would screw up their spellings. "Illimination" instead of "Elimination", "traingle" instead of "triangle" and more.

And the worst is when they literally translate from their language to English.

There's a phrase in Marathi, डोक्यावर चढू नकोस, which means, 'Don't irritate me.'

And the teacher literally translates the phrase into English, "Don't climb on my head."

So, the next time you feel good about yourself when you read such articles, forget about it. This statistic report is based on the results of an exam called TOEFL (Test of English as a foreign language) which students have to write if they want to go America for further education. And, these students speak English well, not all Indians.

We recently started our terminal examination in school and as always, we started with the practicals. I'll discuss the oral examinations later because...that's something else entirely. But, we had science practicals and computer practicals recently.

Well, our science is divided into 2 parts:

1. Science A: Physics + Chemistry and one lesson on EVS (Environmental Science)
2. Science B: Chemistry + Biology and one lesson on EVS

Well, it is a known fact that Indians are good with computers. In fact, it's more of a racial stereotype. But, that really isn't true. Out of maybe 1.2 billion Indians, a few million are good with computers. And they're good, because they genuinely care about computers and have learned what they know online/from books/external classes.

What I hear from most of my foreign friends is that Indians are taught everything in school. But, again, that really isn't true. It's like our Bollywood movies. What foreigners think about us, is never really true.

Well, we are taught about computers in school, but that is nothing compared to what they should be teaching. Now, I'm not saying they should teach us C++, Java or any programming language to be honest. Not even talking about teaching Macromedia Flash, Photoshop or Scratch.

But, schools should teach us how to survive in today's digital world. As in, teach us how to

1. Upload videos/images/audios to specific sites like YouTube, Photobucket, Mediafire etc.
2. Back up our files using online cloud storage.
3. Creating and effectively using Blogs, Forums etc.
4. Making basic websites using pre-coded templates through sites like Network Solutions etc.

Right now, me and a few students from my school are writing various articles for the NIE newspaper, more on that later. But, me and my friend were asked to write an article about the CREO and Robotics programme of our school.

We were a part of the CREO programme so, we could write about it. But, the Robotics programme was a new addition and it wasn't for 10th graders, so we had to attend one session and we did.

Well, the students that were a part of this programme were 8 - 12 years old. And yet, they were being taught about electricity, the same thing we are being taught about in 10th grade.

But, their teacher was not using any kind of text-book. We were taught about electricity through a few practicals (because it was a part of our practical examination, not because the teacher wanted to teach us using a different method) and mostly, from our text-book. And it's easier to teach 15 year olds about electricity, especially since we had introductory lessons in 8th and 9th grade.

But, teaching 3rd graders about resistances, voltage etc. is pretty difficult. They don't even know what those terms mean. But, the teacher was doing a good job, he was using examples that they could relate to, to explain these terms. He would frequently ask the kids if they had any questions, or ask them questions to make sure they were understanding.

He taught them about the 3 main components of electricity, current, voltage (potential difference) and resistance.

After this, he even explained Ohm's law of resistance ie

Current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the potential difference, if the resistance remains constant.

and

Current flowing through a circuit is inversely proportional to the resistance, if the potential difference remains constant.

 He just blurted the laws for the sake of it. He explained it in his own words later. The struggle was visible since the kids didn't even know what proportionality meant. But, he taught them using various examples etc. He even showed them an easy trick to remember the relationship between current, potential difference and resistance.

A pyramid, divided into three parts, where V is the potential difference in volts (V), I is the current in amperes (A) and R is the resistance in ohms (Ω) 

Relationship of R with V and I: V is above R in the pyramid, and I is beside it, therefore, R = V/I.

Relationship of I with V and R: V is above I in the pyramid and R is beside it, therefore I = V/R.

Relationship of V with R and I: I and R are below V in the pyramid, therefore V = I x R.

All of which are formulae that we were taught in 10th grade. How were we taught about this relationship?

The electric current flowing in a metallic conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference across its terminals, provided physical conditions of the conductor such as length, area of cross section, temperature and material remain constant.

And then,

"These formulae are extremely important, you should know them by-heart." and done.

So, why can't our teachers teach us like that one did? Is it because they don't have enough time? Because, I'd rather spend time learning science like this, than learning geography through text book. Or is it because a teacher like that is rarer than an Indian without a thick accent?

To all the foreigners that follow my rants, 10th grade is one of the most important years in a student's life in India. All year round, we have exams which count to the final exam, the board exam. We have the entire syllabus, all that is taught all through the year. As if that isn't tough enough, there are a LOT of rules to be followed during this exam. Basically, almost everything about this exam is different.

It's a nationwide exam. The same question paper goes to every school, different question papers for different boards, of course. And once the exams are done, the government pays qualified teachers to check these answer sheets at three different levels.

1. Examiner: They are the ones that do most of the correction and they get around 300 papers. I think they are paid 5 bucks for each paper, depends on quality of work though.
2. Moderator: They make sure that the examiner hasn't made any mistake in marking, and check the total. If a student is getting 100% marks, they try to reduce marks by closely checking the answer sheet, and they simply sign average papers. They get around 5 bundles of 300 papers each, from 5 different examiners. If an examiner has made any mistake, it's the duty of the moderator to report it to the Chief Moderator.
3. Chief Moderator: Pretty much the least-effort job. Well, I wouldn't know, since I have never met one. But, I hear, it's their job to double check the work of the examiner and moderator. Also, they have to consider a moderator's reports. It's also their job to cut marks when a moderator is not able to. I'm guessing they get a lot of papers.

Last night, when my mother wanted to see if I was actually studying, she decided to ask me questions. I had nothing to fear, since I had actually studied (well, I had to, computer wasn't working) She started with definitions.

Now, I try to avoid memorizing and try and actually understand the concepts, so I knew the definitions pretty well. But, when I gave the answer, my mom corrected me.


I see no difference in the meaning of both answers. It's not as if I dumbed down the language either, I used all the important words. But my mother still told me not to write that in the exam and told me to memorize what was in the book.

Now, that's just absurd. Why waste time memorizing an one-line answer which you can write yourself since you actually know what it is? I would understand if I had said something like "An element is a thing that has only one type of atom and cannot be broken into any smaller pieces." but, that's not the case. The answer isn't wrong, I just changed the sequence.

But then, she told me that sometimes, the board examiners let others check the answer sheets. The examiners receive a model answer sheet, so that they know what the right answers are. And apparently, these helpers of the examiners, aren't really teachers, and just cross check the answers in the answer sheet with the model answer sheet.

So, I lose 1 mark, just because I changed the order of the sentence, which is perfectly fine by the way, and it still means the same thing?

Also, why are these people allowed to help the examiners? What qualifications do they have? In my opinion, they're dumber than a piece of wood if they don't know the difference between

"A substance which is made of only one kind of atom and which cannot be divided into any simpler substances is called an element." and

"An element is a substance which is made up of one kind of atom and which cannot be divided into anything simpler." You know what the difference is?

NOTHING!

And if my mother, who isn't a teacher or anywhere in the education system, knows about this external help that examiners get, the moderators and chief moderators definitely know about it. And if that's the case, shouldn't these examiners be removed from the list? And if they don't have enough examiners for an exam of this magnitude, why try to do it? Why jeopardize the future of students (not parrots that get every answer right because it's just copy paste from the book) because of one oddly framed sentence?

Oh and if the moderators think 300 exam sheets is too much for one examiner, WHAT ABOUT THE 300+ PAGES WE HAVE TO STUDY? If the examiner is allowed external help, why aren't we? And uhm, aren't the examiners teachers? Why do they even need a model answer sheet? Shouldn't they know all the answers as well?

Or is it that they just teach us from the books and dictate the answers while not knowing the answers themselves? Now, teachers will say that they know what they teach and they can explain any answer to us. But hey, so can I, only reason I can't do that is because the board expects EVERY SINGLE WORD RIGHT FROM THE BOOK, JUST THE WAY IT IS!

PS: I'm not trying to offend any teachers, I like some of my teachers because they actually teach us well. But some are just there for nothing. They make the students read the lessons, find the answers, and write them down. All those teachers do is, check our books (don't get me started on that, they don't even read, just put a tick mark) and mark our answer sheets. Is that the only reason we have teachers like this? Why bother, why waste the school's money, just replace them with online examinations.

For a while now, I've seen certain teachers pick on certain students. As in, they blame them for things they don't even do. Of course, the students do something to piss her off. But, when one student pisses off a certain teacher, he's the one she picks on when something else goes wrong.

Like today, the teacher was giving us an example to solve when she noticed noise coming from a part of the class. She then asked a kid to stand up and told him to get out of the class.

But, she refused to believe him. And it really wasn't him this time. And then, we saw the "Classic" move.


So, because of some girls that were talking, a guy that was wrongly accused, and a typical attitude of teachers, the rest of us had to suffer.

It's not as if I was too disappointed because she walked out, but, I just knew we were all going to get scolded for it. And we were.

There are also kids that are never scolded no matter what they do. So, why is there this favouritism/hate for specific students? Aren't teachers, or any authority figure, supposed to be completely non-biased?