Demise of Knowledge

Every one of us has faced the wrath of endless examination nights, endless courses and never-ending syllabi. Scribbling my notes on my project a thought swept past me and while deciphering some real complex equations of probability, I realized that despite all my efforts and diligence to know the subject and to understand it, I know nothing of this vast universe of knowledge!

We discuss the pros and cons of the education system, but we fail to realize that the education system was not devised by fools but rather it is us who perceive it wrong. Even if it is a primitive way of teaching, as many might think, and has its advantages and disadvantages.

My point here though, is not to discuss what or how should our education look like, rather I am here to tell you what we, students in general, think education is all about.

I don’t want to cite names here, however anyone from my college will agree to the fact that there are people who deserve better and are better in many ways than the rest. The reason they fall behind is not because of their knowledge but their inability to score.

This might just look like an excuse coming from of a six-point-someone, I leave this decision for the reader to make. But, if you are still reading, the pertinent question that you should be asking is, is the score really that significant?

Unfortunately, the answer is YES.

It might sound like I am somehow against the idea that grades in an exam aren't as important, but that's not the case. Everyone wants to be successful and these grades and marks are one way to distinguish the crowd.

However, at what cost?

We spend hours learning what we are taught, we put in a herculean effort just to make sure that during the exam we do not forget what we read. Is this what education is all about?

In my opinion the very essence of knowledge is knowing 'how'. Knowledge itself is “KNOW” so why not try knowing what is happening around us or in fact what is happening inside those lines and pages that we read for the examination?

We, including me, never spend enough time unraveling what is written in the subject but rather when the time comes we prefer to mug it up and then vomit it out in exam. But then again what should we do and who is to blame?

The answer is it’s us.

We spend hours repeating the same old tale before every exam yet we never choose to change, why? because of the same reason that everyone does, grades.

Why don’t we choose a better way, the path of knowledge, even though it is long and takes a long time? That's because we don't want to put that effort in learning 'how', when simply by memorizing things we can reach the expected outcome.

Those who follow the difficult path, the path of knowledge, are often left behind in the race, where success is measured by grades, as their journey takes long and turbulent path.

'Knowing' something is very time-consuming and can be difficult to manage, but in the world where success is measured by grade point average, it's the maggus (colloquial term for folks who mug things up without understanding or knowing) who win in the end because the ones who want to learn & make a difference are left behind.

As a student, I see that these people who had nothing to do with knowing how an algorithm works write the entire program they had memorized and one who tried hard to understand the algorithm tries his best to build the program in a scant amount of time ends up failing. The winner thrives and succeeds, killing the very thing they started studying for 'knowledge'.

Update (2024-03-17): The original text was written by young me, who wasn't proficient in writing and not very coherent. I have tried my best to clean up the spelling, grammar and some continuity, however, it is a very old article written in an era where there were no IMs, and every character had a cost.

For context, this was me venting about the fallacy of the education system we were stuck in. In the hindsight, we all did alright.

In spite of it being overly dramatic, the thought behind the piece is still relevant. Education system in general (in India) is not very focused on teaching 'why' and 'how' of things, instead focusing on a set curriculum with rigid marking scheme that don't align well with engineering in general.

The original article can be found here.