I often spend time alone lost in thoughts. During one such moment, I remembered a special moment with my late grandmother. We often ignore our elders, but when they are gone, their memories are the only thing that we can cherish.
When I was in the first standard I was introduced to mathematics. I was terrible at math because I never clearly understood the subject. When I was first taught about multiplication, I understood nothing. What exactly 2X3=6 means? No one ever cleared my doubt. My father used to teach me math and most of the time I would end up getting smacked because according to him, and not just him but even my teacher, I was too stupid to solve simple mathematical calculations. So, I started to hate mathematics. I did not understand the subject and thus never enjoyed it.
One day, when I was in the third standard, I was visiting my grandparents during the weekend (we would always spend time with our grandparents on the weekends). I was to have a test on math the next day, so I took my books with me. I sat beside my grandmother in her reading room and silently started mugging up the problems. My grandmother noticed that. She took the notes from me and calmly asked why I was mugging up the problem. I told her everything. She then took out a small notebook and explained to me from the very beginning. She cleared every doubt that I had, answered my queries with patience. Finally, I understood what 2X3=6 exactly meant. That was the day when I fell in love with mathematics. That was the day I realized that math is not hard. It was not complicated for me anymore.
The doubt that I had on the subject was not cleared by my teachers at school or my father. It was my grandmother, a history professor, who actually cleared my doubts and helped me master the subject.
Not just mathematics, in order to master any subject you have to understand it and clear your doubts. Once the clouds of doubts are gone, only then you will see the light of the knowledge.
The point that I am trying to make is that I often come across students mugging up subjects and even there are teachers here who encourage that. I have even come across professors who expect their students to write mug up notes during the exams. Exams are conducted not to measure the student’s capacity to write mug up notes but to measure how much the student has understood. Why the teachers can’t be satisfied with the answers that the students write from what he or she has actually understood?
Learning everything by heart and not understanding the subject may help you pass your tests, but later in life when you actually need to apply that knowledge you will be a failure. We all must understand that we get an education not to pass exams but to learn something; something would help make this world a better place.
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