It makes for an amazing story. Everyone is shocked and amazed at how Sahal Kaushik at age 14 become the IIT entrance topper from Delhi region. Calling him a child prodigy, everyone is amazed at his abilities and the way he has been brought up getting educated at home rather than going to school.
I was watching his interview on TV and rather than marveling at his achievements, i felt sad looking at the poor kid. He could barely speak when asked questions. His mom decided to be the key spokesperson for him. The child showed no emotions when being told that he had topped IIT Delhi rankings. There was a little smile on his face but just a little. Maybe his mom taught him mental calculations but the child failed to learn to smile. The kid hardly had any friends of his age. Watching the interview further, the mentor of the child at his coaching academy Naraina said that he was disappointed at Sahal's 33 All India Rank!! With a heavy power specs on, poor Sahal looked like a mini computer rather than a 14 year old kid.
This makes my mind wonder.
Is it beginning of a race of creating superhuman? Would it have made a difference if Sahal had been IIT topper at age 18 rather than 14? Aren't social skills of any value? Will kids pressurized to become super achievers ever get to live their childhood? Isn't playing in mud water with childhood friends a greater memory and gift for life than cracking an academic examination?
It good to be ambitious, it keeps the world progressing. But is it worth the cost of killing somebody's childhood? Will be keep burdening the shoulders of our youth with expectation till they break down? Will one Sahal's achievement lead to pressure on many other young kids to an extent that many of them gain suicidal tendencies? It makes me wonder..
(The opinions expressed are personal viewpoints of author Chaitanya Jha)
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:)
ReplyDeleteHave to appreciate the samaritan in Chaitanya.
I agree with Chaitanya to a great extent, and for those who dissent with him, I recommend that they peruse through Lewis Terman's longitudinal study of high IQ children, wherein he studied gifted children over 35 years of their life.
Only to find that children of affluent and well educated parents are much more likely to succeed while many of children could not due to insufficient education, lack of opportunity and personal obstacles.
I am sure any parent reading here is going in their head "I provide my child the best education, he goes this super-expensive school and the best coaching center."
"I provide my child the all the opportunities they need."
But I urge you to not forget "personal obstacles" like Chaitanya pointed out, exceptional kids whose talents have been spotted early more often than not become "one-trick ponies".
I have nothing against precociousness or child prodigies, but a well rounded education is of much more importance than being the best at something these days.
Who was the IITJEE rank 1 last year? year before that? or even 40 years ago? But you all know Shah Rukh Khan right? He is by no means the best actor but nobody will doubt it when it is said that he is a smart guy.
Something similar happens in all other domains, I picked up SRK only as an example.
As Daniel Goleman puts it, IQ is only a hygiene factor, it only helps you qualify, how likely are you to succeed depends a lot more on your emotional intelligence and social skills.
My kudos to Chaitanya is his beautiful venture :)
(Opinions expressed here are personal views of Pramath Malik) ;)
Your comment is better than the blog post itself :) i really like the point of 'Who was the IITJEE rank 1 last year? year before that? or even 40 years ago? But you all know Shah Rukh Khan right?'
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your wishes :)
Loved the post and the comment as well...perfecly put to words exactly what went through my mind when I read the bold headlines in TOI...
ReplyDeleteChild prodigies often make big headlines and even bigger 'prized racehorses'. My apologies to all those whose sentiments that analogy might hurt. But then look closely and you will realise how perfectly it fits. Most geniuses as we read about may not even be willingly so - a talent was noticed in a four year old and it must be groomed to make a Mozart!! I mean how many of us out here can draw that line between providing that talented child the right grooming conditions or actually forcing him/her to live within the confines of those grooming conditions??
I am not against having child prodigies, nor suggest that the parents of this fourteen year old must have forced their child to pass the IIT. What I am trying to elaborate is that most child prodigies do not even get an opportunity to explore any other dimension of their personalities and lives and that isnt really fair to them.
We all were proud and amazed at the feats of India's wonder boy, Budhia Singh, who ran 64km at age four!! But the realities that came to the forefront later left us dumbfounded. Such realities are better for not having happened than being discovered.
Every child deserves a childhood, even the genuises. Let them have it and live it!
Budhia Singh, Tathagat Awatar Tulsi, and now Sahal Kaushik. I hope and fervently pray that he is not forced to meet a similar fate.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding a little cynical, I am just not happy to learn about this 'achievement'. Yes, it is good to note of the boy's prodigious intellect, but I am alarmed and apprehensive of what might be made of it by minds who may be inferior and definitely not discerning enough to nurture and groom it the way it should be.
I must give credit to Pramath's brilliant comment too. I was instantly reminded of Terman's study that was cited in Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers: The Story of Success'. He gives cogent and profound arguments that substantiate how out intellect (and academic credentials) is a necessary but now sufficient condition to make us successful in our lives.
An analogy from the book that comes to mind is that of Basketball players and the correlation of their heights with their achievement at the sport. One needs to be reasonably tall, say at least 6 feet. And then, for every extra inch thereafter, you have a little edge over others a little less endowed. But after a threshold height of say 6' 7", it just stops mattering! Now, what is more important is the player's dribbling, passing, mental fortitude and application.
Similar is the case with our IQs, and our social skills. We should avoid reading too much into test scores, other than a threshold measure. Exceptional performance in tests seldom translates to exceptional performance in life.
To cut a long story short, let us all, as parents to be, try and inculcate a balanced perspective in our children to be, and encourage them to be the best they can: complete with respect for their and their peers' individuality. Let us try and give them a childhood that they can look back at with a smile...!