What next????!!!!!!!

Well well....my eyes almost dropped out of their sockets when I read about it in the newspaper....I mean how can they take such a life-changing decision so nonchalantly......without a care in the world......

Hmm...sorry for the ambiguous intro...just shell-shocked! Well, the University of Mumbai was planning to make mathematics optional after grade 8! I mean how silly can that get! As time passes, they'll slowly make other subjects optional too.....like now its maths, then science, then social studies and then STUDIES itself and a day will come when we'll have the paanwala on the roadside selling HSC pass certificates at Rs.2/- per person!!!! What an idea!!!!

Jokes apart, how can someone make mathematics optional.....and the subjects offered in place of it are environmental studies, handicrafts and some other such stupid vocational course......Those things that can be learnt by anyone, anytime and with minimal effort. I'm not undermining those courses but surely they can't be replacements for maths......

I'm not a fan of mathematics and I've had my trysts with the subject.....it's not easy and math after eighth grade does spiral up to a higher level but its practical utility is far superior than many other subjects to simply scrap it without giving it a second thought. People argue, asking whose going to go about town measuring the heights of trees using trigonometry (that's the greatest example of the utility of trigo as was given in my math textbook of grade 9!!) but then geometry and trigo claim to enhance a person's imagination and abstract thinking power. Algebra is meant to improve a person's ability to comprehend things and apply common knowledge in unommon territories. Arithmetic is of course the basis of mathematics and has practical utility in every sphere of human existence.

Given that maths has such an important to role to discharge in our life, the idea of making it optional seems almost indigestible.......and the arguments to support the move....even more far-fetched! Parents claim their kids fail in high school because mathematics....what nonsense! Students fail either because they don't study or because they are not taught properly. People say half the things we learn are never applied in life........well, they may not be directly applied anywhere (as in the trigo example) but they definitely add to a person's knowledge and indirectly affect all areas of studies....mathematics has immense application in sciences like physics, chemistry, commercial fields like accountancy and even humanities and economics.....how then can people allege that it has no practical utility??

And above all, basic mathematical skills are required by any ordinary man in the course of ordinary life.......planning a family budget is the most common example of the use of maths. Other uses are in cooking (quantity of the ingredients and proportions), operations in the share market, decorating our home (as in interior designing...not indepth knowledge but a basic idea of size, shape, suitability and mensuration), etc.

That maths has no practical utility is complete trash!!!!!! I assert that mathematics is not one of my strong points either and I need to put in a lot of effort in the subject to do well in it but then I would never, in the name of God, advocate making the subject optional!!!!!! I hope that in the face of the strong opposition that is coming in from parents and teachers alike......this move would be scrapped or it can seriously affect the future of scores of deserving students who only consider the subject tough due to some misconception or simply because they've never tried hard enough!

Another stunning (rather stupid, by my standards!) move that has been initiated in the interest of kids is by ICICI bank......that of issuing savings accounst with the facility of debit cards for kids aged between 8 and 18......hmm.....very soon we'll have people who go to work in huggies and drive cars when they are a day old!!! I am dead against robbing kids of their childhood......their innate innocence and their carefree life. Well, debit cards robs them of none of these.....I just feel it is a meaningless move because most of the transactions are to be manned by the parents anyway so the only advantage it confers on the unassuming kid is that he has a debit card in his name! A savings account is acceptable and even appreciated but a debit card for a kid who barely knows his numbers right is dumb! All bloody publicity stunts targetting people who don't know what to do with the money they have....

Thank god I'm from a middle class family.............I know the value of money and don't fall prey to such atrocities!!!!!!! And I'm 18+ anyways so, what the heck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, whatever....been long since I blogged but I didn't consider it prudent to blog just for the sake of blogging so I thought I might as well blog only when I have something meaningful blog about!!!! Too much blogging is bad even for the compulsive blogger....what say!!! So thought I'll just keep my trap shut and go about my own business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing much otherwise.....waiting for your comments on this one friends....wanna know your views!

Till next time, from Slo, this is..........Tally-ho!!