going back to school

i did go back to school but in a role reversed..after being a student for most of my life,i experienced the other side of the act..as the teacher..each one has a different perception of the teacher but one aspect is common in everyone s thoughts and that is the absolutely ludicrous statement that the "teacher is the abode of power"..i used to religiously adhere to this principle and loathe most of the bossy snappy teachers but now, since i ve been in their shoes only one emotion comes to mind and that is sympathy..teachers have no power..they are just the messengers of the great indian education system..jus fill the kids brains with unwanted, out of date, useless crap to keep them busy and out of trouble, is perhaps the message they are carrying, i feel..they get peanuts as salary and they are forced to do this work..its a gruelling job..teaching part time as an english conversation teacher at a decent private school where lots of middle class ppl send their kids to made me realise how futile a forced-to-work teacher is..one reading session on the first day, in class 3 and 90% of the class struggled to read just basic words..one girl actually read "I'll" as "I eleven" and phone as p-h-one..i couldn believe my ears..whats the use of an english teacher, regular i.e (lol), who cannot make her children read simple words??..an attempt to improve their vocabulary lasted two days but had the funniest ending..i told them to get new words from the dictionary daily..on the first day, a boy came up to me confidently and told the word "apple"..i told him he s a big boy and needs to get bigger words..the next day he walks in with a big smile and gives me the word "pineapple"..what can i say?..smart kid!..my stint at this school strengthened my belief that there s something inherently wrong in the indian education system..even the premier schools of this country advocate rote learning because of the kind of mindset..everyone thinks that his or her child must top the class..but no one is worried about the fact that the kid is not learning anything except bettering his or her memory skills..after all, whats the use of memory if there s nothing significant to remember..i wish parents ll come out of their shells and encourage children to pursue their interests, whatever they may be instead of just trying to supress them and making them study sheets and sheets of crap giving it a fancy name like "syllabus"..kids need history, not distorted facts and biased views, kids need languages, not pre rehearsed questions and answers,they need science,not only theory but also practical implementation, they need their math, not only trigonometry but also its application..BUT, most important of all,kids need their freedom,to think,to decide,and to question..we need a generation of writers,thinkers, rationalists,philanthropists,poets..and hope we put an end to the era of educated slavery in the form of confused bpo employees and software engineers who are clueless.once people realise this, the indian education system will come of age, i feel..