Textbooks- Friends or Traitors to learning

Textbooks – The ultimate information guide, which can NEVER go wrong. It provides us with data that is statistically correct, important, accurate and would help us become more intelligent and brainy. They are the measure of what we can grasp at a particular age level and become bulkier in looks as we jump standards in a school.

But then why is it that I don’t remember anything that I studied in my math’s, history, geography or science class?? Why is it that I recollect more of Bhagat Singh details as seen and enacted by Ajay Devgan and not what my teacher asked me, to know of, in class 8??

I absolutely detested my textbooks and could even trade them off for an itsy-bitsy Toffee, if permitted. They were my enemies and it was unto them, that the responsibility of my childhood day miseries lay.

Unfortunately, every child has to endure this misery and fight with the devil. Patience and tolerance are virtues, which become instilled, thanks to the Textbooks. Mind you, here I am specifically referring to the passively written textbooks and not the ones, which involved my participation.

Then why is it that textbooks, if they don’t solve the purpose meant, become so very crucial to learning! Are they blessings in disguise or are they burdens to growth?

I personally would love textbooks if they were written conversationally. If they talk more on people and not just facts. If they made me learn more than making me memorize more.

Their importance in terms of reference or guides or aids cannot be negated but then measuring learning on facts and numbers is not really a true criteria. One should be able to put to use the learning acquired, it should not be just for getting grades or ranks or certificates. Would these certificates or merits actually testify how intelligent or smart or capable a person is??

Learning should be more active and practical than passive and textbook oriented Grandma stories have a better impact me than a teacher’s rumbling. Concepts and equations are better learnt if understood and not just memorized and repeated. The basis of education is knowledge, which can be utilized and not just knowledge for storage.

The usage and importance of textbook learning is restricted to certain domains and cant permeate influential minds if not actively taught.

As they say, in school you are taught and then tested but life tests and thus teaches.