Every day on the way to my university, I give a short ride to students who are on their way to their respective schools and colleges. I often ask them what they want to be in the future, and I find it rather odd that most of them have no answer to that simple query.
Recently, for a few days I started taking a count of such answers. Of the six students I put the question to, only one was able to answer that; he wanted to be a doctor. The rest of them just said they did not know. Even the students of grade IX and X are totally clueless about their dreams, their goals and their future.
We need to ponder what is going on. What exactly are we doing wrong that has brought our youth to this unimaginative, aimless pass?
We are overburdening our children with loads of books, and that is consuming all their energies, and making them dumb rote-learners who know nothing beyond the need to get good marks and grades.
My sister, who is in grade VIII, carries a 10kg schoolbag to school every day. Our children do not have the time or the ability to think on their own even when that ‘thinking’ is about them-selves. They have become accustomed to obsolete rote learning and do not like to explore or do anything on their own.
Most parents just tell their children to go for a specific field without asking about their interests or providing them career counselling. I do not know why we are doing all this to our children. What I do know is that we are not doing the right thing.
AASHIR Z
ATTOCK
