Of clones and creativity

A television advertisement proclaims that if you use a particular set top box for your TV your child will become Einstein. And in fact the ad shows an entire class full of little Einsteins with the now famous mop of hair and moustache.. Well is that what today’s system is doing - Converting all kids into clones of each other .Then there is the pressure to take up as your vocation a so called in field . I happened to visit a couple of premier educational institutes as part of work and one trait that I deciphered across all the bright young minds was that they are extremely focused and talented . But the pressure to perform probably is so high that there is very little scope for creativity to thrive. At the same time there is not much space or time for so called liberal thought process to emerge where attention is given to all domains: literature, theater, society, economics, politics etc. There might be still quite a few young people who take the off beat path, but their numbers are fewer. At the same time students cutting across all mind sets and orientations are encouraged to take up the so called commercial fields (eg management) that might make more economic sense in the short term. There is lot of investment done for the same purpose. Probably if the same amount was spent on a vocation suiting the student’s aptitude probably the returns would have been better in the long run for the individual. A lot of this is perpetuated on an ongoing basis and what we get is a set of students who have common aims and aspirations (funnily enough!!!-where is the room for individual goals and journey here …).But what kind of society will we create with only technology, business thought and economic principles playing a mission critical role in our life? Where are those leisurely moments where at least as students one could read, think and chat about critical and interesting matters not really confined only to the syllabus? On second thoughts we might ultimately produce a system full of clones much like the TV ad.