P.S.Deodhar

“RAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, SRAM, DRAM, CDROM!” I heard my granddaughter chanting. “What are you singing baby?” I asked the nine year old. “It’s her computer homework” the grandma replied instead. I was shocked. The little one had to learn these acronyms by rote and know their full form. I wondered who wrote that fourth grade courseware and what kind of mindset had planned to pour this unnecessary stuff in the minds of these children who are already over-burdened with all sorts of information. Philosopher Plato, in his ‘Republic’ has emphatically underscored that education is not about inserting information into human memory but directing the innate powers of a learner’s vision towards the light. Our 21st Century educationalists and syllabus writers do not seem to think much of the wisdom of Plato.

As an IT professional and a former planner for Information Technology, I must state firmly that I see no wisdom or logic in ‘teaching’ computers in this absurd way to our kids. The widespread glamour of Information Technology on one hand, and the fear and the ignorance associated with it on the other, is responsible for this misplaced enthusiasm.

There is no doubt that everyone in the world of tomorrow will have to use computers in one’s life to optimize the speed, efficiency and comfort in one’s professional work. But it is equally true that using computers in one’s profession, one does not need to know the computer hardware inside their PC box or the embedded software that makes it work. Using a PC or a Laptop does not need one to learn all that. Consider this. Many of these kids would be driving an automobile when they grow up to be adults. Do we however teach them today what is under the car bonnet or the technology of Internal Combustion Engines or the lubricant hydraulics used in an automobile? Within a week of holding the steering wheel, and some practice, one gets a license. Learning to effectively use a PC takes none longer. Let us also understand that using a PC does not need one to formally learn IT. Many of us have started using computers midway in our professional lives and we are deriving full benefits of PC and its ever-growing speed and ever-widening access. Most of us did all this without any formal learning. Further the technology itself is progressively getting more and more jargon-free and user friendly. So why are we showing this stupid anxiety and haste? We do not have to study Information Technology or acquire any special skill to benefit from IT and its all pervasive, but embedded, presence in our life. Household goodies like televisions, DVD players and even Washing Machines have complex computer hardware and software embedded in them but no one needs to know any technology to use them. Do we learn pharmacology to get a relief from prescribed drugs?

Even if some parents are planning an IT career for their ward, as an engineer or a programmer, consider another reality. Almost all of our bright youngsters who made a name for themselves in the field of software had never even touched a PC till their graduation. Mind you, not even the IITians had that opportunity till the mid 80s! Still these bright minds could excel in the software field well beyond their counterparts in the western countries who had learnt computing in their schools. This fact alone should tell us that there is something else in our traditional school education that makes our minds more logical, enabling us to efficiently write the software for computers. I suspect ‘that something else’ in our education is “the tables” we learnt by rote and the focus we had on arithmetic and mental sums during our schooling. Strangely, we are displacing this “sachha Ram” in our education with the new IT RAM, Sad, isn’t it? I should mention one more thing before I close. Remember those counter girls in the US supermarkets, fumbling to compute the change they should return? Most of us get impatient and finally tell the girl what it is!