AWKWARD IDEAS
Waking up very early in the morning was my grandfather’s biggest problem. He loved his bed so much that he would bark at however, interrupted his sleep. That’s why he didn’t study. In his own view, if schools had started at 11 Am he would have become a graduate. Now that schools chose to open at 8.00 am he missed studies and has no degree.
There are quite a number of people who hated going to school simply because there was no food at school. But this is no big worry especially if you studied in France. The French usually pay great attention to lunch and dinner. Schools in France provide free lunch for their students. There are some schools that allow them to have their lunch at home.
As a rule, the food is served in ceramic plates with silverware, that’s why having lunch in a French school is more similar to eating in a fancy restaurant. There is one better thing about schools in France; lunch there lasts for an hour or two, so children have enough time to take a rest. How I wish I was born there!
Teasing was another night mare in schools. The bigger boys used to call it “initiation into the system’ and they derived much fun from doing it because they had also been previously treated that way. In Indian schools, girls learn how to defend themselves. It’s not a caprice, but a necessity, as the number of crimes against women is constantly increasing. That’s why in many schools girls are required to learn how to fight against potential attackers.
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week. So it pays to go to school. This may not be the same elsewhere. Sex education may be a good idea in the schools, but I don’t believe the kids should be given homework. If you studied in a very small school don’t worry because you are not alone. The smallest school in the world is in Turin, Italy and has just one pupil.
What we go through while at school is what makes going to school interesting. There are many things we share and enjoy while at school. Because of the flooding problems faced by the country, Bangladesh has no fewer than 100 boat schools. Each one has internet access, a library and is solar powered. May be these are special memories to those who attended such schools.
Before you celebrate having a degree remember there are people who don’t have only a one degree but several of them. One of them is Michael Griffin. His educational history is still impressive, to say the least. A physicist and aerospace engineer, Griffin was the chief administrator of NASA until 2009. His degrees, seven in all, no doubt helped him to land that amazing job.
Griffin has a BA in physics, an MS and PhD in aerospace engineering, an MS in electrical engineering, an MS in physics, an MS in civil engineering and an MBA. Before being appointed chief of NASA, Griffin was also working towards finishing an MS in computer science at Johns Hopkins. In 2007, Time named Griffin as one of their 100 “Most Influential People,” and with his education and expertise, we have to agree.
Another one is the Indian professor Ashoka Prasad. He is a leader in the medical field in his country, helping advance pediatrics and neonatal care for Indian citizens and has taught at schools like Columbia, U Penn, Harvard, Yale, and Cambridge. While he may teach health-related topics to his students, he has degrees in a much wider range of studies, totaling 19 degrees in all.
These degrees include an MA in anthropology from Cambridge as well as MRC in psychiatry from the University of Edinburgh though he holds others in geography, history, mathematics, and aviation medicine. 56-year-old Prasad has since retired to his home in India, but he still writes and speaks on many psychiatry topics.
