Now about the grading system – Well after reading your grades I wud say – your fluctuating grades in different schooling system could be attributed to your fluctuating amount of effort/study/understanding leve ,etc that you put in ; to get to the next level in your life and trust me, it happens – even in my case
I performed badly in my preliminary exam before the board exam in 12th and my dad told me that if I do not get into engineering on free seat ( yeah to get admission to top level engg college in FREE SEAT .. you have to score above 90% in your PCM group ( Phy. Chem, Maths) at my time in 2001), then just forget about
engineering as he was not willing to pay for PAYMENT SEAT ( 50k per year)…..that incident really struck me and i inspired me to do well so even though it was last 3-4days just before exams i managed to get 93.33% anrealised in my 3rdd secure admission on FREE SEAT in Engg. …
Another e.g. I realised in my 3rd year 1st sem of engineering . that – There is something called “PLACEMENT” where top companies come and offer u chance to work for them provided you have brilliant academics ( read – consistent/ avg. 1st class and above through your 8 semisters) — After that I realised i had to secure more than 70% in remaining semisters so that my avg. can boost and i can get a chance to atleast particpiate in placements . I did managed to get 76% and 74% in my last two semisters of BE and got placed in top MNC.

My point is – Some ppl are like “spring”. “More pressure – higher bounce!”..while some are just whiners/loosers – they just crumble under pressure and whine about lack of things and how external factors are responsible for their downfall.

@Amelia
1)For me quality rather than quantity of time that children spent with their parents is more important. So even if its just few hrs on weekends or few mins of talk at dinner table / bedtime – just to understand “wht’s going on in your daily life and if u need to share something with me” cud be helpful
2) regarding role of “violent video games” – I already clarified my stand to reply to Renegade
3) Now ur query about ” why schools expected students to clear in all subjects instead of letting them choose/ focuss more on the subjects which they like most ?”
– As per my understanding – Primary education is designed to teach basics of Maths, Language, Geography, History( cultures),etc to children so that they can gain this knowledge and decide for themselves wht is best suited for their liking/ personality for their Graduatio/ Post Graduation/ Masters,etc..
I don’t think anything wrong in that..is it? Such students can always study for “clearing marks” for such subjects – just to get through those subjects and focus more on their strengths / favourite subjects..right?
4) Now your query about – ” If you do believe, “Be united, help each other; make no gains at others’ expense,” how do you reconcile this with the public schooling system and taxation?
==> As per my understanding – The goal of public education system is to offer same degree of education as that of private school to students at low price..especially to the kids who cannot afford the cost of studying in private schools. If you talk about learning opportunities for children below average normal kids
then there are special schools meant for that – especially for dyslexic children who cannot compete with rest of the normal kids for the obvious reasons.

5) I said somehwhere in my earlier reply “failed children are dumb” . I did not mean to offend poor performers . Wht I mean is – they are “dumb” in that particular subject. If they have fighting spirit then obviously they can improve but the thing is – some students really lack this ability “to bounce back” and hence, they termed as loosers.

This is a really ridiculous statistical observation which does the same fallacy against which this whole site stands for. What is seen and what is not seen.

An anecdote given in ‘Black Swan’ points it out, a king around the start of Christianity was shown a painting by a preacher of a ship drowning and people praying on it. The preacher said ‘Look at these devout Christians, they prayed to God so they were saved by the God, you can talk to them, meet them, they are real’.
The King replied “That’s fine but what about the people who prayed but got drowned and did not live to tell the story?”.

This is exactly what the problem with ‘video game and pornography’ violence people suffer from. They look at the statistics and see that 80% of the criminals had pornography at their home and played video games, so they conclude that video games and pornography results in violent behavior, but what they don’t see is the number of people who BECAUSE of violent video games and pornography now DO NOT commit a crime.

How many kids are out there who would not commit a crime now because they gratified their fantasies and now feel better. Sure there will be a few still who aren’t satisfied by the video games and now they really wanna go out and do something real, well how are video game contributing to their crimes, they were way out there to start with.

Also almost all the criminals play violent video games(or lets say if they do) because to any criminal sitting still or trying to suppress his violent urges by gardening never works out compared to playing video games.

If you are having an urge to have sex(which if you are an adult male its given), what helps you more: watching porn and gratifying yourself or doing something completely asexual like gardening. Sure at times the latter might work too, but be real for how long? If having sexual urges is in our nature, what better way to not have build up and be associated with a crime than pornography?

Similarly what’s better for prospective sociopaths, getting them, immersed in virtual reality or preaching them, taking them to church trying to alter their behavior? (Even if latter is a feasible solution, how do you even know who is a prospective sociopath?).

Most of such failed students are obviously dumb and low on self confidence,

Boy you really have faith in your Educational system. I scored 90%+ in every exam when I was in public school(Central School), the moment I shifted to a private school, the highest I scored from 6th grade to 10th was 69%(median was 40-50%), same city, same curriculum.
My GPA in undergrad in India was 2.6/4.0, and in America during MS it was 3.72/4.0.

So am I ‘obviously dumb’ according to your criteria, or boy genius.

The problem with our educational system is that the lack of free market in educational sector prevents testing of radical teaching methods, yes the private schools experiment with a whole bunch of things, but just not with curriculum and other restrictions put up by the government.

I do not completly agree with notion that “oppressive school system drives failed students to suicidal attempts” and “Grading system will help in alleviating such situations”. The reason being – Most of such failed students are obviously dumb and low on self confidence, on top of it their so called proud parents scold them to the point that – they totally lose their confidance and self belief which makes them think that – there is no way out of this failure and lets end this torture once and for all.( read – suicide)
( which I guess is due to the fact that no proud father wants to hear “he is father of James who cudn’t make it to 9th grade” )

The problem here is –
1)If ur lazy,dumb ( i mean below average in your academics) and self-loathing individual u either accuse others for your failures or end up wasting your own life.
I guess same thing happened with so called “emotionally volatile,tender,loner,shy child as their parents describe them sometimes” who could not sustain in competition.

2)World & Evolution always followed principle of “Survival of the fittest” so if u can’t compete you will perish. So no matter how u try to accomodate such “failures” in this fierce, competitive world , one day they gona expose. and even if u shield them using Grading system – they will be just like pushovers who will never be able to achieve anything significant in their future if they don’t improve themselves.

3)That’s why its very important to have proper parenting,guidance right from your childhood which can inculcate –
importance of discipline,hard work ethics and moral principles such as –
—————–
Love the country; do it no harm.
Serve the people; never betray them.
Follow science; discard superstition.
Be diligent; not indolent.
Be united, help each other; make no gains at others’ expense.
Be honest and trustworthy; do not sacrifice ethics for profit.
Be disciplined and law-abiding; not chaotic and lawless.
Live plainly, work hard; do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
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