I had written in my previous post about how I thought my son was missing an important 'aspect' of the allround education he is supposed to receive, thanks to unavoidable factors like rampant urbanization..

The vague doubt I had the other day, has now become an absolute certainty. :-(

Read on!

So, last night, my son's "Science Home Work" was about a list of animals and birds that he had to provide the "correct living place" for. Where do these animals live, went the question, with animals like tiger, cow, snake, rat, etc in the list.

When Aditya reached the "Elephant", he quickly blurted out "Temple". I had a tough time explaining to him why it was wrong.
But, by the time he reached "Parrot" and said "Cage" as the answer, I was at my wit's end. He had never seen a parrot in a forest before, and I wonder if he ever will.

Reminds me of an anecdote about Japanese kids that I read a few years ago.
Schoolteachers were facing a very strange, unique problem, with the children in class.
They couldn't get them to understand the clockwise and anticlockwise directions.
Why? The reason was simple enough, though ominous...
All the kids (and probably their parents too!), had only digital watches, and there were no hands to watch or dials to look at, and learn these directional concepts!!

Teachers of the world, your times are only going to get tougher! Get ready!!