The Einstein Effect

Einstein once said "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” I can’t agree more. We as a nation has made sure that we are one of the most learned country in the world, I am just ignoring the fact here that about 50% of us can’t even read or write, but the most of the rest 50% are always trying to get as many educational degrees as possible in our lifetime because most of us suffer from what I call “The Einstein effect”.

Most of us suffer from this effect at varied levels, in varied fields and have varied degrees of it in us. All people suffering from this effect think that they are the Einstein of the world meaning they are the most intelligent, most capable and best of the lot. Everyone of this lot wants to achieve the best, strives for the best and tries to be at the top. But in doing so they forget the basic fact and that is there was only one Einstein in this world. We are a nation of about 1 billion people who has used all the resources available to the maximum limit. We have Schools & colleges which have thousands of us studying there hoping that one day we will be at the top, a front runner in the rat race. But as they say that even though you may come first in the rat race in the end you are a rat only. This is the fact we are always ignoring because this is overshadowed by the Einstein effect. You may ask what is wrong in thinking that you are the best of the lot or more so what is wrong in aspiring to be the best. Well the answer is nothing, if you really are. The Einstein effect makes us believe that we are the best and capable of performing rarest feats when actually we are not and this is most prominently visible in the field of education. We always think that we can top the class and are thoroughly disappointed when we can’t or even come a close second because most of the people around us are suffering from the same effect. We don’t want to see our children coming second in the class or missing the first position by some marks. We want them to go to IITs and IIMs and when they are not able to make it we always blame them or even the system. Well the system is perfect but for a limited demand, it is suppose to cater to about 600 people and make them good managers or at least train them to be the same. It is not for 6000 people, so the rest who are not in the top 600 have to compromise for the lesser known colleges which are equal to the top ones in many respect if not all. But, we fail to see that, again because we are supposed to be the Einstein. This leads to a state of frustration which is aggrevated by the people around us.Parents also suffer from this effect; they always see their child as potential Einstein. I have never met a parent as of now who tells me that his/her child does not like to study and have other interests and s/he is ok with it. I have always met people who think that it’s OK to have all other interests but it’s mandatory to excel in studies. What they fail to understand is that if Tendulkar’s parents have thought in the similar manner we would have lost him in childhood only. But again there can be only one Tendulkar in this world :).

After reading till here you may ask me or yourself, what is wrong in aspiring to be the best? Well actually nothing, but it is much better to understand that if in reality you are not the best then there is nothing wrong with that too, and this is where most of us suffering from this effect fail. We fail to accept that we always can’t be the best; we always can’t be the winners. We need to know that everyone has some potential in him or her to be good but again the degree and the fields may differ. We are always trained to compare ourselves with the others in the same league and we have weird ways of doing that also, exams and tests are one of them and most hilarious of them are the board exams conducted at the 10th and 12th standards. Picture this, a person studies whole year, cramming up historical facts, Science formulas etc. and he is really good, I mean he has the potential to be the best and at the day just before his exam the poor guy falls sick, chicken pox, but because its board exam he is made to sit in the exams fearing that he will lose one year if he doesn’t appear for the exams, as if that whole year is a very significant time period in his whole life, it is not but we have made it significant enough by putting this in the minds of our children that if you don’t score in exams you are no good actually. We judge people by the way they have performed during the 15 hours of his/her board exams. We hang the whole career path of people on these exams which are having so many factors out of the control of the person appearing in them, just because we are suffering from the Einstein effect. The great man said “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” We learn to be Einstein in schools and that’s exactly what we need to forget.