After 4 years in my high school (I spent my first 2 years in another high school), it is now the time to move on. Everyone wishes high school never ends. Despite the fact that a brighter future awaits, these 4 years will always remain in my mind. Over the course of this period, I have made tons of new friends, learnt a whole hoard of new skills and had the most fun anyone could ever have in their lifetime.
I still remember how excited I was when I was admitted into my high school. Right from the first day itself, from the first time I stepped into the concourse, I knew I would find a bevy of kindred spirits. True enough, most of my friends in school have a unique characteristic: they have this rare ability to ignore whatever that is important - like tests, exams, projects, lessons - and focus on their passion. Never have I come across people with such a strong belief in the work they do. They love discussing what they are doing - even if its not a highly looked upon piece of work. The fervor with which they argue for a cause probably matches those of the nobel peace prize winners (this is an exaggeration but at the peak point, it probably does). If one were to enter our canteen, more than being interested in eating food, we are interested in talking about the latest stuff we do or else argue about issues related to the school education/politics/quality of teaching/difficulty of modules/ways to improve the curriculum/developments in the tech world/a lot more erratic stuff (these are just a few of the things that came the top of my head while typing this out)
Apart from friends though, even the teachers are awesome. I have a physics teacher who literally does everything on earth - he has guided me for 3 research projects in com science, been with me to social events, discussed the world's most mundane things and make them sound interesting (he succeeds making it sound interesting most of the time) and other random things. 2 teachers who love cooking (they even recommend us restaurants to go to while teaching). A chemistry teacher who manages to teach in a way such that I never need to revise when I return home. A physics teacher who has inspired everyone who has ever attended his class to do physics. An english teacher who taught me how to write with purpose and actually managed to arouse my love for the subject (i have to confess: I *hated* english for the first 16 years of my life). To top it all up, all of them have an immense sense of humor, fantasiticsuperultraly friendly demeanor and are the most helpful people on earth. I will forever be indebted to them for passing their knowledge to me, building my character and ensuring I have a brighter future.
Friends and teachers aside, I feel the curriculum I have gone through is itself unique. My high school is very focussed on maths and science so everyone expects that students here are nerds. That is so not true. In fact, most are anti-nerds (just like any other school). However, we know when we need to get serious and when we can have a blast. Back to the structure of the program I have gone through, I feel, it has allowed a lot room for innovation and exchange of ideas. Firstly, the discipline is ultra slack compared to many other schools but it is just right for us because we would end up breaking all of them if there were more. Secondly, the school has implemented a modular structure which reduces the emphasis on exams. This way, a student's 'real' understanding of the subject can be accessed as compared to having just 1 exam to decide it all (having 1 exam and doing well for it is easy, but you can also screw it up badly if luck is not on your side on the exam day. at the same time, having various forms of assessments instead of just the exams allows the students to find his strengths in other areas [like presentations or projects] as well and develop them early). Next, CCA in our school is not really counted towards any grade or whatsoever. As such, we end up doing what we really like doing. In other schools, students compete to get into uniform groups or performing arts because they tend to award more points which helps them in their O/A levels. Lastly, by doing away with O and A levels, we save a hell of a time. The only major exams we take are the APs which shouldn't be too hard to get a 5 if you follow through the school's preparation well. On the whole, its all the small differences that have amalgamated to form a whole new curriculum and experience for the students.
On a personal level, I have learnt a gazillion things from this foremost maths and science institution. Other than maths and science, I have learnt the other more intangible things of life. For one, I have realized that the most learning takes place after one fails. To quote Sylvester Stallone from Rocky 6, "It ain't about how hard you hit, its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forwards. Its about how much you could take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!". Secondly, "we" is always greater than "i". I have done several projects that looked insuperable at first but with the help of my colleagues, nothing is impossible. The capability of a team is greater than the summation of the individual capacities. There are many other things that I wish to discuss but this post would get overly long and boring. To keep it short, I will just summarize my success strategy with a pyramid constructed by John Wooden (Former UCLA basketball coach). Over the years, I have come to agree with all his principles and definition of success. Here is it:
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| John Wooden's Pyramid of Success |
With all that I have said so far, the future of my high school does look bright. However, they have to maintain the culture. Sadly, many changes are set to beset the system. The overemphasis on grades may cause it to drown in its own success. The school may succeed at educating bright minds but they could fail at building the character and instill passion and love for maths and science. This is my biggest fear: too much pressure on grades and medals may displace other virtues that are much more crucial for long term success. Although not all my level-mates will agree with my view about the school, all will concur with me that this is probably the best school they could have been to. There *is* no better alternative.
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