article on an average child is nobody child
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Answer:
The Average Child Is Nobody’s Child Today
An extraordinary performer is what every teacher and every parent seems to want. The focus is on success, on brilliance, and outstanding academic performance. While it is true that success is the ultimate holy grail, ignoring the talents of the average kid seems unfair. Someone not so good with mathematical formulas may have other talents worth nurturing.
These parents and socialites will be happy to meet an MF Hussain. They gloat over the achievement of Saina. However, they don’t want their child to miss the bus. Kavya Viswanathan makes a profound point in her controversial book (How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life): success does not require any explanation. But pursuing an out-of-the-way career does require you to convince people of your goals.
Explanation:
Teaching is an exceptionally difficult profession. The problem starts with its roots in the industrial revolution and subsequent economic transformations, which needed workers with a certain minimum level of education. The school system therefore became the equivalent of an industrial assembly line, with the goal of turning out perfectly interchangeable parts that would drive the machine that is the modern economy.
A second problem is that most people would rather not be in school. It's hard work, and less fun than playing video games all day or watching the latest reality show on TV. So most students don't strive particularly hard or show any sign that they care about what they're learning. (In part, this is a teen psychology thing.) The few who really do love to learn quickly become the teacher's favorites because they stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Third, as you note, there's enormous cultural pressure to succeed, which is defined almost exclusively in terms of the capitalist definition. There is little social support for success being defined in terms of happiness and satisfaction with one's life.
Combine these factors and it's easy to see why we get the problems you describe. Students like Subramanian, who might be happiest as philosophers like their teacher, receive none of the attention they require to survive and thrive.
What can be done is to teach them to seek balance in their life. Each of us must find a way to earn enough money to survive -- though that amount is less than the "get rich quick" crowd likes to believe -- but we must also find a way to pursue the survival of our spirit. Possibly Subramanian should seek a compromise by working hard enough to achieve basic competence in some career that will sustain him through his life, and spend his hours outside work blogging or doing other forms of writing that will nurture his spirit. If he's truly blessed (as I have been), he'll find a way to combine his passion with a career that will sustain him economically.