Schooling vs Education
The difference between obsessive policing and tactical engagement with the youth
Author: Paushali Roy
Introduction
At the onset, I wanna provide a little background into the schooling system of urban Kolkata, for anyone who isn’t from there. Anyone from Kolkata, please feel free to school/correct me. For further reference, I graduated school in 2012.
Public schools, attended by lower working classes, are grossly inadequate even though they provide a strong incentive to prevent child labour, which is still rampant in the sub-continent. The British, however, had opened several schools in (then) Calcutta which were not assimilated into public education, but rather, became a standard for anglicization of the middle class. These schools are all privately run by boards of anglicized upper-middle class individuals who perpetuate colonial policing via punishment and humiliation.
Formal education is a tool with the power to revise structural norms. My grandmother never got a formal education, having been married off at fourteen. When my mother graduated with a Bachelors in Political Science, she was the first woman in her family to ‘complete’ formal education; possibly the first generation of the ‘argumentative’ Indian woman. I’ve closely observed the women who raised me, and there has always been a simple distinction between Dimma and Maa: self-worth. In comparison to her mother, Ma exuded a confidence that Dimma clearly did not know what to do with; and naturally, when the question of my formal education was on the table, Maa was warned by elders to ‘beware of #tash# (Bengali slang for ‘high-maintenance’) private schools’. A trait I have in common with my mother is that we often only know what we want when asked to specifically not do it.
The reason I felt the need to start with this anecdote is to clarify, at the beginning, that the importance of formal education shall not be compromised with in this article. We are not here to, excuse my language, shit on any efforts made by institutions to educate children, especially girls. Having said this, what this article will attempt to challenge is the difference between education and schooling. I will attempt to outline the toxicity of ‘schooling culture’, especially in British-founded institutions, now running privately. Schooling has an eerie resemblance to grooming which is something young folx should be protected from, at all cost. Here’s why.
Influence
Young minds are impressionable, especially the minds of children from poor and abusive households. As a child, school was a refuge of sorts for me. As a mechanism to escape my life at home, I poured all of my energy and attention into my ‘school life’. I was desperate for validation and acceptance from teachers as well as peers, and as the years passed, the standards for being a ‘good girl’ seemed to get narrower and narrower. “Be quiet” turned into “be obedient” which turned into “be ashamed”.
However, I must bring to attention that I ‘performed’ outstandingly in this system. My mother, having studied in a public (Bengali-medium) school, was absolutely adamant that I pursue my studies in an English-medium, missionary school in (then) Calcutta. So under the pressure of having to prove something to my family, I began to mould myself with traits to always stay on the ‘good side’. I was:
- Obedient (meaning: never said ‘no’ when asked to do something)
- Polite (meaning: never argued with a teacher, even when they clearly passed judgement without the full truth)
- Fluent in English (not an easy one for children who ONLY speak Bengali/Hindi/their regional language at home)
- Modest (meaning: always wore white undergarments which could not be ‘detected’ over translucent white shirts; always maintained the correct length of school skirts, etc.)
- Ambitious (meaning: was in denial about most of my traumas until my early 20s, because of the razor-sharp focus on my academic achievements)
Now if we were to take another look at the traits I have listed above, it is rather clear that this system of schooling is simply ‘training’ young minds to be better employees or housewives. The purpose of an education CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be to groom us into profit/labour-generating human-bots.
Instead, we need education to be a safe space for children, a space where they can effectively ‘escape’ sexism, capitalism and all such oppressive ideologies which have been littering the real world. Children need this space to learn the truth about the world from experienced adults, NOT to be groomed by the same adults and step into the world as an anxious, insecure person. The influence that this schooling system has on young minds spreads far deeper than subjects and grades: it dictates how this individual will react to authority for the rest of their lives.
Violation
In an Indian family, keeping girls ‘safe’ is the backbone of all regulations. Our families, and by extension, societies center all rules and directives around ‘safety of women’ which essentially means that women must take 100% responsibility for all abuse/harm/damage done to them and keep themselves ‘safe’ within four-walls. The gender ratio in most parts of metropolitan Kolkata was rather dismal when I was growing up, and I have no doubts about why. When the blame for harassment falls on the harrassed, there is no way to resolve the situation in a just way. Women, in our society, have always had to choose between life and freedom, but isn’t that extremely shameful for the education imparted in this society?
Being a focused and obedient girl from a ‘good’ upper-caste Bengali family, I was a natural favourite to many of my teachers. Despite that, I was heavily policed, in terms of what I wore/who I was friends with, etc.
In my years in school, I have witnessed multiple instances of policing and sheer harassment of young girls. In many such cases, I have been an instrument used to harass as well.
Older girls (‘prefects’) were asked to search bags of their peers or younger girls. I remember how uncomfortable those situations have been for me: I remember teachers patting down girls’ blouses when we found ‘nothing’ in their bags. I would simply stand there, feeling horrified at the thought of that happening to me. However, at the time, it felt like we were being taught some truly grave lessons for life, that our teachers only wanted our best and I fully believed that.
“No girl should be out of line, no girl should be standing out. We weren’t a Bengali-medium school, after all.”
I remember, in class 7, a friend of mine was expelled from school because they found cigarettes in her bag. She couldn’t have been more than 13–14 at the time.
In class 9, a teacher called me to the staff room and ‘threatened’ that I would never become a prefect if she ever saw me talking to a boy outside school. I remember crying. The teacher is no more, I hope her soul rests in peace, but the memory is still terrifying in my head.
Over the years, time and again, I remember numerous incidents in which teenagers were emotionally violated, or in some cases, triggered publicly without any reparations or rehab. I also understand that this is the same system in which our teachers started out, and when compared to a society which did not even allow girls to be formally educated, it may seem like immense progress has been made which is not untrue. However, if we do not look into the shadows of this progress now, it will only spread wider.
Conclusion
Writing this article has been immensely challenging for me, as I am still coming to terms with my childhood and my perspective is still growing/shifting. It was only some months ago that I began noticing my struggle with:
- Telling someone in authority that they are wrong (On some occasions, I ‘secretly’ correct their mistake and never bring it up ever again)
- Being criticized by someone in authority (Even if it is productive and directed towards my work, I continue to feel personally attacked)
- Standing up for what I believe is right, especially when more than one person disagrees with me
- Apologising in situations where I could not have had any control
I think I will continue to fill this list out throughout my career. I can only hope that those who come after me don’t have to.
I sincerely hope that platforms like these encourage educators and teachers to provide a space for teenagers to be teenagers without feeling disproportionate amounts of guilt and shame.
Colonial schooling is done to generate adults with skewed morals who will not question the rampant patriarchy that continues to govern our lives.
Any self-expression or rebellion was immediately nipped in the bud, so that all that remained of us were ‘well-behaved’ ladies. Like our teachers themselves.
But all I can say is that, if there was ever a time to swap well-behaved ladies for emotionally-rounded humans, it is RIGHT NOW.
About the Author: Paushali Roy
Born and raised in Kolkata, I am technologically trained, with a master degree in list-making. Currently educating self in social and financial politics, so if you find me on social media, say hi with some new reading.
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