How Schooling Destroys Self-belief And Confidence

This is a guest post by Pooja Srivastava

Radhika is a class topper. Once, when we were invited to her home, Radhika was doing her Science homework assignment on soluble and insoluble materials as explained by her teacher. She had collected different types of materials like flour, a piece of wood, small pebbles, some sand, talcum powder, sawdust, salt, sugar and corn starch, some glasses and water. She was asked to distinguish soluble from insoluble. 

She put the different materials into a glass of water and tried to mix the contents with a spoon. Radhika’s mother was sitting nearby observing her as she proceeded with her work. Radhika would glance at her mother after she had tried to mix a particular material in the glass of water asking her mother for feedback, whether the substance was soluble or insoluble.

We noticed this and asked Radhika to wait for sometime after stirring the contents in the glass to check whether the substance had dissolved completely, dissolved partially or was totally insoluble in water.

Radhika continued to look very unsure and was unable to make up her mind about the end result without her mother’s help, despite having the evidence right in front of her.

However, rest assured, Radhika will continue to be a class topper.

Pooja Srivastava is a Special Education & School Teaching Expert based in India.