The other day, my friend was telling me about an assignment-- Her daughter Sakshi got a 7, while Sakshi's friend had been awarded a 10 for an ‘internet printout’ assignment.   Sakshi had been encouraged to google, and also to locate pictures from National Geographic magazines and other sources.

Moreover, she had handwritten her assignment, owing to which, there were a few spelling errors.  

Sakshi was visibly upset at the score!

My thoughts flew to the educative, enjoyable assignments in the pre internet era.  We would painstakingly collect an assortment of leaves, feathers, and pictures and pour over Britannica Encylopedia for information about leaves, birds, places et al…..our parents never dampened our enthusiasm, neither were they helicopter parents. 

Such assignments encouraged us to gather more insights and to do our best.

We would never mind if our peers got a better grade than us, someone’s success was our own!

Even for the project days, we would dabble with paints, clay, cardboard, and any waste that we could lay our hands on and create a masterpiece out of the waste…..I vividly remember a student had used corrugated cardboard and modeled the Qutb Minar….A brick-coloured paint over it made it a decent replica.  Perhaps his stay-at-home Mom had helped him with the assembling.  Nevertheless, the student had learned his write-up well and his presentation was the show stealer of the day.

Are those days gone?

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