CHARLENE FARRELL

In school, we train our children to be the best among the rest, constantly forcing them to participate in competitions against others and beat them. We force them to measure themselves and their achievements with those of others. As they do so, their entire focus is on the other person and what they are doing. In such a scenario, the person never really reaches his/ her own potential. Working in accordance with and, in comparison to another never really allows one to reach a target of their capability.

Psychology is defined as ‘the scientific study of mental process, behavior and experiences in different contexts.’ This definition encompasses every aspect of human reaction and interaction. The beauty of the subject lies in the object of study. There are more than seven billion people walking on earth as we speak. As we go about our daily life we rarely take time to just sit back and actually admire the complexity of behavior. Seven billion human beings, seven billion ideas and yes, seven billion reactions to a situation. Human behavior is the way an individual reacts to a situation or a stimulus. With the uniqueness that abounds, it is not surprising that there are plenty of times when we fail to understand why an individual behaves the way he/she does. Being part of this varied tapestry is a wonderful thing. Understanding that each person has a unique part to play will also eventually make things easier to understand.
Our problem is that we lack the ability to look beyond ourselves. When there is any situation that involves more than one individual, looking at it from another’s perspective is something we find almost impossible. To really understand the complexity of the human mind, all we have to do is ready psychological studies on any cognitive process. One of the most obvious things you will see is the difference. Twin studies, including identical twin studies (of individuals sharing the exact same DNA) clearly show why no two individuals behave, interact and react exactly the same. With so much complexity and uniqueness, how do we justify the rigidity with which we educate? All over the world, the systems being used are changing to accommodate this wonderful characteristic of human behavior. Countries are moving from subject wise teaching to system wise teaching, whereas we have decided to go backwards. While governments all over the world are getting more ‘person centered’, we have taken it upon ourselves to dilute democracy. While women around the world are revolutionising the face of the world, we are still living in a male dominated shell. We keep denying it and telling ourselves it isn’t true, but the fact of the matter is, whenever we speak in terms of sex differences, we shall remain regressive.
In school, we train our children to be the best among the rest, constantly forcing them to participate in competitions against others and beat them. We force them to measure themselves and their achievements with those of others. As they do so, their entire focus is on the other person and what they are doing. In such a scenario, the person never really reaches his/ her own potential. Working in accordance with and, in comparison to another never really allows one to reach a target of their capability. Another consequence to competition is the inability to care for another human being as we all try to step over them and win. So, what we are actually doing is creating an entire army of people with the identical goals, leaving no place for another to succeed and disabling the yearning to find their own niche. Have you ever sat back, looked at our youngsters and wondered to yourself, where has the individuality gone? At which point exactly did we tell them apathy was the way of the world? These two questions are causes of concern to all of us. As we turn our youth into a careless, competitive army, how far do you think they will go before all starts collapsing around them?
We have to act quickly. We have to show them that success need not come at the expense of another. And for them to learn, we need to first practice the same. We also have to understand that being mainstream is not the only path to a happy life. Allow your children to live their dreams. Let them explore their inner potential. There is a place enough for everyone.
Our government is another entity that has forgotten the complexity of the human being. A small minority of people come together to make up the body that governs us. In doing so, these individuals share a responsibility of doing what is right for a larger group of people. This is not what is being reflected in current scenario of the world. Instead of looking towards the best interest of the nation, sadly the trend has turned into protecting the needs of only a few. But the saddest part in all this is how religion is being used to dominate and rule. There is no religion that preaches or practices suppression. Again, it is the human being that has created the rifts and divides. Democracy is all about nurturing the individuality of a complex collection of people. To be true to the nature of the human kind, we need to accept and nurture our differences. For progress to be complete, we need to open our mind to the needs of all. For after all that’s said and done, it’s the differences we have that keep this world a more interesting place.