Too much learning

A little knowledge never harmed anyone. But what effect does too much learning have? First of all, is there any such thing as too much learning?  I agree that knowledge is a vast ocean and there is no limit. You can go on swimming in it and never reach the shores. But what happens if you are too young and inexperienced to swim? You may drown, you may develop a fear of swimming, you may never even attempt to swim!

Sadly, our education system today has become like this. Tender minds all of 3-4 years are burdened with the expectation to know how to write in 2 languages, frame sentences, count upto 100 or more and spell words with 5 or more letters in them! All this when most of us were probably just beginning to speak slightly coherent words or learning to walk a little normally, when at that age.  Are we aiming to churn out little geniuses who will grow up to be brilliant? If yes, what happens when everyone is brilliant? How do you differentiate and how do you follow an elimination process? It is like asking who is the first among equals.

I see a little kid in my relation write words in English and alphabets in Hindi. The writing is so much his hand pains. Luckily for him he can write with both hands with equal ease! But what about the other kids? Some of them have bags bigger than themselves and they march off to school like they are resigning to their fates. It makes you feel a prick in your heart, a guilt for having put them through all this at such a young age. But then, do we have a choice? The world out there is so competitive that you survive only if you keep moving ahead. And to move ahead you need to keep learning. 

I dread the time when I will see my daughter prepare for her 10^th Standard exams, when she will have tutions to attend after long tiring hours at school, when she will probably slog out to get an engineering or medical seat.  We somehow have passed that phase and if given a choice we would never want to live through all that again. Imagine seeing your little baby suffer the same! For now, I wait and pray- that either times will change or my little one will endure and survive. I am confident about the later happening but can't say the same about the former!