Batch Year or Batch Number?

Whenever someone asked me which batch I belonged to for my bachelor’s degree, I had trouble answering because I used to think the year of admission was my batch year. After some enquiry, I found it to be the year of graduation. Now that I know, I wouldn’t have to be embarrassed again after my master’s in the U.S.
In India, it is a very popular notion that the U.S. institutions are the best in the world, and that a degree from a good U.S. university means plenty of opportunities ahead. No doubt about it; even I have found it to be quite true. But there are some very disappointing facts about the American education system which no one told me before. I had been very interested in knowing the history of education especially about the US education. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was introduced indirectly by a professor of mine to the work of Ivan Illich, John Holt, John Taylor Ghatto and few others names in American education reform movement.
The first disturbing thing I found was the fact that the present school model had been taken from the factory model of the industrial revolution in the 20th century, eliminating the earlier school house model where children learned from peers of different ages and where the teacher could cater material to individual needs. In a factory model, a teacher is seen as a worker and a student is seen as a product to be manufactured. Each year is like an assembly line sequence, passing from one class to next. Those students who don’t make it as finished products are called “drop outs.” Still skeptical about these radical views, I wanted to know if there were people in the 21st century who agreed with what I had read.
To my surprise, one of the well known names in the field of management (also education), Clayton Christensen, has reinforced the same point in his book ‘Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.’ Daniel H. Pink in his book ‘A Whole New Mind’ describes the crises in education. Others have directly or indirectly hinted at the same underlying factory model. I was not prepared to digest all this, after all, I have grown up believing that good school education means a good job which means a good life, and if you are lucky enough, it could also mean a good wife.
Remembering my school days, spending 6-7 hours in the classroom, listening most of the time, writing important notes that could help me get an ‘A’ in the exam and in turn, earn respect among fellow students and praise from teachers. A single letter at the end of the year framed the perception of me in the eyes of my parents, friends, teachers and all those people who knew me. Things are not different here. After all, there is something wrong at the core. Though it sounds radical, it is not inaccurate.
During the career fair, everyone is busy researching the companies, practicing their interview skills, reviewing resumes. Even I had been waiting for this day. While working on my resume, one thing made me ponder for a while – the year of graduation. Does it represent a batch year or a batch number?
My Article in the Michigan Tech Lode
Link:http://www.mtulode.com/feature/2010/10/07/culture-shock-6-2/