Divya Mittal, an IAS officer, recently took to social media to share the missing links in the education system and what she feels was missing in her own journey. Here is all you need to know about it.
The Real World
From IIT Delhi to IIM Bangalore and finally into the prestigious ranks of the IAS, I have received the finest education my country has to offer, learning how to crack tough exams and manage massive responsibilities. Yet, for all its prestige, it completely failed to teach me how to quiet my own mind or navigate the heavy weight of loneliness. We devote decades of our youth learning how to achieve external success, but we do not spend a single day learning the internal art of being happy. Looking back, it is profoundly clear that school education leaves us entirely unprepared for the emotional, psychological, and practical realities of adulthood.
The Training Time
Our school training was about books and grades. It did not care about how we felt or if we knew who we really were. We had to learn the table by heart but nobody taught us how to deal with sad feelings or emotional pain. We thought being quiet and doing what we were told was the same as being happy and peaceful. We learned how to write essays but we did not learn how to talk to people about our problems or say no to someone who was being mean to us. Our schools liked it when we had all the answers, not when we had questions. So we grew up thinking that what we were told was always true, without wondering where the information came from. This is why a lot of adults just repeat what they hear without thinking about it.
How to Fit Into the World
This is a problem when we try to live in the real world, especially with money and motivation. We spent a lot of time doing math problems but we never learned how to handle our money wisely. So now we might spend much money without thinking and get into debt, which can make us feel trapped and unhappy. The training time did not prepare us for this. We need to learn how to manage our money and take care of ourselves so we can be free and happy. Additionally, school operates under a rigid structure of bells, schedules, and constant authority, which leaves us entirely paralyzed by the unstructured silence of adulthood. Because we were never taught how to push ourselves without a teacher watching, we lack the foundational habit of self-discipline, which is simply keeping the promises you make to yourself.
Social and Psychological Isolation
Lastly, she mentions that adulthood also brings a jarring social and psychological isolation that the classroom environment never prepared us to handle. In school, a community of peers is effortlessly handed to us, leaving us completely unequipped for how loud the silence of independent life can be. Because we were never taught to be our own best friends, we view being alone as a sign of being unwanted rather than a sacred space for peace. This innocence also makes us feel tricked when we grow up. We were not taught to understand people, to look beyond their smiles, or to figure out what they really mean. Also, the constant push to be academically perfect hurts our minds in the long run. Just as schools provided gym classes for the body but nothing for the soul, we were conditioned to push through extreme exhaustion to finish projects, establishing the exact behavioral patterns that cause adult burnout. We enter the workforce without knowing how to honor our nervous systems, identify overwhelming stressors, or ask for help when drowning in distress.
