Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Schools and Sainthood

There is something about schools which really bugs me. No! It has got nothing to do with the schools no longer being the temples of learning but merely a means of minting money. Neither does it concern the kind of supposedly 'hifi' education that the neo schools claim to impart. This post is also not about the 'super smart' schools which insist upon interviewing a kid's parents before they deem the kid good enough ro merit an entry into their 'coveted' school. This despite the child having aced the mentally torturing and nerve wrecking written tests.
This post stems from my concern about the nomenclature of schools. I can wager a bet that ATLEAST 50% of the schools, especially in the smaller cities and towns, have a name bearing the suffix Saint(St) before their names. I think i am really smart because i have a theory to explain every smart phenomenon on this planet earth. So i also have my very own theory to explain this fad. It goes something like this. The dimwits behind the naming of any school first sit down for a brainstorming session over a jug of some very high content alcoholic drink. The first step is to come up with some Anglicised name for the school. The imaginations are allowed to run wild. The person who comes with the most common sounding name is then made the principal of such a school. This helps kill two birds with the same stone.The school has a moron as the principal and the school has a name..almost that is. The dimwits still feel that there is something thats still missing from the name of the school. Enlightment dawns upon these poor souls all of a sudden and they prefix the name with a St. (short for a saint). Everyone heaves a collective sigh of relief. End result-the common man has to put up with outrageous sign boards painted in the most unprofessional manner in 'dhinch' colours. These can be seen at every other 'gali n nukkad' proudly claiming that the 'gali' has St Ignatius, StMauritius, StThomas, StRonaldo, StFederer, StSchumacher, StSchwarznegger-name them and they have them.
Some schools do not stop at this. They believe in stooping lower. The signboards are further spiced up with claims like 'English mediumICSE education till 9th standard'. Or something which goes like'Teaching same as in CBSE board' when the CBSE board might not even have heard of the existence of any such school. As for the english that is used while designing these repelling boards, the less said the better. But this should take another post. ...

PS: This post in no way tries to berate the so many schools using the St. prefix. There are many
that have done a great service to the nation and have produced top class alumni. So sincere apologies to such temples of learning. For the other so commons. feel free to criticise ..

14 comments:

exclusively_me said...

sounds like u slept halway through writing your post!
lol!
but hey cmon ...complete it ..!
:P

SaiK said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SaiK said...

i like the way you convert every damn talk in to witty humour.
But there are some real good "saint" schools and i personally havent seen many such schools on nukkads :P ... but no wonder people are capable of anything ....

arunabh said...

@priyanka
the mention of alcohol mebbe was sleep inducing:p But seriously i thought i was sounding funny..but sleepy? :(
The completion might require another post ..
keep visiting:)

@sai
hey thanks for the eyeopener.Added the 'ps' after reading your comment.
As for nukkad schools- abey i was talking about small cities n towns basically. Not mumbai re..
keep visiting :)

Richa said...

Its quite true, everybody tries to use lucrative means but the fake ones end up as foolish, I think interviewing of parentsin schools b4 admitting a child is really funny, I dont understand what do they want to derive out of it!

Anonymous said...

arbit completely arbit !!
wotz plaguing you dude? Afterall wotz there in a name.. therz zumthing behind all thiz spleening am quite sure.
But the point remainz..waz funny

~prachi

Sumit said...

Sharp observation sinha ..even convent gos with some school..i am sure you would had pulled humour out of convent too :d..at end scrupulous mention of fact that it donot apply to all saints ..wise of you sinha to drive away from controversy..otherwise you might have been beaheaded in class tommorow for this :D
~ sumit

Unknown said...

LOLzz!!! I did my schooling from a similar "St" tagged school...Neither the founder or any of the board memebers or the principal followed christianity...then why the name? Now I know the reason :D!!

Ps: I love my school!!

arunabh said...

@ richa
they pretend they are 'super smart' which they aren't.
keep visiting :)
@prachi
where else do i went my spleen ? :o
ek blog hi toh sahara hai mera
keepz viziting:)
@sumit
abey somehow i have something against the St schools which i dont have against the convents.But good tht you pointed it out.
keep visiting:)
@aneesha
That was an intelligent query. And nice to know tht i helped u out with the solution:p
keep visiting:)
ps:i also love my school

Anonymous said...

And is my college St Stephens also under your scanner?
Whether someone likes it or not.. my college rules :P. And we have proper reasons for being a saintly college.. if thats the way you want to put it:)
So arguably St Stephens is the best DU college...yaaaaaaaaaayy!
Enough of saintisising (pun intended)
, good way to mock the stupid schools
hehe.. likes it
cheers sweetie
~ruchika

Dee Spake Trash Anyway... said...

wow... this st. bizness used to irk me too... the schools in my area didn't look too great to me... they were all second rate cousins of my wonderful school... v had a complex name too... mary immaculate girls high school... now beat that!!!!

Yashika Totlani Khanna said...

First, kkkkudos for picking a topic like THIS to blog about. Very creative. Second, and lemme be very honest, I havent come across many schools with a 'st' prefix. Some yes, many no. Anyhow... it made for an entertaining read. Also couldnt help noticing how you'd steered clear of a 'st.xaviers' anywhere... though i presume the indirect reference in the post script was directed towards it.

arunabh said...

@ruchika
no sweetie!! Ofcourse StStephens is sacrosanct for me to indulge in any kind of slander ! No sarcasm and no pun intended :-|
Keep visiting :)

@deepti
Do you mind repeating the name of the school ? Does the school name actually contain tht 'immaculate' :O:O:O
This can surely never be beaten :(
Keep visiting :)

@yashika
St Xaviers- why are you dragging me somewhr i dont intend to. People, listen ! i had not even thought about St Xaviers or St Stephens while writing this post.
St Yashika, stay away! spare this blogger.
keep visiting:)

JITIN said...

well that PS was very imp. Thats bcoz here in doon there r many top notch schools starting with "St." like St. Joseph, St. Thomas etc. Infact it is due to these ICSE schools that doon is known as the schooling hub of India. Otherwise, ur damn rite abt those fake nomenclatures, they r indeed very frustrating & in my opinion govt. must take steps to ensure the credibilty of the prefix "St."