This story is not about the degree we earn after college. It is about grammar, the positive, comparative and superlative degrees.
I am content with the positive degree. Superlative is a slippery slope. Here, we will discuss the demerits of the comparative degree. The automatic conclusion will be that positive will be most acceptable.
Comparison starts even as a foetus in the womb. “Oh, my older son was not a bother all the way up to delivery.”
The comparison continues in the infant stage. About the age the tiny tot is taking steps first with an escort and later unaided, admonitions abound.
In the kindergarten and primary schools, the scene repeats. I don’t know whether the teachers have any exposure to the basics of child psychology. The buck will be passed on to teachers training programme administrators for the inadequacy of teachers to practise student-centred teaching without comparative degrees.
Naturally, the comparison is made in the award of degree certificates. What is the big difference between one student getting 61% and another 59% with the cut-off point for grades at 60%.
Actually in terms of knowledge more than sheer information, the student with 59% may be entering the job market in a confident stride. In organisations, comparison takes different forms. One occasion is the annual performance appraisal. In fact, the appraiser feels he is playing God and likes to avoid biased decisions. Quite sensibly, this task is given to a group in large organisations.
The comparison is not rampant only in schools or organisations. It extends to domestic life and social interactions between daughters-in-law, siblings or neighbours, between persons with a generation gap and funnily in seniors’ homes, one compares his or her children or grandchildren with those of another inmate.
Is this rational? If it is done for motivating the laggards, it will fail. On the contrary, if a person is advised to compare himself between two time periods for any factor, be it health, wealth, intellectual or spiritual advancement, a perceptive person will be benefited. So is the case with States or nations.
Scientists use this method called “self as control” for experimental evidence.
lakshmibashyam@yahoo.com
