What is education? - The unsolved puzzle.
There is always a huge potential for knowledge industry.
Let us get certain things straight. Formal education is
important. Primary education is very important. Measuring, testing methodically
any development is equally important.
Many great scholars , scientists, saints , philosophers,
politicians, social workers , artists, writers, film stars, academicians,
educationists, sports persons, why even modern journalists and lawyers have
said many wonderful things about education.
I have come across some of them as mere quotations; some as
essays; some as serious research works; some based on their own perceptions and
experiences; some based on an urge to establish some social order; some goading
people to acquire necessary skills to survive as useful citizens –which
involves making oneself a respectable professional in some field of
activity that can range from being a scientific research scholar or to good
teacher to religious preacher or political speech writer to talkative salesman
to many other professionals.
All of these writings give us an opportunity to look at
education from various perspectives and various levels of perceptions. The link
to some of these quotes and references is given at the end of this write up.
So, to even venture to try to add something to such a subject
which has already a vast literature and observations available is a rather a
very adventurous task but then I would like to take the adventure.
I have learned a lot, savored a lot and got educated and
enlightened while reading all those writings and I have given the links to some
of them mostly as quotes as I am not willing to elaborate on the many essays I
have read on this subject. I am neither passing judgments on any of them but
merely making some generalized observations out of those scholarly outpourings.
They start from one extreme of seeing and viewing education only
as a passport for an entry into a job market [inevitable in the materialistic
world wherein post, position, power, pelf are the ultimate image/individual
evaluating factors] to education that enhances understanding of other
human beings, other living beings, environment of this planet and knowledge
about other planets etc to education that helps one to grasp mystical and
supposedly great truths about the self, reality, spiritual dimensions of life
and things etc beyond even logical reasoning and normal knowledge and
understanding.
There are also other views which see education getting into
territories with emphasis on imparting skills necessary to enhance
understanding of many things to explore scientifically many possibilities to
improve living conditions and improve life and to develop technologies that can
help us understand as well as approach knowledge in much deeper dimensions and
make life more comfortable and connected or at least to understand how
everything and everyone is interdependent, interconnected, inter-related and
therefore must learn to interact effectively with everyone and everything in a
contextually relevant manner which will design our reciprocation and define
our relationship with everyone and everything else.
First we must clearly understand therefore, that there are many
things or methods which the knowledge industries across the world [we need not
call them educational institutions] try to incorporate in the curriculum as
well as the testing methods that are adopted to test and verify ones
capabilities in those areas.
Education in general invites lot of criticism and cynical views
purely because its perceived aims are too vast and various that realizing all
of them becomes difficult. Naturally, therefore, all systems of education and
methods of measuring or testing the level of education are always susceptible
to some criticism.
Besides the problem with the systems of education and methods of
teaching and testing are susceptible like all other areas of human life to a
great shortcoming of human perception. Namely, frames of reference and subject to contextual relevance and both these are interconnected in
many ways.
Contextual exigency:-
So, by this definition the type of education is decided by the
context or circumstance or situation or one may sometimes also call it a goal
for which it is considered as a tool. Whether is it to enable one to become a
more capable person for a specific activity i.e. a better driver, better
engineer, better preacher, better teacher, better thinker, better manager,
better technocrat, better bureaucrat, better prospective employee for a particular
industry, profession etc
In the evaluation, role and impact of education as in of many
things, two factors that are of vital importance, which we cannot afford to
ignore, one the context because life does not function in vacuous inanity nor
on past templates, and two because of the context the prioritization of things
in terms of its contextual utility for each individual, the society at large
and the environment as a whole.
Frames of reference:-
What frames of reference that those who impart education get
fixed upon? For example let me take one particular sector the cyber world- what
type of an engineer a particular system wants to produce a software
professional who can write creative new software programs, a hardware engineer,
a cyber security professional, a call center employee, a medical billing staff,
a back office operator, a systems analyst, a data collector, a web designer, a
coding specialist, applications developer and so on.
Normally the type of social milieu mostly weighs heavily on
either one or some of them.
Of course along with these highly emphasized aspects of
modern life there are also many traditional and well intended facets of
education which have been pushed to the back ground like:- things connected
with physical fitness, health consciousness, social awareness, freedom to think
and question, express creativity, exhibit imagination, explore artistically etc
besides observing, appreciating , enjoying and living with nature which is
labeled as nature environmental concerns, social interactions, how to relate
with all life around without harming or hurting anyone else or anything else,
develop artistic taste and then develop skills, playing for joy of fun and then
toning up the skills in the sport etc.
I have avoided morals, values, discipline, principles, character
etc because all these have too many connotations based on multiple variables in
terms of taboos in different nations, religions, and social groups. Therefore,
these have become highly relative and sometimes unnecessarily controversial
too, reflecting and reiterating more of our atavistic negative tendencies like
intolerance, command, control, domination etc which manifest in multiple ways.
The ultimate result is that we have produced few generations of
highly well informed, very intelligent, extremely talented, superbly skilled,
appropriately academically qualified great professionals who have a very
healthy contempt , and rightly so, for anything that talks about morals and
values because they feel its irrelevance to their professions and the other
dark side of Socio-religious-cultural morality, namely, intolerance.
The polarity of Survival aspect and Living aspect of life:-
If we observe, closely, most education systems have focused more
on Survival aspect of life, which , of course , is the primary aspect of life,
and almost neglected on the Living aspect of life- which involves loving
whatever we learn [incidentally in the whole write up the word learning pops up
only now], whatever we do, with whosoever we interact, enjoying and
experiencing life as it unfolds every moment as opposed to merely planning,
programming and producing an individual capable of executing a particular way
of survival at a future date.
If this sort of one-sided focus on education is
carried on to the logical extreme of mere information data accumulation and
knowledge assimilation and merely reproducing all of these, then , computers
with internet connectivity will be more efficient, less costly and become
much preferred than actual schooling.
These sorts of high flown appealing didactic statements,
however, have the danger of producing a lazy day dreamers who spend their
whole life merely verbally justifying and lecturing on every subject without
ever producing anything of real value to either themselves or to the society.
These self contradictions are the inevitable polarities of life
and learning. Balancing them is the art of education.
John
Adams said it beautifully, “There are two educations. One should teach us how
to make a living and the other how to live”.
It is appealing to write or read deschooling societies or savor
sayings like what great writer Mark Twain has said, “I have never allowed
schooling to interfere with my education”.
Though almost all the great epics, extraordinary literature
works, great philosophies have been the works of unschooled souls, formal
education is the sign of advancement of human civilization because it
offers an opportunity, prompt , incentive and motivation for everyone to learn
and it need not necessarily curtail innate intelligence or stop creativity.
Great sources of creativity and intelligence will, anyway, manifest
despite any hurdle.
Importance of formal education:-
We cannot use the above works or statements or examples of to
avoid schooling.
Formal schooling is, and must be, an inevitable aspect of
scientifically advanced modern civilization because it offers a package
of not only survival skill sets but also is the playful testing ground
for learning about relationships with different types of humans beings through
observing, playing, enjoying, loving and experiencing together with others
outside the confines of one’s family.
The processes and methods of learning may differ from place to
place , from one goal to another, from one objective to another, from one
context to another, but all learning other than extreme forms of original
creativity or chance discoveries require fundamentally some methodical
preparations and being conversant with the existing data of knowledge in
relevant subject instead of redoing what has already been discovered,
experimented, applied and explained over the centuries for our convenience like
for example a readymade mathematical formula to find out the area of a circle ,
instead of taking the trouble and spending several months or years on trying to
discover originally deriving a formula through putting on lot of time, efforts,
energy, resources etc
It is always very easy to sit on judgment over some original
work, improve upon some basic work, or come up with some modifications on
existing work, or discover something totally contradictory to existing theories
etc. But we all must remember that education too, like everything else, has an
evolutionary trend. It is constantly evolving according to many different needs,
as per the various methods adopted and in tune with the multiple demands,
goals, purposes for which education is geared towards.
Though people are good at remembering and reproducing the quotes
referred earlier by Mark Twain they never bother to read his sayings in some
speeches and writings quiet contrary to that as indicated here in the following
speeches and writings :-
A] Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a
jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog
on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900
- Speech 11/23/1900
B]
It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others--and less
trouble.
- Doctor Van Dyke speech, 1906
- Doctor Van Dyke speech, 1906
C]
The self taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a
tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers, and
besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into
going and doing as he himself has done.
- "Taming the Bicycle"
- "Taming the Bicycle"
Aldous
Huxley, in his wonderful essay titled ‘The Education of an Amphibian’ writes,
“We
must give up the insane illusion that a conscious self, however virtuous and
however intelligent, can do its work singlehanded and without assistance”
Importance of primary education:-
Primary education is the foundation on which the whole edifice
of future education, society everything depends. The problem is when it comes
to primary education the issue gets further complicated because all the active
stake holders are not and cannot be decision makers, I mean especially the
children.
So, who has to decide what they must study or learn or what
types of knowledge or information they must be imparted etc especially because
any system of primary education has to take care of physical, mental and
spiritual [not religious] aspects of the child and enhance it at least to some
degree by motivating with the active participation of the child with its
initial inquisitiveness, interest, involvement, enthusiasm and energetic
attention intact and gradually lead them to make their own initiative to learn
more.
This won’t come about by learning many psychological theories in
teachers’ learning course manuals but this will come about naturally through
interaction with a child. So, naturally it depends more on the individual child
and the efficiency of the teacher. Then, there crops up another contradiction
that one cannot frame a curriculum for every child according to its tastes,
level of understanding, attention span, willingness etc.
For example there are more than thousands of educational methodologies
and thousands of educational psychological approaches etc.
Unfortunately, no system of education in any place in the world
can be tailor made to suit everyone.
“The
most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area
which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them.” (de
Montaigne, On teaching Philosophy of Education)
Education after adolescence is a different ball game:-
However, in most cases after adolescence every individual is
aware of his/her potential [unmanifested/unexplored
abilities]/interests/attributes/obligations/life's inevitability etc and also
the awareness and realization of what they want to prioritize
[potential/interests/obligations etc]. It is left to the individual.
Utopia or workable proposition:-
In the whole scheme of these various methods of education we
tend to forget some very vital tools necessary for life which, for reasons of
brevity, I would like to define as clarity
of thinking and understanding with contextual
relevance or
appropriateness, rationally
approaching issues, events and actions, scientifically testing through
measurable methodical means, evaluating anyone or anything based on inherent merits,
intrinsic values and contextual relevance and relating
and reacting to anyone and anything with a happy and loving disposition free of
any inhibition. More importantly all these require to know how the mind
works in general and how each and every brain of each individual child
responds.
Actually educating a child is like treating a patient. One needs to
take into account various psychological, social, cultural, emotional factors as
well.
Swami Vivekananda rightly says it, “Education is the manifestation of the perfection
already in man”.
The advantages of present age in history:-
We have not only the accumulated wisdom gathered over the
centuries of masterly works and mistakes but also have them readily
available anywhere in many languages. In such a scenario, incorporating and
implementing anything is possible, subject certain minimal constraints.
There must be a conscious effort to balance the blend of quality
and quantity. Thus, acquiring knowledge and wisdom, enjoying learning,
experiencing the subject of study in terms of its relevance to individual life,
social living or spiritual understanding etc must be part of any educational
system.
Disadvantages of present age in history:-
At too young an age too many conflicting opinions about the
methods, goals, intentions etc of education will confuse young minds. So young
minds must be motivated to enjoy learning and enhance understanding
irrespective of the ultimate utility of what they learn either to themselves or
society.
Actually not bothering too much about or preoccupying too much
with ultimate utility value [[this applies to parents too, in some
cases]. Stop bothering about what type or quantum of outcome of ability or
capacity that such learning may confer on the individual at least at primary
level.
Like evolutionary biology there is evolutionary education and
environmentally/contextually impacted education which further emphasizes
the need for and impact of formal education:-
Mostly each society adopts the system best suited for it like
how each child naturally starts the process of its learning through initially
inquisitiveness then tempted to imitate, followed by adopting
and selecting what it likes, what it is more comfortable with, what is
available around it etc based on its natural instincts and impulses.
Similarly in societies some situations/contexts there
evolve a very competitive and conducive atmosphere for certain areas of
knowledge acquisition over the rest and certain areas of knowledge predominate
even globally at such times, broadly viewed, for example:-
In the 17th century it was philosophical inquiry
and study of astronomy and elements ;
In the 18th century it was art, drama and literature ;
In the 19th century it was scientific discoveries, invention of machines, manufacturing, commerce and
trade;
In the 20th century it was electronics and sophisticated technology etc ;
In the 21st century by extension
logically and ideally it the must be making the optimum
utilization of all these accumulated knowledge over the centuries for the benefit of maximum
number of people, all species and the whole of nature through a sense of
sharing and caring compassion and make enhancements in each domain.
A child is born without any culture, any knowledge of any
language. If we take a child born to two illiterate parents in some remote
island of the coast of Africa and make it to be adopted by two great Japanese
research scientist couple, it will not only pick up Japanese language soon, it
will adopt well to Japanese culture, it will also show interest in science
because natural learning process initially is through inquisitiveness and
imitation. So any type of learning method or education must instigate
inquisitiveness and create a conducive atmosphere where the child can imitate
worthy things.
Having said briefly all these, it goes to prove that as a
species, most children are born with a natural survival instinct and a certain
level of natural intelligence which enable them to understand, learn anything
anywhere. Therefore schools, parents and society must encourage the children to
express themselves freely, allow them to question everything without restraint,
allow them to analyze things according to their level of intelligence and help
them understand things and people around them in life without imposing any
social or religious or ideological bias etc. Then, such children can manage
many things in life and handle many situations in life with equanimity,
patience, tolerance etc.
Parents, society, schools must help children through suggestions
which are appealing, prompts which are compelling and examples that are
uncontrollable to imitate and thus help them to manage, maneuver and maximize
their inherent attributes and talents without too much interference with
instructions of dos and don’ts which will inadvertently lead them to think that
life is a pendulum that swings between two extremes of ‘yes’ or ‘no’, with
nothing in between or beyond.
The stark reality is that life depends to a very great extent on
how we relate with everyone and towards everything with two major factors inherent attributes and acquired
attitudes.
What happens is that very often instructions which are temporary
may mask the fact that education is a lifelong process, I may add and say
that education is, in fact, a life enhancing and enlightening process.
Frederick W.Robertson too says something similar, “Instruction ends in the
school-room, but education ends only with life”. I believe it does not end with
life it continues to influence posterity as G.K. Chesterton writes, “Education
is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another”.
Attributes are natural flowers and their natural fragrance,
color and beauty manifest based on how well they are allowed blossom but
attitudes are nurtured and therefore more pliable, susceptible and vulnerable
to manipulations. This is where the formal schooling plays a vital role.
At least, for all practical purposes let us keep the ultimate
purpose of education as the creation of a livable, preferably lovely, society
filled with people who share unqualified love towards all and have unqualified
for all.
Role of parents- a delicate and joyful one:-
All these are based on manipulating different aspects of the
attributes of the child.
Certain activities that the children are motivated to adopt as a
part of their natural being help them to become more intelligent, more
expressive, and broad- minded in their early life itself and become wiser as
they grow.
The most important among them is the development of habit of
encouraging the thirst to learn, habit of reading, instigating the hunger to
know more about anything , playing with others, socializing etc.
The worst among them are making them passively watch television,
cinema etc for mere time passing or entertainment etc as these have been found
by leading psychologists to blunt the process of thinking, reasoning etc.
So, parents play a huge role in a child's education. They need
not necessarily teach him or her complicated trigonometry or grammar.
Parenting is the joy of watching, observing, participating and
enjoying the process of growth and development of a child's strengths,
passions, reasoning through several methods including provoking and instigating
arguments to scan the depth and width of the child's intelligence, approach,
the impact of socio-cultural activities around it etc.
Parenting plays it part in everything staring from potty
training to facing the tantrums thrown around when its cravings are
unfulfilled, to trying to understand and adjust to the adolescent hormonal
changes influencing the child’s attitudes and actions etc.
Parenting is watching the child grow from its birth to as long
as you live, even if your child is 60 years old, because it is still your
child, may be now he or she is a parent himself/herself.
But we must participate with him/her, always relating with the a
huge amount of love and affection and also allowing freedom at all times with
calculated concern towards his/her safety and welfare, involving without
interfering, motivating without bothering about the results, always interested
in the child's happiness.
We need
not get into nor can we possibly get into all the specific details of all that
happens in the name of education in different parts of the world. But we must
acknowledge the fact that with constantly changing
trends, demands, aspirations, economic conditions etc all societies are in
constant process of evolution- some requiring more guns and weapons; some
requiring more cars computers and newer technologies etc- the field of
education is still not a clearly mapped atlas and therefore, there are still
many areas which remain undefined because it is still not completely explored
and hence, the potential for knowledge industry is very huge. There are various
areas of life of which the whole knowledge industry is ignorant and every
now and then in the course of open minded exploration of the field of education
one manages to overcome certain ignorance,
As Phenella writes, in “The Unwritten Comedy”,
“To be ignorant of many things is expected
To know you are ignorant of many things is the beginning of wisdom.
To know a category of things of which you are ignorant is the beginning of learning.
To know the details of that category of things of which you are ignorant is to no longer be ignorant.”
All said and done , ultimately, either the society is
indifferent to or ignores or everyone in society scorns at an individual who is
unemployable, unskilled, unintelligent, lacks street smartness, incapable of
achieving any social respectability [leave alone success as defined and
expected by society] etc. No parent would wish his child to be at the receiving
end of social boycott or indifference.
What formal education does is to create an individual, if not
very intelligent or capable but at least one who is fit enough to avoid getting
ignored and scorned on account of anyone of the factors referred in previous
paragraph.
So, formal
schooling is the best available, in a way inevitable , cauldron into which a
child is thrown so that after all the churning they come out as someone better
in as many aspects of social survival skills and capable of living a worthy
life, sometimes with certain additional bonuses of wisdom, humanitarianism, compassion,
creativity, adventurous spirit to discover and invent, rational approaches to
events and actions, ability to create visions and lead, sense of caring and
sharing, willingness to cooperate and help others
Parenting
There
are some excellent practical books like this one ‘Your Growing Child: From
Birth to Adolescence By David Fontana’
Some
links to write ups about parenting
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