The
WHYs of education?
“People
lose their way when they lose their why” says, Michael Hyatt.
We need to know first why we
are pursuing some education.
Not mere academic
qualification or mere literacy, though they too are equally relevant and
important for many aspects of social life.
Then why we need it?
Whether whatever we do in the
name of education are they increasing happiness, adding value to the one doing
it and then to others?
Whether it is tool for
attaining something else or an end in itself?
What are all the skill sets
we want out of education?
Most importantly what is the
trade off?
It need not necessarily be
the constant obsession with trade off for our time and money spend to be compensated
with more money without greater happiness, peace and better understanding.
Education is not merely
confined to making or earning money, skills in communication and calculation.
Whether any external coaching
can improve intelligent perception beyond knowledge acquisition?
Whether anything can improve
our understanding or our thinking or more interestingly go beyond the realms of
thoughts?
Whether any specific method
can endow us with some ability to grasp the pulse of every subject or inject clarity
of understanding?
Normally, the best education
starts with curiosity, meanders through imitation- as a natural instinct for short
cut- as a child learns to speak the language and words spoken by its parents
then expands through exploration, experimentation, empirical verification,
rational justification and so on.
I have read a lot on the
subject of education to get confused enough and I have written enough to pass on
the confusion.
But when I encounter people, some
of the so-called highly educated groping in the dark clueless in many areas of
life or manifesting obvious idiocy then I am forced to look into the meaning,
purpose and utility of the whole gamut of education.
Most of us when we talk of
education, in general, not specific education for a intended outcome or purpose,
are still swimming in a sea of vagueness and club a wide range of things under
one single generic term ‘education’ including in it everything from basic
literacy, ability to communicate, better verbal articulation of already available
information or interpretation of existing data to making in depth study in the mechanism
of the subject of study.
There is nothing wrong in
this but we need to merely and humbly accept the fact that we do not have
enough clarity whenever we use the word education.
Like everything else in life education
too involves a constant process of adjustment and learning.
“If we know exactly where we're going, exactly how to get
there, and exactly what we'll see along the way, we won't learn anything”.
M.S.Peck
Whenever we undertake or
undergo any education the following aspects are embedded in our subconscious mind
and they leave their imprint.
“All of us have our own inner fears, beliefs,
opinions. These inner assumptions rule and govern our lives. A suggestion has
no power in and of itself. Its power arises from the fact that you accept it
mentally.”― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
“We must realize that the
subconscious mind is the law of action and always expresses what the conscious
mind has impressed on it. What we regularly entertain in our mind creates a
conception of self. What we conceive ourselves to be, we become.”- Grace
Speare.
In addition
we are also subjected to the influences and impacts externally of a whole array
of thoughts, ideas and ideologies of various hues and colors.
None of
these can be defied or denied for any reason.
It would be
a mistake if we conclude knowledge and understanding only in certain specific areas
or domains of life is enough because life itself is too intricate, interconnected,
inter- related and interdependent on various factors each having its own varied
dimensions and variety of dynamics both
inner dynamics as well as interactive dynamics.
However, we
cannot go on and on, debating and discussing the multiple meanings and
complexities of education.
We need to
start somewhere for the benefit of
maximum number of human beings as individuals as well as social entities and
the whole natural environment we need to evolve some forms of education systems
with lofty, practically useful, easily executable ideals and goals, all on the
whole creating a synergy that will be of great value in any situation rather
than getting educated excluding many things which one may be required to come across in life later
on and get stranded clueless and forced to depend on everyone else.
“In the end nothing less than the whole of everything can be
the truth of anything at all”- William James
If possible as Thomas
Huxley says, "Try to learn something about
everything and everything about
something."
In way we must be humble enough to acknowledge these pearls of wisdom
that learning may broadly impart to us:-
1."All intelligent
thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary
is only to try to think them again." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2. “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon
the shoulders of giants.” -Sir Isaac Newton
3. Albert Einstein
said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer."
And
ultimately from whatever pearls of
wisdom we manage to learn we need to pass on conducive terrain with the wisdom
that we have gained for posterity
through many aspects of social engineering of which education is of
paramount importance
