At the outset what do we think when we hear, “education?” Many of us envisage the process of schooling where we acquire knowledge in the classroom where our ability to retain, reproduce, and sometimes reframe that knowledge is evaluated. And as we move up a structural hierarchy where the knowledge attainment process is more complex, and there is anticipation that beyond reproducing knowledge, we will adopt critical thinking of any acquired knowledge. We have calendars and deadlines once we begin our lives in the so-called “real world.” We also have supervisors who will have expectations and projects that will entail guidelines and deadlines that we are required to meet. In this way, educational institutions do prepare us for work. And because of this, many deem that the singular value of education is to prepare the individual to be a productive member of society in the workplace. Yet I find this placing of education as exclusively a preparatory period for a working life scanty.
Education should teach us more than the rules and regulations of becoming a productive worker. Education should provide us with the empathetic structure for how we choose to participate in society beyond the function of being a worker. This participation should extend to how we choose to consume products and services judiciously. Remember money belongs to us, resources do not. Education should teach us to be more open-minded, in the sense of wanting to understand better those around us who do not share our viewpoints of the world. Education should teach us to be more conscious of how much good we can do, and to feel a responsibility to leave the world a better place than we found it. Education teaches us to think and act above the statistical plane of profit and loss. While encountering friction and collision in relations, an educated man withdraws and tenders apology. He justifies by saying “Apology does not mean you are right and I am wrong it simply means we value our relations more than our inflated egos.”
Education should teach us to veil the shortcoming of our colleagues and defend them when others choose to be mute spectators. Education teaches us to reignite the joy of celebrating each other’s achievements and happiness without any hint of jealousy. Your loved one’s success should be your success, too. Education teaches us to define our relations based on the principle of unconditional love and mutual co-existence.
K.G Saiyidain delivered a convocation address at Amar Singh College in the year 1942 on the theme “First things First”. Addressing the students he said if you have the integrity of spirit you must learn to lead intellectually strenuous lives; you must study deeply and widely, cultivating the capacity to appreciate meanings instead of memorizing words and breaking through the rigid and narrow specialism of curricular subjects into the domain of knowledge that really illuminates. Some people feel education at the end leads to fruitless search for employment, but the argument ignores the fact under no circumstances is a stupid or culturally barren mind preferable to an intelligent and cultured mind. Our educated class have often chosen the lazy path of least resistance failing to forge new lines of activity with courage and initiative . If education could really train our minds and character properly, we should not be so helpless and hopeless as we are often inclined to be. The person who has a keen desire to bring a desirable social change in a society must have intellectual clarity, for confused thinking is as harmful as moral dishonesty; he must have courage, physical as well mental, to brave opposition, ridicule and unpopularity. He must possess idealism, he must be sensitive to the needs and sorrows of his fellowmen; above all must possess what Aldous Huxley has called the quality of “non-attachment”.
To work with a sense of detachment does not require renunciation of the world but the capacity to rise above the temptations of the wealth and power. Nothing produces greater fear and timidity in man than attachment to these material objects and selfish ambitions, for the constant dread of losing them haunts him day and night. Love of money has been called “root of all evils” because it leads to all kinds of unscrupulous actions and unworthy compromises and makes it impossible for the covetous person to place first things first which is the highest and the most significant moral imperative.
Once K.G Saiydain went to meet Tagore in his ashram and made the following observation in his dairy. To quote Tagore, a group of older students came to me with a complaint that a large metal vessels full of food are difficult to handle, these have to be dragged, resulting in damaging their bottoms, which dirties the floor. I pointed out to them that instead of finding some solution themselves why they have come to me with a complaint. They were waiting to see that I should relieve them of their inconvenience, rather than finding the solution themselves. Why did a simple solution not come into their head that tying a piece of cotton padding under the pots would avoid friction and prevent the pot from causing holes.
This incident suggests that we never learn to own responsibility and only sit back passively. In our schools we have to give a serious thought to this aspect of life from the very beginning, to develop the character of our students by giving them as much responsibility as possible so that they can be saved from the hateful habit of complaining. Feeling of dissatisfaction and desperation due to the lack of having plenty of material facilities indicates the weakness of character. It is good to have some lack of physical amenities, one has to get used to having fewer things, it is harmful to fulfill all the demands of the children for the sake of showing affection to them. The purpose of education from the very beginning is to think with how little we can manage our lives.
In spite of our educational advantage we have not learnt to distinguish between the really good things of life and the cheap tinsel which dazzles the eyes or appeals to the appetites. And even when we do theoretically distinguish between them, our practical life remains at the inferior level. The highest function of education is to teach our students place first things first and to mould the pattern of our thought and conduct accordingly. Education is the most powerful weapon. We can use to it change the world. Your degree is just a piece of paper; your education is seen in your behavior, attitude and character. No matter how educated, talented, connected or rich you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Now more than ever, educators shouldn’t teach just content, they must also teach morals, ethics and cultivate empathy and mindfulness in every student. Character education fosters the development of moral and ethical citizens by teaching them good values.
Educators have special roles to play in creating kind, compassionate citizens with a strong moral compass. There are many things that can get a man to the top, but there is just only one thing that keeps him there- character. Many companies hire employees for their character and then train them on the job. They do this with the idea that you can teach skill, but cannot change a person’s character. You can never get through your degrees and certificates what you should get through character. I have come to realize in life that until we give the right character its place in our life, we will always end up bankrupt regardless of how buoyant we are in every other area of life. Amid high marks in board exams and the thriving business of coaching centers, does anybody bother about right learning and meaningful education? Or is that as a combined — parents and teachers — we have taken it for granted that there is nothing in education except the ritualization of examinations, the neurotic obsession with the quantification of learning experience, and the myth success is defined by the instrumental reasoning of techno-economic power? Look around, see the pictures of the ‘toppers’ as brand ambassadors of all sorts of coaching centers, and the attractive ads of the ever-expanding coaching shops offering courses in engineering and medical, and alluring the potential students through the narratives of placement and salary packages. And look at the book shops, and see how cheap guide books with all sorts of success mantras and short-cuts have succeeded in replacing the sort of literature that opens the windows of consciousness, enriches one’s understanding of the world, or activates human sensitivity and critical faculty of mind.
Imagine the destiny of a student who has been told by his highly ambitious parents that nothing matters more in life than the urge to be a topper, the strategic power to crack the NEET entrance test, and the internalization of the competitive spirit to run faster, defeat others and go ahead. Imagine the state of awareness of a young student who has been directed by coaching centre ‘pundits’ that there is nothing in physics, chemistry, math and biology except what is needed to succeed in the entrance exams . Or imagine what it means to grow up when one hardly ever gets an opportunity to hear the inner voice, understand one’s unique aptitudes, and is almost compelled to follow the beaten track to success. This is like killing human possibilities; this is alienation; and this is to promote non-reflexive crowd behavior. In an overpopulated country like ours, we live amid dreadful structural constraints. While the shortage of resources and opportunities, and resultant fear of unemployment disturbs us, the sharp socio-economic inequality makes many of us think that skill learning is the only capital one can acquire for upward social mobility. It is, therefore, not astonishing that English-medium schools with memorial names are everywhere, contractors/politicians invest heavily in the mushrooming growth of engineering/medical /BEd colleges. And middle class parents see it as a status symbol if their children with engineering/medical degrees manage to migrate to the foreign lands. In a way, this is the sociology of the dominant ‘common sense’ that characterizes the rampant educational practice in India. However, amid this market-driven utility, there is something deep and permanent we are missing. And if we do not take care of it, we will finally cause severe intellectual, spiritual and politico-ethical damage to our society. This requires a realization that meaningful education is not just confined to skill learning or technical efficiency; nor can the worth of right education be measured through the utilitarian scale of success.
It is likewise important to realize that our children are not simply ‘resources’ to be trained by coaching centers and colleges of engineering/medical, and utilized by the corporate empire. True education helps us develop empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence, which are essential for personal and professional success. Education is not just about acquiring knowledge, but about developing virtues such as honesty, compassion, integrity, and respect for others. It is about learning how to be a good citizen and a responsible member of society. True education teaches us how to live a meaningful and fulfilling life, not just how to make a living. True education goes beyond classroom walls and permeates every aspect of life. Our children are endowed with possibilities; they are not born only to memorize the facts of history and civics, solve chemistry numerical and differential equations, and ‘prove’ before a highly tyrannical/judgmental society that they are ‘intelligent’ and ‘meritorious’. Let us begin to accept it. Our children, far from being exam warriors, are potentially rovers, seekers, explorers; they are born with the eyes to see, the brain to cognize and conceptualize, the heart to feel and experience, and the hands and legs to do things. And meaningful education is basically the process of inner flowering; it is a quest for the integral development of the faculties of reason and love, and creative labor and intellectual reasoning. Education is the festivity of awareness. Education is sensitivity to life and transform the ordinary — say, repairing a bike, nursing one’s old grandma, or watching a dull sunset — into the extraordinary. I conclude with this quote Education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom.
Dr Showkat Rashid Wani, Coordinator, Directorate of Distance Education, University of Kashmir