If you remember your history texts about our primitive ancestors, you must know that the early humans were hunter-gatherers, and gradually began to colonize parts of Africa, then migrated to other parts of the supercontinent.
The moment humans began to settle down, they started to cultivate primitive farming, hunting, with the use of handmade tools, which seems appealing. There was a need to pay more attention to detail and physical prowess in order to improve farming, hunting, shelter, and clothing techniques. Imagine how they would have come together to share best practices and create separate groups. Some groups to make handmade tools, some to cultivate crops, and some to build, hunt, and protect the clan.
This was the first attempt to educate ourselves and the ultimate goal of education was to cultivate life skills to survive.
EDUCATION IN PRESENT TIME
Fast forward hundreds of thousands of years; we have come a long way since then. Currently, we have turned to this modern diaspora, which is related to the highly tested and proven way of life. Yet, there are some nations and communities that are in extreme poverty, we have grown and developed as far as we are today.
We have many advanced, state-of-the-art and modern universities around the world, open to every deserving person. Even the rest of the educational institutions also teach children and adolescents more than primitive existence. We are being motivated to dream big and become ideal citizens of the communities we occupy.
The concept of education has evolved very rapidly with human beings with the ultimate goal of opening one’s heart and mind towards the beauty and strangeness of life. All of this is taught from different perspectives, such as history, in which we learn how we came to be, what battles were fought, and what we learnt from them all.
Compared to our primitive ancestors, we are enjoying the most advanced and modern times of all. But, how good we are, is enough to make fun of who we are. We also need to look at what education has done to us, the downside.
Prejudicies in Education
It doesn’t matter if we learn, read and recall the stories of the great philosophers of the past. Our prejudices today make all learning useless in nanoseconds.
We learn prejudice first at home, then in schools and universities. Some of the examples are as under:
- Only certain group of individuals are made to work as maids and helpers
- We look down upon people who struggle to talk properly, walk properly and so on
- Politicians take advantage of race and caste divisions
The list can never end. But why isn’t everyone worried about these things? One observation is because; all these have turned into our tradition; the way we live our lives. We are all living fast paced lives. We don’t have time to pull back and remember our actions. That is why we hear people say “I don’t have time for this/that…”
WHAT IS REAL EDUCATION?
Real education is not just about what we study in schools and universities. Education is also not about your position and your pay scale. Real education is about developing knowledge and wisdom for the nurture of life.
Our academic education is familiar with theories & skills. However we have insufficient information about the practical application of those principles and skills. Although we all know the importance and breadth of real-world application and challenges, we cannot adequately apply our educational knowledge to the practical world.
Definition of Education:-
According to one of the many popular opinions, real learning can be defined as “re-thinking engagement and approaches to learning (REAL)”, which means a progressive cycle of learning approaches and skills based on your thinking process and connection to the outside world..
All we can say is that real education should be about recognizing your inner potential and creating an excellent version of yourself. This allows a person to easily navigate efficiently and effectively in their professional life as well as throughout their life. This does not mean that there will never be a problem, but that you have acquired the knowledge of values and wisdom that will take you out safely.
Education can be divided in three types mainly:-
- Education from School & College
- Education from Real World (through different Experiences & Learning)
- Self-education (knowing, understanding and organizing oneself)
Mixture of these three in balance manner will lead you in your profession & life as well.
A person who does not acquire sufficient knowledge about himself and his inner calling / passion will not be able to approach the education that is really suitable for him and will not be able to connect his thinking with the outside world.
Having knowledge, intuitive, exploratory, interpretive and innovative skills about oneself will increase stability, independence and self-directed state of thought and action. Stability is a component of perfection, so they can build their profession & overall life in a far better way.
Stairway to a better lifestyle
Being literate gets you a degree to show off in society, while being educated brings you the lifestyle and value you must get in a community. Every child getting educated understands the importance of becoming financially independent and bears his/her own expenditure. Education teaches a sense of responsibility in every person. The sooner you get such a feeling of developing your way of life, the better will be your livelihood as you grow up. Education teaches a child to dream and define the goals. Without an aim, a person is like a dead man. It recognizes the skills and interests of the children and helps the parents understand the career their child might want to proceed in. For example, a child may be good at painting, and he/she identifies his/her talent by participating in various online and offline competitions. Such doors of opportunities can be availed by the children and they can choose where they want to head off in the future. Education creates an objective in every child since their earlier days and they become responsible citizens as they grow up.
Shaping their personality
Each child is different and has unique qualities. Unfortunately, some qualities or skills like confidence and leadership are required by the world from every person are to be developed. Education helps in developing such qualities and making the child face the world and the competition existing outside. There are various online learning platforms which can help children developing their personalities. Children can get in touch which such virtual learning programs and get in touch with their other acquaintances. Such mental education helps children expand their network and they become more and more confident.
Making them aware of their community
If we want our children to know about their community, we should show them about our culture from the very beginning. Education makes the children aware of their society and its different elements and it also teaches them about the other religions prevailing around them and the concept of how there is unity in such a diverse environment. An educated child understands and respects the different cultures around him. Respecting every spiritual belief makes an individual a responsible citizen. Such a sense of belongingness cannot be taught to an adult. It can only be taught to a child. Childhood is the best time to bring compassion and acceptance into one’s life to become an ideal human being.
Shattering the patriarchal beliefs of society
Children are the future of the country and educating a child means making a nation brighter. With the development in the curriculum, education no longer focuses on academic matters and simple subjects. Several online learning platforms provide knowledge about equality between individuals. For example, if a child finds that the discrimination is happening with their family members, he/she will also understand the necessary steps they can take as a child to end this as we grow up. Awareness of gender discrimination and inequality prevailing in society is essential for children to break the stereotype and create an inclusive environment for themselves and their future generations.
Looking at the bigger picture
Education makes a child look beyond the four walls and do something for the society. We are all socially responsible people. Everything we do in our society is due to the contributions of our community to us. Therefore, we must understand our responsibility to the society and give back to the community. Education teaches our children how to be socially responsible citizens and how to take care of others starting from their family to their neighbors and finally to the community. It is through education that our children understand the importance of keeping the environment clean. With increasing digitalization, various virtual learning platforms teach children about the effects of pollution on Earth and, ultimately, their lives. They need this kind of knowledge to understand how they can make a small contribution to society. A child who knows about the ill effects of pollution will never throw garbage on the streets. Education can have such an effect on our young minds!
Education is not only studying, getting a job, getting married, bringing up family and taking care of children, it is journey from we as a child to our children. But this is not all life and education, the real education is that which makes you ready for the life. It enables you learn, cultivate and develop the healthy values for life. Education should enable you to overcome the obstacles, difficulties and barriers of life. When we talk of education it is not four walls classroom education but the EDUCATION FOR LIFE, A JOURNEY FROM CONVERTING THE HUMAN BEING IN TO BEING HUMAN. The real education conveys you not only knowledge but wisdom too. Only wisdom takes you ahead in life. If you navigate smoothly in your life then only you are truly educated. Real education develops life skills. One must be able to manage his/her life efficiently and effectively. It does not mean that there will never be any problems but if wisdom is applied, one will get out of it easily.
We cannot change the rough, bumpy and rough roads of life but there are very few people who have the ability to cross such roads with their own intellect. One can explore new ways of life. One can walk even on less traveled and non-traveled roads. Real education is a holistic education that develops and takes care of not only your body but also your mind, heart and soul. Real education must lead to one’s wellness, well-being and welfare (WWW), it must lead to eminence, expertise and excellence (EEE) and it must lead to development of Inventive, innovative and intuitive (III) skills, too.
LIFE =BODY+MIND+HEART+SOUL
Real education must be leading to overall health, happiness, peace and contentment in life. It must lead to your spiritual advancement. Material success is not a guarantee of peace & happiness, as some people may attain success by material education. Will they pass / qualify the examination of life? That is a big question. Real education will develop the values and traits of goodness and kindness, compassion and love. The true spirit of the person should be an aligned, non-sectarian, harmonious, inclusive, balanced approach to life. Real education should serve till the end of life and that is possible only through holy and sattvic life.
“Real Education: For Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality” is a 2008 book by Charles Murray, written to challenge academic romanticism, which asks a lot of questions from students at the bottom of an intellectual heap, asks the wrong from the people in the middle, and asks too little from the people at the top.”
Murray states “four simple truths” about education:
- “Ability varies.”
- “Half of the children are below average.”
- “Too many people are going to college.”
- “World’s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted.”
Thus, there are so many individual thoughts about ‘what is real education?’ and it might change from person to person. But, every thought of real education must be encouraging self-care as well as caring of others and self-growth as well as helping the society growing.
