Does education only mean scoring sky scraping grades? Does education only mean stepping into the high esteemed technological, science, commerce and humanities institutes or courses? Do you only see an IAS officer or any high ranked officer as an example of excellent education? Does only spoken English make you educated? Do you only perceive great scientists, economists, psychologists and mathematicians as educated? Do you portray sportspersons, bodybuilders, artists, singers and creatives as talented but not educated (Virat kohli khelta to kamaal hai par fir bhi padha likha thodi hai)? Most of us would be perplexed over these fundamental questions. So, what really is EDUCATION?
What is Education?
As Albert Einstein said “Education is not learning of facts but the training of mind to think”. So, why have we, as intellectual beings, confined the domain of education? It should be BRAIN TATTOOED that any activity due to which there occurs a workout of brain is education. Therefore, a cricketer is educated in cricket and a bodybuilder is educated in augmenting man’s meat (hypertrophy of muscles). Similarly, a singer is educated in singing and a dancer is educated in dancing. Yes, beaming grades, admission into high esteemed colleges, IAS officers, scientists, economists, psychologists, mathematicians and articulate spoken English are definite calibrations of education but these are not the only calibrations of education. For REAL education, distinction between scoring good marks and not scoring good marks is, but a stubborn illusion. Let’s analyze this statement of deep meaning and importance. Get back to what Dr. Einstein said that education is training of mind to think, so this means that as long as our brain is getting trained we are acquiring education. As long as training of brain is there (Note that definition of education is not emphasising to get good marks, getting into high esteemed institutes, being only scientist, etc.) education is there. Now, let’s see the term education through an open brain and apply the definition of education in colleges (Yeah, interesting).
College dilemma
In colleges, many of us sabotage ourselves by hypnotising ourselves against careers which do not include scoring good marks. We viscerally believe in hallucinated definition of education that only good marks are laurels of education. We substantially feel that good marks will give us good shaak (status). These superficial visceral beliefs are the foundational murderers of talent, creativity, humongous dreams and lofty success. We need to reconsider the definition of education. We need to reinstall the understanding of the term ‘education’. We need to re-reflect light on education through a new, fresh and original perspective. Citing another example of Dr. Einstein’s wisdom- “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” (Are yeto bachpan se sunte aarhe hai). But ab samajhne ki bari hai. Virat Kohli (Fish) is a total failure when measured against his success in academics. Similarly, Steve Jobs (Another Fish) will also totally perish. But are Virat Kohli and Steve Jobs really failures? I can hear a big NO from you. Suppose a student who is an expert in painting starts sabotaging his painting skills to get good marks in college’s course just to maintain the standard and to fit in that superficial definition of education. Now, this painter’s success is being calibrated against his semester grades and not against his painting skills. This superficial definition of education is so robust that now the fish (illuminating painter) considers itself a failure because it can’t climb tree like others (can’t score good marks like others because he scores magnificent in painting). He/She does not know the right definition of education hence befools himself/herself of his/her painting acumen, falls prey to the wrong perception of education and ultimately becomes a SUCCESSFUL FAILURE (dream ends). Now, I believe that everyone can relate to this scenario. Read the right definition of education discussed in this article many times and contemplate over it until you comprehend it successfully. A knife has the power to cut stuff but only when it is understood and applied rightly. Similarly, education has power but only when it is understood and applied rightly. We should understand that there is a genuine need to apprehend the definition of education rightly. Scoring marks is not bad but it should not be the only crux of education and if we know that the past concepts of education are not serving us better then why not adopt right definition of education?
NOTE: This article is not aimed to demotivate individuals whose psychophysical nature resonates with academics. In this article, our efforts have been to explore the definition of education.
Article by Hrithik Sharma
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