Education From My Prespective

These past few weeks my encounters with a whole different league of educated and scholarly resulted in some serious questions about the meaning of education itself. My mother and brother believe it’s only natural that as you become more learned you turn more arrogant, it’s like one of those things in life you learn to deal with. I can't help but disagree. Either the people I've met didn't have the right kind of schooling or maybe the entire concept of education has changed today.

So what does one really gather by the term ‘education’ and I don't mean to ask the literal meaning. As kids we’re forced into an institution of our least liking; tricked with the charms of new friends and better life which in reality is virtually non-existent. Those who have a hard time in the first few weeks or possibly months in school, gradually begin to realize that there is no way out. Kids go to school because they're forced by parents, the society in some cases but in general because no one can think of anything better. One school after another.. so much time is spent on arguing about pointless issues that we forget ask ourselves why are we in this institution in the first place?

Schools and colleges are more or less a tradition I suppose, that too common through out the world. The classrooms across the globe are similar in the context that they contain chairs, desks, chalkboards and notice boards in general. They do, however, differ in terms of quantity and quality. Perhaps same could be said about the kind of education provided. Broadly speaking, there is the right kind of education and wrong. However, since these two terms are not explicitly defined anywhere, most probably because of the lack of common ground, it’s safe to assume that a blend of both is most prevalent. Other elements also play a significant role but that’s just another chapter altogether.

The point is, throughout our lives we are continuously on a roll. Moving from one place to another, new experiences and new beginnings every now and then. There are few who stop and evaluate themselves and their lives. We don’t understand the importance of the present at times when we really need to. Not that I’m any better, I get caught in the moment a bit too often myself. But I’d like to think that I’m learning from my mistakes. In either case, I’ve always thought of education as a process which teaches you not only the universal laws and theoretical facts but provides a better understanding of everything alive.

Five years from today, I failed to convince a friend of mine that education is extremely vital no matter how pointless it may seem at the moment. He argued that one could learn more from raw experiences than from schools. I had no reasons to support my argument then because up till that day I never bothered with such questions. I merely said what was fed in my mind. The incident left me silent for quite a while. A time came when I had to choose between two things, or so I felt. Am I in this college because I want a financially secure future or do I want to actually learn something from these textbooks? Some new ideas, odd encounters and youthful assumptions left me with the conclusion that I’m not really learning unless I’m having fun. Of course everything went downhill from that point onwards. I was never really good at cramming things so I tried to understand logics to the best of my ability.

As I’m still going trough this education process, I feel inexperienced to derive a definite conclusion. Hence, I can not say what I will be like after four years but I do keep certain mental notes so that I don't become the kind person I despise. Having said that, I reckon that degrees and years of schooling in essence teach you how to survive in the world. Your financial needs at one end and people and relationships at the other. But it’s only after you get out of college that you put your skills and knowledge to practical use. You need these institutions to prepare for the wilderness called life. So if after 16 years, you learn that the only way to prove yourself right is to prove the other one wrong, what it is that you’ve learned? You ought to become wise and sensible. Decency and common courtesy is a part of education. And it certainly doesn’t take special grooming classes to learn that.