Education is the exploration of the world we live in.
Every time my Mom says “I can’t believe he is educated! Is this what an educated person does?” I always respond by saying that education doesn’t teach these things. However, this conversation repeats every time I meet her.
The society we live in, believes that anyone who has earned a graduate degree is educated. As an engineering graduate who studied in a college that had no HOD in the department for all the 4 years, I have mostly seen lecturers who just came to the classroom to fill the blackboard. All I was expected to do in class was to copy from the board. I never believed that an engineering student could learn like that. So what do people like my Mom expect from such a graduate!
What did I achieve from my college education? I became an independent learner. I earned many friends whose relationship and life stories, made a huge impact in me. The degree I earned was a passport that got me out of my middle class status by giving me a job that also took me around the world. That way, I cannot complain about my college education.
However, this cannot be education. Neither my school nor my college education made me wonder. I was kept occupied for years with writing something or the other. When I started to travel around the world, I really started learning. Meeting people, exploring different landforms and experiencing various cultures opened up my mind and broke a lot of prejudices within me.
Education is the process of exploring the world around me. There is wonder everywhere.
Every person I meet is unique. Learning to interact with each person is a wonder.
When I look at the birds, I wonder about their behaviour – the way they fly, how they catch insects while in flight, how they change the colour of their feathers during breeding time and so on.
At nights, when I listen to the crickets and the nocturnal creatures, I wonder how their lifestyle would be. Thanks to directors like David Attenborough, I get a glimpse into their world and I wonder more about them.
When I look at the sky, the stars and the empty spaces in between, I wonder about the nature of this universe. It makes me research and learn more.
Oh! The mighty spiders! The skill with which they spin their webs in such geometrical precision and the various ways they catch and save their prey!
The plant kingdom and the magic it creates in this world – this list is never ending.
The microcosm to the macrocosm – the wonder of it all makes me a learner forever.
Education must allow a child to explore all these and keep wondering. Education must make a person a lifelong learner.
If this is education, then how can there be an “educated person”?
