Education and what we can expect from it.docx

7/27/2019 Education and what we can expect from it.docx

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Education and what we can expect from it.


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1. The Economic and Intellectual motives.

In the Katha Upanishad, Nachiketas reaches the abode of Yama and is

fortunate enough to have conversation with him. When Nachiketas reaches

there Yama wasnt home and returns only three days later during which time

Nachiketas was hungry and desolate in a new and unknown place. Realising his

mistake of neglecting hospitality to a Brahmin Yama in order to wipe off his sin

decides to grant any three boons of Nachiketas. The first two boons that

Nachiketas asks is quite easy for Yama to fulfil, but the third boon horrifies

him. Nachiketas asks as his third boon that Yama must teach him what

happens to the soul after liberation from the body. Yama knows that the

question is a metaphysical one and extremely tricky. Moreover one has to go

through a great deal of trouble to be able to explain it to a young child. Yama

asks him to ask anything other than this but Nachiketas is persistent. Yama

promises him land, gold and dominion, wealth and prosperity and everything

else in lieu to the present boon. But Nachiketas replies beautifully that all

these other things, though precious it looks to some, are perishable butknowledge alone is immortal. Nothing but knowledge can take the soul to

immortality. After all one doesnt get the opportunity of meeting Yama

everyday and so to ask any other boon but this would be folly. Yama who is

extremely overwhelmed by Nachiketas hunger for knowledge and wisdom in

spite of his luring now agrees to teach him the doctrine of the liberation of self.

Nachiketas story though imaginary it may be is extremely valuable to us in

our present investigation because the predicament of Yama is the predicamentof all forms of modern education. The modern system of education is faced by

an insoluble dilemma namely, the conflict between the intellectual motive and

the economic. The way out of this problem is easy and hard at the same time.

Whether a system of education must give more importance to the intellectual

life of man or to the intellectual depends greatly upon the value of either to

the individual and to the community. Man is a social animal and has to act

both as an intellectual and as a citizen and therefore to simply waive the


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economic motive out of education, although correct it may seem in the eyes of

scholastics and academics, isnt as practical as it seems on first sight.

In every nation education is the duty of the ruling state. If we look at a

community of men through the eyes of the state, what we find is a collection

of individual entities living amidst a collection of individual amenities. And each

and every individual unit has an effect on the whole and the whole has an

effect on the individual. The relationship is mutual and hence the whole is

responsible to the unit and the unit to the whole. This is the picture of Man we

get when we look down upon him from the eyes of the state.

With the rise of communication and transport and the reduction of the

conflicts and hostility the human network today is more interconnected andsubsequently more intricate than it was in the previous ages. The integration

of people and the formation of communities are happening on an ever faster

scale, and reduction of barriers and the reduction of enmity have greatly

improved the collaboration of man albeit the differences in location, colour

and creed. This state of affairs is undeniably favourable and any ruling

authority, if it has foresight, will want to keep it unmolested and preserved.

But there are moments in history when these times of union and

interdependence are destroyed by the greed of men and thus the world is

once more disconnected and the relation between man and man becomes

repulsive. The whole history of mankind is nothing but this constant change

from union to disunion and from peace to commotion and violence or vice

versa. In order to achieve the greatest development of man it is necessary that

his energy is not wasted in this useless struggle for victory and dominance of

one people over another. In order that the creative life of man reaches its

maximum this world must be a moral world unhindered by useless commotionand disturbance. Perhaps it would do well to man that he founds a universal

nation, formation a world-community of men so as to ensure absence of all

uncharitable feelings between men.

In order to ensure the victory of the positive and glorious side of man, his

negative, uncreative and useless tendencies must be destroyed. As we say all

this, we get the feeling that all this is still wholly theoretical. Never can we

have a state of absolute co-operation and never can the negative side of manbe absolutely curbed. Still the attempt to bring about a combination of


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individual creativity and social collaboration instilled by a tendency for social

wellbeing and charity can be understood as Governmental Education. No

government can survive without unity among its votaries. Without internal

allegiance and an allegiance to the government, no government can stand. So

to provide the students with an education which will bring into them a spirit of

co-operation and fidelity to the authority is the priority of any form of

government, anywhere in the world if it has in it any desire for survival.

Although this form of education is constantly carried out one still finds a great

many instances of hatred and jealousy, disobedience and disunity, and

ignorance persists a great deal in almost every government in the world.

There are a great many reasons why that is so, and we consider some of

them as we go further, and one among them is economic in nature. No man

can discuss Plotinus or Aristotle with an empty stomach. The poor farmer in a

poor district has already the problem of repaying the zamindar to be solved, he

wouldnt have the necessary state of mind to solve the problems of

Mathematics or relish the beauties of Leibnizs philosophy. Albeit the bold

utterances of Idealists, economic problems are earnest indeed. It is very

difficult and only rarely possible for an economically poor man to be

intellectually and morally rich. So also is social co-operation and internationalunity destroyed due to this problem. Poverty breeds jealousy and greed and

the necessity snatching the property of others. If the financial side of human

life is unsatisfied never can we expect to get rid of wars and conquests,

robbery and enmity and more importantly ignorance. If the whole of human

life be wasted in eeking out a livelihood where then would there be time and

circumstance to feed the intellect with its proper nourishment.

Money must not be the aim of education but at the same time educationmust be capable of making man capable of standing on his own feet which is a

prerequisite for proper intellectual development. The accumulation of

knowledge has certain requirements to be fulfilled and without the fulfilment

of which it may not be possible to create a knowledgeable society. Remember

all this is from the collective perspective and not from the individual point of

view. The individual point of view of education I shall discuss in the succeeding

chapters.


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Only a society that is peaceful, tolerant and self-sufficient can be

educated and cultured. So for a society to be completely peaceful and

tolerant, it must not have any need for wars and the appropriation of

anothers property. Everyone must have proper food and other necessities,

including leisure. The community mustnt be in such a condition that it would

necessitate compulsory labour or labour to such an extent that man wouldnt

be left with any leisure at all to serve his creative urges and educational

impulses. The men in the community mustnt be constantly in need of working

and striving for the sake of basic necessities and comforts. A nation as a whole

must be self-sufficient and mustnt fall prey to the impulses of greed and

untoward appropriation. Only if all these conditions are satisfied can perfect

and proper education be possible in any society, however intellectuallyinclined the members may be.

So it is not completely wrong for a system of education to teach their

students methods and techniques of economic progress along with an

impersonal and unmotivated pursuit of knowledge. It is necessary to teach

them the means of survival and self-sufficiency which would lead them to

communal harmony and peace. And these are required to ensure that the

student is always on the road of pure pursuit of knowledge unhindered by thenecessity of any other motive. For economic problems are sure hindrances in

the path of progress, there are other hindrances as well with which well deal

later on in our investigation. So we can conclude that to teach methods and

ways of economic sufficiency by educational systems is justified both when

looked at from the individual as well as from the collective point of view.

(continue with the evils of economic education)

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Education and what we can expect from it.docx