Arinjay

EDUCATED IGNORANCE

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people are not used to an atmosphere where excellence is expected ," said the "apple" of many an eye, Steve Jobs, who is believed to have been devoid of formal education. The Oxford Dictionary tells me Education is the process of teaching and learning. According to my limited faculty, Education is a reversible reaction involving exchange of 'knowledge' between the teacher and student. In school, education is often confused with academics. This is sad! The fact that our "education" gives seed to this "ignorance" is tragic.

Education can be paralleled with love while academics is infatuation. Academics, much like infatuation, is the obsession. Love is the deeper thing, the realisation of infinity. Infatuation is the "boy thing" while love is the nemesis of the eternal enemy (time) much like, "Form is temporary, Class is permanent." The importance of education from this comparison needs no hyperbolic glorification. This obsession with academics has already had a grave impact on the potential of many a talented talisman, so much so that their conscience pricks their heart, "Did I flatter to deceive?" This 'rat' race to be perched on the summit of information (read marks and rankings) has left us beneath the nadir of true knowledge. We are thus 'plagued'! I am neither judging nor drawing conclusions. To perceive and concieve a matter of such apocalyptic proportions is beyond the stretch of my mortality.

This is exactly where a school becomes necessary for the child's development. Development is not getting an IIT and then selling yourself for a nice capon lined cheque at the end of each month. We must not become mere slaves of the system. If your silence is not eloquent, talk the talk, but dont forget to walk the walk. Our system terms a someone as a bad boy simply because he cannot score that examination sheet. He might be the top scorer on the field. But then thats a "different ball game!" What one fails to understand is that ball or pen, winners matter, the game doesnt.

Education is not merely confined to the claustrophobic classrooms. Love or hate, you cannot debate, when I second Tagore on his idea of learning in the open. Yes, I also mean open-mindedness, which at present is sadly knocking on 'closed' doors. You may hark upon my cynicism, labelling me a mean skeptic but I definitely mean what I say. Our Education system has been designed only to accomodate winners of the Darwinian Society. How far ahead are we then from the stone age or indeed the forests? Being a social animal is a virtue but then the word social seems to disappear after a certain stage.

Sitting on the bed for hours galore adds more weight to one's adipose than his personality and this goes much against my stomach. Without the presence of a school with a sound value system these "words of wisdom" get "lost in the echo"! Life skills, arguably the core of education, has often been overlooked in order to produce toppers. Toppers of an examination seem to be comfortably complacent with the acievement of a molehill when there was a mountain to climb.

Schools are a messiah when it comes to education of generation gap, preferrably in the constructive sense. When one spends the best part of his/her growing days at a particular institution, he is bound to pick up the habits of the educators there. But the problem with today's boisterous youth is that they have this self proclaimed aura of invincibility and when this gets lost in the clear stream of reason, we produce people with a misplaced sense of purpose. This is where schools have to step in and bridge this gaping wound left by generation gap with the quality cement of trust because today's teen believes respect is earned not inherited. The youth love authority of command not command of authority. The youth of today regards the past a baseless blast. Education will teach them this delusion of adequacy will make the future a ramshackle edifice. Schools need to convince th young that thier conclusions may not always be period. Its all about mind over matter. The young dont mind and the old dont matter. Considering the old, strictly matter (one only having mass and occupying space) will solely provoke the desire but frustrate in performance. Only a 'dog' with 'pedigree' will have his day. The other education ignored by most is to help stray students, which is now an increasing phenomenon. Rejection, depression and failure is often unaddressed. The drooping shoulder of their defiance solders none but mediocrity. They too, had a dream. A song to sing. But the melody now stands a Voice of Discord. From giving their eyes delight, courtesy shocking sartorial sacrilege, to taking up the "royal challenge" of life, they have failed to make it large. There is no better place than school to educate oneself against these evils. Watching one blow smoke in the air is symbolic of his broken dreams. He is left to question, "Was I born to be or not to be?" Rhetoric when you consider him sniffing the boulevard of broken breath. The heart of his poor mother shall remain unfathomable, though corruption may cease. Education is our only way out. The only solution to this quandary is by imparting true education which can only be done in school and not a tutorial centre because education is not business. It is the realisation of truth and beyond. We must be right even if our system is wrong. None of us have a grey matter which is too grey to matter. Our mind should be without fear and our head should be held high. The "careless whisper" should be powerful enough to take you to "roads untravelled". Leaning on the lampost of wisdom for support rather than illumination will only result in the "greed to be somebody but fear to be nobody!" We must not forget that failure is the pillar of success. Dusk paves the way for a new dawn. School education taught me dark nights give way to bright days. Don Bosco Park Circus has told me, every cloud has a silver lining. It has taught me, beyond the darkness of every tunnel there is light. Beyond every death, there is LIFE....
Yes, into THAT heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.