Jiddu Krishnamurti

Purpose of Education
For years students have been told, and some even forced to go to school and receive an education. For many this may seem normal to go to school every day while others may find it is a waste of their time, but for some people it may be only a dream to receive an education. No matter from what perspective one may view education, there are a handful of people who have spoken out on education questioning whether or not if school really is necessary. Some of the people that have spoken out on education are Jiddu Krishnamurti, Noam Chomsky, and myself, have all brought different but very important view that they have on education its self.
Jiddu Krishnamurti was an Indian writer and speaker who wrote an article “the function of education”. Throughout his article Jiddu asks himself a number of questions pertaining to the objective of hour and hours of studying and examinations but Jiddu did not ask these questions for the students but also for the parents, teachers and others on our planet to really ask ourselves why we go to school. Jiddu makes a statement where he explains that humans are becoming unsure of the reason to life, “Surely, life is not merely a job, an occupation; life is something extraordinarily wide and profound, it is a great mystery, a vast realm in which we function as human beings. If we merely prepare ourselves to earn a livelihood, we shall miss the whole point of life; and to understand life is much more important than merely to prepare for examinations and become very proficient in mathematics, physics, or what you will”. In this quote Jiddu states that education is dulling the lives of our world and for many it is creating this mandatory focus on getting a good job and for the majority of students of today that is their meaning of life. The message that Jiddu is trying to get across to many students is that life is not meant to be a chore and Jiddu want to show that beautiful side of the world, “Life is really very beautiful, it is not this ugly thing that we have made of it; and you can appreciate its richness, its depth, and its extraordinary loveliness only when you revolt against everything - against organized religion, against tradition, against the present rotten society - so that you as a human being find out for yourself what is true. Not to imitate but to discover - that is education, is it not?” finding things out for one’s self that to me is truly receiving information from finding things out for myself. Jiddu agrees that humans must have knowledge and an education to order to live in this world, but taking it to the extent where education takes over billions of student lives each day is taking away from something much more valuable than their free time, it takes away joy in life.

Chomsky has more of a different stance on education compared to Jiddu, where Jiddu saw that education was corrupting student’s views on life, Chomsky views education as a trap controlling what student learn and the limits that are given to express one’s self. The educational system has always felt the best way to teach to students is to place them into a rectangular room with limited space facing the teacher this can easily be compared to a jail like area to contain people. Chomsky see’s the education system to be extremely controlling over students and their actions, “There have been many measures taken to try to turn the educational system towards more control, more indoctrination, more vocational training, imposing a debt, which traps students and young people into a life of conformity… That’s the exact opposite of what traditionally comes out of The Enlightenment. And there’s a constant struggle between those. In the colleges, in the schools, do you train for passing tests, or do you train for creative inquiry?” Chomsky strongly believes that the educational system controls the way students think starting at a young age affecting them for the rest of their life. Education really does make an impact on one’s life and affects them for the rest of their life, Chomsky also believes that education is taking away many creative minds that we have in this world and the artists who speak their mind are decreasing every year because of the impact of education, “It’s the way cultural progress takes place generally. Classical artists, for example, came out of a tradition of craftsmanship that was developed over long periods, with master artisans and others, and sometimes, you can rise on their shoulders and create new marvelous things. But it doesn’t come from nowhere. If there isn’t a lively cultural and educational system, which is geared towards encouraging creative exploration, independence of thought, willingness to cross frontiers, to challenge accepted beliefs… if you don’t have that, you’re not going to get the technology that could lead to economic gains.” In the times of the renaissance the most popular career path was being an artist and how drastically education has changed is unbelievable. Chomsky see’s that the creativeness of our students has gone done and this is caused by the educational system.
Being in school for 14 years of my life I find extremely hard to let go of the habits that I have picked up on as a child, for example all the way up to grade 11 it was imperative for the students to raise your hand in class and ask to go use the washrooms. To some this may seem easy to overcome but coming into grade 12 now that asking to use the washroom feels to be criminal for that is what we have been taught from a young age. A interesting point that really stood out to me was a statement that Chomsky brings up where he states,
“Passing tests doesn’t begin to compare with searching and inquiring and pursuing topics that engage us and excite us. That’s far more significant than passing tests and, in fact, if that’s the kind of educational career you’re given the opportunity to pursue, you will remember what you discovered.” This statement stood out to me because this is what I’ve always strived to do to pursue a subject that I love and I find when I study that particular subject I remember facts easier compared to a subject I despise. To come to conclusion I strongly agree with the points both Jiddu and Chomsky bring and home that soon one day a change to the educational system does change to ease the lives of students everywhere.