I have a very large bone to pick with education (EMPHASIS IS ON LARGE). With all gratitude in my heart, i am appreciative of the amount of “stuff” i know. For instance that the sum of one and one is two and that a noun is simply the name of a person, animal, place or thing (Bravo!!! And the audience stands up in rapturous adulation). Yet i feel this void that is unrelentingly enlarging. What do i know? Why must education fill me with so many theories that i am unable to search within myself and be creative. At least it is mandatory of a man to be able, at some point in existence, to think for himself. Must every idea that issues forth from my brain cells be tailored to fit the laws of conformity? Why is this something that perplexes me? Why must i concern myself with such radically thinking? The answer lies in what a colleague of mine once said.
People die young, not because of poverty, or bad health or even ancestral curses, but because of the sudden eruption of suppressed thought.
Tabula rasa. We are born a clean slate, empty and unused. Every word, every sound, every sight is a wonder, a mystery to be unearthed, a toy to be picked at and chewed upon. We stare at life with bright eyes, knowing that there is a surprise at every door. We scream at strange sounds and sights, we allow ourselves to cry when hurt, and laugh unendingly simply because something tickles our fancy. So the question is what went wrong? What could have caused a child-who was a bundle of unending fun to become a mechanical adult bent on destroying the lives of others, or a politician who can’t stop his banter of lies just so he can fill the coffers of his generations? (NOW I HAVE PRESSED ‘P’)
Shall we not be rather pompous baboons if we fail to look back down the road and try to ascertain what must have gone awry?
I fault education for lack of anyone or thing to fault. I fault her and all her rules for the honest truth is that to fault myself would be a great burden.
Wasn’t she meant to bring out the best in me, make a man out of me or were all her lectures and seminars merely an exercise in stupidity. Many thanks to the rules of lexicon and structure for without them i would never have been able to churn this article in such a form, but where is my creativity amongst all the bars and chains of education. Is it unheard of to educate not just the gnarled tissue called brain, but also the hands and heart?
Quick quiz for those who, so far, have not been lulled to sleep. Beyond the spheres of English, mathematics and whatever course you claim to be doing, what do you really know?
I believe in the reality of knowing in this manner, how do you know you are awake, or how does a woman know she is pregnant. A million and one equations in the head does not mean that when faced with a tiny mechanical problem, a student of mechanical engineer won’t start chewing his fingernails while sweating profusely.( and I’m not referring to classroom problems but one such as a car breakdown).
It is said that empty barrels make the loudest noise, true, but most of these aren’t empty they are just filled with wrong stuff. What stuff are you made of? Many haven’t mastered themselves yet chase masters in all kinds of professions, why else is it called a degree because the ancients knew that all the educating in the world can only fetch you a minute fraction (degree) of the practical knowledge you need to be a person.
This piece was written obviously to create a hunger within you the reader for knowledge both practical and theoretical. The answers are out there and will only be found if we leave behind our books and search.
Don’t mind my abrupt stop; we shall rekindle this relationship in the next write-up.
