Opinion
Is today’s education actually destroying the ability to think?
A number of reasons have come together to systematically destroy the thinking of today’s youth. Firstly, education has become like a business. Secondly, education no longer encourages questioning, rather it disseminates views and prepares for exams.
During the recent Jat agitation in Haryana, many teenagers were seen taking the law in their hands, shouting, fighting and burning public property. 6 school girls (Students of class VIII) of the Government Senior Secondary School, Singhpura (Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur) were attacked by teen stalkers with acid and one of the girls’ face was completely damaged. Where are our youth and teenagers going? All of them are supposed to be students today and responsible citizens of this nation tomorrow but nothing to this effect seems to be reflected by such news. They are not in harmony with their own soul. How can they develop a harmonious society?
Education can play an important role in society but the real meaning of education is yet to be understood as we are living in a deception. I toil, earn money, pay taxes for the development of the nation but suddenly a cathartic urge destroys that development either social, mental, infrastructural or of any other kind. As a civilised society we just accumulated venom to burn down everything. Today a decent looking civilised boy, tomorrow he will set ablaze someone’s hard earned empire mercilessly, without any shame or regret and why would he have those feelings? Its catharsis, isn’t it?
Few simple questions to mull over. ‘O Almighty, this is your land, your sky; just shower your bliss on us’, ‘O Lord, give us strength to empower our mind, we should always move on the right path without any mistake in our life’ – where is this bliss we talk about in the morning assemblies at school? Are we on the right path? Why do these beautiful poems, moral lectures delivered by teachers and parents not come into their minds while destroying society.
Take a look at the recent Board examinations in Uttar Pradesh or Haryana. Regardless of all efforts of the administration, students used unfair means without any fear in their examinations. If we compare secondary examination question papers of 1995 with the present question papers, they are much easier today and still the students feel the need to cheat.
Education is turning into a business and when anything becomes a business, ethics can be compromised. Hence, teenagers are becoming anomic, irresponsible and highly egocentric today. They want everything instantly, like noodles, in their life. When a senior secondary level student cannot analyse a simple poem with his own viewpoint, how will he become a decision maker in future?
Our thinking capability is in a shambles because we have given them this belief. Literature is the mirror of society. If a student cannot think about any piece of literature, he can’t understand social values nor be able to implement those values in his life. My assumption on Shakespeare can never be your assumption; but in reality, what I understand about Shakespeare is what every student will understand about it. This will only create puppets. Now, we can imagine the consequences of this. If tomorrow I tell somebody to burn a shop, he will burn it because I have already destroyed his thinking faculty. I have no fear of any such questions like: Why should I burn this shop? Is burning somebody’s shop a solution?
We need to understand that education does not reside in books, marks, certificates, diplomas and degrees only. It is beyond these things, it is in a questioning, rational and logical mind. Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”John Dewey
said, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” The sole purpose of education to develop character and a human being. The objective of being a human is to explore new paths in our consciousness, to know that all discriminations in this world are the creations of pernicious minds, and to develop compassion for the fellow human being.