890. Are we really educated?
- Josheca Mukerji
The other day, I saw a
car parked outside a gate on which there was a sign which read “no parking”.
Just then a man, reading some documents, walked up to the car and got into it.
He pulled the car on the road, soon crashing it into another moving vehicle.
And then, a stream of curse words, from both the sides, followed.
The man in the car was
literate for sure. He could read. But educated? First he parked his vehicle in
the no parking area and then the used those words. Should we consider him
educated?
Bringing up, moral and
mental training is education. According to another dictionary, it is the
process of teaching, training and learning. Will it be right if we see
education just as the ability to read and write or, in short, literacy? The
above definitions imply that there is more to it. Maybe somewhere education is
defined as literacy, but I prefer to choose this meaning for education. After
all, there should be some word that includes not just literacy but other
aspects of learning too.
The aforementioned
incident was just one example. There can be thousands more. The best example
would be that of hackers. They are, no doubt, very literate but they are not
educated enough to know whether what they are doing is correct or not. What’s
the use of literacy without education? Just that it enables us to get jobs and
earn a livelihood? Can a person be happy only by this? When a person does not
know how to conduct himself in life, he can not be happy, no matter what.
Education determines the
quality of life. From our earliest days, we are told what to do and what not.
Like in schools we have the moral science subject in junior classes. Also, in
school we don’t learn to read and write only. We learn time management,
co-operation, sacrifice, punctuality, sportsmanship, expression, discipline,
civic sense, foresightedness, farsightedness, target fixation and lots more.
We, directly or indirectly, come across many situations in school, or other
places too, where we have to act wisely. All these come under education. Hence,
education is a complete package, and not confined to literacy alone. Hindrances
train us. But once we tide over them we forget the lessons learnt. Thus, if
education is training, we refuse to get educated.
889. The only
successful substitute for brains is silence.
888. The man who said he never
had a chance, never took a chance.
887. Use the
talents you possess -- for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds
sang except for the best.
886.
Contradiction
is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.
– Blaise Pascal
885. The opportunity
to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands.
-
Sun Tzu
884. If a pessimist is always right,
is he a realist?
883. Every noble work is
at first impossible.
– Thomas Carlyle
882. By failing to
prepare, you are preparing to fail.
-
Benjamin
Franklin
881. Concentrate
all your thoughts upon work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought
to a focus.
- Alexander Graham Bell
