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