I had thought that my blogs had had an untimely demise.People asked me why I was not blogging but alas ! everything had dried up.Nothing was flowing.
I was thinking in that vein, when the other day, my daughter who attends Moral Sc classes was asked by her teacher ‘ What is the purpose of education?’ and she, in turn asked me this question. That set the ball rolling and me thinking. I was sifting through all the answers in my mind- to gain knowledge about the self and the world. To distinguish between right and wrong- not quite what I wanted to say .There are many who intuitively know what’s right and wrong but were not educated, eg. Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Moreover,concepts of right and wrong are relative, not perfect.
To acquire skills like analytical, rational, mathematical, linguistic and work skills. But this might not encompass qualities like kindness, humility, non-reactiveness, humaneness and magnanimity.
To impart what we have learnt to others-but that might at best, make us a good teacher.
Suddenly, I thought that a little girl’s question had made me think and look for an answer.In that sense, my daughter was the teacher and I, a student. And I realized that the purpose of education is to understand that in the classroom of life we should always be a student, learn and move on to the next class. With the enthusiasm, discipline and grit of a student , we can learn invaluable lessons from life.
