Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya

Education for the making of a complete individual

I am born into a definitive Bengali middle class family and I have inherited the opinion that, education is the most profitable investment one should go for as it always grows.Education is the basis for the learning process, and like all basis, it is too abstract in nature and hence, I cannot define education in precise and absolute terms. But still everyone has to admit that education plays a vital role in a person's overall development.I prefer to call education an infinite process, it has no beginning and it has no end, as one cannot say when people started to learn. The abstractness of education is quite visible as one cannot answer that how or why we started to learn, what was the immediate cause that motivated us to learn.It would be very unjust to say that education is merely, mastering some art, or it is a gateway to employment, that create means for earning money.Education is a channel via which knowledge is imparted, and knowledge is the cause that widens our mental horizon. It gives us power to think rationally and act wisely.Education creates a wholistic environment, where giver of education is learning too and evolving. The learner are trying to see the perspective of the educator, hence increasing his own pool of ideas.It is very interesting to observe that education creates a sense of confidence,as well as it forces us to doubt. This not a contradictory nature of education but shows that,education builds a rational sense in an individual. This rational sense guides us to take decisions and act. If there would have been no rational sense in us, then we would have been guided by the The Pied Piper of Hamelin and would have fallen off the cliff.Education bridges all the barriers,it makes us appreciate the entire learning process. It makes us understand about our past and it gives us a vision to move forward to the future.Limiting education to schools,colleges or other formal institute is trivializing the magnanimous image of education. I consider that we are subject to education from the time of our birth,when parents try that the moaning sounds made by an agonistic baby should resemble to the sound of “Ma” or “Baba” or when a child is scolded for not doing things properly. Education is also accompanied with sense of understanding and humility,that is very important for one's life .If education can not make us think, or give us an insight,then it should be called set of instructions rather than education. The idea behind educating one person should not be levying his own thinking or point of view on others. It should be about sharing knowledge and that would make the learner a thinker. Following set of instructions is attribute of a computer or a robot and not of a human being. Education always makes one liberated and free person.Observing a fellow human,understanding his thought is also a part of education. This sort of education helps a man to be helpful towards other person. It makes one feel that he is not only for himself,but his actions also affect the people who are associated with him. The interaction with other people makes one social,so that he can build a friendly atmosphere with other fellow beings. We can also say that education makes a man a congenial creature.

Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya

Learning from past experiences is also a form of education which makes a man cautious of all the mistakes that he has committed. This learning helps him to understand the effects of action on certain situation he faces. This sort of learning improves a man. I used the word “improves” intentionally because when a person acts he always thinks his action is right. If a person knows his action would cause negative effect he would not act,no action can ever rise from void conception. This kind of learning improves one's previous knowledge. It makes a person evolutionary and more open to changes. If education does not make a man open to changes then the man would soon perish, because change is law of nature and with time he would be obsolete. Education makes one immune to obsolescence.Education is a rigorous process,learning is a duty of the educatee as much as educating is the duty of educator. The mutual respect of duties ,makes a person disciplined so that each can perform their due roles.If education would have been,just reading books or completing a course then every one would have been educated in no time. The completeness would have been achieved by a person, the way we download a song or surf the internet. Learning demands patience and practice. Patience does not means just waiting for the time to lapse,and practice does not mean repeating something that educator has imparted.Scrutinizing one's work and improving it,is actually practice,and patience is a form of determination which is required to iterate through the scrutinizing cycle until the desired perfection is achieved.Practice and patience is both cause and effect of education because will of gaining education is necessary. Education exhibits recursive nature.One of the notable aspect of education is that everyone is eligible for education. There is no age boundary for education. When one has a desire to be educated, he can seek education from a teacher. It is a moral duty on part of teacher to educate anyone without any discrimination if one wants to be educated.Even self education can be achieved the way Ekalavya a character in Mahabarata achieved when he was denied education because of his low birth. So, the will to be educated plays a very vital role in one's education.Moral education or value based education is taught to children at home and schools. This education is very important too, because,it forms the base of one's consciousness and conduct. A person with high moral value has a strong character. This strength in character makes a man bearer of all kind of situation without being subject to dysfunctional rationale. If education doesn't provide moral values and self culture then it does not amount to education but it can only be simply called commands to be followed. The basic goal for all sorts of education should be to build an insight within the students. It should make them morally ,socially aware and cultured. If education cannot strengthen the inner will and self disciple then, it will loose it's prime place in it's role played as an overall developer of an individual. Nowadays,there is such a rat race for existence,such cut throat competition exists in our society. It seems that one prefers to master at some trade whether it is business or engineering. The individuals are of opinion that one has to educate themselves in order to be more employable.People now prefer to educate themselves as per the need of market. This trend threatens the purpose of education, as it is meant to fill

Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya

one's own void and not to satisfy the need of market. If one tries to fill void of market at cost of his own educational feeds, then one’s completeness is at stake. By this, one may satisfy his materialistic needs, but his esoteric and Meta physical needs will go unsatisfied.I'll share a couple examples,which were professed to me at school, and I believe those examples are unintentional misguides to the children.One, teacher always say that one should guide own self to a specific aim, the way the horses are guided by the eye strap. Probably intended virtue to be learned from this is hard-work and perseverance,but side effect interpretation can also be drawn that,”move to your goal,see nothing apart from it,trample everything that comes in your way”.Another malpractice according to me exists where teacher always lays stress on students to study texts as prescribed in syllabus. If education is limited by syllabus then our thinking sphere would be as constricted as toad of pond. In my perception marks based assessment also hampers education and learning process,although we never fail to admit the fact that,marks sheet prove nothing but we still use marks sheet as a tool of judgment for individual's caliber. So education that was supposed to be an impetus for overall development of the educatee is sidelined because one would always aim to score marks at first place than to educate himself. This change in priority may make a man successful in one dimension but life has a multidimensional outlook and everything is to be balanced.I would share a global incidence,which makes us realize that our uni-dimensional thinking can be very harmful. Just after the industrial revolution in Europe,the European countries tried to colonize entire world in order to build market for their finished goods. This came at heavy cost of wars and creation of third world countries whose natural resources was squandered by the Europeans. Still these countries are trying to reestablish themselves. Now, globally countries are working together to uplift them.Despite of having knowledge about technicalities of business warfare,politics economics etc. Europe at that time was still uneducated,as they lacked knowledge about universal harmony or mutual respect for humanity because they treated everyone in a beastly way.In modern world,we do not care for nature and environment in general,although we study Environmental Education as a mandatory subject in all courses. This also proves a point that just reading or studying a subject is not enough to educate us. If we would have been educated then we would have been taking active steps to protect our environment.Till so far I started off discussing what is education or what all qualities should a learning process instill in one to qualify as education, I shared a few problem that prevails in the process of imparting education. Some real world illustration were taken to prove that still we are not educated enough to call ourselves complete.In this closing segment I will share my own imagination that how a complete individual would be after attaining education.An educated person would be a sublime person who would respect every one and there would be no vanity in him because of his knowledge.He should be skillful enough in the trade in which he aims to master so that his skill and working potential be a service to mankind. To serve humanity skills

Damodarshree 2012 Submitted By: Nilanjan Bhattacharya

need not be tangible, for example both Buddha and Edward Jenner did a great service to society by enlightening our spirit and protecting our body by vaccines respectively. All services provided by educated individuals are equally important.An educated person is well aware of his rights and meticulous towards his duties. Being aware of one's right and performing one's duty towards society is an important aspect of education.Being just and unbiased are also qualities that is instilled in one by education, these are key qualities which governs our conduct with others.Education is an important aspect of our life which separates us from other animals of this planet. Like them we eat, sleep, excrete, respond to stimulus and reproduce. Only the education factor places us at the top of animal kingdom, that is what makes us human, as well as lets us dream about completeness of ourselves so that we can make world a better place to live, where everyone love each other and live in harmony with our fellow beings and nature.Only education is a means that can bridge all the gaps present in our society. It can make all of us tied in a single thread of love. The following poem by Rabindranath Tagore tells the problems that persist due to lack of education.

“Where the mind is without fear”“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is freeWhere the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic wallsWhere words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfectionWhere the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habitWhere the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

This poem has always been the source of my imagination of a complete individual.