What Education means to you has an impact on your Education
Education is defined in multiple ways. Some dictionaries define it as an enlightening experience, some simply as knowledge or scholarship. It is also defined as the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or a university.
What definition do you most relate to? What would be the meaning of Education in your mind?
Unfortunately, for many, the latter definition is the only meaning of Education. This definition, which is largely reductionist, is the reason Education systems fail to educate the students in the best possible way. The stress in this definition is on the process of receiving and giving “systematic instruction”. This meaning of education makes the policy makers and educators believe that they can succeed in providing education if they design the perfect systematic instruction and train for the skills necessary to execute this system. And, that is where many issues lie — it takes the focus away from the receiver of education and places it on the system where all different kinds of receivers are forced to affiliate and be coherent to one system. This forced coherency can only sometimes succeed but it is far away from succeeding for many.
The first definition says that education is nothing but an enlightening experience. The process of understanding the receiver and his needs is a must to design an experience that is enlightening for him or her. The focus in this definition is thus zoomed in on the receiver. The process of educating then becomes customized to each individual. Even though this definition might not be all encompassing of the meaning of education, it is not narrow and reductionist as the latter one, and maybe one of the closest to the idealistic definition of education.
What are the implications of us reducing the definition of education to just a systematic instruction? Let us examine a few below:
1. It makes us believe that succeeding in this ‘system’ means succeeding in getting a good education (which is a major component to attaining success in life). For example, the system promotes examinations and good scores; it reduces success in education to scoring good marks. Whereas if the education were to mean enlightening experience, an experience that simply throws light to the dark spaces of the receiver’s mind, it will tend to promote not just true education but also happiness which is one of the aims of education.
2. It also makes some educators believe that the way they can best educate their students in is by delivering and executing the instructions appropriately — especially in early school years. They are forced to make compromises to make the system and the students coherent with each other.
3. Innate abilities and skills of students like creativity, innovation and critical thinking among others are not touched upon or honed due to the fact that they are forced to be coherent with the system; there is little room for them to do so.
4. The system professes the concept of one size fits all, but unfortunately, not a single one of us is exactly the same as anyone else. Do all of us seek happiness from the same aspects? Then how can we expect to be enlightened by the same set of instructions?
5. An almost dangerous aspect of this definition is also that it reduces the process of providing education to the setting of an institution like a school or university, whereas education as an aspect cannot be reduced to that. Other players like the society, government, parents, neighborhood and peers contribute largely to the educational experience of the receiver and this definition fails to accommodate them.
The list can go on. It is, of course, true that creating an enlightening experience for every single student who is different from each other is not an easy task and demands a lot from the society, the nation, government, schools, educators and parents among others. But if you think about it even the systematic instruction demands a lot and maybe only a little lesser. Both definitions demand responsibilities and tasks, but the difference is one probably has way more chances of meeting the goals of education in its truest and broad sense, and making the lives of the students enlightened, rather than the other.
It is really important for us to question what we have come to believe about the meaning of education. What are the spaces, people and responsibilities we are relating to it unconsciously? The issue of shifting the focus and goal of education from the ‘System’ to the ‘Receiver’ or the ‘Student’ is of course large and involves a lot of players, but it can simply begin with shifting the meaning of education in our own minds. A shift in our thought process and intention can be more effective than we credit it for; sometimes that is all the step that we need to move towards change.
If you are a student — seek enlightening experiences, talk about it with your educators, peers, parents; also provide and accommodate enlightening experiences for your peers. If you are an educator or an administrator or a parent– fight the unconscious bias towards supporting the system and shift the focus on the students and how you can create enlightening experiences for them. Policy makers have a tough task ahead of them to design policies that can accommodate for this vast meaning of education. If you are none of these, still question yourself on what education has come to mean for you, each one of us contribute to the meaning of Education that the society holds; what education means to you has an impact on your education!
