What is the purpose of Education?
What is the purpose of Education? I have been struggling with this question ever since I was first charged with leading a classroom, almost 15 years ago. In fact, this question seemed just too big for me, so instead of trying to puzzle out the answer in my head, I chose to try and arrive at the answer through tinkering and experimentation, first in running my class, then running one school — and now running several.
But I couldn’t run away from articulating the answer anymore when a student, let’s call him Hitesh, posed the same question as a challenge to me, as only a 15-year-old can. I had years and years lessons learnt, trying to answer what education is -but also what it isn’t. But how could I explain them to Hitesh or any other 15-year-old, in a way that would make sense for them? So, I summoned an old classroom trick. I reduced this question to a more observable one, namely, how should an educated person behave differently from one who is not?
How should an educated person behave differently from one who is not?
But that was still too abstract, so I personified this educated person, and called her Edna. Now, I could describe Edna and contrast her with those from traditional schools, those yet to be educated, who I named as Cube-Eds.
So I told Hitesh the story of Edna and the Cube-Eds, which helped both him and me really understand what the purpose of Education is.
Today I want to share that story with you.
So, let’s meet Edna. The first thing you notice about Edna is just how long her arms are, while the arms of the Cube-Eds look like little stumps in comparison.
Now here’s the thing. Traditional schools have helped the Cube-Eds master the 3 Rs — Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic, and their short stumps are of the perfect length for that. But they wouldn’t work for Edna. Edna didn’t stop at the 3Rs, she learnt to paint, to code, to swim, to dance and to do much more besides. However in order to explore each new skill she had to stretch her arms just a little bit farther, until slowly they became much much longer than the arms of the Cube-Eds.
The second thing you notice about Edna is that she towers over the Cube-Eds. Why’s that, you ask? Well, Edna really loves Mathematics. She started out by stretching herself to find more and unique numbers, not satisfied by just adding and subtracting integers.
When she had mastered the world of numbers to the extent of playing with square roots and imaginary numbers in her head, out of the corner of her eye she spotted another world with dancing shapes and angles. She had to stretch further and taller to now master the world of geometry but even this was not enough! There were worlds of Algebra, Statistics and Calculus to discover; and each time she mastered a world Edna grew just a little bit taller and very soon she started looking like a giant compared to the Cube-Eds.
So, her mastery of a skill, in this case Mathematics, is what made Edna tower over all the Cube-Eds, and her competence in a wide variety of skills gave her these beautiful long arms. And it is at this point that Hitesh interrupted me and pointed out — Actually Amrut, doesn’t Edna look like a tree?
‘Doesn’t Edna look like a tree?’
Stay with me as I explore this question with my friend Hitesh, teasing it out bit by bit.
