MEGALOMANIA IN EDUCATION

Man wants to rise. He wants to explore further. He wants to know more. The one who knows more than others is respected by the others. The hunger for knowledge has never been looked down upon in any of the civilized societies.

Gurukul, Acharyakul, Nalanda University, Takshashila University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University and many such words find a respectable place in our vocabulary. In the books of histories of different societies and kingdoms chapters on ‘Education and Culture’ are never left out.

In a nut-shell, great importance is being attached to man’s intellectual growth. Perhaps, it will be unwise on the part of the man to dump any intellectual knowledge he has acquired even if it has not adequately served the mankind.

While I have no intention of undermining human efforts for rising vertically upwards intellectually and spiritually, I am much concerned about the serious neglect of the crucial need of horizontal growth of creative grass-root common knowledge. All those who have ever excelled in acquiring education of high value know it well that they couldn’t have acquired much sought after knowledge, without the untiring efforts of their unassuming school teachers, parents or other elders in their immediate surroundings when they were of tender age.

No one should think that I am talking about going back to the ‘good old days’. In all highly civilized cultures the education system followed almost parallel trends. In the beginning the new generation was taught to become teachers to impart knowledge to others; then, the teachers started teaching to make good rulers; and, finally, say in modern times, the teachers teach to primarily support one-sided physical growth of mankind through the industry, trade and commerce. How to serve the people from one’s immediate surroundings, with all their physical, intellectual and spiritual limitations, had never been the purpose of education in the history of mankind.

Maybe, things were far simpler in the days gone by. Maybe, the man was able to solve many of his problems with the experience he gained. In the last few centuries the world has been changing a bit too fast. The experience the man is able to gain is of little use, because by the time he finds a solution to a problem, the problem itself changes. Today, powerful changes occur in one’s remote surroundings and the one is left with no option but to adjust to them. If he reacts, his reaction is too feeble to provide any relief to him. He has become a puppet of high paced changes.

Where is the education that can help him live honourably like a man, who can write his own destiny; and not like a puppet that can be easily manipulated by powerful changes that occur at unapproachable distances or insurmountable heights?

The argument that the aforesaid powerful changes are for the benefit of the man does not justify the neglect of grass-root creative education. Even if we assume for the time being that the changes are for man’s benefit (a claim that can’t be accepted on the basis of the trends that can be easily observed), they can’t be implemented too quickly and at very high frequency. No doubt, human life, for that matter any life in this universe is responsive to changes, but it responds to changes that take place at a certain pace it is tuned to. Today, man’s ‘humanness’ is suffering, his creativity is being blunted and his honour is being disgraced.

I don’t think that any proof is needed for what I have said so far. I also think that I do not have an answer to the problem I have raised. However, I strongly feel the horizontal growth of creative grass root common knowledge among 90% of the world’s population would help us in finding the right answer, which megalomania in education cannot provide.

PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA

[The writer of this blog is the author of “In Search of Our Wonderful Words” and “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious”.]