Introduction
In the ancient era, mankind was unknown of the greater part of the cosmic system. Firstly, they
learnt to make fire in order to cook and protect themselves from the animal’s atrocities. Days passed
by, and the curiosity of mankind increased, thus the journey of education began.
What is education?
John Dewey (1916) cited education as – ‘a process of living and not a preparation for future living.’
He also wrote in his book ‘Democracy and Education’ , “Education is the process of facilitating
learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.” In the pre-literate
socities of the ancient history, education was framed as storytelling. Story-telling passed knowledge,
values, and skills from one generation to the next. But on the other part, it was carried by some
important institutions such as Plato’s Academy and The Great Library of Alexandria. In the ancient
time, education was more of philosophical interest and the curiosity to know the system of the
universe. And as the world is revolutionizing, the definition of education is also changing, but with a
common sense which is learning. Learning is both a process and an outcome. As a process it is part
of living in the world, part of the way our bodies work. As an outcome it is a new understanding or
appreciation of something. Thus, education now is defined as the sum of knowing, thinking,
applying, distributing and evolutionizing the knowledge.
What is education to me?
Education has always been in our systematic world. We are getting educated by something, on
something everytime, though we cannot even feel it. Mankind has always used education to learn.
They learn to live, they learn to earn and develop as well. They used it to improve themselves and
their social life. But there were always those who wanted to learn, learn the known and unknown
which will help to know the intention for what they were made, and the universe around them as
well. Again, they were thirsty to know the truth of the universe, mankind itself wanted to improve
and education was always a fundamental tool in that case. In my eyes, education is a developmental
factor of the universe which we use, systematize to improve our personal, psychological, technical
and universal self. Education is the pursuit of wisdom, and wisdom is the designer of the future.
Because the sum of every person’s ownself with their mentality, application of their planning and
the universal upshots of these constitutes our world. Development is a kind of change. But it’s a
kind, not the whole. Not every change is developmental. As from Newton’s third law we know that,
every action faces a reaction with same magnitude but to it”s opposite direction, change has it’s
adverse side as well, so has the education. Education to the ignorants carries that stigma. From the
corruption to the nuclear arsenal, we can see the abuse of education. Hence, education has two
kind of acts, one is developmental, and the other one is destructive.
Education to the General mass
The theory of education to the general mass is varied but often the root of their thinking towards it
is same. I personally went to some people to know their definition about education.
They were from different professions. Some of them were literate, and some were below from the level
of literacy. One of them was a peanut seller who works near my house. His name is Enayet Ullah. He
thinks education is a very good tool to gather knowledge which helps a person to have a better future, a
good earning and a good position in the society. One of my co-worker in Whiteboard Science Club,
Saeed Khan Sagor shared that education is something which presence is felt in a species’s mind. But only
human can feel it and use it as well, some can use it for welfare, and some for torpedoing. A friend from
my school, Mohammed Mostakim, told me that to him education is something that makes a person
human. With three of my classmates from IER, Shahriar, Saifuddin & Tanzim, we went to some illiterate
people to know their comments on education and one of them was inspiring. Lutful, a jhalmuri seller
told us that education can be good and bad as well; good side of it helps a person to be a good human, a
pious person and to have a better settlement; and the bad part of it makes a person to do inhuman acts.
The thinking of the general mass towards education can be described like one of the teacher named
Andreas Hofer once explained that in pedagogy, he had often encountered opposing ideas that correspond to “farmer” vs “hunter-gatherer” (HG) “instincts” or values in education where farmer values fosters conformity and well settlement and hunter gatherer concentrates on independence of learning and individualization. Our literate rersons often goes for the latter idea and the illiterate masse tnds to have the first concept. But both of them has exceptions and similar ideas as well.
-Murad Bin Mehmet
Reference List:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education
2. https://www.quora.com/What-is-education-2
3. Democracy & Education by John Dewey
4. http://infed.org/mobi/what-is-education-a-definition-and-discussion/
