"A boy asks his colleague, 'Why did the chemistry book feel toxic?' His buddy says,'Because it had too many bad elements!'""In this day and age, where the average person has improved, there are still people whose looks and brains are not unified. It means, that an 'educated person', who has been neither educated nor trained to exercise useful skills; who can understand but not act properly, will give rise to a serious imbalance. Young people in secondary or higher education increasingly specialize and do so too often in ways that mean they are taught to practice only the skills of scholarship and science. They acquire knowledge of particular subjects but are not equipped to use knowledge in ways that relevant to the world outside the education system. This imbalance is harmful to individuals, industry, and society. A well-balanced education should, of course, embrace analysis and the acquisition of knowledge. But it must also include the exercise of creative skills, the competence to undertake and complete tasks and the ability to cope with everyday life; and also doing all these things in co-operation with others," Cananga went on while directing her gaze to a blue diamond, the 'Hope Diamond', in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.Some believe that diamonds have healing properties, promoting balance, clarity, and positive energy. In some spiritual traditions, diamonds are associated with enlightenment, wisdom, and spiritual awakening. Their multifaceted nature reflects inner light. Due to their hardness and durability, diamonds often symbolize eternal love. Their hardest natural material represents strength and resilience. Their clarity and brilliance symbolize purity and clarity of emotions. They are often used in engagement rings to represent pure and genuine love. Historically, diamonds were rare and valuable, making them a symbol of wealth and luxury. They were worn by royalty and nobility. Overall, diamonds are cherished for their beauty, rarity, and multifaceted symbolism."Patrick Nuttgens suggests that education is about ideas, sometimes about people, essentially about abstractions; even the disciplines into which it is conveniently divided are themselves abstractions, classifications of a lot of material which seems significant because a succession of scholars have knocked it into a shape that becomes either more recognizable with every year or less recognizable, depending on the kind of scholarship expended upon it in the interval. Even in the sciences, the educator is more comfortable with basic science and with theory than he is with technology, or the actual objects found or made by man.If there is a serious imbalance in our society and education system which is profoundly influential on that society and on the people it educates for leading roles, it has to do with the very beginning of education. The beginning of education, for the vast majority of people in every part of the world, is not an inherited classification of ideas; it is the perception and understanding of their world. But if that is true for a relatively primitive society, it must also be emphasized that of no period or society is it more true than our own. You cannot begin to understand the modem world without some grasp of technology—of the things and processes which it creates and is dependent upon. The beginning of a relevant education for the modem world must be a deep, critical, and informed understanding of the nature of physical reality, not a shrinking from it.In our increasingly man-made world, a lot of things start as thoughts, Nuttgens added. That includes everything to do with innovation and invention. We find definitions of thing not only as 'an inanimate material object', but also as 'that which is done or to be done; a doing, act, deed, transaction; an event, occurrence, incident; a fact, circumstance, experience'; and also as 'whatever is or may be the object of thought'. This points immediately to a basic link between thoughts and things, between perception and things, and between people and things. The interrelationship between things and thoughts is therefore complex, profound, and never divisible. But it may be that we have created for ourselves our philosophical problem by dividing between things and thoughts that are only defensible in terms of the dualism of Western thought. That philosophical dualism knocks with the philosophy of Karl Popper. Popper provides the philosophical basis on which it is at last possible to talk meaningfully about a world that belongs to neither of the theoretical entities of the dualistic system.There is an active interaction between the perceiver and the perceived. We no longer believe in objects existing statically in time and space; we know that even inanimate objects are changing all the time. Indeed, the only way we know that time passes is by reference to the before and after (a minute ago it was like that, now this) of physical reality changing around us. But if things are changing all the time, that requires thought and imagination on our part even to perceive them, still more to understand them. There is even more. Since the quantum theory was enunciated we know that the very fact of our observing phenomena changes the phenomena. And it is a two-way process: What we perceive changes our perceptions and our powers of perception. This increasingly happens with the use of modem technology.It seems obvious, says Nuttgens, that far from destroying our perceptions, technology can hugely enlarge the richness and fascination of the world. Things contain the very essence of beauty. The beginning of the aesthetic experience, of the experience of beauty, of the rightness of form, and the memorability of shape, color, and light, is in the appreciation of things, either natural or man-made. The aesthetic experience of the abstract beauty of ideas or mathematics comes later because it follows from the appreciation of physical reality. The more exploration goes on, the more natural things are probed and investigated, and the more elusive and extraordinary becomes reality. Nature in the sense of space seems to have no end—to offer a reality that we have no way of imagining within the categories of our experience.But if nature is infinitely big it is also presumably infinitely small. The microscopic investigation of plants does not reveal their smallest components; it reveals still further structures in movement. There is no reason to believe that the exploration need ever end. Nature, it seems, for the scientist seeking facts is not only infinitely great but also infinitely small. What an astonishing world of wonder and delight is discovered by the cool observation of the mundane! There may be a reality more ultimate, more exciting, more significant than most traditional beliefs, more demanding to the mind - that the ordinary things we touch and taste, cut and create are infinite in complexity and delight.On the face of it, what could provide a richer and more promising basis for a total education from primary through to senior school and beyond? It offers all the joy and fun of nature in its inexhaustible depth and variety, and at the same time contains a work training, fundamentally related to activity rather than to inert knowledge.The value of this educative material is often recognized in our primary schools. This is the world of the growing child—the world of questions; Why? Where? When? How?—the world of pulling things apart and seeing how things work, of trying out his own physical and mental capacities and abilities, of the building of language which makes reflection and further thought possible. This is the very stuff of taking possession of his world, surely the very stuff of education.Kevin Harris stresses that ‘education’ is a changing, contested, and often highly personalized, historically and politically constructed concept. Harris brings forward what R. S. Peters writes, ‘Few professional philosophers would now think that it is their function to provide [...] high-level directives for education or for life; indeed one of their main preoccupations has been to lay bare such aristocratic pronouncements under the analytic guillotine’.About the aims of education, Harris provides Jonas Soltis' prefaces, 'it provides an organised way to intelligently examine the many types of aims which have been or yet may be advanced seriously as the proper ends for education [...] No single answer to what we should aim at is advocated, but the basis for thinking intelligently about this central educational issue in today’s complex world is put within the reach of the thoughtful reader.'Paul Standish suggests that a standard analysis of the aims of education might proceed by offering three possible areas for their location: first, to serve the needs of society; second, to pass on and develop those ways of knowing and understanding which is the common heritage; third, to help individual learners to develop, either through a process of unfolding from within or through an authentic creation of themselves.Formal methods of instruction and an authoritarian and didactic pedagogy, belief that education is primarily concerned with the passing on of facts and skills. When pressed about the substance of what is to be learned, advocates of this ‘traditional’ education may well be in favor of such subjects as business studies, information technology, enterprise skills, and whatever else is imagined to be conducive to the strengthening of industrial competitiveness. This may be traditional insofar as it points to certain instructional methods.In contrast, liberal education is not primarily concerned with a method, its quarrel with progressivism is concerned rather with questions of content, and with progressivism’s failure adequately to address these questions. The fact that the modern restatement of liberal education in the 1960s is a renewal of an ancient idea underlines the strength of the traditions on which it draws. Unfortunately that this has led to a tendency to call liberal education ‘traditional education’, leading to inevitable confusion with the more common employment of this phrase sketched before.A liberal education is primarily concerned with initiation into those ways of knowing and understanding which are the common heritage. It is not clear, however, that this aim is at odds with the third aim, the idea that the purpose of education is the development of the learner. For it might be held that the individual is indeed best developed precisely by being initiated into that common heritage, and, more strongly, that not to be so initiated is a kind of privation.At this point, it is appropriate to register an important divergence between the ancient conception of liberal education and its restatement in the 1960s. In the classical ideal, the learner is led towards the contemplation of truth. The metaphor of sight, of true vision, itself illuminates the kind of intimation of reality with which Plato is concerned. In the modern conception, in contrast, the emphasis is rather on the powers of reasoning which each of the forms of knowledge introduces to the learner. If the classical liberal education frees the learner by dispelling illusion and enabling the contemplation of objects of truth and goodness, the modern version empowers the learner by providing he ability to reason effectively across that range of modes of thought which have been passed down to us, and which can inform our rational agency. That this is the case is brought out especially by the preoccupation within the modern version with rational autonomy.Properly conceived, says William Hare, critical thinking is crucial in teaching at all levels, serving to thwart various forms of miseducation that always threaten to undermine our efforts. Teachers need to think through their aims in education to see how the ideas implicit in the ideal of critical thinking may capture important aspects of their overall objective. Most important of all, they need to ask what it would mean to teach critically and to find ways of expressing the ideal in classroom practice.Critical thinking has come to be perceived by many as desperately needed in education in the late twentieth century; it is seen as an ideal that can and should transform the manner of teaching and the learning of students. As a result, critical thinking has received far more attention over the past two decades than any other educational aim.Hare mentions that a critical thinker has the following sorts of dispositions, supported by relevant abilities and attitudes to examine and evaluate claims to knowledge, normative principles, theories, policy recommendations, and other matters where judgment is called for; to determine if what is presented as evidence and relevant argument merit being so considered, and to what extent it is biased, inadequate, misleading, or in other ways deficient; to resist efforts by others to impose ideas on him or her, and to avoid being imposed upon by ideas which are taken for granted in the prevailing intellectual and social climate; to regard situations and issues conventionally deemed to be straightforward as potentially problematic and controversial, to try to attend to the unusual when attracted by the familiar, and to imagine ways in which the existing framework might be transcended.Siddheshwar Rameshwar Bhatt says that education is a deliberate process of transformation in the natural growth and development of the person and the surroundings. It ensures an accelerated process of development in human life with the right rhythm. It is therefore a means of betterment and enhancement of life, a means of bringing about a high quality of life-enhancing inherent potentialities with self-help and with the help of the social and natural surroundings. Education undoubtedly is a major force to go forward in life in a meaningful way. In so far as education is a conscious and planned effort to organize life, education, and life are intimately correlated.Education is a conscious process that consists in a planned and methodical modification of the natural development of the human. The human being is imperfect by nature. His/her life is a process of development that tends towards something more perfect. This results in the modification of his/her behavior pattern. So that this modification may not fall short of its goal, it must be well-planned and well-engineered. This presupposes an adequate formulation of the potentialities, beliefs, and aspirations of human existence, in other words, the aims or objectives of education.Education, moreover, is a medium through which the society transmits its heritage of past experiences and their modifications, its system of values, and the modes of or skills for acquiring the values. Thus, all education is a means to the betterment of human life. It is the fruitful utilization of the knowledge attained by humankind for the enhancement of human existence. It is therefore a preserver of healthy, life-sustaining and life-enhancing tradition.A robust, vibrant, and holistic education ensures the all-round development of an individual. It provides opportunities for the fullest possible efflorescence of inherent potentialities and enhances the capabilities to realize this. Personality development should mean fully manifesting natural traits implicit in our being.Apart from personal enhancement, education should also be directed to character development. In contemporary times, humanity faces an acute crisis of loss of character, a sort of value entropy, and value negativism. The problem is how to ensure the needed character development. Character development is a relational notion. It stands for the cultivation of certain qualities which are necessary to make human life worth living. These qualities may concern one’s self and others.In modern times, we have not only forgotten these noble qualities but we have also disowned our responsibility. The consequence is that multiple problems are coming up and facing humankind. Unfortunately, we are alive to the problems, but we only raise an alarm tend to the symptoms, and do not bother about the roots of the problems. Of course, the roots are not connected to the sphere of education but are spread all around. One has also to go outside the educational arena to the environments of the family, neighborhood, caste or clan, workplace, marketplace, society, nation, and the world at large. Modern technological developments have relegated the educational set-up to the background, parental mediation has declined, and a new type of group influence, mostly the unhealthy and perverting type of peer group of TV and other mass media, has acquired overpowering influence on the human mind. Nevertheless, the role of education cannot be minimized. Education can be geared to manage the media and re-mold human character, which is the need of the times. We live in a media-dominated age, an age in which the principles, ideals, symbols, and images that give direction to our lives and provide our sense of “being” are largely presented by the media through its vast and varied array of agencies. Through proper education, we can make use of this medium to enable us to reach messages that are ennobling and which may tell us what we are, what we have to be, what we have to do or not do, and how we have to live, etc.Education is an important tool not only for survival but also for quality of life in a competitive world. Cultivating life skills for vocational choice is a preparation for life, for living with dignity and joy, with economic self-sufficiency and material comforts, with mental happiness and spiritual satisfaction. It opens up glittering careers, booming career options, and attractive career advancement by creating a knowledge hub. Education as knowledge serves as a motive force for vocational choice, as a “success vitamin” or 'ladder to success', by generating competitive excellence and thus leading to a brighter tomorrow. Career planning is a process that should go on throughout life as we evolve and grow with our experiences. This is so because the occupational world is dynamic and expanding, the job market is volatile, newer opportunities become available, and therefore there is demand for professional development in the work situation. It is a part of the function of education to help escape not from our own time—for we are bound by that—but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time, a transition from the present to the future. Thus, education is a liberating force from poverty and deprivation, stagnation and decadence.Career planning should also be a process in accordance with one’s nature and inherent potentialities. It has to keep in view the goal of career making, the means and the modalities involved. Without adequate awareness or knowledge of these, any attempt at career making is hazardous and random. There has to be vocational planning. The goal must be desirable and in conformity with one’s nature. The means must be in accordance with and conducive to the realization of the goal and available to the pursuer, and the employment of modalities has to be efficacious and skilful. The ends, means and modalities constitute an organic unity in keeping with our psycho-physical make-up.By bringing about better living, education creates an interest in moving ahead in life with greater strides. It thus provides meaning to life and also a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. Therefore it can be said that education is the most important thing other than peace of mind. In the course of life, favorable or adverse circumstances come unexpectedly and there can be ups and downs. It is only the right type of education that can enable us to bear and endure adversity and carry us through. In this sense, education is a life-prolonging force.On account of the significance and importance of education, every person needs it, and this calls for a right to education. It has to be a fundamental right, to be granted by society to every individual. Denial of this right is suicidal not only for the individual but also for society as a whole. The right to education is not a privilege but a necessity. There are multiple uses and benefits of education, and therefore every person should get the best possible education.Lastly, education is a hallmark of civil society. Education is a unique gift and a prerogative of human beings. It alone distinguishes a human being from lower animals. It is thus 'human making', it makes a human being worth the name. The right type of education provides for democratic thinking and living. It is character-building and results in the refinement of conduct. It generates enlightened and responsible citizens. A value-oriented education transforms human life from a savage to a civilized state of existence. It broadens the vision and enlarges the heart and thus paves the way for mutual caring and sharing, by making us live together in peace and harmony. It is thus an ennobling force. It emancipates us from ignorance, superstitions, false beliefs, and moral infirmity. It may be compared to precious wealth that cannot be stolen, an ornament that can adorn a human being. This thus provides dignity and respectability to human beings.In the next episode, we will still discuss themes in the Islamic Calendar, bi i'idhnillah."Cananga then sang,Tempatku melihat, di balik awan[My place to look, behind the clouds]Aku melihat, di balik hujan[I look, behind the rain]Tempatku terdiam, tempat bertahan[My place of silence, a place of endure]Aku terdiam, di balik hujan *)[I'm silent, behind the rain]
Citations & References:
- Patrick Nuttgens, What Should We Teach and How Should We Teach It?: Aims and Purpose of Higher Education, 1988, Wildwood House
- Roger Marples (ed.), The Aims of Education, 2002, Taylor & Francis
- Siddheshwar Rameshwar Bhatt, Philosophical Foundations of Education, 2018, Springer Nature Singapore
*) "Di Balik Awan" written by Nazriel Irham
