What Education Means To Us

What Education Means To Us Let us not try to make our kids what they are not We are humans. We discover this fact when we get confronted with some brute. We are a super creation but at the same time we do make mistakes and making mistakes is uncontrolled as we have a tendency to err. As such we display a fluctuating behavior. We sometimes behave like an innocent child and at times become so brutal; sometimes virtuous like a saint and sometimes an offensive like a criminal; we are suppressed today but become oppressive tomorrow; we boast like a dictator one moment and bow helplessly the other moment. When a child is born, he is an absolute creature despite knowing nothing of himself or the environment he is born in. Everything lies within him. As soon as he knows about his intrinsic abilities, he starts pondering about how to manipulate them. Thus it becomes inevitable to make every new born know about his physical, mental and spiritual capabilities. Obviously, ‘Education’ exposes the inner core of the human life before the child. Education balances the human fluctuating behaviour making him a good-looking enlightened person. A child is to be educated to refine his manners, to wash off any budding evil intent in him and to enfold him in the garment of humanity. Education illuminates a candle of modesty in his inner world that wipes out obscurity of his heart and head and leads him to the ultimate goal of life. Since Allah has bestowed man with the power of accepted wisdom, he misused this blessing of Allah by making it a tool to hoard wealth. This trickery of him engulfed education too. Instead of learning the purpose of his creation and the whole universe for him, he made it an impressive source of stockpiling. We have made a considerable progress in the name of education. Schools and colleges are established in every nook and corner which 30 or 40 years ago was a dream too hard to accomplish. The degree certificates are being awarded to the educated youth like flood relief thus increasing the rate of literacy rapidly. Looking at the other side of the picture we come to know that we are highly qualified and every area of our life is glittering by the rays of information. A lamp of information is illuminating at every cross road of our surrounding but regrettably the sharp rays of knowledge fail to make journey in to our inner world to illuminate the depths of our hearts. Subsequently, our inner world is so murky that we cannot see anything of there. We fail to see that our inner world is decorated with naked pictures of

viciousness, immorality and heartlessness. Heaps of refusals of selfishness, greed and dishonesty are seen everywhere there. Spiders of evil have woven their webs and the vultures of lust are creating a horrible feeling in our conscience. This is the hideous atmosphere of our hearts, which we fail to sanitize though we are overloaded with the affluence of information. What makes it funnier is that we try to hide our ugly inner man by playing magic with the words, making attractive vocalizations and some complicated conversations. We are certainly deprived of the blessings of knowledge, as we are good-looking but not well mannered. We speak many languages but fail to communicate our heart to others. We are having a high profile career but not an eye-catching moral fibre. We do not posses verbal skill as when we speak it pinches to every sensitive being. We are not matured, profound and solemn in our words and deeds and it speak against our lucidity. Our character is doubtful and our behaviour is wild. Our thought is stinking and our power of perception is handicapped and unfortunately our conscience is dead….and that is how the enlightened man of today is recognised. Our basis is chaotic and any edifice built on an untidy basis can never be decent. It is this disarray of our foundation, which reflects through our disposition as long as we live. In the name of knowledge, we impart ignorance to our kids. At this decisive stage of our little ones, our main concern always remains matter not soul. Money mesmerizes us to the extent that we infuse in to our children that doctor or engineer is the only craze they should think about and if not doctor or engineer then anything that would fetch them riches. We do all this regardless to the condition that our child ought to have a doctor or engineer within him. We force them to do all that could bring self-styled rank to us ignoring their instinctive aptitude. We compel them to become what the custom is not what the child is. We take our horse to the racecourse ground without taking into account how swift our horse is. Perhaps we fail to digest the truth that a truck driver in pilot’s uniform can never take off an aeroplane. Every one of us knows that one of the five fingers of our hand is so little. At times, we do involve ourselves in a silly action when we try to pull that tiny finger to make it look bigger like the other fingers. Obviously, such a stupid action would yield us nothing except failure because Allah has designed our five fingers to give our hand a beautiful look. Every finger big or small has a unique utility. It is the case of our society where every individual has a unique role to play. Therefore, every child is born from his mother’s womb with a package of intrinsic worth through which he would serve the society. Here it becomes the obligation of the parents to make an

ultimate plan of education for their child so that the child finds it easy to discover the treasure of worth hidden in him. It is off-course, a litmus test for the parents here as they are supposed to turn away from the unsound customs of the society and steer their kids in harmony with their innate tendencies. It becomes hard to understand as to why we prefer to see our young ones only as doctors or engineers even though we know the fact that not every Tom Dick and Harry can be a doctor or engineer. The only reason lying behind it is that we take for granted that such line of work can increase our riches and heighten our social importance. Living in a fool’s paradise, we believe that once our young one becomes a doctor or an engineer, we have realized the goal of our life. Such a practice of ours is unsound as it always bears dismal outcome. It is the offshoot of our absurdity that a poet by nature is writing the prescription of “Paracetamol or Omperizole.” A teacher by taste is operating upon in a theatre trying unsuccessfully to save a life. An able administrator by birth is on a house job in some city hospital. A philosophical mind is engaged in making site plans, and The Rattan Tatas of our society are constructing a bridge in some remote area. A brave and faithful soldier is sleeping in the classroom of a medical college. A child born with adventurous instincts often plays with the toy planes in his childhood but when he reaches the age of flying a plane, we find him struggling in making the design of a shopping complex. How tragic, we are setting an ugly example of our greed and lust. We do have in our society ordinary doctors who are extra ordinary writers. We have many engineers who run tuition centres with great deal of zest. Similarly, scores of doctors are famous columnists. Honestly speaking we are ourselves to blame for designing this menace. We will never attain social stability unless we regret and turn away from what we are heading towards. Every new born comes to this world with a number of offerings for humankind. If a brave constable is born to us, why do we put on a white apron on him instead of the Khaki one? The situation demands that we must educate our young ones strictly in accordance with their natural bent of mind. Being the parents, we know our child better. We know his likes and dislikes as good as we know the back of our hand. We nurture him sacrificing all our comfort and pleasure. After all, we love our child and this eternal bond of love and affection can best be exhibited by imparting spiritual knowledge to him. Let us not pursue material objectives, which simply kill our sense of decency. Man is a super creation; therefore, super knowledge is indispensable for him to sustain his supremacy. It is but natural that some heads wear the crown and some perish with so many dreams in their eyes to come true. We cannot change

the system of the nature. Anyone who ever tried to think of changing the natural law has met an utter failure.

Published in Greater Kashmir on 27th March 2009

Sabir Hussain Isaar ............................................................................................................ S.Hussai.