The fact that social classification stems from civilization and its many accomplices doesn’t mean that we have reached its peak thus far. One of the key pillars of civilization is and has been education. It is education which has facilitated the sharing of knowledge from a given generation to the next. Education therefore, if simply defined would mean a process of integrating relevant knowledge in a person so as to instill relevance in him or her.
That is my general understanding of the term education. Education has evolved from time immemorial, it has always been inspired by the quest for knowledge and as long as one gained knowledge about a given phenomena then that would denote learning. Education therefore has been there before the formality of reading and writing, and it has always achieved that purpose for which it has been intended for; passing down cultures and information and teaching norms through the generations that have been existent.
Education is not a simple undertaking in itself. Formal education itself demands sacrifice monetary wise, it needs time and also needs investment in terms of the effort one puts in an endeavor to attain the same.
One has to sacrifice so much and post pone activities just for the sake of gaining from education, but above all it is the promise that formal education presents. The promise of independence, a good stable family, a regular income and posterity motivate one to get education. It takes a lot of effort in itself, given the fact that it takes several years in a person’s life just to get through an educational system.
It brings me to the idea that in a person’s life as long as they begin attending school, one will start preparing for the life he would wish to live and there after prepare the life he would want his kids to have. There is never rest at the end of this, rather one embark on another phase of life; family. As a result, life progresses as a rolling stone, just changing course and the players within the game. In that regard children grow to replace parents and the cycle would continue. Above all the sacrifice has always been worth it.
The obstacles to the same are universal. The challenges have a pattern of semblance to each other and the resultant fruits also resemble. For instance, in several parts of the world, they have similar challenges such as scarce resources that would especially facilitate education.
The above is evident in Africa and some parts of Asia. They also have issues with access to other resources such as water and good health; all these directly affect education in general and also the quality of education that is being administered. In developed countries such as ours, the challenges are simpler and are easier to sort.
Some challenges education faces include lack of time. Education takes a lot of time and most people have to juggle been education and their job; however these happen in advanced stages such as in colleges and universities. In earlier stages they have to contend with academics because much of the time it is a fulltime engagement for them so their activities are limited. The other challenge for them is the fact that is expensive.
The cumulative cost is expensive and this contributes to the drop outs that come about as a result of the same. The students are exposed to other challenges such as drugs, mob psychology and even harassment from both their seniors at school and peers. The overall impact to the above is a dismal performance which if unchecked would go a long way in affecting the personality of a student. They would in the long run look down on themselves due to a low self esteem.
Problems of education
The above is simply premise to the fact that education has helped nature characters, in generations of yore. But can the same be said of education as at now? What with a curriculum that is imposed on students and bent on teaching given norms as opposed to embracing virtues? It is true that civilization has shaped the level of thinking and technology as it is now, resulting to the competitive world that is today.
It is also true that education is trying to teach us how to live and survive in the world that has emerged after, but education is prone to many other factors that have helped shaped society to what it is.
First of this is the fact that at the moment education is relying on a given curriculum, drafted by the people and wired to instigate certain characteristics and uphold some of them.
Before the current system of education which is majorly formal, there was informal education which was basically instincts. It was passed down through generations and was programmed basing on occurrences of nature as it evolved. As such, it was basically life skills.
Education as it stands has made societal gains and we can only marvel at the benefits it has brought about. For one, we have achieved the natural peaceful coexistence among nations. The presence of one common unitary language has achieved stability and enhanced trade and relations. It has also fostered the achievement of positive solutions in times of calamities. These are myriad achievements, communication in itself has been enhanced and the result thereof is the ability to conduct multinational trade and interactions on different platforms.
Formal education, as we know it today and as has been explained above is the product of a curriculum that is drafted and implemented for teachers to pass over to their students. It could also imply that it instills life skills to a small extent but that is as it is; majorly it is used as a social control mechanism.
The educational system in place at the moment trains one to think and act in a certain way, they also train the students to respond to situations in a given manner. This has been instrumental in gaining population control. It has facilitated tyranny in otherwise supposedly democratic states; the result to this has been revolutions and landmark incidences that have plagued these countries.
The above is evident in several cases in history, for instance the French revolution resulted from an adjustment in the social control structures in place. The people were plagued by hunger yet the government that was supposed to provide for the people didn’t care. This and other atrocities by the government irked the people and they took to the streets, the result was a revolution from which emerged a new set of leadership.
Education has brought the best and worst in everybody, however it has failed to change humanity and the essence of it therefore. We are still plagued by our ancestral cosmos which dictate to us our most natural instincts; as such it is prudent that the things that excite human beings are still war, food and affection.
These have been since the ancient of days and have never changed over time. Therefore, it is enough stated that education has yielded a totally different personality that could never have been, but it has also failed to ignite the embers of this new personality to take up on the primitive. The primitive is simply docile but very active within.
To conclude on the above, personally education has been instrumental to me in attaining dreams I once had, but it is also true that it is as perennial as it stands.
Education is only for presentation purposes, and hence social control. If there was an alternative to education that would teach one to not only bow to the whims of the powers that are existent but to break all the rules and live harmoniously in peace and coherence with the next human being, such as is taught by the monks there would be a totally different society. Self actualization would be easier to attain, wars would be a preserve of the past and there would be fewer calamities as have been witnessed.
Education has brought us this far, but it is high time the systems incorporated teaching of virtues such as humility, patience and kindness unlike the present system which churns ambitious personalities that would stop at nothing in order to satisfy their cravings.
The result to the above would be fewer incidents of inhuman acts such as cannibalism as was witnessed in some of our colleges or reduced shooting sprees in which students take up arms and decide to shoot their innocent colleagues. This would also shape the type of leadership and cultivate servant leadership among the leaders these institutions would churn out.