Innocent face of life
Dear friends,
Yesterday I had an enriching experience of meeting some people from a very small town, you may call it a village and my interaction with them forced me to ask a question to myself and the question is that, is it the formal education or lots of information received and remembered by a person or some thing more and different which makes us a better human being. Let me share it with you that I also hail from a village and during my childhood I had number of opportunities to be in the village and get exposed to the discussions and talks my grandfather used to have with other villagers.The kind of discipline and the respect for each other was so well and natural that nobody was ever asked or dictated to be disciplined and respectful towards elders but they still learnt it. It has not been possible for me to visit my village that often as I would have liked due to certain reasons. Yesterday`s incident made me firm in my idea that informal education given by the family or the society is as important as the formal education is and in some cases even more important.
We know that education is considered to bring out the best in an individual which does not help only that person but also help him/her to do good to others . It should not become a tool to earn bread and butter only but education should help in making earth a better place to live. It has been observed that degrees and certificates are not making us wise but sometimes forcing us to drift away from the virtues of humanity. You might have noticed that in the crowd of the people, who demonstrate against the system or some failure of the government policy ,many of them are so called degree holders.
This has been observed in our parliament also that number of degree holder MPs is increasing but the standard of the debate in the house has deteriorated(if you do not think so I am very happy for this country). If this was the so called formal education only then the standard of debate in Parliament and Assemblies should have been much higher than what it is nowadays.
I do not at all say that good formal education or the degrees are of no importance but my submission is that informal education received by an individual is also equally necessary. The villagers whom I met did not have any certificate of class X or otherwise but were more polite, helpful and considerate than what many of the so called educated ones are(exceptions are always there).
We wanted to see the home of a villager and found a lady standing outside one home. We asked her if there was any male member at home(we were the group a few male and female members) . Her answer was no but she wanted to know why were we asking that question. We told her our wish to see their house and can you believe she very happily agreed for that. We felt obliged and went inside. It was two rooms house and absolutely neat and clean. The utensils and other household things were so well kept and arranged as some one had taught them that art. They were very happy taking us around and had all the time to answer our curious queries. They offered us water and also a cup of tea . We were completely unknown to them but they were so innocent and pure in their approach towards us which I am unable to express in words. Not only this but most of the houses in the village had a quote written on the front wall that such and such family hearty welcomes you all. But in the developed cities many of the houses have the doors with a plate warning the guests to be aware of dogs. A question to be answered is that, does formal education make our brain bigger and the heart smaller.
I do not know whether I could have believed and treated an individual or a group in so called developed place called a big city in the same manner as the villager treated us.
What I want to say is that we should learn the lesson of innocence and helping others from the people from small places who are considered to be less developed. I have seen those people enjoying their life even in those difficult conditions. I strongly feel that development and the values should be directly proportional to each other and not the other way round.
I end with a quote written on the boundary wall of the village school and the quote is "Sachhi shiksha vahi hai jo manavta kaa paath padhay" that is the true education ,the one which teaches the lesson of humanity.
Yesterday I had an enriching experience of meeting some people from a very small town, you may call it a village and my interaction with them forced me to ask a question to myself and the question is that, is it the formal education or lots of information received and remembered by a person or some thing more and different which makes us a better human being. Let me share it with you that I also hail from a village and during my childhood I had number of opportunities to be in the village and get exposed to the discussions and talks my grandfather used to have with other villagers.The kind of discipline and the respect for each other was so well and natural that nobody was ever asked or dictated to be disciplined and respectful towards elders but they still learnt it. It has not been possible for me to visit my village that often as I would have liked due to certain reasons. Yesterday`s incident made me firm in my idea that informal education given by the family or the society is as important as the formal education is and in some cases even more important.
We know that education is considered to bring out the best in an individual which does not help only that person but also help him/her to do good to others . It should not become a tool to earn bread and butter only but education should help in making earth a better place to live. It has been observed that degrees and certificates are not making us wise but sometimes forcing us to drift away from the virtues of humanity. You might have noticed that in the crowd of the people, who demonstrate against the system or some failure of the government policy ,many of them are so called degree holders.
This has been observed in our parliament also that number of degree holder MPs is increasing but the standard of the debate in the house has deteriorated(if you do not think so I am very happy for this country). If this was the so called formal education only then the standard of debate in Parliament and Assemblies should have been much higher than what it is nowadays.
I do not at all say that good formal education or the degrees are of no importance but my submission is that informal education received by an individual is also equally necessary. The villagers whom I met did not have any certificate of class X or otherwise but were more polite, helpful and considerate than what many of the so called educated ones are(exceptions are always there).
We wanted to see the home of a villager and found a lady standing outside one home. We asked her if there was any male member at home(we were the group a few male and female members) . Her answer was no but she wanted to know why were we asking that question. We told her our wish to see their house and can you believe she very happily agreed for that. We felt obliged and went inside. It was two rooms house and absolutely neat and clean. The utensils and other household things were so well kept and arranged as some one had taught them that art. They were very happy taking us around and had all the time to answer our curious queries. They offered us water and also a cup of tea . We were completely unknown to them but they were so innocent and pure in their approach towards us which I am unable to express in words. Not only this but most of the houses in the village had a quote written on the front wall that such and such family hearty welcomes you all. But in the developed cities many of the houses have the doors with a plate warning the guests to be aware of dogs. A question to be answered is that, does formal education make our brain bigger and the heart smaller.
I do not know whether I could have believed and treated an individual or a group in so called developed place called a big city in the same manner as the villager treated us.
What I want to say is that we should learn the lesson of innocence and helping others from the people from small places who are considered to be less developed. I have seen those people enjoying their life even in those difficult conditions. I strongly feel that development and the values should be directly proportional to each other and not the other way round.
I end with a quote written on the boundary wall of the village school and the quote is "Sachhi shiksha vahi hai jo manavta kaa paath padhay" that is the true education ,the one which teaches the lesson of humanity.
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