quotes-about-education-16

but also

So?

The way I see it ‘education’ is a blanket term that covers many things:

– Mental conditioning into obeying the prevailing rules of the moment/place
– Accumulation of information that is deemed useful by the educators.
– ‘Training of the mind to think’ – only this cannot be done without first supplying the student with some information on which to hone his mind.
– “Training of the mind to think” according to the rules of the moment/place – the term currently used for this kind of attitude towards thinking is ‘science’. If those rules are not obeyed then not only that the results of the thinking process won’t be recognized as valid by the community but the thinker won’t even be able to share them with those around him because those results won’t resemble anything known/familiar/acceptable to most of the members belonging to that community.

– Training of the mind to think outside of the box. To be able to do that a student needs first to learn what a box is so he must graduate through the first four stages AND to overcome some of the conditioning he was subjected to during the first stage.

Only after he “awakens” a student might start to discover for himself the rest of the world. And only if he uses his newly found awareness in a sensible way he will be able to share the results of his thinking with those around him and thus contribute to the long time survival of the society (family, community) that has nurtured him through his ‘coming of age’.

And only if that society (family, community) takes good care of its young it will have any chances to survive.
‘Taking good care of its young’ meaning encouraging them to open their wings in search of their full potential, not shackling them down to the nest in search for absolute safety.