Destiny of a nation is built in the classroom.
Dr. Radhakrishnan once said, ‘You cannot make or build the nation by just bricks; you have to establish the minds of the young people. Then alone can the nation building take place.’ If we consider this idea of nation building, we might agree that making citizens better will automatically make the nation a better place to live in. “Traveling through many cities of Europe and observing in them the comforts and education of even the poor people,” says Swami Vivekananda, “there was brought to my mind the state of our own poor people, and I used to shed tears. What made the difference? Education was the answer I got.”
So what is Education? Is it mere book learning? No. Is it diverse knowledge? Not even that. Quoting Swami Vivekananda again, “Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man… To me, the very essence of Education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I would collect facts at will.”
But unfortunately, such basic life skills are hardly taught anywhere in the world to the young minds. It is the young blood that possesses the most fertile brains of any nation. And to tap into such brains, we must work on revolutionising the current classroom teaching environment. The Government of India declared Swami Vivekananda as the Youth Icon more than three decades back, but sadly, his revolutionary ideas on Education have not yet been mobilised into the classrooms. “We want that Education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet”, is what Swami Vivekananda believes can bring about this transformation. If only we change the focus of our education from fact collecting and mark getting to character building, our country will produce statesmen and our Nation will be glorious once again. Do you agree?
7 Comments
If the goal of education changes from growing career to growing a great human being then the concern of nation building will automatically get inculcated into every child’s mind as A GREAT HUMAN BEING WILL NEVER BE CONCERNED IN OWN WELL BEING BUT IN THE WELL BEING OF PEOPLE SURROUNDING HIM.
What is WELL BEING of others? I have seen many people who are genuinely concerned about others, (for example a mother’s concern for her child) but I can’t necessarily call them Great Human Beings. What others factors do you think makes a great Personality?
The basic aim of education is to remove the ignorance by unveiling the reality. This reality can be attained by a sincere attempt. The attempt to know through an unscattered ,pure and concentrated mind. However before sowing the grains of education and knowledge the field has to be prepared. The preparation rests on the guru and a proper ambience. The ambience may be a classroom or away from the din, under a tree, in the lap of nature. That the goal of education is narrow and career centric, has to erased and replaced by the broad and wide goal of education…..selfless service.
You mentioned that the Goal of education be selfless service. Can there be other Goals to Education too, such as truthfulness, fearlessness, etc?
I had left a comment here previously. However the pst shows only one comment. Did something happen to it. I am little confused of the system
Two of your messages were seen – they seemed the same to me – so one was approved – the other deleted . If you would like to comment again please go ahead . Best wishes
I completely agree with this article. The quality of life(with career, family, etc) depends on our concentration level and concentration area. If we concentrate on positive side of life the things started to act in favor of us ( may take some time). Hence, it is concentration which help us to develop as human, as responsible citizen for the nation/society, which is the ultimate goal of education.