On education, logic and our lives - Part 2

Education does two things: it develops the individual and educates the citizen. (From the Desired Outcomes of Education - Ministry of Education, Singapore)

In the previous post, I have touched on mainstream education, their characteristics, and their aims to inculcate logical thought into our lives. With the analogy of a military school, we are first taught the languages as a medium for logical thought, then filled in with facts and then gradually taught the skills to further deduce other facts, knowledge's and truths. Education ends with specialization- when we now have acquired the fundamental skills and information for general knowledge, finally proceed to apply such skills and knowledge into our specialized fields as evident in the universities and our jobs.

This has been the aim of education society has denoted for us- For us to survive independently, to think for ourselves, and for us to become competent individuals whom would be able join ranks of those in already in research and the workforce to break forth the frontiers of human discovery, knowledge and technology.

Indeed, this aim is not only for ourselves, but also for the community. This is important as we, although unique individuals ourselves, must understand that the community too denotes greatly our sense of identity, which I would discuss further in the later topics of Identity and the Self. But do note that regardless for the individual or the community, the aims of such education was to preserve and augment the student in Knowledge and Truths of the world around him/herself. This is most evident in the introductory page of Science, where Science (Knowledge) is aimed to 'let us know more about the world around us and about ourselves'

Why know so much? Humans generally have given up strength, speed, agility and physical resilience for a stronger and more intelligent brain as they had evolved from primates. In a way we might say that natural evolution has forced us to abandon physical excellence for knowledge, intelligence and logic as a means of survival. Henceforth it is imperative that we have little choice but to follow this general tendency should we wish to exist and excel. Of course you could choose to be a sportsman or a sprinter and excel in life nevertheless, yet we must understand that even these people require years of training for them to achieve such physical standards. For the average us, the casual track-and-field kid in school, or the football player at the street-soccer court after school hours, it is ultimately still our brains we have to develop at the end of the day.

So, at the end of the day, we conclude that education is meant for our personal survival, as a key factor in molding our personal identities, and as a means where we may impart what essential skills we acquire to others for the improvement of the community and other-selves. If we were to equate Truth into this equation, we may very well conclude that education is ultimately part of an attempt into find the Truth of ourselves, and the true meaning of our lives.

Yet, if the true philosophies of education are so noble, why does it not seem anything as I had described in the above paragraphs, today? Today, we hardly get to see education as a means of promoting the individual and the self. Instead, it is more evident that education is reducing the human individual to a 'mindless-slave', where the mundanity of work kills off the creativity it was supposed to impart; where the fear of examinations undermines the underlying essence to achieve knowledge.... In this way, I shall have to blame it on the reason of the overemphasis of 'Technicalities', or what I may categorize as a Logic Now on my four point scale of Moderation.

Like all corporate organizations, it's the development of education that was the key reason for it's destruction. Assuming a hypothetical case of a man named Mr Loh who wanted to start a business selling Mandarin Oranges to natives in Madagascar. His original intentions were good- to allow the natives have the ability to taste the sweet Oranges they would otherwise never be able to find alone. He brings a crate of Oranges of his boat on shore and sells it cheap to the first group of natives he meets. He soon finds out that there are many more natives to help; therefore he got together other associates, with some natives, to go back to china to get more oranges.

As time grew by, he found out that he could not possibly personally ensure that all the natives (now a big number) have the same satisfaction of tasting the oranges, so he comes up with systems and hires quality controllers to ensure that the natives get the best orange. He then assembles other teams of orange givers, and giving them full autonomy over the oranges, sends them to other parts of the island. This situation extrapolates- he soon makes cash, and he soon hires a accountant and a consultant to finance his business. He starts paying his workers money, and his workers plainly dish out oranges to the natives (with a hell lot of quality checks) for the sake of salary. In the end of the day, it can still be loosely said that Mr Loh stills gives oranges to the natives of Madagascar, but is the original essence of goodwill still present today?

Sadly, we can see that the 'essence' of it has been greatly undermined by the technicalities of his orange-giving business. Indeed, this hypothetical scenario may sound amusing to us, but comparing the original intention of orange-giving to the original philosophy of education, and both outcomes at the end of the day (today), it is very evident how the aims of education have been 'mutated' from that of self augmentation to that of self diminishment.

Exams upon exams, syllabus after syllabus- topics after topics, do we ever stop once to consider the true philosophy (or objective outcomes) of the subjects and topics we have mindlessly memorized for our examinations? Are we able to stop, admist the hectic preparations of examination, to see the true reason why such 'quality checks' are in place in the very first place? Are we still be able to see through, at the end of the day, that education is actually meant for our well-being rather than our personal destruction?

Indeed it's really hard to see this, given the warp-ness of society and the competition it entails. But nevertheless it never hurts to understand the true philosophy of education especially when our identities be weary after a hectic day's work.

There is a certain controversy in philosophy, that whether philosophers (who are actually no more than people who think actively) are born or are they made. It turn out that actually everybody are born philosopher when they were children (as evident in their innate curiosity for knowledge), but what determines a respectable philosopher from another 'ordinary' man is the ability of this 'interest in knowledge' to not be killed through the technicalities of formal education and social pressure. Bearing this in mind, perhaps now with the true aims of education made light to our lives, can we appreciate education as it is truly meant to be. And by this, be truly great- to no one, to no society, to no convention, examination or norms- but ultimately ourselves and those we love most.