Education

This year is a year of service for me: service through education. Not only is every day a learning experience in itself, but also every time I step into a class I am both teaching and learning from my students. There was a great compilation made a while ago of speeches given at a symposium on education and I would like to share some interesting points I have found in this book.

There are three kinds of education: material, human, and divine. Material education is concerned with the progress of the body; human education is concerned with the progress of civilization; and spiritual education is concerned with the acquisition of divine perfections. Unfortunately, as our society advances materially, it ignores the importance of spiritual education. People see the three types as being unrelated and spiritual education as being a question of choice. I wonder if the same people who have forbid the saying of prayers in school assemblies or the teaching of moral values in classes see a correlation between their decisions and the increase in teen drinking, STDs, and drug overdoses. Probably not.
How can educators deny the importance of spiritual education when the concept of "education for all" is based on the "spiritual" premise that we are all equal and therefore have an equal right to education?

One of the speeches in the book focused on some major themes in the Baha'i Faith and how these related to objectives of education.
-Intrinsic nobility of man: Education should have the purpose of elevating man. Teachers should work to elevate students' sense of intrinsic nobility... particularly in a culture that is constantly degrading man.
-Unity in diversity: Education must exploit the diversity of talents and knowledge that students have, not stifle it.
-Oneness of mankind: this should be the thread linking all learning and action. Education should focus strongly on eliminating prejudices and of course, never create them!
-Words and deeds: Hypocrisy is becoming dangerously prevalent in our society. Teachers who scold students for smoking but light up as soon as school is done; actors and ministers heading anti-drug and anti-AIDS campaigns but who get busted for illegal possession or indulge in unprotected promiscuous behavior. Education must be carried out through example and teachers must realize the impact their behavior has on students. I have often heard stories from people who barely remember what they learned in high school, but remember the teacher who yelled, who lied, or who was extremely kind and patient.

The point which interested me the most was the basic building block of education: knowing-loving-creating. True creativity can only come from knowledge and LOVE. So much emphasis is placed on the acquisition of knowledge in schools, but unless students really develop a love for what they are studying, there will be little motivation and little creativity. The difficulty lies in creating this love and encouraging the creativity.

These are all principles that I will work very hard to apply to my work here, but the reason I wanted to put them in this blog is because I think they are applicable to everyone! As a teacher, as a student, as a parent, and as a human being, education is a constant, never-ending process.