Educating our Children : What is the Meaning of Education?

We are talking today about the heart of the educative process. What is education for? Why do we want our children to attend classes? Why do we create universities? These are not easy questions, if we are to give deep answers. We could say that the aim of education should be seen as a duality:

Education could be seen as wings for the progress of the human being. It helps the individual to attain intellectual, physical and spiritual or emotional progress. In some ways, it helps the individual to live a happier life. For people without education, living comfortably turns difficult, especially in the modern world where specific skills are often needed to work. Besides, education is real wealth. Understanding how the world around us functions produces happiness, a kind of happiness that does not disappear. True education dignifies the individual.

Education not only creates a better human being but also contributes to the tranformation of society. We are summoned to take forward our community, village, city, State, world. But to get that we need tools. The tools to improve the world are not fighting ideologies, or weapons –as many have tried thorough history- but knowledge, sciences, arts. Those tools empower the people who sincerely want to see a more just world. Further more, the paradox that we find our selves happy when we forget our own self and focus on the wellbeing of other is true. Working to improve the society through the tools education provides, helps us to develop our own capacities, and brings us peace and tranquility, although that is not the motive.

Having said this, we should be mindful that each of us has a double purpose in life, developing our own potentialities, and bettering the kind of world we live in. And the best weapon to walk firmly in these two paths the answer lies in education.