Education and Wisdom

Education and Wisdom are terms with

big aura which have, unfortunately,
come to mean many different things.

Still, we may attempt to decipher

broadly what we wish them to convey.
Though these observations need not be
definitions but may be useful templates.
 Education – Part -1
First there is no clarity on the differences (much less the nuances) among the following:-
What is literacy, knowledge, information, raw data, understanding, grasping, academic excellence, experience based
knowledge, various skill sets, technical knowledge, practical work, talent, tact, intelligence, intellectual perspectives,
interpretations, opinions, thoughts, ideas, philosophy, ideology, doctrine, articulation skills, creative thinking, learning etc.
Various processes and methods of imparting all the above and ingesting them followed by the evaluation, review and
measurement of the importance and impact of all these. Unfortunately, everything is lumped together and called as
Education. Some of them may not even get into AI generated wordle.

Education is too big a topic covering too vast areas of multitude of disciplines involving many facets, multiple dimensions
and dynamics. Education must most importantly impart contextual relevance, priorities, scientific approach, rational
outlook with humanitarian values, sense of balance without getting cocooned in any ideological bias and fundamental
knowledge about nature and environment and how we must not cause damage to it without getting into hyper activist
mode. In short, conscious awareness based concern about everything related to life and living in general.

No one can say with axiomatic certitude that one particular thing is education much less how it can be and must be imparted.
Education is the enlightened awareness and acceptance of facts of inevitable evolution of everything and experiencing
life as a flow of all or some them as they emerge through the churning process of life where they express the multiple
dimensions of everything and the various dynamics of each dimension emanating from inherent attributes as well as a
reaction to external impacts.

Life is an unmapped atlas where we are not even sure whether all pieces of the jigsaw puzzles are there to create a
shape. Lot depends on proceeding on unbiased observations beyond or besides or if necessary even without existing loads of
knowledge because the existing bunch of knowledge could also act as a conditioning factor if we are not alert and totally
divert our understanding of anyone or anything. Besides all these there are also factors like our attitudes towards multiple
interpretations, ideological identity based inhibitions to accept certain things, attitudes and overall perspective towards what
we encounter etc. That is why it becomes a necessity to not to take on extreme positions in anything and instead maintain a
balanced view. Extreme positions can blur the view from seeing the multiple possibilities that may exist everywhere.
Knowledge, Information, Thoughts, Ideas and Teachings are ingredients, Understanding is making them into a tasty cooked
food, Grasping and Interpretations are the utensils used for cooking, Learning is the process of cooking a tasty, easily
digestible, nutritious food.
 Education –Part -2
What for we get educated?
That is to look into the purpose /meaning/role of education rather than getting into philosophical/verbal debates about
defining ‘What is education?’ What are/what must be the components of education which need to be prioritized according to
situation/context? What are we going to do with the education that we impart or get?
What are the aspects of life/society/nature etc that education must focus on?
How are we going to include creative thinking, experimentation, observation, clarity of thinking, curiosity to learn etc in the
education system ensuring once again all these are according to contextual relevance?
How can we inculcate the importance of value and process of marrying data with technology as a tool to decipher many areas
of human life and understanding the dynamics of life as a whole?
How are we going to ensure better preparedness of human beings to face the ever changing challenges in many spheres of
human activity? How we are going to educate even young children to be street smart and politically wise both in terms of
understanding politics and playing politics as these are becoming not only very important but sometimes indispensable
survival skills? The importance of literacy and certain level of formal education is a fundamental basis or a given or a
premise. But then we need to decide as to what are the subjects that need to be included in this process? And what are the
things that need to be chaffed away, churned out/in, continued, carried out as the most important etc?
Practically I feel it must include awareness; method of observation; using relevant frames of reference to evaluate anything
or anyone; making everyone understand the importance of reason and logic in terms of contextual relevance; imparting
knowledge about how everyone and everything are inter connected, inter related , inter dependent and interactive etc;
importance of how therefore we must relate with everything and everyone; all these will include acquiring enough knowledge
about our body/health, mind, social awareness as it is existing not as envisaged and idolized by some ideology or ism;
appropriate utilization of natural resources; importance of relevant attitude to ensure collective survival in comfort and life in
peace and harmony; awareness about what we must consume as food, how much, and what are the edible commodities
grown/cultivated/available near one’s place of living etc.
Inclusion of all these and many more aspects as part of education needs to and leads to drastic changes in the methods of
teaching/learning etc and how are we going to generate all those ?
Are these too many to start off? Not at all because data and easily accessible technology offers vast area of synergy with
which we can actually address these, if not all, at least many of them.
Neither certain basic material aspect of life nor political influence /impact can be ignored in any sphere of activity. So they
need to be factored in as part and purpose of education without pronouncing any hypocritical idealistic preaching against
them. Children observe and they see through the hypocrisy of elders.
 Education –Part-3
The WHYs of education?
“People lose their way when they lose their why” says, Michael Hyatt.
We need to know first why we are pursuing some education.
Not mere academic qualification or mere literacy, though they too are equally relevant and important for many aspects of
social life. Then why we need it? Whether whatever we do in the name of education are they increasing happiness, adding
value to the one doing it and then to others? Whether it is tool for attaining something else or an end in itself?
What are all the skill sets we want out of education? Most importantly what is the trade off? It need not necessarily be the
constant obsession with trade off for our time and money spend to be compensated with more money without greater
happiness, peace and better understanding.
Education is not merely confined to making or earning money, skills in communication and calculation.
Whether any external coaching can improve intelligent perception beyond knowledge acquisition?
Whether anything can improve our understanding or our thinking or more interestingly go beyond the realms of thoughts?
Whether any specific method can endow us with some ability to grasp the pulse of every subject or inject clarity of
understanding?
Normally, the best education starts with curiosity, meanders through imitation- as a natural instinct for short cut- as a
child learns to speak the language and words spoken by its parents then expands through exploration,
experimentation, empirical verification, rational justification and so on.
I have read a lot on the subject of education to get confused enough and I have written enough to pass on the confusion.
But when I encounter people, some of the so-called highly educated groping in the dark clueless in many areas of life or
manifesting obvious idiocy then I am forced to look into the meaning, purpose and utility of the whole gamut of education.
Most of us when we talk of education, in general, not specific education for a intended outcome or purpose, are still
swimming in a sea of vagueness and club a wide range of things under one single generic term ‘education’ including in it
everything from basic literacy, ability to communicate, better verbal articulation of already available information or
interpretation of existing data to making in depth study in the mechanism of the subject of study.
There is nothing wrong in this but we need to merely and humbly accept the fact that we do not have enough clarity
whenever we use the word education.
Like everything else in life education too involves a constant process of adjustment and learning. “If we know exactly where
we're going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we'll see along the way, we won't learn anything”. M.S.Peck.
 Education –Part-4
Whenever we undertake or undergo any education the following aspects are embedded in our subconscious mind and they
leave their imprint.
“All of us have our own inner fears, beliefs, opinions. These inner assumptions rule and govern our lives. A suggestion has
no power in and of itself. Its power arises from the fact that you accept it mentally.”― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your
Subconscious Mind
“We must realize that the subconscious mind is the law of action and always expresses what the conscious mind has
impressed on it. What we regularly entertain in our mind creates a conception of self. What we conceive ourselves to be, we
become.”- Grace Speare.

In addition we are also subjected to the influences and impacts externally of a whole array of thoughts, ideas and ideologies
of various hues and colors. None of these can be defied or denied for any reason.

It would be a mistake if we conclude knowledge and understanding only in certain specific areas or domains of life is enough
because life itself is too intricate, interconnected, inter- related and interdependent on various factors each having its own
varied dimensions and variety of dynamics both inner dynamics as well as interactive dynamics.
However, we cannot go on and on, debating and discussing the multiple meanings and complexities of education.
We need to start somewhere for the benefit of maximum number of human beings as individuals as well as social entities
and the whole natural environment we need to evolve some forms of education systems with lofty, practically useful, easily
executable ideals and goals, all on the whole creating a synergy that will be of great value in any situation rather than getting
educated excluding many things which one may be required to come across in life later on and get stranded clueless and
forced to depend on everyone else.
“In the end nothing less than the whole of everything can be the truth of anything at all”- William James
If possible as Thomas Huxley says, "Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."
In way we must be humble enough to acknowledge these pearls of wisdom that learning may broadly impart to us:-
1."All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again." - Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
2. “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” -Sir Isaac Newton
3. Albert Einstein said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
And ultimately from whatever pearls of wisdom we manage to learn we need to pass on conducive terrain with the wisdom
that we have gained for posterity through many aspects of social engineering of which education is of paramount importance