Dr P R Datta
It is very common to ask: What is the purpose of education? For many parents, educators, and educational institutions, the primary purpose of education is to impart knowledge and fill our children’s minds with information. Such knowledge is essential, but to a point. In addition to imparting facts and knowledge, education should arouse learner’s interest and cultivate a passion of learning. True education starts by igniting the human mind’s innate fire, which enables learning to develop and thrive on its own, even though fundamental knowledge and abilities are still required.
A Greek Platonist philosopher, Plutarch, who was also a historian, biographer, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, wrote, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” These are the timeless words. Over the past 28 years, these timeless words have reverberated in every classroom I have entered, serving as a constant reminder that education is about lighting sparks of inquiry, creativity, and transformation rather than dumping knowledge into receptive minds. Knowing that I am not the only source of knowledge in the room makes me humble every time I enter a classroom. Teaching has never been a one-way process of knowledge transfer and never should be. Fundamentally, it is an ongoing conversation and a joint path where students and teachers work together to gain understanding. This is really true. The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but rather wood that needs igniting—no more —and then it motivates one towards creativity, originality, and instils the desire for truth.
As stated by Swami Vivekananda, education can emancipate. It frees one from negative tendencies and a lack of awareness regarding one’s authentic “Self.” Therefore, education should not be regarded as an end in itself; instead, it should serve as a vehicle to facilitate an individual’s development of self-awareness and lead them to comprehend the ultimate unity of existence, a notion that has been eloquently expounded upon by influential figures such as Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), and more recently.
According to Vivekananda, education is not the amount of information we put into our brains and let it run riot there, undigested, all our lives. We must have life-building, man-making, and character-making assimilation of ideas. Suppose you have assimilated five ideas and made them a part of your life and character. In that case, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library….the ass carrying its load of sandalwood knows only the weight and not the value of the sandalwood.
If education is identical with information, the libraries are the greatest sages in the world, and encyclopaedias are the rishis.
Therefore, it is clear that our purpose is to provide an education that fosters the development of character, enhances intellectual capacity, and enables individuals to stand independently. The primary task of a teacher is to elicit the hidden knowledge in individuals. Knowledge resides within humans. So, knowledge is not something external. It is not possible to impart knowledge to any student. A teacher should guide a student through proper guidance to help them discover their inner wisdom. The universal ideal of a teacher is to harmoniously develop all the intrinsic qualities of the student – physical, mental and spiritual.
I have been teaching in higher education sector since 1998. As I reflect on my years of teaching, I see that my students were often the source of the most profound discoveries and lessons that genuinely altered my viewpoint, rather than textbooks or theories. They originated from their experiences, inquiries, difficulties, and distinct perspectives on the world. My students have been dreamers, dancers, managers, singers, poets, writers, engineers, accountants and philosophers.
In addition to their intellectual curiosity, each of them has contributed a richness of life experiences to the classroom. And when people open their brains and hearts in those interactions, I realise that I am learning just as much as I am teaching. I now believe that teaching is more about fostering an environment where insight may come from everyone in the room than it is about lecturing from the front of the room. The real purpose of education is discovered in this exchange. Every question posed and every tale told ignites a new flame in the classroom, which turns into a cycle of growth for both the student and me.
Teachers are not only teaching students relentlessly in the classroom, but they are also taking on many responsibilities. They are sometimes educators, sometimes service givers, mentors, protectors, or givers of blessings, love and encouragement like a father or mother. Many teachers spend sleepless nights worrying about their students daily so that every student can rise to the heights of life. They are as proud as the parents of the child when celebrating achievements, and as devastated and burdened as the parents are at the failure of the students or any other sadness. As an educator, I feel proud to belong to this aesthetic social philosophy of nurturing minds. Yet in the classroom, my students are the true heroes—they ignite fires within me, challenging me to think beyond my own horizons and inspiring learning as a shared journey.
This term, I have the joy of teaching a diverse group of MBA students, each carrying within them a world of stories, experiences, and wisdom. They come from different countries, cultures, and languages. Some are singers, poets, lyricists, astrologers, numerologist and composers; others are managers, business owners, and leaders of organisations. Yet in the classroom, my students are the true heroes—some bring a wealth of industry experience, others balance the roles of motherhood and family life. Every student possesses a different ‘rhythm’, a different’ way of looking upon the world’, and a distinct ‘light to shine.’ The students, when entering the classroom, do not come ’empty’; they come ‘loaded’. I experience this as a teacher every time I listen to their accounts: experiences, ideas, and reflections on different domains: business, philosophy and meditation. I appreciate these interactions as a teacher, where a teacher and a student engage in a monologue, but a dialogue. It, in fact, is a holy communication.
One of the students, a singer, described the discipline needed to train a voice: practice, the right touches of pitch, and the willingness to take correction. I heard this student, and I thought, leadership is also like this. It is like music, requiring unity, no gaps, and full surrender in listening, not to oneself, but to the whole, like a singer, to the whole, including the whole of the singing system. I don’t think I will ever forget that. Another student, a poet, recited verses on the daunting and the mustering. The way the words fell is a reminder not just that business and life is not strategy and outcome, but also on the meaning.
Another student, a numerologist, gave a presentation to the class on how practicing just five minutes of meditation each morning can help us begin the day with greater calmness. It was truly wonderful to witness meditation being integrated into teaching and learning. We even practiced meditation together in the classroom, making the experience both engaging and enriching. A manager deals with numbers, but the person behind the manager —the imagination, the creativity, the out-of-the-box thinking —is the whole of business.
(… to be continued)
The writer is an educator, author, and researcher
