A liberally educated person understands that they belong to a community whose prosperity and well-being is crucial to their own, and they help that community flourish by giving of themselves to make the success of others possible.
If we speak of education for freedom, then one of the crucial insights of a liberal education must be that the freedom of the individual is only possible in a free community, and vice versa as well. It is the community that empowers the free individual, just as it is free individuals who lead and empower the community. The fulfillment of high talent, the just exercise of power, the celebration of human diversity: nothing so redeems these things as the recognition that what seem like personal triumphs are in fact the achievements of our common humanity.
They follow E. More than anything else, being an educated person means being able to see connections so as to be able to make sense of the world and act within it in creative ways. A liberal education is about gaining the power and insight and the generosity and finally the freedom and the wisdom to connect. U niversity of W isconsin —Madison. They listen and they hear. They read and they understand.
They can talk with anyone. They can write clearly and persuasively and movingly. They can solve a wide variety of puzzles and problems. They practice respect and humility, tolerance and self-criticism.
It is because of this reason that Indian constitution has recognized the right to elementary education as a fundamental right. In fact, process of learning is an ongoing and continuous process. Many scholars have also defined education. Such as Swami Vivekanand defined this word as expression of inbuilt perfection of oneself. Acquiring knowledge and using it for the happiness and goodness of the society really makes a person educated. It is because of this reason that knowledge acquired through education is essential for any prosperous society.
Role of educated people in the society A responsible educated person owes a duty to the society at large as the society invests into his education by providing necessary facilities and infrastructure. Some of the specific roles and responsibilities of educated people could be summed up as under For a civilized and cultured society its foundation of education is to be strong in the same way as is the requirement of a good stone for the construction of a good building.
However, ironically, today the educated youth is misguided. This has resulted into increased crime rate against women and also increased violence, extortion etc. There is a rampant environment of exploitation fear and insecurity hence a responsible educated people will have to take a lead to prevent this erosion of social values. When we stoip learning we die. Rick - I think your comment is spot on. I like the distinction you make between information and learning.
Tvpuram - thanks for thoughtful comment. I like the sentence "teachers help them to open up their internal eyes". What an insightful and wonderful hub! This was SO well done. I also voted it up and incredibly useful.
That's right. What can we do about this? Very good Hub Tony, I try to pass such information on to my students that I tutor whenever possible. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford both had very little public education, but they knew where to find the knowledge they needed to succeed. I believe folks ought to be learning all the time and expanding their minds with knowledge and growing in wisdom along the way.
I have no degree, no formal education to speak of. I explore the world around me, books, emotion, life in general, all these things hold a wealth of knowledge and discovery. I do agree the traditional school setting is more about status in the world rather than true education, people think if they play the game the end result is a certain status in life.
I think education is going to become the ANC's Achilles heel - the worst aspect of the lack of service delivery. I had hoped that it was not deliberate - but perhaps you have a point there. If one is really intelligent, they are smart enough to know they don't "know it all". Teachers should always strive to instill some type of love for learning something in every child.
If the child never gains a desire to learn he will be a statistic of some sort. Children usually worship three things. God,Parents and finally their teachers. Parents with God's assistance help them open their external eyes.
Where as teachers help them to open up their internal eyes. Great article! You are so right about what defines an educated person. I know so many people with several degrees but they can't live in the world or even know what the reality of the world. You are so right and correct.. You know iam gonna read your other hubs..
Your analysis is spot-on without any frills. Teachers without proper training and equipment dates back to the Apartheid era and is now being bungled by the present government in power- alongside corruption, cronyism, nepotism and sheer dumbness. Secondly, as we both know, teachers in the African community have not been paid pittance and getting them ready now has come to naught.
Ever since Mandela came to power, discipline went out the window and the scramble for meagre left over cash has been the rat race among the power, who are expecting to get rich quicker by 'any means possible'.
Your last point is accurate, to the extent we look at the past 16 years of ANC rule. Seemingly, they have been lording over the very same system you are addressing: children learning in the veld or under the tree without any proper infrastructure. ANC is not accountable to anyone and they are arrogant.
The loss of the years you mention in your comment above is real, and its effects are what I call the de-education of Africans. ANC with all the corruption mentioned above has really exacerbated the state of education making Apartheid look better with its misfit-type -of-education. Without accountability, as you have suavely observed, nothing goes. The ANC, it is my contention is satisfied with keeping its voting polity as ignorant as possible, and they finally diluted and divided the departments you allude to above,, through separation, as you state, to benefit and protect their fiefdoms.
I agree with you that there is more to be said on this subject. I am not prone to make follow-up on comments I make on people's articles, but in this rare case, I choose to response and concur with your observations and conclusions. Education amongst Africans in South Africa needs to be put on the "Reset" button. Thank you for responding profusely to my comments which are egging me on todo some research on the topic of Pedagogy post-Apartheid South Africa.
Thank you Tony and comments ad feed-back are greatly appreciated. Thank you and 'ukhule uzoukhokhobe'. Ixwa - the "b" key on my keyoard see!
Thnanks for your interesting, and rather sad, comment. I agree with you that education is in a very sorry state in South Africa. I think the cause, though, is not OBE, which actually should be a much better form of education. The real causes of the deterioration are more complex.
Firstly there is the issue of very under-qualified teachers doing their best to cope with a curriculum for which they have had inadequate preparation and for which the resources are also inadequate. Secondly is the issue of teacher remuneration and the consequent labour issues in the profession. This has led to teaching not having the status it once had and teachers feel extremely de-motivated. Thirdly there is the issue of discipline, amnd I'm not referring here to corporal punishment which I am against.
I am referring to the general issue of the teacher being in the classroom, prepared and ready to teach, and the learners also being there and ready to learn. Unfortunately the government has woken up rather late to the fact that this is an issue which needs to be addressed. And there is not great leadership - the present Minister of Basic Education, when she was still MEC for education, preferred dancing in the streets in support of Zuma, when he was on trial, to attending a meeting on education called by the then MInister, Naledi Pandor.
It is difficult to take seriously a call for teachers to do their work when the minister herself sets such a poor example. Finally there is the issue of the provision of the physical structures for providing education - there are still too many children having to go to school under trees instead of in classrooms.
And too many of the classrooms that are there are in pitiable condition. The apartheid regime deliberately provided sub-standard education for lacks, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, the ANC government has not done enough to address the issues and we have lost more than 15 years. The primary issue in all of this is the one of accountability - government has not held anyone accountable all down the line - from the public servants in the education departments, to the teachers, to the learners, and especially to the principals.
Education and learning require discipline and the government, for its own reasons, has preferred to dodge that issue. The separation of the education department into two has made the situation worse, because accountability is now further diluted. Sorry about the rant, but I am passionate about education and feel that the country is being short-changed in this regard. South Africa spends proportionately more than any other country in the world on education and yet, because of the issue of discipline and accountability we still have this problem.
TW I would love to take up your offer to visit a township with you to see the schools there. Anytime you are in Pretoria! I enjoyed reading this, One thing came to mind when I was reading and it's not all that "Earth-shattering" a comment here , and that was an incident when I was watching a School Committee meeting for my own town ; and one of the members did "a whole, big, speech" about the role of the schools and the School Committee in education.
He referred, first, to how they the School Committee ought to keep in mind how some companies operate. I was waiting and not assuming what was coming would necessarily be offensive or ignorant.
This guy was doing his self-important bloviating clearly seeing his own role as "huge". Anyway, none of it was too bad until he said, ".. In this case, the kids are our products. I wasn't offended at the "object reference" the guy used. People do that kind. What I found objectionable was that he seemed oblivious to whole concept that "his" schools were supposed to be "producing education" as those "cans of peas".
In other words, the guy was too clueless to get his own analogy right. Of course, this was the same School Committee for which one member had run on this slogan, "I'm there at the meetings, so you don't have to be. You know many African kids were passed for their matriculation.
These kids stopped schooling around April Outcome-based education is worse than Bantu Education. Our children are more ignorant of many things and this has left parents wondering what is the use of education today- youth sees nothing yet, but it is now common knowledge that little learning is taking place and that the AFrican children are worse-off than unlike the Bantu Educated Africans. Why I say that, there is a lot of 'lack' in all sectors of private and government and society; there has been a lowering of educational standards, that even a degree, or a learning curve amongst the students is irrelevant to the present needs of contemporary South Africa.
Come and visit the schools in Soweto and throughout Pretoria African townships, you'll see my point. That's my two cents. I will try and write about what I am commenting about in the very near future. Hola Gazi! Gerry - thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment.
I like your sentence: " The concepts of "enough" and 'too much' and self-denial have been lost even in the current socialist societies and definitely in the organized religion context. The financial security goal is reasonable but the allowance and pursuit of obscene wealth has corrupted global culture and civilization.
It's agreed that indoctrination is a bane on society - particularly the terroristic; militaristic and oppressive variety. This was a very thought-provoking article. Thank you. Quicksand - thanks for stopping by and making such a wonderful comment.
I really appreciate your kind words, thank you.
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