“Education is an ornament in prosperity,
and a refuge in adversity.”
This
very interesting statement, by the ancient Greek physician and philosopher Aristotle,
is a reason why so many experts consider him to be the most important of
all the ancient Greek philosophers.
In
the quotation, he was drawing attention to this unique quality of living that
can only be achieved by a good, all-encompassing education. In the good times,
it will serve to augment value and character to one’s image, and at the same
time, be like the crowning ornament that makes the difference. For, by
acquiring new knowledge and improving such important skills as perception,
thinking, deduction and creation, will serve to open one’s horizons and add
confidence to everything. And then, in those times when adversity takes hold,
when failure threatens, and when all seems to be lost, the educated mind, with
its stores of knowledge, and its ability to deduce, will be able to search for
and to find solutions by referring to past experiences and applying new skills.
Clearly, under any type of external circumstance, education is in fact, “the
crown” that ensures success and prosperity. For it is on the strength of one’s
education that one is able to move beyond failure, reinvent oneself, change
direction, and find new roads.
His work, particularly in the field of
education, has had, and continues to have a great influence on Western society.
In fact, much of the current thinking and applications in use today can be
traced back to his original recommendations more than 2000 years ago. He viewed
education not only as the acquisition of knowledge, but as an important vehicle
for developing one’s senses. He insisted further, that it was only through
education can there be an understanding of how the world functions, what it
needs, and what man’s role should be in making it a better place to live in. He
concluded that it is only through educating one’s mind and learning to think
and to understand, can a person appreciate all the guiding principles for
living a good life
Marcus
Tullius Cicero,
the great ancient Roman statesman, very correctly described the purpose of a
good education was to “cultivate the mind” and for producing “the
manner and character that becomes the person.” Even after the passage of so
much time, this concept has not changed. For a good education can only be
considered as such, if it succeeds in altering attitudes, changing the person’s
view of life itself, and be the driving force that ensures a continuing quality
life. It must achieve the enhancement of such habits of the mind as
imagination, curiosity, creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking, and
also improve the capacity to make judgments between reality from fantasy, and
to arrive at sound conclusions. In short, education is the driving force
that ensures a quality life.
A
sound education provides the ability to appreciate and to fulfill ones needs,
to envisage, plan, produce and enjoy one’s ideas, and it affords the
opportunity to be able to communicate, share and exchange thoughts with others.
These are all things that serve to provide the tools to assist in better
control of one’s life, opportunity to make better use of one’s resources, and
offer more choices for enriching one’s life and that of everyone else. It must
not only provide the necessary store of information in the form of new
knowledge, but equally, instill the habit and the ability of mind and body to
deal with the changing and often unpredictable demands of life. It must, not
only expands one’s ability to communicate with others, but also instill the
ability to anticipate, acknowledge and adapt to the needs of the prevailing
environment. This is precisely what Nelson Mandela, the great South
African president and revolutionary leader, meant when he declared:
“Education is the most powerful weapon which
can be used to change the world.”
Quite
recently, during a brief discussion on the subject with a good friend and relative,
Patti Hadad, an accomplished attorney for whom I have the highest
regard, she reminded me of a statement made by one of her professors in law
school many years ago, which had, and has continued to, impress her:
“There are three types of people in this world:
-The rich, the poor and the educated. -And when you’re educated, you don’t need any of the others.”
In saying this, he had in fact accurately
delineated the position of education in relation the overall social and
economic status of our society. The clear implication was that while being rich
or being poor can only be measured against each other and as such, are somehow
interdependent, a good education, by its very nature, equips the individual to
stand alone and away from any influence from the others. Only the person who is
armed with a good education, will truly be able to take full advantage of the
prevailing circumstances, and will always rise above the others, who, by their
very nature, will remain locked in by their economic status.
Without
question, there is strong evidence that education plays a vital role in
assuring positive behavioral changes in the society. By its nature of
cultivating the need for learning, the process of seeking the truth, and the
urge to encourage new discovery, it advances the horizons, increases opportunities
for truth and possibilities, and encourages understanding. I recall some time
ago, being told that the true purpose of a good, balanced education was to
turn mirrors into windows, so that the student will spend less time just
looking at himself and his needs, and will be afforded more opportunity to look
out into the world and see the wonderful diversity it offers. Indeed, I can
think of no other resource available to the human mind that can ever claim to open
up the world and expose all its secrets as effectively as a good education, nor
for that matter, any better way to explain the beauty and the wonders of life.
To quote the words of Malcolm-X (Malcolm
Little), a leading proponent of human and black rights in the 1960’s in
America, for whom being educated gave him the opportunity to pursue his cause
in life, when he declared:
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
-Indeed, without any doubt, the progress man has achieved by leaving the dark days of yesterday into the bright sunshine of tomorrow, could only have taken place because of education.
< >
KINDLY SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND CONTACTS
No comments:
Post a Comment