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First three priorities: Education, education and education

PART-1

Published : Wednesday, 27 November, 2019 at 12:00 AM  Count : 244
Mahbubar Rahman
"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave"
-Lord Brougham (1778-1868)
Scottish Lawyer & Politician.

Mahbubar Rahman

Mahbubar Rahman

Length and breadth of humans' ignorance is so long and stretching beyond measures likes lines of infinity which perhaps induced a great man of wisdom, Socrates (469-399BC) to say "I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance". Socrates further said "The unexamined life is not worth living". Knowledge and ignorance are seemingly antonyms to each other. Knowledge is so finite in comparison to the infinity of ignorance that makes humans to crave for knowledge with never quenching thirsts for it in once life time. Sir Isaac Newton once observed "I find myself like a little child wondering in the seashore. I pick up from here and there some beautiful pebbles, some curious shells, but the vast ocean of truth lies unknown before me".

Stressing on the importance of acquiring knowledge, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said "Seek knowledge from cradle to grave". Who is the best teacher in helping humans to learn and seek knowledge to overshadow the ignorance? Undoubtedly, it is the nature which teaches humans primarily to learn from experience and gradually consolidate the repertory of knowledge. Ever since the era of men living in caves and jungles with the given superior power of brain, men wondered the immensity of the universe and learnt from the peculiar behavior pattern of natural phenomena around him.

Before the invention of fire, men would live on hunting and eat raw meats of animals. Myth has it, seeing men's helplessness in nature, Prometheus---a son of Greek god Titan, stole fire from heaven and gifted it to men, thus became the earliest teacher and benefactor of human race. Prometheus' such act of violating the rules of heaven and helping humans, angered the gods in heaven and for this, Zeus--the god of heaven punished him by chaining to a mountain rock in the Caucasus, where an eagle fed directly upon his liver which was renewed during the night; until he was rescued by Hercules. In myth, Prometheus was punished by gods for imparting knowledge to human race by gifting fire. History witnesses a similar cruel act of punishment to Socrates for imparting knowledge to young Athenians and of being disrespectful to gods. Once someone asked the Oracle at Delphis, "Who is the wisest man in Greece?" And the Oracle replied that it was Socrates.

Socrates was astonished at this, for he said that he asked questions because he himself did not know the answers. Socrates found that he was the wisest because he alone knew his own ignorance. Socrates made many enemies and finally some of them brought him to trial in court. He was condemned to die by drinking hemlock, a slow but deadly poison. In his prison cell, while he was waiting for the poison to take effect, Socrates spoke quietly with his pupils and friends about the new and better life of the soul after death. For exposing untruth of an Earth centric solar system and telling truth of Sun centric solar system, both Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) and Galileo (1564-1642), were condemned by church in their life time.

Punishment of Prometheus by the gods of heaven could not extinguish the flames of knowledge lit in human mind over the ages. Death of Socrates could not take away human's yearnings for knowledge and to know the unknown either. Plato and Aristotle and many more of their likes carried on the legacy and teachings of Socrates and passed the undying flambeau to generations after generations over the centuries. Aristotle said "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet". Without the flames of education, the world plunges into the unfathomed abyss of darkness infested in unbound superstitions. French writer and philosopher-- Voltaire (1694-1778) said, "Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them". Eminent astrophysicist and David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Science at Cornell University, USA, Carl Sagan rightly termed science as "a candle in the dark".

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in his speech at the Labor Party Conference in 1996. "Ask me my three main priorities for government, and I tell you: Education, education and education" It is the right kind of education which shapes a good human being and in a broader term, a good human race. Education separates rare human quality ---- rationality from animality --- the sleeping monster that at times wakes up and raises its head so perniciously in human character, and quickly transforms humans into devils or beast in human shape.

Although days of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are now long gone and lost in the mist of time, but some vestiges that are left behind in terms of education and wisdom still reverberates in human mind toward keeping the flames of knowledge and wisdom ever ablaze. Wisdom is not fallout from sky. Humans acquire knowledge and wisdom through enduring learning process and right education. Over the last five thousand years of known human history, in different stages, men's pursuit in acquiring knowledge through education is worth mentioning. History of institutional education dates back the time of Socrates and beyond, which was mainly concentrated on dialogues and discourse. "For what should a man live, if not for the pleasure of discourse?" as Plato (429-347BC) reasoned.

Education carries forward the human civilization to the road to progress. Like 'a candle in the dark', education attempts to free human from the curse of gripping ignorance that sometimes humans are deeply immersed in bliss and with the hiccup of complacence. Humans cannot survive without knowledge and wisdom which comes through right kind of education only. History reflects a right track record over the last centuries how humans in the pursuit of knowledge in all the branches of art and science through right kind of education have brought about wonders and accomplished all the spectacular achievements in life. Enduring journey through the meandering alleys and arteries of institutional education has brought about landmark achievements in the quality of life over the last centuries.

The writer is a former Civil Servant








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