Education is the art of giving instruction or training by which people learn to develop and use their mental, moral and physical powers to face the challenges of life. Life is a continuous struggle from its beginning to its ending. It is a series of trials and tests. It is education that prepares us to develop our faculties so as to march forward successfully on the road of life and face all the challenges which life presents to us. We go on seeking knowledge from the lap of our mother to the lap of our grave. Knowledge is the torch that lights the path of life. Food is the need of our body. It alone can develop our physical powers. Animals and beasts have strong physical powers but they arc tamed, harnessed and ruled over by man only because education develops the mental and moral powers of man to such an extent that he can work wonders in the world. The first aim of a good education is to develop and enhance the mental faculties of man. A good education enables a man to use his mental powers for the benefit of the whole human race.
Man has been gifted with angelic as well as satanic powers. He is Man and Animal at the same time. He possesses God-like qualities of love, kindness, mercy, generosity, and charity. He also possesses beastly qualities like hatred, enmity, aggression. cruelty and brutality. The purpose of education is to sublimate” the God-like qualities of a man so that he becomes loving, kind, helpful, gentle, charitable and generous. Good education must also suppress” the satanic, brutal and beastly powers of man. This sublimation of good qualities in man would make him humane and civilized. Thus he will make his surroundings, his country and ultimately the world a paradise on earth. He will teach others how to behave.
Good education also aims at inculcating good habits in a man right from his birth. Early rising, offering prayer to God, getting ready for school, respecting the parents, teachers, and elders: brushing teeth, taking a regular bath, doing homework, working hard, speaking the truth and many other good habits must be inculcated in a child by the parents and the teachers. But a child will learn these habits only if his parents and teachers also practice according to these habits. The best method of educating children is by being an example before them.
Education either changes or reforms our behavior. The proper test of education is to see whether it is changing or reforming the behavior of our students or not: and whether this change is for the better or the worse. With the advancement of knowledge and experience, our behavior must change or reform. If a student is becoming nobler, gentler. kinder, more helpful and more charitable; he is being properly educated. These and many others may be counted as purposes of education. Anyhow, refinement and perfection of man to the maximum possible extent is the chief aim of a good education.
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