Galileo Galilei, the father of modern science, was put under house arrest by the church for stating the fact, which was not conforming to their belief. The fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun. He paid the price for someone else's ignorance. Since then till now, we have unshackled many beliefs and learned a lot of lessons. The primary of them is - education is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
As light exposes cracks in the building, education too, in a similar manner, exposes our ignorance. Our shortcomings are presented before us to look into and rectify them. However, sometimes it is the curiosity of knowing things that removes ignorance. It was the curiosity of Dmitri Mendeleev, the Russian chemist, that he sought to find the relation between the chemical elements. He was curious to know how Sodium is similar to Potassium, or how Chlorine is different from Argon. Mendeleev's quest for solving the puzzle led to the first modern Periodic Table of chemical elements.
This Periodic Table discovery itself further led to many progressive inventions, such as nuclear energy was harnessed from radioactive elements. Integrated Circuits (ICs) became possible with the knowledge of chemical elements exhibiting the property of a semiconductor, leading to the proliferation of the electronics sector. This proliferation over the decades led to increased computing power, as predicted by Moore's Law, and now to Artificial Intelligence.
This discovery of Mendeleev and subsequent inventions point to the essence of education that it is a progressive process, and it drives away ignorance. But how?
Education challenges our long-held beliefs. It gives us the tool of rationality, objectivity, and scientific temperament to test our firm assumptions. Our behaviour, thoughts, and actions all are put to re-evaluation with the newfound yardstick. Untouchability, for example, crept into our society and continued unabated. This unscientific and inhuman practice became part of society. It took complete devotion of Mahatma Gandhi to educate and make people aware of Untouchability. He wrote columns in Harijan, his weekly newspaper, about the issue, travelled to places to talk to people about it, and even observed fast to show his conviction. As the awareness drive attained critical mass, the results became visible and India outlawed untouchability under article 17 of the Constitution.
Another aspect of education is that it broadens our mental horizon, and offers us tools to navigate through the new horizon and keep them broadened. Going back to the example of Galileo, in which he was imprisoned for his views. But, when he was vindicated, the importance of freedom of expression was realised.
The realisation of freedom of expression set forth another virtuous progressive path for the discovery of our ignorance. Freedom of expression, now, is not only limited to saying what one feels but also includes expressing one's personal preferences. For instance, homosexuality, the expression of one's own private personal sexual preference with other consenting individual was earlier believed to be a crime and State affair. Homosexuality was a penal offence in many countries, including India. In 2018, the Supreme Court of India struck down part of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised homosexuality. It observed that societal norms change, and ought to change as society progresses and sheds ignorance.
It is clear that through education we have solved many problems. But, many problems still exist and many new problems are spawning. From gender inequality to the chasm between different communities to degradation of the environment and climate change, all need to be addressed and solved. All of this can be tackled by dropping ignorance and keeping our minds open to new thoughts and ideas. For this to happen, education has to be the discourse, not stereotype and orthodox beliefs. The world has achieved more from heresy, like that of Galileo, than from the unquestioned obedience.
As light exposes cracks in the building, education too, in a similar manner, exposes our ignorance. Our shortcomings are presented before us to look into and rectify them. However, sometimes it is the curiosity of knowing things that removes ignorance. It was the curiosity of Dmitri Mendeleev, the Russian chemist, that he sought to find the relation between the chemical elements. He was curious to know how Sodium is similar to Potassium, or how Chlorine is different from Argon. Mendeleev's quest for solving the puzzle led to the first modern Periodic Table of chemical elements.
This Periodic Table discovery itself further led to many progressive inventions, such as nuclear energy was harnessed from radioactive elements. Integrated Circuits (ICs) became possible with the knowledge of chemical elements exhibiting the property of a semiconductor, leading to the proliferation of the electronics sector. This proliferation over the decades led to increased computing power, as predicted by Moore's Law, and now to Artificial Intelligence.
This discovery of Mendeleev and subsequent inventions point to the essence of education that it is a progressive process, and it drives away ignorance. But how?
Education challenges our long-held beliefs. It gives us the tool of rationality, objectivity, and scientific temperament to test our firm assumptions. Our behaviour, thoughts, and actions all are put to re-evaluation with the newfound yardstick. Untouchability, for example, crept into our society and continued unabated. This unscientific and inhuman practice became part of society. It took complete devotion of Mahatma Gandhi to educate and make people aware of Untouchability. He wrote columns in Harijan, his weekly newspaper, about the issue, travelled to places to talk to people about it, and even observed fast to show his conviction. As the awareness drive attained critical mass, the results became visible and India outlawed untouchability under article 17 of the Constitution.
Another aspect of education is that it broadens our mental horizon, and offers us tools to navigate through the new horizon and keep them broadened. Going back to the example of Galileo, in which he was imprisoned for his views. But, when he was vindicated, the importance of freedom of expression was realised.
The realisation of freedom of expression set forth another virtuous progressive path for the discovery of our ignorance. Freedom of expression, now, is not only limited to saying what one feels but also includes expressing one's personal preferences. For instance, homosexuality, the expression of one's own private personal sexual preference with other consenting individual was earlier believed to be a crime and State affair. Homosexuality was a penal offence in many countries, including India. In 2018, the Supreme Court of India struck down part of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised homosexuality. It observed that societal norms change, and ought to change as society progresses and sheds ignorance.
It is clear that through education we have solved many problems. But, many problems still exist and many new problems are spawning. From gender inequality to the chasm between different communities to degradation of the environment and climate change, all need to be addressed and solved. All of this can be tackled by dropping ignorance and keeping our minds open to new thoughts and ideas. For this to happen, education has to be the discourse, not stereotype and orthodox beliefs. The world has achieved more from heresy, like that of Galileo, than from the unquestioned obedience.
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