An inconvenient truth about our education system

In spite of all the increases in literacy and income levels across the globe why is it that the levels of happiness are going in the reverse direction? Education and wealth should eventually lead us to happiness but that does not seem to be happening! I think those who are more educated are generally not as happy as those who are less educated. Is the adage ignore is bliss applicable to the field of education? Why?

First and foremost we should understand something that is fundamentally very important – education is for life and not merely for living.  But class after class, year after year students are prepared for a living and not life. Once they join the workforce they have to finetune their skills, again month after month and year after year, to make a better living. Some times we feel that our degrees are not taking us anywhere nor making us any happier. We feel let down as the knowledge that we gained over several years simply got reduced to just another skill like carpentry, stone masonry and pottery. Knowledge was not churned into wisdom and we slowly lost traction on the purpose and meaning of our pursuits. We fail to understand that the problem lies in our pursuits and the system that prepared us for a living. The education system turns into a collosal failure when it prepares people for a mere living and not life. Just as cattle are put in closed farms, fed, fattened and readied for human consumption, humans are put behind closed doors, brainwashed, examined to make sure the brainwash is complete and then finally put on a treadmill called labour market so that they continue to make a living that is bereft of all purpose and enlightenment.  What do they do when they get on the labour market? They earn so that they can buy things that the televisions and newspapers implore them to buy. Eventually we fatten the corporations that ruin the environment. But there is hope.  The fact that there are towering advances in science, technology and communications as well as in the fields of spirituality and philosophy is proof of our hope. There are still people around who care, seek and find their purpose in life and act on it.

How do we make amends so that the situation does not deteriorate any further?

It is only knowledge that can manage wealth and not the other way round. This is a very important thing to keep in mind

Let us first understand the fundamental difference between knowledge and wealth. Here is a quick comparison between the two. The only way to acquire knowledge is by devoted study. Once acquired it cannot be taken away either by force or by coercion. Giving or sharing does not mean losing it. It sits in your subconscious and wherever you go it travels with you. Knowledge when finetuned can provide us with the contentment and happiness that nothing else can provide. It is a potent weapon that must be employed wisely. Wealth on the other hand can be acquired by several means including honest worthy earnings, highway robbery, illegitimate inheritance and plain swindling. Wealth stays in banks and sometimes under the carpet and in either case it requires continuous monitoring and maintenance. Wealth acquired by any means can be gone in a jiffy! Wealth is a potent weapon too and when acquired by honest means and if used wisely for noble causes it can make miracles happen.  It is only knowledge that can manage wealth and not the other way round. This is a very important thing to keep in mind.

Corporations around the world have mastered the technique of winning us with their advertisements. They can easily see whether their advertisements and marketing campaigns are working or not and make amends in a short period of time. They have well established ways of telling us how we cannot live without buying their products. They were able to do this because there is a profit motive. A lot of money is pumped into these campaigns to make you spend. It works – just look at how impulsive buying is on the rise! If there is something that the education system can learn from the corporate culture it is this. In the same way that corporations mastered their techniques of winning us, the education system should also strive to develop techniques that drives students towards discovering their purpose. It should equip our future generations to seek and realize the goals of long lasting happiness. The current education model has been in place for a while now and now is the time to take a fresh look at how it operates.

Once we understand the basics that education is for life and not merely for living, once we understand that true knowledge can contain the influence and potency of wealth and once we understand that techniques can be developed to teach students to discover their purpose in life, it will be easier to identify holes in the education model that need to be closed. The goal of any transformation of our education system is to inject our future generations with higher levels of immunity against social pressures of equating success with material possessions. Once this is done, it will unlock many more doors for purposeful living. This is easier said than done, I know that. But each of us should take charge and help the kids in our sphere of influence with ideas on realizing their true potential. Where possible we should assist and influence the school systems. But the true beginning is to transform and model ourselves as the messengers of the life that we advocate!