Drawing Out Each Person's Potential is the True Meaning of Education

To the ancient Greeks, teaching and learning, the imparting and acquisition of knowledge, facts and wisdom was treated as a privilege and an almost sacred process, much respected, as exemplified by Socrates, Plato, Gaius, Pythagoras, and Ptolemy. To a Renaissance man like Leonardo da Vinci, it too was near divine, and learning in all fields was encouraged but available to only a privileged few. Yet to the modern-day student, for the most it conjures only images of pressure and examinations. Few except those the successful elite will think of it kindly.

What, then, has happened to education today? In a meritocratic and materialistic society, the higher calls of Truth, Knowledge and Wisdom have been forsaken in the rush to obtain paper qualifications. To be educated is to learn, and this a lifelong process. Without doubt we can say that when a man has learnt all that he possibly can,, he has reached the peak of his education, and, so, in the larger sense, we can determine that the drawing out of each person's potential is the true meaning of education. Yet, generally around the world, the word `education' has come to be understood in 'the smaller sense' of being educated under an education system. In our discussion, we must see what. standard they system should set in order, to achieve true education for those under it - whether the standard should be a set one against, which all are measured, or whether the standard should be that. each has met his potential .

In these countries, the system uses the former standard, the measure being examination grades. When following the piper's call of achievement, qualification, success in life, and, ultimately, happiness, in our proverbial rat race, it would be well to reconsider our objectives. We are now in the system to earn a qualification which will earn us success and wealth in life, which will hopefully make us happy. We are moving toward the model of Japan - that. of' super-efficiency. Yet many educated Singaporeans and Japanese who have found high-paying jobs are working themselves half to death, leaving little time for leisure and their families.

This is the system in which examinations - a set standard - are made the tools to judge a person's worth. `Education' has become little more than a mere mockery, 'employability' being a better word to put in its place. Consider some examples of those 'educated' in this system: there are those gifted with intelligence, and who score a string of 'A' grades, but whose potential is not fulfilled yet, owing to further genius left untapped, or due to artificially-placed restrictions on what one is able to choose to study. A student with a knack for history, no matter how brilliant, can still only take two history courses at `A' level, and still only so many in the University. More disturbing are the many more who fail to meet the expected standards set by the system, and more disturbingly, society. The low-IQ student, or one with short attention span or poor capacity for learning is left to be streamed to the Vocational Institute or Normal Course. Are these tailored to make him achieve his potential? No, because these too have set standards for him to `meet the grade'. In our educational system, a student who works his hardest to attain a mere `pass' grade will always be considered as having achieved less in education than the 'A' student who did not work very hard. The standard set proclaims that one is a success and the other, not so. In such a system, education has lost its true meaning. It is an `elitist farce' - a sham.

Education as it truly is is the learning of facts, truths and skills for their own sake. Yet how much truth, how many facts, and how many skills are learned? Not everyone can be an expert on molecular biology, atomic physics or quantum mechanics or be a Wordsworth, Beats or Tennyson, or a master of the many other infinite areas of knowledge and skill.

So then, we must take as our standard the measure of the learner's ability, talent and potential. Everyone has areas which he or she likes or is gifted or able in. This is underscored by a scientific observation that many mentally retarded people had special capabilities. one could play any tune on the guitar after having heard it once, and another could defeat almost any challenger in chess. In our educational system, then, we should tailor the syllabus to the student and not the student to the syllabus. Each student should learn apt a pace suitable for him or her, and have a choice of what. he liars to study, being guided in the choice by the observations of his or her education. Achievement should be measured against one's own ability and not against some arbitrarily imposed standard. When our system guides each learner to reach his or heir potential, then finally, we have achieved True Education.