There's More Education Outside School Than Inside

When we address the issue of education, the first thing which comes to our mind is literacy. What follows is knowledge. Education to most people means knowing about oneself, one's environment, how it works and how one can survive in it or even improve it. In society, we need some form of education to be able to live our lives successfully. Where there is no education, there is ignorance. However, to discuss the above statement, we must consider whether education encompasses just literacy and knowledge which we gain in school and if it does, whether it sufficiently prepares us for life. We must also question the type and amount of education we receive outside school and how it weighs against education acquired in school.

If we chose to see education as purely academic, then the school is the institution which provides the bulk of an individual's education. Here, we are not only dealing with being able to read and write or recite our multiplication tables. Higher education, such as that found in colleges or universities has to do with disciplines like medicine, law, political science, accounting and economics. All these are essential to today's world and all these are learnt in educational institutions. But what is education? Is it the frantic paper chase in which each person goes all out to know as much of a subject as possible in order to pass an exam? Is it about parasites milking knowledge from lecturers and teachers? Is it about memorizing model answers in order to obtain a good grade? The fact is, because the education system in school is examinationorientated, it will always produce conditions which will stifle learning. There will be students who are brilliantly equipped for a promising career but know nothing about life, and how to live it.

Learning in school is merely a facet of a larger concept of education. How to raise a family, how to deal with difficult situations, love, tolerance, loyalty, respect-all these are part of a rounded education. There are many areas outside school which will provide an individual with a full education. First, let us focus on the basic family unit, something which is vital and holds society together. For people blessed with a happy family, they learn the importance of appreciating one another, of giving without expecting to receive. Children take parents as role models and learn moral values from them. That education begins at home is true. Even children from broken homes can learn lessons. They can learn from their parents' mistakes. They also learn about surviving in society despite adverse circumstances. But on the whole, a person's character, perspectives and outlook are all first fashioned at home. Parents playing the role of teachers is a natural part of education.

Education can also be obtained from the mass media. We learn never to open our doors to strangers. One way a child can see the dire consequences is on television. The dangers of playing with matches, of crossing the road without looking, of befriending strangers-all these are things that a teacher or a parent can tell a child but television can show vividly why they are dangerous. Even serious topics like racism, drug abuse, genocide are made open to a maturing adolescent through movies. This awareness of our environment and of things in our environment and of things that happen outside of one's own country cannot be adequately taught in school. Sex, which is generally a taboo subject between parents and children, is also dealt with in the media. Whether it is harmful or not is not the question here. One cannot deny that learning about sex as well as violence through the media does educate and leave one better informed.

Next, there is the idea of experiencing life which is opposed to just passive learning. A law student may graduate with honours but it is only when he begins to practise that he can discover the realities of practising law and the injustice that exists even in the courts. Real education comes in the workplace, with person-to-person relationships in a competitive, uncompromising world and 'on-the-job' training and experience. In school, an argument with a friend can be settled with a verbal whiplash or the 'cold treatment'. However, it is at work where one learns to tolerate the boss, one's supervisors and get along with one's colleagues because it is absolutely essential for survival.

Lastly, one of the best forms of education is travelling. It is only when we are exposed to other cultures and other ways of life that we learn to appreciate our own and understand the differences between cultures as well as learn the importance of tolerance.

Education is about being exposed to many things, about discovery. It is also about experience, trial and error. Thus, I conclude by agreeing with the given statement. Education can be found in school and it does provide a great deal of our knowledge but outside is a vast world with many more aspects and opportunities for education.