: Sr. Floropia Borges, Principal, Kilbil St. Joseph’s High School, Nashik
“We live and learn” is a cliché which has more than grain of truth in it, for learning is a life-long process. But how many people really believe in this? To ordinary people learning is confined to the years spent in educational institutions and once they are out of these institutions they believe it is the end of the road.
They do not realise that paradoxically, their education has just begun, as someone wise had said, “Education is the apprenticeship of life.” The purpose of education is not only to teach us to think for ourselves, to rise above bigotry and fanaticism, but also to teach us a sense of responsibility, towards ourselves, and those around us.
Curiously, the more one learns, the more one realises how little one knows. The truly learned man is he who understands that what he knows is but little in comparison with what he does not know. Every person must educate themselves. The books and teachers are but a help, the work is theirs.
I often felt that ten or twelve years in school and four in a University are much too short a period to study all the subjects one would like to. Many people seem to get into a mental rut once they leave the confines of the class room or the lecture hall.
Their vocabulary remains static, their ideas limited and their knowledge about worthwhile topics is poor. Their reading material consists of nothing more profound than newspapers, magazines and a few light novels. We read to say that we have read. Reading without reflection is like eating without digesting.
This is particularly true of some people, once their formal education is over. Even if we study to old age, we shall not finish learning. Our daily chores and domestic responsibilities are no excuse or letting our mental faculties atrophy.
Similarly, age is no excuse for such a deplorable state of affairs. Some of the most lively and energetic people I know are in their sixties and seventies and their minds are as agile as that of any teenager. Fortunately, not all people enter a mental vacuum once they leave their school or college. Some of the most interesting people are those who have let their minds grow over the years.
Learning is its own, exceedingly great reward. Educated parents must encourage their children to read good books to increase their values, learn to control their thoughts, to have connection with our surroundings, so on and so forth. Students should read besides their academic studies to enrich their minds, thoughts and seek the advice of their experienced and learned teachers who can guide and mould them.
The teachers in their turn must help their students, not only to go forward but to grow; not only to have knowledge but wisdom; not only to know but to believe; not only to read but to breed, not only to study but to learn, finally not only to have qualifications but qualities. It is only then, I presume, we can succeed to thrive and learn with our hand, head and heart.
