Education

At birth, a human being--a baby--knows almost nothing. When we come out of the womb into the real world, we practically know only how to cry, breathe and suckle at the breast. Hence, the learning process starts at birth, if not before. Then we become children. We learn not only from our teachers during our years at school, but also from our parents and grandparents--indeed also from friends, enemies, animals, experiences, etc. Even after we ``grow up,'' the learning process never stops at school or college, but rather continues until death or senility. Education is thus one of the most important life-long aspects of the human experience. Yet, judging by the literacy rates around the world near the beginning of the third millennium, it is probably fair to say that our present civilization has miserably failed to educate our brothers and sisters of the world--even just to read and write. From the perspective of the educational process, there is something fundamentally wrong with our parenting, our educational institutions and our communities at large. Fortunately, in recent years there have been remarkable changes aimed at remedying the deplorable situation. Rather than blindly imitating those who came before us, more and more people are beginning to think independently about the importance of good education. An excellent development is how even extremely poor people everywhere are slowly beginning to demand, to the extent possible, basic education for their children. More people are beginning to value education. This chapter briefly examines the subject of education as explored in the writings of Gandhi and of the Bahá'í Faith.

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