Saturday, March 28, 2009

Education - Money v/s Morals

Education is very important to us because an educated society is greater than any riches of the world.

Education has an immense impact on human society. One can safely assume that a person is not in the proper sense till he is educated. It trains the human mind to think and take right decisions. In other words, man becomes a rational animal when he is educated. 

The importance of education too cannot be neglected by any nation. And in today’s world, the role of education becomes even more vital. It has become an absolute necessity for economic and social development of any nation. 

I would like to narrate a true story which stresses the importance of education to the children.
A bunch of 18 to 30 year old boys used to work in a seafood restaurant, 12 to 14 hours a day, and six days a week but just earning a meagre income. But there was also a 15 year old boy named flounder who used to work there everyday after his school. His parents owned a flower shop and a liquor store and were doing quite good in that. So once the other boys asked him why did he work? And did they require this small amount of money? Then he replied that they didn’t require this small amount of money nor did he like working here but his father made him do it. His father used to say him that he wanted him to know what life would be like if he didn’t get education.

Flounder’s dad knew that we learn in every moment of our lives, so he gave his son the best lesson he could by forcing him to work and make him know the value of education to his life.

Without that experience Flounder may have failed his exams but I bet he excelled at whatever he chose to do to earn a living after that!

Education is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. In fact it becomes our livelihood in the future. And also, it’s one thing that nobody else can take from you. You can lose your material things, your youth, your heart, your trust in others, even your hairs, but you can’t lose your education.

Today we are being taught how to be a money making machine and rightly should be done so. We have evolved from killing each other for food to the barter system and now to the present currency system. So if we want to stay civilized, everyone should be taught how to make money efficiently or else people can always go back to stealing and murdering. And also money making in the sense that they don’t teach us how to print money in our homes instead they impart us the knowledge for which we are employed or can even get self employed.

And hence today’s education is keener on making us earn more money. And they aren’t to be blamed for that because if we want to do anything in today’s materialistic world, we need to have the money. And also in the midst of rising inflation, ever rising food and petrol prices, we need to earn that extra penny.

It is not that “money buys happiness” but rather that “happiness buys money”. More precisely, the very virtues and habits that lead to happiness i.e.: goal-focused, rational discipline, creative thought, and optimism - are the same ones that lead to success in any realm of our life, including the financial realm.

And not many look at sports and arts as an option either and nor we can blame them for it because tell me, other than cricket, where do you see sportsmen with lots of money?

And about teaching us Human Values and Qualities don’t we have our parents, family and society who are much more responsible for its degradation. What’s the use of sacrificing a period in the school for teaching the students moral education while at their homes no one care about it themselves?
 
Let’s be more practical and give it a thought once more.