Education is not preparation for life, Education is life itself...

"An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life." – Anonymous

The world is a battleground and life is like a battle, it believes in the survival of the fittest. To fight and win the battle called life, one needs to be armed with education. Education not only ensures our survival in this world but it also makes our life worth living, or better still, we can say that, “education is not preparation for life but education is life itself.” When I say that education is life, what I mean to highlight is the fact that education is a process in which we learn throughout our life. It begins in our mother’s womb and continues till we take our last breath. It is so closely integrated in our every moment that it becomes almost synonymous to life.

The process of education initiates with the development of mind. It replaces an empty mind with an open one. It has been proven medically that a child begins to recognize the voice of his parents while he is still inside his mother’s womb. As he takes his first breath into this world and opens his tiny eyes he is introduced to so many new things. The fragrance of flowers, the colourful butterflies, the velvety tenderness of rose petals, the sound of thunder, the brightness of sun, the drizzling of rain, the chirping of birds, and through them he lives his first experience of life. His mind opens and the horizon of his knowledge widens. When he starts going to kindergarten and then to school he gets introduced to the concepts of science, geography, history, mathematics, computers etc. This knowledge not only inculcates in him a spirit to cherish life but also teaches him to learn from the past and build the present to create a beautiful future. After the school comes the phase where the child, now a grown up individual, chooses his vocation and learns its nuances. What follows is a quest to fulfil his ambitions and to reach nearer to his life’s goal. Everything which he learns decides the quality of life that he will embrace.

“Education is the movement from darkness to light.” - Allan Bloom

The grown up is now metamorphosed into a man, a man ready to face the challenges posed by life. These challenges turn out to be the best teacher of man. The experience that one gains while tackling the complexities of life is the best education that one can get. It is not written in books; neither can it be taught nor can it be learnt, it is something that we acquire while we are busy in finding our path through the maze called life. The formula for living a worthy life is devised by us while unscrambling knotty situations, resolving enigmatic relationships and understanding minute difference between the right and the wrong. Our education continues while we are engrossed in playing the different roles that life offers to us, the role of a son/daughter, a parent, a sister/brother, a life partner, a friend, a confidante etc. Hence, education is for the illumination of the mind and for the liberation of the soul. An educated person is the one who is rich in experience and who has realized the significance of righteousness. He leads a morally upright and conscientious life in a peaceful manner.

Thus, we cannot alienate education from life because education is life itself. Educating oneself is an inseparable part of living. Education is weaved in each and every incidence which gives our life its form and makes us the individuals that we are.