School - A word with an obvious meaning ? OR a significant step / invention in human civilization?
I see it as a later ... :-)
If we go back in history we see that schools have started long back - they were there as I know in the days of Sadhus and Rishi - Munis. I remember reading somewhere that in those days once a child reach a specific age was sent to Ashram for his schooling for few years. Today we see a modern format for schools but based up on the same foundation. So in summary schools or schooling is an integral part of human life since long time.
Why I want to send my child to a school? I think I have 3 main purposes when I reason this …
a. Formal Education
As a special species humans have ability to think, reason and learn. We also want to transition the knowledge gained so far to next generation. This will keep the knowledge alive as well as enable it for further enhancements. We generally do this by formal education that involves schools, books and all other infrastructure. This way the knowledge gets shared, understood and thought, reasoned and experimented so as to get enhanced. Schools provide a home for this whole process.
On more pragmatic side this help a child to develop and exhibit his skills to earn for living.
b. Discovering and Learning
There are lot many things other than formal knowledge which a child want to learn or in fact will enjoy learning. Things like sports, art, culture, social and environment etc are all the things which children like. A school help children to discover the aspect they like and teach them how to learn by studying these aspects. It's like being more self aware and then perform self learning. Hence a school is a place which will enable this learning by providing necessary avenues and create wisdom not only in formal education but also in other areas.
Schools like Millennium enable this type of discovery in children and promote learning.
Again on pragmatic side in today's modern world it's not only important to discover and acknowledge these domains but also build upon them as they are equally important in completeness of life and become a responsible citizen.
c. Relationship
School bring couple of new relationship in the life of child namely - Teacher and Friend.
I think Teacher is a very important entity which gets introduced in the life of child after parents and play a very important role. The concept of Teacher does not stop after formal schooling but remains for lifetime. A child is going to meet various people as teachers as he grow in life which are going shape his life.
The other relationship is Friend - In school a child will meet many other children of similar age and will make friends. This is a start of socialization as we call it. It will teach him many aspects of life be it sharing, understanding, respecting, leading, teaming and many more. Just like Teacher as a concept Friend is going to remain for life shaping it as child grow.
On pragmatic side, these relationships and understanding of building these help children become more socially independent and take steps to face life accordingly.
Lastly I think this whole text has become more philosophical :-) But the idea of answering question “Why do I want to send my child to school?” which seems very obvious made me think and reflect on my life and the role School has played in it. I just tried to scribble / sum it quickly. :-)
